When
a church received one of Paul’s letters, it was read out loud to the entire
congregation. There were no printing
presses back then in the 1st Century. Scribes would painstakingly copy EVERY SINGLE
WORD by hand so that these letters could be sent to other churches to be read
out loud to their congregations. This
was the ONLY way to get the message out.
Today,
it is so easy to share a message, whether it’s our own or someone else’s:
· You can post on FaceBook in a status or in a note. Anyone can click “share”, or even copy/paste
it into their own status or note. You
can even tag people in it so that more people can see it. People can like it or
comment on it.
·
You can text it to someone, even in a group message or mass
text. To share it, it’s as easy as
hitting “forward” or copying and pasting it in a new text to send out.
·
You can type a note or create an ad and post it on
Instagram. People can “like” it or even
share it by saving the pic and reposting.
· You can tweet it on Twitter and people can keep retweeting it
or making it a “favorite”
·
You can take a picture of a message and text it, email it,
Instagram it, tweet it, share it on FaceBook, or even on Pinterest.
· You can send your message in an email or mass emails, and
those people can keep forwarding it on.
·
You can blog about it and anyone can forward it or share a
link to the blog.
·
You can create a YouTube video or a podcast and post it.
·
You can send your story to the newspaper or go on TV and
announce it on the news, in commercials, or infomercials.
·
You can call and leave someone a voicemail about it, or even
send voice memos through text or email.
·
You can type out your message and fax it anywhere in the
world, even by computer.
·
You can type out your message, make thousands of copies on a
copy machine and mail them all out.
·
You can create a website or FaceBook page to get your message
out.
·
You can use any of the above to cross-promote any of the
above.
If
you have something to say and want to share it with the world, the possibilities
are endless with technology today!!
When
was the last time you gave someone a handwritten letter or card? Not typed… HANDWRITTEN! How would you feel if they just tossed it
aside or threw it away, or didn’t even bother reading it at all?
I
know as ladies, we are usually more sentimental than men, so we tend to save
and cherish special cards, letters, or notes from special people. For the past 12 years I have carried inside
my bible a copy of a poem that Chris hand wrote me. The original poem is inside a picture frame
at home. No doubt most of you have done
the same thing, because you know just how much time, love, and care it took to
write them. How ironic is it that I
cherish this poem and keep it inside a bible that I SHOULD cherish even more,
but continually fail to!
These
letters that Paul wrote were so important because of the time and care it took
for Paul to write them in the first place, knowing just how much work it would
take for the scribes to copy them, have them delivered, and read aloud to other
churches afterward. THAT is how we know
that EVERY SINGLE WORD in these letters were and are very important today. There is NOTHING in any of those letters that
could have been left out, otherwise Paul would have left them out just so the
scribes wouldn’t have to hand write anything more than necessary. Every word in these letters were deliberately
written for all of us. That’s why we
should cherish them the way we cherish silly little notes that someone gives to
us. 
The
danger about us and our society today is we can easily take someone’s words for
granted nowadays. It’s so easy to just
scroll past someone’s status or tweet, or to delete someone’s email or
text. WHY? Because it was so easy to share these
thoughts. It doesn’t take “that much work” to speak out anymore, so it’s no big
deal! Sadly, to a lot of people, bibles
are now just mass produced “stories”…so we don’t even pay attention to it or
RESPECT it like it deserves. If we do
take the time to read it, we skim over it, we don’t dig deep, and we don’t take
it apart to figure out what it actually means to us…what God is saying to us. We just read it and move on.
The
bible consists of letters and teachings that people took the time and care to
write to us and for us. God is speaking
to us through these people. These are
HIS love letters to US. We should
cherish His word more than we cherish a simple letter or card or poem that we
keep tucked away inside the bible that we hardly open!
Let
this year be the year that we truly read and study the bible the way we
should. Our prayer to God should be
Psalm 119:18:
“OPEN
MY EYES, THAT I MAY BEHOLD THE WONDROUS THINGS OUT OF YOUR LAW”
Our
HOMEWORK for this week is to read Philippians.
Yes, the entire book…which is only 4 short chapters J Then, over the next several months we will pick it apart so
we can truly understand what God wants to tell us.
As
you read it, do the following:
- Write down any repeated words, phrases, or ideas you notice.
- Write down any questions that come to mind so we can discuss later.
Then
answer the following:
- What are the circumstances in Paul’s life when he writes this letter?
- What is going on in the lives of the people of Philippi (the church) when Paul writes this letter?
- What is the overall tone of this letter?
- Why did Paul write this letter to the church at Philippi?
Do
you want a real challenge?? Try HAND
WRITING the entire letter (Philippians Chapters 1-4) to see just how much work
it took for Paul and the scribes to get this letter to the churches. Then imagine doing that for the entire
bible. Now that is a real love letter!
