no need to spit the dummy

^“12 Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or arguing, ¹⁵ so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky ¹⁶ as you hold firmly to the word of life.”  Philippians 2: 12-16 (TNIV)

On Monday night at Connect (the UWA inter-college Christian group) we studied this passage and it was really encouraging. Philippians is such a ‘rich’ book and this passage alone holds so much.

The fact that almighty God is working in us should make us tremble – the fact that he would at all, as well as the promise and encouragement that gives us as Christians. And if God is working, we don’t have to struggle in our own strength to make things happen, we don’t have to push or bully or plead – we don’t have to grumble or argue. Instead, we are confident that God is working in us and through all circumstances to show the world how wonderful he is, to make us shine against a background of corruption.

I love how practical our spiritual reality is as Christians, and how God uses everyday situations to love people who don’t know him by demonstrating his awesomeness through us. 

photo taken from flickr, posted by horizontal.integration