October Letter from Mark | Precept Ministries Canada

Dear friend of the ministry,

Thank you for praying for Precept each month. We are thankful that we have ministry partners who spend time praying for all that God is doing through this ministry in Canada.

A few weeks ago, I shared a sermon from Paul’s letter to the Philippians. These messages will be available through our podcast called Unlocking the Truth in the new year.

Paul opens his letter thanking God as he prays for the church. Paul says he offers prayer with JOY as he remembers the church’s participation in the Gospel from when the church began until that current day.

Although Paul is in prison for sharing the Gospel, his mind remains focused on prayer and thanksgiving. There are so many lessons to be learned in this letter, but two things stood out to me, and I want to share them with you.

Paul finds JOY in looking back at what God has done. In Acts 16:12-40 we read of three “God stories” that occurred as the church in Philippi was being established. The first story is that of Lydia, the woman who works with purple fabrics. She was a God-fearing woman who was praying by the river when Paul shared the Gospel with her. She believed the truth of the Gospel, and she and her household put their trust in Jesus and were baptized. Lydia then invited Paul to stay at her house while he ministered to others in the city. The second story of God transforming a life is that of the demon-possessed slave girl who had been following Paul, announcing who Paul was and the message he was sharing. Paul, through the power of Jesus, cast the demon out of her. She was set free of the oppression of the demon by the power of God. The third God story came about as a result of the miracle with the slave girl. Paul and Silas were beaten and put in prison for speaking the truth of the Gospel. While in prison, they sang hymns of praise! There was JOY in the prison, and then the earth shook, the doors opened, and the prisoner’s chains were unlocked. The jailor wanted to kill himself rather than face the discipline for allowing a jailbreak. Paul talked the jailor out of taking his life, shared the Gospel with him, and the jailor was given eternal life!
When Paul is praying (Phil.1:3-5), he looks back and remembers these events and finds JOY.
When we struggle to find JOY in our lives, we need to look back and remember all that God has done.
The second lesson we can learn is “my partnership with others in the gospel will bring me JOY.” Paul also finds JOY in the church’s current partnership in the Gospel. From prison, reports come to Paul about how the church is furthering the Gospel, how lives are being transformed and how the church is providing financially to further the ministry of the Gospel.
When it’s hard to find JOY, we need to come off the bench and get in the game. When we see God at work in and through us, we will have JOY.

My prayer is that as you partner with us through prayer and giving that you would find great JOY in knowing that God is at work across Canada. The power of God is transforming lives through a simple study tool called Precept Inductive Bible Study. Stay tuned for our November In Context newsletter to see all that God has done in 2021.