Eig Blog

El contexto de la carta de Filemón. Es una carta personal escrita por el Apóstol San Pable durante sus años de prisión (Hechos 28:30) entre los años 60-61 d.C. Está dirigida a Filemón, pero sin duda fue leída a la iglesia que reunía en su casa. Filemón era de buenos medios económicos, quizás un empresario que llegó a conocer a Cristo por medio de Pablo. Él tenía esclavos a su servicio y uno de ellos llamado Onésimo se había escapado y llegó a conocer a Cristo a través de Pablo en la prisión. Onésimo había llegado a ser querido por Pablo y le era muy útil. En ese tiempo un esclavo que huía y era capturado merecía lo peor. Sin duda sería castigado severamente y puesto en los peores cargos. Pablo escribe a Filemón pidiéndole (aunque le hubiera podido mandar) que lo reciba no como esclavo sino como hermano en Cristo. Se cree que Filemón hizo lo que Pablo le pidió.

Esta breve carta nos muestra el carácter espiritual de Filemón. Su ejemplo es para nosotros imitar en varios aspectos excluyendo por supuesto el de su prosperidad material.

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Working out our salvation takes effort from us his Church. God works in us, but He also do it with our efforts. I can’t quantify who does what, but I know that what Paul said is true,

What does it mean to work out our salvation?

God has begun the work of our perfection (sanctification), the process of our complete salvation (glorification) that includes not only being like Christ in our character but ultimately includes the transformation of our bodies. Our complete salvation will come when we are with Christ (Phil. 1:23) or when Christ comes for us (Phil. 2:16) and transforms us (Phil. 3:20-21; Rom. 13:11-12; ). Although God has begun it in our lives, it is not an act without our participation. It is not for us to stand as a church doing nothing. We are to live as citizens of heaven (Phil. 3:20) This is the theme Paul develops in this text.

There are three elements that must be part of our spiritual work in order to grow in our salvation, our process of perfection, sanctification until we become like Christ. These are not elements that are done once but are progressive in nature that are part of our daily lives.

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Hannah is one example of how God answers prayer. Thank God for women like Hannah. She lived in a difficult time. It was the time connected with the book of Judges. Everyone did what seemed right to him (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 21:25). It was a time of infidelity to God on the part of his people. God had raised up judges to lead God's people, but even so, His people continued to go astray. There had been no prophet since Moses, and the word of God was in short supply. The priests lived in a ruthless manner (1 Samuel 3:1). Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were wicked, and Eli did nothing to prevent them. Hannah's prayer would be part of the solution to the spiritual condition of God's people.

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Ana es un ejemplo (de los muchos) de cómo Dios contesta la oración. Gracias a Dios por mujeres como Ana. Ana nos enseña lo que es orar la voluntad de Dios y no la nuestra. Nos enseña con su ejemplo lo que es ser una “guerrera de oración.” Además Ana nos enseña que cuando Dios contesta a nuestras oraciones debemos serle fiel y adorarle como es digno.

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Today we will learn from a man, a Christian named Barnabas. His life teaches us what are the values of the kingdom by which we must live the Christian life. These values are lived, they are expressed in the community of believers, in the Church of Christ. In Acts 4 we find the description of Barnabas and the context is the Church living according to Christ's design, a community dedicated to living and impacting the values of His kingdom.

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The Bible is a realistic book. It shows us the human side of every person, even those who serve God.

Elijah, the prophet is in one of them. After the great event of defying the prophets of the god Baal Elijah in 1 Kings 18, he experiences a crisis.Despite being a man of God with so much power, he experienced fear, so much discouragement that it lead him to ask God to take his life. Why did this happen? First of all because Elijah was human like us.

The Bible says of Elijah: “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. 18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” - James 5:17-18 All of us relate to Elijah.

We will all reach some moment of fear and discouragement. We all need God to intervene in those moments. Elijah teaches us how God comforts and encourages us in times of crisis.

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Psalm 23 gives us a glimpse of what it means to be a guest of honor to our Great Shepherd. Even though the metaphor of the shepherd seems to move into more human form, there is no reason to believe that we are not the sheep anymore. He as the Shepherd gives us great honor in our relationship with him. If you are a Christian, there are good news. To God you are His special guest. He invites you to fellowship with him. He gives you the best reception. Someday not too far away you will be in his mansion. You will be their special guest. Forever.

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The Good Shepherd restores us and guides us in the path of righteousness. As we live our life with the Lord as our Shepherd, there will be times when we need to him to restore or renew our life. Jesus said his sheep hear his voice and follow him. But often we think we know better.Our Good Shepherd is with us ALL the time. He never leaves us. He never forsakes us.

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Many people today say they believe in God. They believe in God in a very superficial way because it does not affect their daily life. This may be because they do not know how to have an intimate relationship with God. They can’t say, “The Lord is my Shepherd.” This is what we want to explore in this Psalm. What does it mean to have the Lord as our Shepherd?

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There's a man in the Old Testament who teaches us what it is to have spiritual victory. His name is Jabez. We want to learn from him.

 What does it mean to be victorious?

 To be victorious means: "To use all my spiritual resources to overcome all the spiritual obstacles that prevent me from being faithful to God to the end."

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