7/22 - Philippians 3, part 2

Is it silly to strive for something we know is impossible? As humans we're well aware that we're imperfect but is it worth our time to even strive to be perfect? We often fall back on the excuse that "nobody's perfect" when we fall short and it's a very true statement (Romans 3:23, Psalm 14:2-3). So is it even worth trying? We also know that as humans we are limited to ground transportation (without the use of vehicles or any other device we weren't born with) so would it be a waste of time to stand around flapping our arms hoping we'll fly? Probably so. But as for striving for perfection, I'd say it's definitely worth it. The difference, while both are impossible, only one are we called to do. Striving for anything less than God's standard will guide us toward spiritual mediocrity and unfulfilled lives. When I say unfulfilled I don't mean unhappy - I mean it with regard to God's purpose for our lives. I believe that God has called us to much more than just happy lives but rather to fulfill His will here on earth. Paul explains here:

"Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus" (v.12-14)

Although realizing that he was yet imperfect, he presses on. This is the sort of perseverance worth having. Not only is he pressing on, but pressing toward the high calling of Jesus Christ, a calling of which there is none higher. God commands multiple times in Leviticus and we find it , here also in 1 Peter 1:15-16, "But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy." We see the benefit of such perseverance is that we may attain that which Christ has for us. This is clearly something worth striving for.

One of the things that can buffet us from our pursuit is guilt & worldly sorrow. Of course our imperfection means that we will fall short sometimes and the enemy would love nothing more than for us to stay there and wallow in self-pity, guilt & hopelessness. His aim is to devour us (1 Peter 5:8) and what better tools to consume one's soul than these? In dealing with my own sin issues I'm all too familiar with the propensity to stay away from the Word, to distance myself, to dive headlong into self-pity and guilt to the point where ministry seems like something I'll never be qualified or able to do again. What else would the enemy like more? But nonetheless, we persevere: "forgetting what is behind and striving toward what is ahead." We press on to receive all that Christ has for us and to please the One who sent us.

So we follow Paul's pattern - walking in sound principle s of spiritual growth and no longer like the world for "our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." (v. 20-21).

7/21 - Philippians 3

To those reading this who have confessed & believed in Christ and are now saved, reflect on this fact this morning: we have been chosen by God. Take a just a few moments. There's so much in that simple statement. So much to rejoice about, so much to stand in awe of.

"For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh," (v.3).

We believe in Christ as our only means of sufficiency, truly as our Lord - our leader & guide without whom we'd be lost. The more I read this chapter the more I realize that growing in faith is relying less and less on yourself and more and more on God. It's a rigorous process since everything around us tells us to be self-sufficient. Make sure you have an IRA, invest in your future, save enough emergency money for 6 months, always look out for yourself first, if you don't look out for yourself no one else will, etc. Hey, these statements may have some merit but I'm trying to establish that this manner of thinking is ingrained in most of us. Maybe this is why I trust in my own ability to handle my finances rather than give God full control. That might be a topic for another day but I just imagine that a check book under God's complete authority will look a little different than that of a half-surrendered, half-invested believer. Yea...topic for another day.

The verse says we should have no confidence in the flesh. Paul goes on to list why he could be confident in the flesh: "circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless" (v. 5-6). Today that might sound like "I was raised in the church, I'm there every Sunday, my daddy was a deacon, uncle was a minister, mother was a trustee, a faithful tither, I read my Bible everyday and serve on 5 church committees." Again, nothing wrong with any of that. But the point in this chapter is that our sufficiency comes from true faith in Christ and all of our "stuff", no matter how good it is, is still inadequate for salvation. Our abilities and achievements apart from God are a wash. Verse 7, "But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ."

So we should continue on in our well doing, and even do more (as God has called us) but our confidence should remain in Him - "that [we] may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having [our] own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith" (v. 8-9, emphasis added)

7/20 - Philippians 2

It's pretty cool how God chooses to communicate with us. The primary sources for me haven't been the booming voice from heaven (that I sometimes act like I need to hear) but have been through preaching and through His word. Yesterday's sermon was about how we need to love one another and so is this morning's passage - Philippians 2. It might serve me well then to consider how I love other people, especially because I tend to think I'm not so bad at it. However, its good to be careful in situations like these when I think I'm good at something because when my love is tested under the microscope of the scriptures, I think I'll find some room for growth.

In verse 3, Paul commands the church: "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." It didn't take long for me to reconsider how well I was doing loving others after this verse. There are plenty of people for whom I would gladly concede that they were better than myself - other believers in the church, pastors, friends, relatives & pretty much the people in my life that I enjoy. It's a quite another thing to consider those you don't necessarily like as better than yourself; those people whose lives show no evidence of a relationship with God, any sort of love for another person or any semblance of caring about the well-being of others. Verse 3 puts no restrictions on who we ought to consider better than us - it didn't just say other Christians or really nice people, it meant everyone. Luke 6:33, "if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same."

So God is calling us to a higher level of love. This isn't easy to do by any means but Paul puts it in context in the verses that follow. He tells us, starting at verse 5, to let our minds be like Jesus Christ who "took the form of a bondservant [and came] in the likeness of men" and "humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death." (v.7-8). Consider that Jesus, who was no stranger to annoying people, hypocrites, backbiters, betrayal, envy, and things of this sort, was able to humble Himself and die for these people. If He can die for these people, the ultimate display of love, surely our response - as we try to be more like Jesus - should be to love the 'unlovable' people in our lives. We should love anyone or anything that God loves. This is a passage from yesterday's sermon that would be good to reflect on:

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another" (1 John 4:11)

7/18 - Philippians 1...take 3

I know I've been on this chapter for pretty much the whole week but I think God is working on me on some issues related to this chapter. I've found it thus far to be more inspiring than ever before this time around. That's the thing I love about the Bible, it's alive, always relevant and you can gain new insights from passages of scripture you may have read several times.

This chapter reveals the extent of Paul's passion for God. There's nothing that seems to be able to detract him from his mission - persecution, unfaithful friends, problems within the church, false teachers, opposition from other Christians - in spite of these things, he remained determined.

"Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains, most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of God more courageously and fearlessly" (v. 12-14)

A couple things jumped out immediately to me. First off, Paul's life had been lived in such a way that there was no doubt who he served. No one had to ask him or wonder what he believed. Secondly, it was because of his suffering for the gospel that his witness had such a great effect. I imagine that while Paul was imprisoned that he spoke to the inmates and guards about Christ ad nauseum. However, here he credits his suffering for the gospel for the fact that not only was his faith made evident but that other Christian brothers were encouraged to speak boldly about the Lord. Is our testimony anything like Paul's today? Do we suffer for the gospel? Is there any doubt amongst our various social circles that Christ is our Lord?

There's several scriptures that clearly state that the expectation for all believers is that we will suffer persecution (Luke 21:12-13, 2 Tim 3:12, Mark 10:30, Phil 1:29). So if we're not facing any persecution - ridicule about our lifestyle, for not conforming to the world, opposition from non-believers - there's a good chance we're not as serious about God as we ought to be. The world and all it's ways are diametrically opposed to God so if we find our ways to be like the world and receiviing nothng but praise & adoration from the world, there may be something wrong there. I'm not saying that receiving praise in and of itself is a bad thing, but if that's the only thing the world offers you, it may be worth considering why the verses I mentioned in this paragraph haven't applied to you. For me, this was definitely worth reflecting on this week.

7/16 - Philippians 1...pressing through

OK, I'm not giving up on this chapter. Internet Explorer, clearly a tool of the enemy, will no longer be a problem...it has been deleted. A little over the top? Maybe. But will it be a problem again? Absolutely not.

Thanks to my brother in Christ for guiding me and encouraging me to study more to find out what this 6th verse in Philippians is about - "being confident of this very thing, that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ." My study bible reveals that this phrase "has begun" is used in the Bible only in reference to salvation. When God begins a work of salvation in a person, He finishes and completes that work. This would seem to support the fact that once you're saved, you're always saved. I don't doubt that saved people can fall back into sin, but the truly saved - because of the Holy Spirit within them - will repent & come back to the Lord. I don't think God's confused about who is or isn't saved. Once you're found in Him, once you repent and are baptized by the Holy Spirit, this verse doesn't leave much wiggle room for anything else but the fact that God will complete what He has begun.

It's an awesome thing for us who believe to reflect on the fact that God is continually working on us. One of my favorite resources is desiringgod.org from the ministry of John Piper. In this article from that site, Tom Steller writes:

The fact that God is at work in his people, changing the thought patterns and preference of our sinful nature, so that we love what he loves, re-tooling the grooves in our brain, knitting together the complex strands of our emotional wounds with infinitely greater skill than the world's foremost micro-surgeon—there's no greater promise than this. It is nothing other than the New Covenant promise of Ezekiel 36. "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you, I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes."

To me that sounds like a lot of work, especially when this work is duplicated for every believer, but its a great witness to God's amazing love. This process of refining and transforming us isn't always pleasant. It's hard giving up the things that gave us so much pleasure before we were saved or before we knew any better.

Philippians 2:12-13 - "...continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose." God works in us, after our salvation, a process of sanctification which involves much of what Steller writes in the aforementioned paragraph. So this shouldn't be an opportunity for us to be complacent & rely on the fact that God is going to complete what He started. It requires our full participation and a healthy fear of offending God and a righteous awe and respect for Him.* I know there's nothing we can do to earn our salvation but we can seek to please our Saviour because He's worthy.

*from John MacArthur Study Bible

7/13 - Philippians 1...kinda

Hope the weekend treated you well. It was a great one for me - got to see my Mom from Florida, Uncle James from Las Vegas, Aunt Diane from Atlanta, my godbrother from Savannah & it's always good to see my Dad. Also two of my friends joined our church which I'm still pretty excited about. Our church has been praying for more "laborers for the harvest" (Matthew 9:37-38) and I'm sure that's what He's given our church with these two. I'm looking forward to continuing in the labor we've already begun with them.

So I've been looking at Philippians 1 for a couple days and got a little hung up on a familiar passage, verse 6:

"being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."

How does the "day of Jesus Christ" differ from the "day of the Lord" (if in fact there is a difference)? How do I apply this verse to my life and not risk growing complacent (since God's going to complete things anyway)? Maybe I'm looking at this too deeply but I still have some questions on it & need to study a little more. So that's why I put the "kinda" in the title. I don't have much to offer today but would appreciate anyone else's insight on this topic as I'll continue to study it. Happy Monday to all