This letter is from Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus. I am writing to all of God’s holy people in Philippi who belong to Christ Jesus, including the church leaders and deacons. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
Philippians 1:1-2
Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. So it is right that I should feel as I do about all of you, for you have a special place in my heart. You share with me the special favour of God, both in my imprisonment and in defending and confirming the truth of the Good News. God knows how much I love you and long for you with the tender compassion of Christ Jesus. I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation – the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ – for this will bring much glory and praise to God.
Philippians 1:3-11
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of in all the world. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel of His Son, how without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers, beseeching if by any means now at length I shall be blessed by the will of God to come to you. For I long to see you, that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, for the establishing of you; and this is to be comforted together among you, through the faith in one another, both yours and mine. But I do not wish you to be ignorant, brothers, that often I purposed to come to you, and was kept back until the present, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the other nations.
Romans 1:8-13
I have given you above the opening verses of Paul’s letter to the Philippian Christians. Notice how personal it is and what he wishes to do for them which I have made bold type. In Gem 1905 I compared the beginnings of Paul’s letters to the Philippians, Ephesians, Corinthians and Romans. Notice how different Paul’s letter to the Philippians is compared with the others in the opening. The same is true of the close to the letter which is also more personal than any of his other letters.
How I praise the Lord that you are concerned about me again. I know you have always been concerned for me, but you didn’t have the chance to help me. Not that I was ever in need, for I have learned how to be content with whatever I have. I know how to live on almost nothing or with everything. I have learned the secret of living in every situation, whether it is with a full stomach or empty, with plenty or little. For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.
But it was very good of you to help me in my troubles. You Philippians know very well that when I left Macedonia in the early days of preaching the Good News, you were the only church to help me; you were the only ones who shared my profits and losses. More than once when I needed help in Thessalonica, you sent it to me. It is not that I just want to receive gifts; rather, I want to see profit added to your account. Here, then, is my receipt for everything you have given me—and it has been more than enough! I have all I need now that Epaphroditus has brought me all your gifts. They are like a sweet-smelling offering to God, a sacrifice which is acceptable and pleasing to him. And with all his abundant wealth through Christ Jesus, my God will supply all your needs. To our God and Father be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
Philippians 4:10-20
It is clear the Philippians held a special place in Paul’s heart. Why? Because they supported him financially? In part, they were constantly in partnership with Paul for the sake of the Gospel. They prayed for Paul like he prayed for them. There was a reciprocal nature to their relationship with Paul. Paul was not just grateful for their financial support. He was intent on blessing them with all of the fruit of their salvation to use his own words. He was intent on seeing them through to the finish line and the ultimate prize of their salvation – attaining to the resurrection for the dead and gaining Zoe life. That is exactly how we feel about those who supported us from Matamata Baptist, Papatoetoe Baptist & Manukau City Baptist (same church with a name change), those in Eltham Christian Church and Jakarta Praise Community Church. I really do understand how Paul feels about those who were in partnership with him because that is how we feel about those who have done the same for us over many years. We knew we could not repay our supporters for their prayers, their interest and their financial support. But we were intent on being a blessing back to them in any and all ways we could. Praying in earnest for their needs and contributing to them in ways that added to the fruit of their salvation. That is why I developed all that I have done over the years – initially because of what I sensed our personal friends and supporters needed. Hence the development of God’s Awesome Book, Radio Rhema Stories, Gems, Nuggets and finally Deeper Bible. We don’t write newsletters these days because my time is taken up with Gems, Nuggets and Deeper Bible. Why? Because I want to see our dear ones over the finish line.
I have been thinking about Paul’s desire for the Christians in Philippi and reflecting on my own desire for those of you who have received our newsletter over the years. Back then I did some zany things in the context of the Vail Vagaries and the Vail’s Trails. And our dear friends and supporters did zany things back. Oh I would never do that again. Why? Because the letter writing is no longer the same. The support is the same. Many have been so faithful as to supporting us financially over all the years of our partnership in the Gospel. Some like Clarice for just $10.00 a month. Some like a young daughter who gave $2.00 from her pocket money for a year and whose parents carried it until now adding $2.00 to their amount when their daughter had moved on to other things. it amazes us how faithful people have been. It humbles us and leaves us every grateful to the Lord for such faithful friends and supporters and us wanting to do all in our power to make to make their walk with God clearer and more fruitful.
I made the comment in the previous Gem about the adding machine letter I received from Mike Clancey who wanted to write a letter longer than Ian and succeeded in his efforts by writing the letter on adding machine paper. I kept that letter for a long time as reminder. But it was stolen when our stored stuff was broken into some years back. Mike wrote back to me in a text since the last Gem reminding me, “To say nothing of the shredded letter I got back.” On getting Mike’s quirky letter I typed a single page letter to him in bold type as I recall and then on the back of the page put three lines in different colours at different angles and then put the letter through the shredder. The three coloured lines were so Mike could more easily reassemble the letter. What amazes me to this day is that he then painstakingly took the time to reconstruct the letter so he could read it. I would never do that to him again – I think. I am not sure he would bother reconstructing what I send.
I also got the idea of creating MINTy Love Drops. Back then we were known as the MINTies.
- Marissa
- Ian
- Natalia
- Tania
Riss noticed one day, “Dad, we are the MINTies.” So we came up with a family logo in the form of a MINTIES wrapper. (A classic NZ confectionery)
Later I developed MINTy Love Drops
I made MINTy Love Drops by punching green cardboard with a paper punch and filling a jar with MINTY Love Drops. When I felt the love, I would add a sprinkle of love drops into the envelope to reassure our people we loved them dearly. Not all received the love drops. This caused three reactions as I recall. The people at Kangaroo Ground (WBT Aussie HQ) would go the mailboxes to get their mail and many would open them right there in the mailroom and read the letter from the Vails. Colleen who took care of the mailroom said to me, “I always know when people get a letter from the Vail’s, there are MINTY Love Drops all over the floor.” I apologised to her, but she said, “No need to apologise Ian, in a quirky way I kind of like the gesture.”
A couple of people have confessed to wondering about those MINTY Love Drops and finally succumbing to tasting them to see if they actually had a MINTIE flavour. I actually suspect that there were more than one of two over the years of such drops who did that too but have never confessed to it. Suffice to say they didn’t taste minty. I never tried to infuse them or marinate them in minty to encourage such practices.
The Luxfords responded to our MINTY Love Drops with Lux Flakes. They sent us a letter in a bottle. That was all it was, a plastic bottle with an address label on the outside and with a letter inside and sent to us in Indonesia like that. What amazes us is that the bottle came through intact without losing any of the contents or showing signs of being opened to test the nature of the said contents. With the Lux Flakes were Red, Yellow and Black punched circles in Waikato rugby colours.
Many others over the years responded to my zanyness, I won’t implicate Tania in such shenanigans but she and others sure enjoyed the banter. I did once ask Colleen, the KG Mailbox Lady, why on earth people opened their mail there in the mailroom. Her response was, “Oh Ian, why would you have to ask? When we all get a letter from the Vails we have to open it straight away, right then and there. Firstly to see what zany things the contents hold or what latest Vail News we can share, but also so we can share the fact that we too get MINTY Love Drops from the Vails.”
It is clear that Paul didn’t do such things. I am sure only because he was resource deprived there in prison. He would have if he could have. But it is without doubt that Paul loved to degree that puts us to shame. He was always focused on sharing what God had given him with his partners. As we have already noted in the text, he could not respond in kind to his partners by showering them with gifts, but he did pray that they would be filled to overflowing with every good gift that God the Father could give them from His Glorious Riches in heaven. Now who wouldn’t want that? I used to tell people in Wycliffe training programmes, find something that is unique to you and your ministry and make that the gift you pass on to your supporters. Many have said to me over the years, Ian or Pak Ian, you shower us with such rich things in God. Here are then are the quotes for today.
From lesson one of Deeper Bible 101 you’ll be hooked – learning to catch fish. 101 brings in the bait fish from the shallows, teaches you the skills. Then you set your line deeper and start hauling in the “aha” moments and the “I’ve never seen that before!” comments. God’s word comes alive and becomes irresistible. Ian’s insight into the Word and his God-given skill in weaving it all together as a net, will leave you hungry for more, hungry for more fish, hungry for more of a relationship with the Author!
Mike Clancey (Matamata Baptist)
DB has completely re-energised my interest in the Bible, instead of picking up my Bible and reading sections, just because I feel I should, I now have a research list that goes on ad infinitum. In fact, I get frustrated as I don’t have the quantity of time I would like to spend and cannot answer my many questions fast enough. Ian taught us to look for fish but I feel very much like Peter as I land nets full to bursting. If this is what I get after 201…my anticipation for 301 through to 701 is quite unbearable.
Tony Wilson (Manukau City Baptist)
I have completed Deeper Bible now to level 601 and as a result I have a new perspective of the framework of the Bible and how it fits together. I can understand the Bible and have learned to connect the Old and New Testaments together. I have fallen in love with reading my Bible and love to read it everyday. I especially loved the last class of each series called Experiencing the Bible. The most important key I learned is to get close to God and learn to hear His voice for myself.
Fransisca Liu (JPCC)
My all time favourite quote:
Ian, you are a walking Bible virus and you have infected me with your enthusiasm for the Bible.
Paulina Ongkowijaya (JPCC)