- "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." (King James Version)
- "...for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances." (New International Version)
- "...Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances. I'm just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am." (The Message Bible verses 11b-13)
I added different versions because, the KJV is the one that is precious to me, because that is the one that I learned growing up. The other two are very good, also.
I could go and buy or look in our closet for all of the Bible Study books that have been written on the Book of Philippians. Instead, I am being encouraged by the Holy Spirit to listen to Him and to listen to you. I love Bible Study, because I am richly blessed by hearing all of the different angles that each person brings to the table from his or her own personal life or spiritual experiences.
So, let's pretend that we are sitting around my kitchen table with our Bibles open, note books opened to a blank page, our pens raised, our coffee or tea simmering in our cup or cooling with our ice cubes, the fragrance of cinnamon and sugar is coming from our coffee cake up to our nose and we are excited to see what God is going to show us today in His Word. "Today in His Word"...a book that was written 2,000 years ago and it can touch us and break us and form us today in 2008!!
Will you join me? Will you enter in? Will you read and ask God to show you (and me) what He needs to teach us for our lives today?
In His Service,
Debbie Gerstenberger
