NCC Daily

Paul is confident in the giftings that God has given him to further the Gospel but he is also confident that he will live through this really difficult season in his life and keep using those giftings to encourage and inspire joy in his friends. This should be an inspiration to us all to help someone grow and experience the joy of their faith.

We’ve been reading through chapter one together and the most common thread in this letter is that Paul is always thinking about Christ or he is always thinking about the other person to whom he is writing. Then we get to this passage and he says, yet again, it’s about Christ, and it’s about the body of Christ, but it’s also about the work that Paul is called to and the joy and fruitfulness that comes from it.

The most courageous thing you can do is show up as yourself. Who you are is a child of God. You are most like yourself when you are most like Christ.

We all have circumstances beyond our control, and while we may not be in literal physical chains, there are other types of chains. While it is hard when we are in these circumstances, let’s try to stay accountable to one another in prayer, in friendships, and individually, by reading the Word and staying centered and rejoicing in His promises for our lives, even in the suffering. Let’s rejoice, even when we don’t feel it.

How do your experiences of pain, loss, or trauma inform the advancement of the gospel in your life? Our pain, loss, and trauma can become a form of imprisonment. We have all heard how these experiences inform how we see ourselves, how we see the world around us, and its humanity. Our experiences inform what we do or say, how we react, how we withhold—for good or for wrong.

Love is the greatest winnowing fork there is. The love of Christ separates so that it may unite us. It separates us from those things that would keep us from God and His good and perfect will and unites us to God.

There is a binding agent, a blood transfusion that we all have the opportunity to receive if we haven’t done so already. You may call it Blood Type J. The special favor of God we rejoice in over each one of you is that this blood type, Blood Type J, Blood Type Jesus, supersedes any blood on this earth that could potentially bring us together in a way that distance can’t separate, that proximity cannot make closer, and personal knowledge cannot make any more intimate. It’s the special favor that you and I are blood-bought relatives in this family called the Church of Jesus Christ.

Welcome to the NCC Daily. We are beginning a new series called Joy. Over the next nine weeks, we’ll walk through the book of Philippians verse-by-verse, day-by-day. Two reminders: one, joy is a person, and His name is Jesus. Two, joy is a choice. It’s not always the easiest choice or the obvious choice, but you can choose joy. We’ll discover how over the next nine weeks!