Rejoice in the Lord always.

There is a word that appears 11 times in Paul's letter to the Christians/Saints in Phillipi - the word s rejoice.

Indeed the verse which appears to most typify this mindset is from verse 4 of chapter 4 'Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice' It is worth doing this the in context in which it is placed. In Paul's case, on this occasion he is in prison. One can almost certainly assume that the overcrowding would well exceed that of today, as would the stench. It appears to be something of a pattern that Paul and his partners in the gospel were sent to Prison as a result of sharing the gospel.

Another example of rejoicing in the most unpleasant of circumstances is from Acts 16 v 39 where Paul and Silas sang praises to God even though they were in the inner part of the prison with their feet in the stocks - no wonder people had some degree of trepidation re. the early church! What eventually transpired from this was that their was a massive earthquake and the thick, bolted prison doors swung open. All the other prisoners remained where they except Paul and Silas who spoke to the prison guard who was about to take his life - offering reassurance.

The next step was an Evangelists dream, the jailer after going down on his knees before Paul and Silas asked them 'what must I do to be saved?' Paul's response was equally direct 'believe on the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your whole household'- the jailor's baptism came within a few hours.

One final scripture on the theme of rejoicing in adversity is from 1 Thessalonians 5 v 18 where it says 'in all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.'