Drift Away or Hold Fast

Col. 4:12-18

We talked about 4 people today- Epaphras, Luke, Demas, and Archippus. Epaphras was a Collosian who prayed! Here is a great prayer for us to ask not only for others that we love but for ourselves too: that we would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Dad suggested that we can stay in God's will by reading the Word. Epaphras had "great zeal" in his prayer. Who do you tend to pray for? Dad said that he finds it hard to pray for people that he doesn't know, but has much more zeal for those he cares about.

We learned in 2 Tim. 4:9 that Demas was in love with the present world. He abandoned Paul and stopped serving Christ. Of course in this passage, Demas is still ministering with Paul. May God's grace keep all of our family from drifting!

And lastly, Archippus. We learned from Philemon 1:2 that he was a fellow soldier and was probably a pastor of the church in his father's house. Paul admonishes him to "take heed to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, that you may fulfill it". I.e. persevere in our faith and good works!

MMWP (mom's most wonderful puns)
Dad was explaining that Paul had an "amanuensis" (that is an English word) , another name for a recording secretary. Before we looked up the correct pronunciation and were saying it with the accents on the first and third syllable, I asked " What does someone say who is irritating you? " Amanuensis" . (I'm a nuisance) . I got a big laugh out of Josh.