Philippians 2:1-4 ESV "So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy...."
[Apparently, if your faith community is characterized by Christ's encouragement and his comforting love you, and God's Spirit is uniting you, and you are concerned for others, you are just getting started! Don't stop there! That's not the end game. There's a richness yet to be known in community when the Spirit has granted these miracles. Reading on...] "
...complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others."
As I read these verses, I see a glimpse of our five-year journey in our church plant in Sherwood, OR. We've come a long way this year and seen the Spirit work in us some of that encouragement, comfort, love. Now we hope to keep journeying in prayer together, entrusting ourselves to an earlier reference to things being made complete in Philippians 1:6: "I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ."
If you live around here and crave a faith community that is praying tenaciously for a fresh work of God's Spirit, give me a shout. If not, fall on your knees right now and seek the Lord for a community like that!
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