Partnership

 

Philippians 1:3-5

Growing up in Corpus Christ, Texas, in the fifties has some great memories.  I was only two, when we arrived at 3738 Liberty Drive and it was sometime before I grasp the realization that it was a long street, with houses on large lots and most of them were 900 to 1100 square feet of living space.  Our house had a circle or cul-de-sac, we did not use words like cul-de-sac, it was the small circle, and that meant we had a much larger one, down the street past Dover.  Now Dover only had three houses on each size of the street and dead-ended into the farmer’s field.  As you got near the big circle, we later called a park, Victory Drive intersects with Liberty Drive and both streets ended as they came to Up River Road.  Our park did have a swing and later a metal merry-go-round, it also had my friend, Richard Burke, living across from it. 

As I think back on those days, mother did not have to worry that I was at the big park, she had Mrs. Burke and Mrs. Smith and every other mother living on that street to correct me, and to fix my broken heart because the older boys would not let me play ball or to put Monkey blood on my cuts when I fell out of the swings.  And if I needed more than just talked to, they all had permission to take a switch to me.  I lived in that house till I was married, it has great memories but that is not what Paul is referring to in his letter to the church at Philippi.

I attended Roy Miller High School, and most of the people who were there came to learn. I was way too smart to let anyone teach me how to read or write, no way, it was for me a place where I met my friends to discuss what we might do after the last bell would ring.  Many of those who knew the value of learning went on to be doctors, lawyers, run large companies, and after so many years, we still keep in touch.  Those memories and those people are very dear to me, but that is not what Paul is referring to in verse three.

Paul tells the church at Philippi, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.”   The church at Philippi was in partnership in the gospel with Paul, and this is what he writes to them, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble.  And You Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only.”  (Philippians 4:13-15)

Jan and I have, and I’m sure you also have had the joy of being in partnership with someone in the gospel of Christ.  It is always great to receive the letters or phone calls to get a report on how the kingdom of God is being enlarged by your partnership with them.  I’ve come to this understanding that those partnerships will not terminate on my reported death on planet earth, but they will have eternal value.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice