Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

God cares about His Church.
God cares about the people of His Church; the gender of those people and the roles and offices they occupy.
God cares about what happened in the Garden of Eden
God cares that His Church be effective and of authentic display of Him
God cares that His Church thrive.

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If this was the only thing you knew about God, at least it would be a GOOD START: God DESIRES ALL people to be SAVED.  I guess there is some bad news: you start as a person who IS NOT saved and needs to be SAVED. But God's character is such that HIS DESIRE is ALL PEOPLE be SAVED.

We have a very strong advocate in our corner.  He is ABLE. He is sufficient to the task.  There is a ransom available.

Let's let it ring in our ears one more time: GOD DESIRES ALL PEOPLE TO BE SAVED. 

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In a Mediterranean Sea culture, nothing is more catastrophic than being SHIPWRECKED. Paul uses that picture of people putting THEMSELVES at peril by their actions, agency and antagonism.

The spiritual walk is the SECOND most difficult thing. It involves the work of thought, habit and behavior. Yup, it is hard.  What could be worse?

Well, try being SHIPWRECKED, and knowing it is you who did it to YOURSELF. 

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How do we "give glory" to our God who ALREADY has all gloriousness and will ALWAYS have all glory? 

• I bend my UNDERSTANDING and get by brain-tool fired up about it
• I bend my ATTENTION to things that are a bit difficult to understand; For eyes to see the invisible.
• I bend my HEART towards, and lean into these actions
• I bend my WORDS to "re-give" you characteristics that you already have. But now I "give" you these from this acre, from this person, from this mouth.
• I bend my KNEES and yield, and agree and say yes.

He already has the glory.  Ironically, I'M THE ONE who "needs" to start this process of giving God the glory from my head, and eyes, and heart and mouth and soul. bewithme.us and apple podcast and Spotify and instagram

I am the #1 sinner in the world.  So says Paul.
But, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
So, I guess that makes me (Paul and all the other #1s out there) #1 on His list.

A big powerful God is necessary for this. We cannot do it ourselves. It was good of Him to come. He loves this world enough to come and then do what only He could do: RESCUE all those #1 sinners out there.

I HOPE you are one of the desperate, grateful, humble #1 sinners out there today! Here is what to do tomorrow: have signed up today at bewithme.us so tomorrows 7 minute ideas come automatically.

The folks in Ephesus SWERVED from the real RESCUE they had in Jesus:

• they swerved to SPECULATION rather than the STEWARDSHIP of truth
• they swerved to GENEALOGIES rather than Jesus
• they swerved to LAW rather than the LORD'S LOVE
• they swerved to PEOPLE rather than PROMISES made true in JESUS
• they swerved to SELF righteousness rather than a SAVIOR'S righteousness

He's given us a way out of our bad situation. Let's not SWERVE from it!
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Philemon is a book where Paul asks the real man Philemon to put his faith into reality; and make his rainbows real. It is a book that challenges beliefs to become BOOTS; FEELINGS to become FORGIVENESS and the THEORY of Christianity to be TANGIBLE.

This part of the Bible seeks EFFECTIVE rainbows; sentiments that have RESULTS.

It is a challenging book.  It changed Philemon's world.  It changed the whole social order. May it change YOUR WORLD. May the RAINBOW of this book be REAL for you too. bewithme.us and Apple Podcasts. Instagram.

Paul reminds Philemon that because he enjoys Christian fellowship, there is supposed to be some evident fruit from it; there is supposed to be a demonstrable BENEFIT in his actions.

The call for Philemon is high, as Paul is asking him to FORGIVE a guy named Onesimus and now call him a brother. That is, he should be in a forever-relationship with you in God's church there in Colossae.  It is the second hardest thing in Christendom. 

So, if you are a Christian, Jesus may wanna see a BENEFIT from you today.  Maybe He'll want to see your faith become real in forgiving, or in boldness, or in discipline, or in prayer, or in kind words.  They'll be something today where a BENEFIT is going to be asked.  Let's be ready. bewithme.us apple and Spotify podcasts.

Paul makes the tall-ask of having Philemon receive back the RUNAWAY BUNNY in his life, Onesimus.

So what might motivate this change of heart? Paul reminds Philemon that he, Philemon himself, was the RUNAWAY BUNNY at one time. Paul received him into family fellowship. Jesus received him into family fellowship.  When? Well, when he was undeserving, unwashed, and unforgiven.

Because we all were the RUNAWAY BUNNY, we should be changed in how we treat the other RUNAWAY BUNNIES. Please listen 7 minutes and subscribe at Apple Podcasts or bewithme.us

One day, Philemon wakes up and literally gets a LETTER FROM GOD.  It had all the trappings of being a letter from PAUL, but it was later recognized by the Church to truly be a message for Philemon and the rest of us from the Almighty Himself.

If you got a literal letter from God today, what would it say? Would it be a letter of COMFORT? God knows humanity, suffering, sickness, and yes, even death. Perhaps it would be a letter of HELP, or of ENCOURAGEMENT to believe, or a call to fellowship. Perhaps it would be, like this letter, to FORGIVE and RESTORE.

This is fun to think about.  For more goodness, please subscribe at bewithme.us and Spotify podcasts to get another 7 minutes of wonder tomorrow.