Epaphras #8

Suzy with her new family. She certainly got a taste of snow and ice the last month in Fayetteville.

I let Dottie shop all afternoon while I wrote thank you notes and worked on my lesson for Sunday night. Although we still have a week here in states I am so anxious to get home. Next Tuesday I meet with a neurologist in Shreveport.

This Sunday morning we will be at both morning services at Family Life in Lafayette, La and at 6pm we will be in Marksville at Abundant Life.

Colossians 4:12 “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.”

Epaphras ws one of us and he prayed ‘always’. Paul commended him for his prayer life so he must have prayed often in prison with Paul. He never gave up! He realized that his prayers could change circumstances and people.

‘Laboring fervently” is the next part of how Paul described the prayers of Epaphras. These words denote the intense desire which he had for their salvation; his fervent, earnest pleading for their welfare. He saw prayer as a labor of love. He was doing a job he enjoyed and gave himself wholeheartedly to.

Colossians 2:1 ¶”For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh”.

He saw prayer as fighting for someone else. He was contending for their salvation or growth. The word means ‘to wrestle’ and he saw prayer as holding on until the answer came. The actual translation means to agonize. Remember Jesus in the Garden? The word denotes the intense desire which he had for their salvation; his fervent, earnest pleading for their welfare.

There are thousands of children in the world suffering from kidney disease. And actually there are times I pray a simple prayer for them and their families as I usually do for children who have special needs. But when I pray for my children with kidney disease my prayers for Genesis, Marjorie, Luis, Sindy, Jose’ and Wendy are much more powerful and intense.

When a person calls me about a need then Dottie and I will pray. But if someone calls about a need for one of our children or grandchildren then the battle becomes far more intense. It is a different warfare. It is as though I am at war in Vietnam and I am a gunner on a battery and am shooting at targets miles away versus I am a foot soldier on the front lines and the Vietcong are coming over the hill into my foxhole.

The war just got personal! Hey, folks that is MY family, MY children, My Church, My Country, My–MY–My

To Epaphras those were HIS people!

Stay tuned