Stepping Forward in Faith

We have an amazing church family here at Circleville First Baptist Church. Every person, unique and an important part of the body of Christ. As we continue to step forward, we remember our great God, the Creator of the Universe. The vastness of the universe and even the smallest, most intimate details in a grain of sand...Nothing was and is made without Him. We trust Him!

As we continue to step forward to GO as a community of various backgrounds, personalities, knowledge bases, experiences, and several generations, may we each trust in HIM and have this in common...the mind of Christ.

Paul wrote to the Messianic community in Philippi after he had departed and was away. Timothy, a younger man would be coming next to provide pastoral care for this community. In the meantime, Paul left some instructions for them. In this, there are some great take aways in the book of Philippians. How many can you find?

Philippians 2:1-16

Therefore, if you have any encouragement for me from your being in union with the Messiah, any comfort flowing from love, any fellowship with me in the Spirit, or any compassion and sympathy, ² then complete my joy by having a common purpose and a common love, by being one in heart and mind. ³ Do nothing out of rivalry or vanity; but, in humility, regard each other as better than yourselves — ⁴ look out for each other’s interests and not just for your own.

⁵ Let your attitude toward one another be governed by your being in union with the Messiah Yeshua:

⁶ Though he was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be possessed by force.⁷ On the contrary, he emptied himself, in that he took the form of a slave by becoming like human beings are.

And when he appeared as a human being,⁸ he humbled himself still more by becoming obedient even to death —death on a stake as a criminal!⁹ Therefore God raised him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name;

¹⁰ that in honor of the name given Yeshua, every knee will bow —in heaven, on earth and under the earth —¹¹ and every tongue will acknowledge^[a]that Yeshua the Messiah is Adonai —to the glory of God the Father.

¹² So, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed when I was with you, it is even more important that you obey now when I am away from you: keep working out your deliverance with fear and trembling,^{[b] 13} for God is the one working among you both the willing and the working for what pleases him. ¹⁴ Do everything without kvetching (complaining) or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may be blameless and pure children of God, without defect in the midst of a twisted and perverted generation,^[c] among whom you shine like stars in the sky, ¹⁶ as you hold on to the Word of Life. If you do this, I will be able to boast, when the Day of the Messiah comes, that I did not run or toil for nothing.

[Philippians 2:1-16 -Complete Jewish Bible: Bible Gateway]