Count it all joy
Yeah right huh? What's so joyous about the situation right now? Nothing. Why? Because it's not supposed to be. We don't know how long this virus will interrupt life, but in the scheme of things it's temporary. Joy isn't temporary, but happiness is.
Imagine yourself having a great day. Up early. Already have your chores done and supper on. Thinking about puttering out in the yard on a lovely spring day with the birds singing and bees buzzing. Then your phone rings.
You forgot to sign your check at the store and they need you to come down right away. The IRS is auditing you. The perfect gift you bought for your hubby is discontinued. The cake you ordered for the birthday party tomorrow won't be ready in time. Yes, I know it's a silly group of suggestions, but I doubt you can argue that they would totally squash your happy mood. Like I said...temporary.
I don't know if you can teach someone to be happy, but I do think you can teach about having joy. Let's have a look at the book of Philippians and see what we can learn together.
Please feel free to grab yourself a notebook and add additional info to what I'm sharing here. Lots of us have study Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, concordances and the like. ALWAYS double check against the Word of God. Everything else is subject to mistake.
Maybe you already have some notes on these scriptures or maybe God will reveal something to you as you're reading them. Note taking has always helps me remember things. There's just something about writing it down. Make this study your own in whatever way works best for you.
Background is always important when you set out to study. We don't live in biblical times and our manners and customs bear very little similarity. Answering some "W" questions will help us get a start.
Info on the city of Philippi.
The city of Philippi was originally called Krenides which means "The Little Fountains" because of all the numerous springs nearby. In the fourth century B.C. Philip II of Macedon conquered the region in his pursuit of it's gold mines. After his conquest he renamed the city after himself--Philippi ("city of Philip").
In 42 B.C., two years after the murder of Julius Caesar, his heirs Marc Anthony and Octavian, confronted his murderers at the Battle of Philippi and won. After the war, Philippi became a Roman colony and many of the veterans of the Roman army settled there.
As a Roman colony, Philippi had the same rights granted to cities in Italy. They could use the Roman law, were exempt from some taxes and it's residents had Roman citizenship. This upgrade of status was a source of great pride to the Philippians. They used Latin as their official language and adopted both Roman customs and governmental practices.
As stated above, the church at Philippi was the first one founded by Paul in Europe. It evidently had a very small population of Jews because there were not enough men to form a synagogue. This required ten Jewish men who were heads of a household. There were, however, a group of devout women who met alongside the Gangites River to pray. Among them was Lydia, a wealthy merchant who dealt in expensive purple dyed goods. Paul preached to these women and Lydia was saved. It's very likely that the Philippian church met at her home to begin with.
Like any attempt to spread the gospel, it was met with resistance from Satan. The master's of a fortune telling slave girl were angered when Paul cast out her demon. They brought Paul and Silas before the city's magistrates where they claimed the pair were a threat to Roman customs. Philippi's strong love of anything Roman won out and Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison.
Paul and Silas were miraculously released from prison by an earthquake. When the magistrates realized that they had illegally beaten and imprisoned two Roman citizens they begged Paul and Silas to leave Philippi.
Paul visited Philippi twice during his third missionary journey. The church was a generous supporter of Paul and had contributed greatly for the needy in Jerusalem. Four or five years later Paul was imprisoned in Rome and a man from the church in Philippi was sent to minister to Paul's needs. This man was named Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus became very ill on his trip and Paul sent him back home with the letter contained within the book of Philippi.
So now we have a bit more info to help us understand what the city and it's Jewish inhabitants were all about. I still feel like we could use some more information on Paul's time there so let's do a little deeper digging on the events I just mentioned.
Read Acts 16:11-40 concerning Paul and Silas's time in Philippi and see if you can find answers for the following questions.
Don't worry if you can't answer them all. We'll go over the answers tomorrow, but try and see what you can dig up for yourself.
I've included a link on this page for Blue Letter Bible. It's an excellent online resource. Here's a quick start lesson on how to use it.
Explore away. This is an awesome tool for Bible study.
I can't promise that I will have a lesson up every single day, but I will try to do a few a week. I don't want to make a time commitment that I may not be able to keep. One of my favorite sayings is "Do you want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans for tomorrow." Ya know what I mean? LOL
I've added a subscribe by email option in the top left corner of the blog. Just enter your email address to be notified when I've posted a new lesson.
Please pray for Gods blessings on this endeavor.
Tracy
Imagine yourself having a great day. Up early. Already have your chores done and supper on. Thinking about puttering out in the yard on a lovely spring day with the birds singing and bees buzzing. Then your phone rings.
You forgot to sign your check at the store and they need you to come down right away. The IRS is auditing you. The perfect gift you bought for your hubby is discontinued. The cake you ordered for the birthday party tomorrow won't be ready in time. Yes, I know it's a silly group of suggestions, but I doubt you can argue that they would totally squash your happy mood. Like I said...temporary.
I don't know if you can teach someone to be happy, but I do think you can teach about having joy. Let's have a look at the book of Philippians and see what we can learn together.
Please feel free to grab yourself a notebook and add additional info to what I'm sharing here. Lots of us have study Bibles, commentaries, dictionaries, concordances and the like. ALWAYS double check against the Word of God. Everything else is subject to mistake.
Maybe you already have some notes on these scriptures or maybe God will reveal something to you as you're reading them. Note taking has always helps me remember things. There's just something about writing it down. Make this study your own in whatever way works best for you.
Background is always important when you set out to study. We don't live in biblical times and our manners and customs bear very little similarity. Answering some "W" questions will help us get a start.
Who wrote this book?
The book of Philippians was written by the Apostle Paul.
Where and when was it written?
It along with Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon were written in
Rome during Paul's first imprisonment (about A.D. 60-62)
Who was it written to?
It was originally written to the Christians at Philippi. This church was the first one established
on the European continent. Paul and his companions founded it on his second missionary journey.
What was it's purpose?
It was a thank you for a gift that one of the church members had delivered to Paul in
prison and as an encouragement to the church members in their faith.
Info on the city of Philippi.
At the time of Paul's second missionary journey.
The city of Philippi was originally called Krenides which means "The Little Fountains" because of all the numerous springs nearby. In the fourth century B.C. Philip II of Macedon conquered the region in his pursuit of it's gold mines. After his conquest he renamed the city after himself--Philippi ("city of Philip").
In 42 B.C., two years after the murder of Julius Caesar, his heirs Marc Anthony and Octavian, confronted his murderers at the Battle of Philippi and won. After the war, Philippi became a Roman colony and many of the veterans of the Roman army settled there.
As a Roman colony, Philippi had the same rights granted to cities in Italy. They could use the Roman law, were exempt from some taxes and it's residents had Roman citizenship. This upgrade of status was a source of great pride to the Philippians. They used Latin as their official language and adopted both Roman customs and governmental practices.
As stated above, the church at Philippi was the first one founded by Paul in Europe. It evidently had a very small population of Jews because there were not enough men to form a synagogue. This required ten Jewish men who were heads of a household. There were, however, a group of devout women who met alongside the Gangites River to pray. Among them was Lydia, a wealthy merchant who dealt in expensive purple dyed goods. Paul preached to these women and Lydia was saved. It's very likely that the Philippian church met at her home to begin with.
Like any attempt to spread the gospel, it was met with resistance from Satan. The master's of a fortune telling slave girl were angered when Paul cast out her demon. They brought Paul and Silas before the city's magistrates where they claimed the pair were a threat to Roman customs. Philippi's strong love of anything Roman won out and Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into prison.
Paul and Silas were miraculously released from prison by an earthquake. When the magistrates realized that they had illegally beaten and imprisoned two Roman citizens they begged Paul and Silas to leave Philippi.
Paul visited Philippi twice during his third missionary journey. The church was a generous supporter of Paul and had contributed greatly for the needy in Jerusalem. Four or five years later Paul was imprisoned in Rome and a man from the church in Philippi was sent to minister to Paul's needs. This man was named Epaphroditus. Epaphroditus became very ill on his trip and Paul sent him back home with the letter contained within the book of Philippi.
So now we have a bit more info to help us understand what the city and it's Jewish inhabitants were all about. I still feel like we could use some more information on Paul's time there so let's do a little deeper digging on the events I just mentioned.
Read Acts 16:11-40 concerning Paul and Silas's time in Philippi and see if you can find answers for the following questions.
- What was purple dye created from and why was it so special?
- Was Lydia the only person who was saved under Paul's preaching at the prayer meeting?
- What can you find out about the spirit that the damsel was possessed with?
- Why did Paul command the spirit out of her even though she was acknowledging them as the servants of God showing the way to salvation?
- Describe the style of punishment and imprisonment given to Paul and Silas.
- What were Paul and Silas doing at midnight when the earthquake struck?
- What effects did the earthquake bring about on the prisoners?
- Why was the guard preparing to kill himself?
- What were the results of Paul's words to the guard?
- Why was there a problem with the beatings Paul and Silas had received?
Don't worry if you can't answer them all. We'll go over the answers tomorrow, but try and see what you can dig up for yourself.
I've included a link on this page for Blue Letter Bible. It's an excellent online resource. Here's a quick start lesson on how to use it.
- Click on the link in the top left hand corner of this page for Blue Letter Bible. The home page will come up.
- In the "Search the Bible" box you can type up whatever you want to look for. It can be a word, phrase, or scripture. Try typing in "Lydia" minus the parentheses. You should come up with three verses. One from Ezekiel and two from Acts. Above those references you will find tabs at the top of the box for "Primary", "Dictionaries", and "Lexiconc". You can explore each of those to see what they have on the word "Lydia".
- Try clicking on the "Tools" button for the second scripture for Lydia in Acts 16:14. This will give you a word by word break down for the entire verse. You can click on the Strongs references to get further info on those particular word or try clicking on the little speaker emblem to hear how the word really sounds. Listen to the pronunciation of "Lydia". It may surprise you.
Explore away. This is an awesome tool for Bible study.
I can't promise that I will have a lesson up every single day, but I will try to do a few a week. I don't want to make a time commitment that I may not be able to keep. One of my favorite sayings is "Do you want to make God laugh? Tell Him your plans for tomorrow." Ya know what I mean? LOL
I've added a subscribe by email option in the top left corner of the blog. Just enter your email address to be notified when I've posted a new lesson.
Please pray for Gods blessings on this endeavor.
Tracy
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