Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

The only reason to read the Bible is to change the world.  The only reason to read the Bible is to change my world. The only reason to read the Bible is to change the world by changing my world.

Welcome to the book of Philemon.  He is an individual who is invited to have his world ROCKED because of the fellowship he shares with other humans and the Lord Himself. Is faith actionable? Does Christianity affect anything?

Stick around with Philemon.  Watch the world change because of him.  Maybe your world will change too. Subscribe at bewithme.us. Write at [email protected]. Listen 7 minutes a day at Apple Podcasts, google podcasts or Spotify.

Here are 7 more reasons to make this book a part of your life.  God wrote it and preserved it and delivers it to us for a reason.  They are sweet words from our Creator.   Colossians is a love letter to us. It is a good idea to pick it up and let the heart of God spill over us.

You can listen 7 minutes for a summary, but I'll give you my favorite reality from the whole book: OUR LIVES ARE HIDDEN IN HIM.  (3:3) I love this as a picture of His hands holding and hiding us like one would with a baby bird. There we are kept safe and protected. We are made invisible by His visibility. 

If today is the day of your belief: be hidden in Him.
If today is a day of difficulty: be hidden in Him.
If today is a day of death: be hidden in Him.

Thank you for walking these 25 days in Colossians.  Now, may Colossians walk in us richly. Please come back tomorrow by bewithme.us or subscribe to your podcast provider.

You are gonna love Colossians. Or perhaps you already do.  For those who might need a little nudge, today I'll give you 10 ½ reasons why I have been loving this book.  

You'll hear about some heroes. You'll hear about Jesus as CREATOR, reconciler and "setter-aside-guy" in regards to our sin.  

You'll hear how God chooses to be found by us so we can choose Him to be found in us. You'll hear how we are to be arrayed like an effective army.  

Please listen to this summary and then to the book.  Thank you for listening 7 minutes. bewithme.us [email protected] Spotify Apple Podcasts 

If Paul wrote a missionary letter from your church, what would he say about YOU? 
We get the privilege of seeing real people doing real stuff in a real place and time.

• Epaphrus is struggling on your behalf; toiling until tired and laboring until it hurts a little
• Luke is using his war-correspondence and bravery and teaching/writing gifts to write half of the New Testament
• Nympha is hosting a church in her house with hospitality.  I'd imagine that involved some vacuuming
• Archippus is fulfilling the ministry he's received from the Lord. He's directing his attention there until it is complete

Perhaps you too are toiling until tired.  If so, this is a good sign.  Maybe Paul will put you in his next letter. Bewithme.us or [email protected] or any podcast provider.

Three guys are forever lauded in the Bible because they were a COMFORT to Paul.

• Comfort serves as a marker we are doing it right
• Comfort is needed, obviously
• Comfort is normative, or at least it should be
• Comfort is transferable from one human to another. It's real.
• Comfort is practical. You know everything about it you need to right now.  You have food, shelter, furniture, notes, connections, truth, serving that you can bring to bear for another.
• Comfort is local. If you stretch your arms out, you'll hit someone who needs it
• Comfort is responsive. Jesus did it first.

Go be a comfort today. Please listen just 7 minutes and subscribe at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google and bewithme.us

Christianity is a marathon, not a sprint.  He's asked us to walk faithfully over a long period of time and serve with the imperfect people that make up the church.  That is going to require some forgiving, some recovery and some restoring broken relationships.  

John Mark is such a success story.  He goes from bad to good; from broken to recovered.

Demas is not such a story.  He goes from good to bad, and that is the last we hear about him.

bewithme.us or [email protected]

Wouldn't it be great to have a spiritual friend? This would be a person who shares belief in our Lord; who gathers in a fellowship community and all that means; who shares in the walk over time; who then shares MINISTRY: it's treasures, it's truth, and it's traumas.  This is spiritual friendship.  From this platform we are encouraged of heart.

If your heart needs to be encouraged today, please listen and hear the key that HAVING a spiritual friend is to BE a spiritual friend.  Specifically, let's be encouraged by focusing on BEING AN ENCOURAGEMENT.

And, if you'd like to be encouraged tomorrow, subscribe at Spotify, apple podcasts or bewithme.us

If you understood what I am up against today, of course you would pray desperately for me. If I understood what you are facing today, of course I would pray desperately for you.

Believers will meet OUTsiders today.  That is, outside the family of God and outside of a friendly relationship with God.  The goal is to carefully carry a message that clarifies what is not yet understandable to them. Believers have limited time, limited words, and often uncomfortable circumstances. Let's pray for each other that our speech can be winsome, full of favor and flavor, and just the right thing for the person hearing it.

Bewithme.us or [email protected] apple google Spotify podcasts.

Please listen for 7 minutes as we ask:

• Is my prayer STEADFAST? That is, am I staying close to it; am I associating myself intimately with it. Being close to prayer is being close to God.
• Is my prayer WATCHFUL? Though God is sufficient in every way and does not "need" my prayer, yet He asks me to participate in it.  He's somehow got something for me in prayer as He invites me into it.
• Is my prayer THANKFUL.  God is a great GIFTER. There should be a close relationship between receiving gifts, and our gratefulness. Ironically, if God didn't give, then we'd be off the hook for gratefulness. But He is generous, so we should be grateful.  We'll compare ourselves with a 4 year old.  Perhaps you will be doing better...

bewithme.us for another story tomorrow. Apple Podcasts or whatever.

God invented you and invented work.  He asks us to put more into it than just our backs and our hands.  Today, He'll ask us to put our whole SOUL into the work before us.

Whether our "job" is being a boss, worker bee, being a child, a husband, a waitress, or a  car salesperson, the charge is the same: 

• do your work heartily, with your whole soul
• do it "as for the Lord"
• knowing He sees and rewards in the end
• and knowing that if we do this right, He can be PLEASED

Work is ennobled and encouraged today.  Whatever your hand finds to do today, work hard, work heartily, work with your whole SOUL. 

Bewithme.us is the foundation of this podcast. Buzzsprout is the host source. You can listen on Spotify, google, apple, iCast, audible etc.