All Things Are Worth Nothing Compared With The Greatness Of Knowing Christ Jesus My Lord. - You Have To Read This …

Today’s "Life Journal" Daily Bible Reading can be found on Line. Click Here!
1 Kings 13; 1 Kings 14; 2 Chronicles 12; Philippians 3

All Things Are Worth Nothing 

Compared With The Greatness 

Of Knowing Christ Jesus My Lord. - You Have To Read This …

Scripture

Philippians 3

 

⁷ At one time all these things were important to me. But because of Christ, I decided that they are worth nothing. ⁸ Not only these things, but now I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. 

Because of Christ, I lost all these things, and now I know that they are all worthless trash. All I want now is Christ. ⁹ I want to belong to him. In Christ I am right with God, but my being right does not come from following the law. It comes from God through faith. God uses my faith in Christ to make me right with him.
 
¹⁰ All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him from death. I want to share in his sufferings and be like him even in his death. ¹¹ Then there is hope that I myself will somehow be raised from death.

Trying to Reach the Goal

¹² I don’t mean that I am exactly what God wants me to be.
I have not yet reached that goal. But I continue trying to reach it and make it mine. That’s what Christ Jesus wants me to do. It is the reason he made me his.
 
¹³ Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me.
 
¹⁴ I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven.

Observation


You and I are works in progress … we have not arrived yet!

 I love what Paul says in Philippians 3:7-14! This passage encourages me to focus on this one thing: 

“All I want now is Christ. I want to belong to him. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him from death. I want to share in his sufferings and be like him even in his death.”
I am in agreement with the Apostle Paul when he says in verse ten, “All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him from death. I want to share in his sufferings and belike him in his death.”  

 I had to stop and think about this verse for a few moments before I said “yes”. 

So many times we read scripture and think that those verses are for someone else, but they are not for someone else - they are for you and me. 

Suffering and following Christ go hand in hand. I don’t think we can get to know Christ without suffering with Him and for Him. Some of my Christian friends sometimes talk about my present suffering. And sometimes they talk about everything that Kathy and I have been through with my heart attack and our having to deal with the daily issues of having a heart that is a little more than slightly damaged. 

I think of it as “inconvenience” rather than suffering. What Jesus suffered for us - I call that suffering! 

I hope one day to be able to suffer for my faith in a country where the people do not know the Lord. (India would be my choice at the moment.) That is the way I want to share in my Lord’s sufferings. I pray that I will get healthy enough in the future to do just that! But if I don’t get well enough then I will serve Him right here where I am in every way that I can. 

The Apostle Paul is at an entirely different level of faith than where I am.  But one day I want to reach his level! How about you? 

Application

I will use Paul’s words as my application: 

“Brothers and sisters, I know that I still have a long way to go. But there is one thing I do: I forget what is in the past and try as hard as I can to reach the goal before me.  I keep running hard toward the finish line to get the prize that is mine because God has called me through Christ Jesus to life up there in heaven.” Philippians 3:13-14 

Prayer

Heavenly Father, all I want now is Christ. I want to belong to him. In Christ I am right with You, but my being right does not come from following the law. It comes from You through faith. You use my faith in Christ to make me right with You. All I want is to know Christ and the power that raised him from death. I want to share in his sufferings and be like him even in his death. Amen.

Today’s "Life Journal" Daily Bible Reading can be found on Line. Click Here!