Hi James and Ellen,
Philippians was written in 61 A.D. by a guy who was under house arrest in the city of Rome. Philippians is a personal letter that this prisoner – who was Paul, wrote to thank the guys and gals who were in the Christ-follower fellowship that was in the city of Philippi. One of the stops that Paul made while he was on his second missionary journey was in the city of Philippi in the land area of Macedonia. When Paul was told that a group was meeting to pray next to a river that was not far from the city of Philippi, he and his traveling companion – who was Silas, went to the river to join the group. After Paul explained to Lydia – who was a purple cloth merchant and the recognized leader of this prayer group, the evangelical mission focus that he and Silas were sent out to do, Lydia and her family made decisions of faith through accepting the tenants of a burgeoning grace belief paradigm that had the life and teachings of a crucified, incarnated man – Whose name was Jesus Christ, as its underpinning. While Paul and Silas were still in the city of Philippi, Paul infuriated some local community players when he by invoking the name of Jesus caused a harassing demon who had taken residence in a young slave gal to want to leave the gal. Because the slave gal had been a moneymaker for the guys through her fortune telling capacity that was driven by one of Satan’s imps, the angry guys saw to it that Paul and Silas were beaten, whipped and jailed. Because of what Paul did for her by ridding her of the evil minion that was a constant nemesis to her, your grandpaa believes that the young slave gal became a Christ-follower and joined Lydia and her family when and where they met. At about midnight the night after Paul and Silas had been locked up in the city of Philippi’s jail and as Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns, a strong earthquake caused the bonds that held the arms and legs of Paul and Silas to the prison walls to come loose and the jail’s doors to pop open. The prison warden who had been tasked with his life as surety to insure that Paul and Silas would remain behind the jail’s bars assumed that Paul and Silas had walked out of their open cell. As the jail keeper was about to fall on his sword to kill himself then and there instead of waiting for the city of Philippi authorities to kill him for allowing Paul and Silas to escape, Paul called out from his dark cell. The jailer’s reaction was to take Paul and Silas to his house to wash their wounds. After the jail’s warden and his entire family accepted unreservedly the Good News message of redemption, they were all baptized by Paul.
Even though the founding members of the Christ-follower fellowship that was in the city of Philippi were humble, hardworking guys and gals with Lydia’s family the driving nucleus of this Christ-follower fellowship, this fellowship of Christ-follower guys and gals are on record on several occasions to have collected funds for Paul for him to use and to distribute to Christ-follower communities needing financial assistance. The reason for this letter was driven by a clothing and money gift from the Christ-follower fellowship that was in city of Philippi that a guy by the name of Epaphroditus had recently taken to Paul in the prison where he was being confined. Paul uses this letter to let his city of Philippi friends and co-Christ-followers know how much he appreciates them – that they are to him his joy and crown. Because Paul knew that the core ethos of the Christ-follower fellowship of guys and gals that was in the city of Philippi was humility, joy and steadfastness, Paul – in his Philippians letter’s four chapters, used rejoice sixteen times in different ways to celebrate the unswerving belief that they had in the person and work of Jesus Christ, in their justification by faith through what Jesus Christ did for them when He was inhumanly killed and in their expectant waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Paul knew that the guys and gals who were in the Christ-followers fellowship that was in city of Philippi knew that God – as God the Spirit, was sanctifying their lives so they could never be thwarted in their belief in Jesus Christ and that all their emotional and life needs would be met through the name of Jesus. Because Paul knew that a Satan assigned gofer can easily manipulate the natural man’s carnal nature to unscrupulously distort this faith driven belief paradigm in Jesus Christ for his or for her own personal gain, Paul included a warning in his letter to them that if a false teacher had not yet tried to infiltrate their Christ-follower assemblages that sooner or later a false teacher would for sure try.
By enabling 50 Bolivian guys – along with their wives, at the rural resident Bible education and leadership training center that was in Concepción, Nuflo de Chávez, Bolivia – which your grandmaa and grandpaa were instrumental in implementing, and over 100 Guatemalan guys – along with their wives, through a contextualized Bible education program that is still taken place in Guatemala, your grandmaa and grandpaa are very grateful and thankful that because of these enabled men – and women, that in Bolivia the number of Christ-followers among the Chiquitano guys and gals has grown from 200-300 in the early ‘80’s to over 8,000 per an e-mail sent about six years ago to your grandpaa by a missionary friend who lives in Bolivia and that Antonio Muxney – who is a Guatemalan ’06 P.E.B. graduate began a Christ-follower fellowship in San Pablo de la Laguna that has over 200 attendees. Your grandmaa and grandpaa sense that each guy is a gift from God who is enabled in these Bible education programs.
Philippians