{"id":3408,"date":"2024-08-12T05:46:21","date_gmt":"2024-08-12T05:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/?p=3408"},"modified":"2024-08-03T17:48:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T17:48:12","slug":"joy-in-fellowship-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/joy-in-fellowship-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Joy in Fellowship, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, August 12<\/strong><\/p>\n

Joy in Fellowship, Part II<\/strong><\/p>\n

These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.<\/em>\u00a0John 15:11<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Philippians 1 verses 3 and 4 we read \u201cI thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy<\/em>\u201d. Isn\u2019t it remarkable that Paul was thinking of others and not of himself? As he awaited his trial in Rome, Paul\u2019s mind went back to the believers in Philippi, and every recollection he had brought him joy.<\/p>\n

It begs the question, am I the kind of believer who brings joy to my fellow brothers and sisters when they think of me?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Love is like the air around us: We can close ourselves up and never breathe the air, which of course leads to death. Likewise, we can close our hearts and never receive the love that is permeating from God in every moment, therefore our souls slowly die, and we will not be able to experience joy. But when we obey God, imitating the holiness of Christ by following His commandments, we unite ourselves to Him and therefore are immersed in His love and therefore we experience unworldly joy.<\/p>\n

We know that Paul\u2019s sincere love for his friends was something that could not be disguised or hidden. How did Paul evidence his love for them? For one thing, he was suffering on their behalf. His bonds were proof of his love. Paul\u2019s love was not something he merely talked about; it was something he practiced. Paul\u2019s fellowship brought about a joy that was able to sustain him during his difficult times.<\/p>\n

He considered his difficult circumstances an opportunity for defending and confirming the gospel, and this would help his brethren everywhere. When I think about Paul\u2019s sacrifice, I thank God that although he had a rocky start he responded to the call of God and in doing so brought the gospel to me.<\/p>\n

Prayer for today<\/strong>:\u00a0Lord Jesus, thank You for loving us. Thank you, Lord, for the strength that comes when we get to know You. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, August 12 Joy in Fellowship, Part II These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.\u00a0John 15:11 In Philippians 1 verses 3 and 4 we read \u201cI thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3408"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3410,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3408\/revisions\/3410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cornerstonecem.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}