Amen wonderful post Micheal
On Sun Jan 9th, 2011 3:01 PM EST Michael J. Knight wrote:
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>ONE THING I DO
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>"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea
>doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the
>knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of
>all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be
>found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law,
>but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
>is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his
>resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
>conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the
>resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either
>were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that
>for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not
>myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those
>things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are
>before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God
>in Christ Jesus." Phil. 3:7-14.
>
>Let us first of all remind ourselves that these words of the apostle
>were not written by a young enthusiast starting out on the Christian
>road. They are the testimony of a mature Christian towards the close of
>a rich and full life. Thirty years had passed since Paul's conversion.
>During those years God had used him to establish many churches, mightily
>attesting his ministry with signs and miracles. From the start, Paul had
>spent himself unstintingly in the work of the gospel, traveling
>constantly and undergoing great hardships. He had come to know the
>reality of victory over sin as he grew in likeness to his Lord. And
>among his many joys he had had one unique experience of being, as he put
>it, lifted up into the third heaven to receive remarkable revelations of
>spiritual truth.
>
>Yet at the end of all this, he states that he still has not attained to
>all that God had purposed for his life. Here is one of the greatest
>Christians of all time saying towards the end of his life that he still
>needs to press on to the goal. To most believers, alas, salvation begins
>and ends with the new birth and its assured escape from Divine judgment.
>Not so for the apostle, nor indeed for anyone else who seeks, like him,
>to be a true disciple of Christ. Here in this passage he declares his
>firm belief that Christ had laid hold of him with a purpose. He, in
>return, was determined to lay hold of that purpose at any cost. This is
>a tremendous and solemn truth, that when the Lord lays hold of us at
>conversion, it is with a purpose extending far, far beyond just the
>saving of our souls out of hell fire and into heaven. If, so mature a
>man as the apostle Paul had to say at the end of thirty years of
>untiring Christian service that he had not yet attained, but had still
>to strive to fulfill all of God's purpose for his life, what a vast
>thing that purpose must be.
>
>Paul goes even further in this passage. To him everything that the world
>considers as precious is worthless rubbish, when compared to this
>supreme objective of grasping the purpose of God and fulfilling it. He
>considers this a prize worth giving up everything in the world for
>(Phil. 3:14). When we look around us and see believers coveting worldly
>possessions and clinging to material things, giving these a greater
>place in their lives than the things of God, we are forced to conclude
>that their Christianity is very far removed from Paul's.
>
>It is a mark of spiritual infancy to think of salvation only in terms of
>an insurance policy to escape the flames of Hell. When we mature
>spiritually, we realize that God has saved us in order that we might
>walk each day in the pathway that He has already planned for each one of
>us from eternity (Eph. 2:10). That pathway was what Paul called God's
>purpose for his life. If we are satisfied with having received His
>grace, but are uncommitted to fulfilling His will for our lives, then no
>matter how thoroughly evangelical we may be, we shall go through life
>without accomplishing anything of lasting value to God. Of course the
>Devil's first aim is, by one means or another, to blind people to the
>grace of God in Christ Jesus, thus preventing them from being saved (2
>Cor. 4:4). But if he does not succeed there, then his next aim is to
>blind that new believer to the fact that God has a very definite plan
>for him. To a large extent he has succeeded here. There are thousands of
>true believers who never seek the will of God with any degree of
>earnestness, even in major decisions that they make in their lives.
>
>The Christian life is depicted in this passage in Philippians as one in
>which we have to be continually pressing on. No degree of spiritual
>maturity attainable on earth will ever absolve us from this need of
>constant urgency. It is because many believers have neglected this
>lesson that they have no living testimony. Their only testimony relates
>to an experience in the distant past when on a blessed day they perhaps
>raised their hand or signed a decision-card in some evangelistic
>meeting. That was wonderful, but nothing has happened since! Prov.
>24:30-34 with its picture of a garden gone to waste, describes the
>condition of the man who relaxes after his salvation. A garden requires
>constant weeding and caring, if it is to be guarded against weeds and
>nettles - and so does the human soul.
>
>I think it was John Wesley who made it a rule in the early Methodist
>testimony meetings that no one was to give a testimony that was more
>than one week old. Anyone who had no story to tell of the Lord's
>dealings with him during the previous seven days, was to consider
>himself a backslider. How many of us can stand that test? Would we have
>to sit glumly silent in a meeting of that nature?
>
>Notice Paul's words in Phil. 3: 13, 14: "This one thing I do, forgetting
>those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
>which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high
>calling of God in Christ Jesus." Here we have one more of the priorities
>for the Christian. Understanding God's purpose and pressing on to attain
>it is not an optional extra for the spiritual elite. It should
>characterize the life of every true child of God.
>
>Remember
>Only one life, will soon be past,
>Only what is done, for Christ will last.
>
>The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
>communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. (2 Corinthians
>13:14)
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>Love & Prayers,
>
>Michael J. Knight.
>
>
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-C-T-S/><
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/A-C-T-S/>
>
>What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God.
>
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