God Thoughts January 30

God Thoughts January 30

Friday we begin discovering the book of Philemon, by reading all twenty-five verses.  I have made

available daily doses of God's word, so we can all be reading, discussing and practicing the same 

thing.  The book of Philemon is a snapshot of the early Jesus community, and how to become that 

type of family.

As part of the community we belong to through Jesus Christ, we are called to invite others into this

community and to foster the sense of belonging that we are given by God through Jesus Christ. Ray

Ortlund, a senior pastor with decades of ministry experience, describes this type of community when 

he writes about the church: The family of God is where people behave in a new way. I think of it with

a simple equation: gospel + safety + time. The family of God is where people should find lots of

gospel, lots of safety, and lots of time. In other words, the people in our churches need multiple

exposures to the happy news of the gospel from one end of the Bible to the other; the safety of non-

accusing sympathy so that they can admit their problems honestly; and enough time to rethink their

lives at a deep level, because people are complex and changing is not easy. In a gentle church like

this, no one is put under pressure or singled out for embarrassment. Everyone is free to open up, and

we all grow together as we look to Jesus. (Ray Ortlund, The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2014), 72.