A TRANSFORMED LIFE THROUGH THE BOOK OF PHILEMON
Recently I was asked a question while travelling in a car with 3 others, what is your favourite book in the bible, or what book in the bible would you want to have if you were stranded on a desert island?
…For myself, I like the books of Philemon and Ephesians…Philemon because it has a message that I and probably many other people can relate to, a book about a complete transformation of a man’s life.
…Onesimus was a slave and was considered useless or unprofitable in who he was as a person. As a slave he was poor, rejected and in bondage. This is how we all were before we found Jesus…
This is a remarkable transformation in his life and circumstances.
Onesimus is sent back not as a slave and unprofitable, but as a free person, now a son, brother and is counted as useful and profitable…It is so remarkable that it is hard to comprehend, but as I look at my own life, it has been exactly the same – I was once bound in my own ways, bound by drugs, alcohol and that sense of being a nobody – running away, trying to find what life was all about – to eventually finding God and finding or discovering that I am someone who has significance and is profitable to God and His Kingdom. Isn’t this the same with all of us?
I ended up leaving my job, family, friends, and country
…Onesimus and I are very similar in many ways, after finding God we both embarked on a healing and discipleship journey that changed our lives forever.
when I stopped running and found Jesus, things changed.
I can say the same as what Paul writes to Onesimus: I was once running away trying to find and search for answers, yet when I stopped running and found Jesus, things changed. I no longer run away from God but to Him, only He has the answers to all life’s issues.
I wonder, how do you see yourself today?
By Robert Steel, Director of Ellel Glyndley Manor
Read the full article: https://ellel.uk/news/a-transformed-life-through-the-book-of-philemon/
TRANSFORM: A 20-DAY RETREAT
10 September – 1st October
Glyndley Manor
