Yet indeed I also count all things loss
for the excellence of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of
all things, and count them as rubbish,
that I may gain Christ and be found
in Him, not having my own righteousness,
which is through faith in Christ, the
righteousness which is from God
in faith: that I may know Him
and the power of His resurrection,
and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death,
if, by any means, I may attain
to the resurrection from the dead.
Philippians 3:8-11
In this world, its culture, the cry goes out for people to be empowered and for self-realization as though this is the way to happiness and the good life. Authentic Christian saints do not seek self-realization and to be empowered by this world and its culture. No! Authentic Christian saints have the initiative to know and have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Authentic Christian saints to not believe that things happen by chance, to have circumstances that are based on some haphazardness, or does he think his secular life is sacred. Everything to an Authentic Christian saint is dumped down, or to be used as a means to secure the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In a sense, there is reckless abandonment about becoming conformed to Jesus Christ, the knowledge of Him, and this abandonment is to realize Jesus Christ in every domain of life, and this is possible by the leading of the Holy Spirit that every point of life, good or bad, God will bring good out of it. We may not always see how things will work out for good until after it has occurred and then we see the hand of God in that circumstance.
Self-realization leads to the enthronement of work, secular or in the Christian Church where work is given more importance because it makes a person feel pious, or godly. Authentic Christians enthrones Jesus Christ in his/her work. Whatever is being done, every phase of life, every phase of our actual life we must take the initiative and realize that Jesus Christ is in that circumstances. Never choose to be a worker; but when God has put His call on you, do it, or face the chastisement of God. Don't turn aside from this calling. Do not even think that you are not fitted for this call of God for God would not have called you unless He knows you, and how to use you to accomplish His purpose. To do this is to keep your soul steadfastly related to God. Remember that a person is called not just relate some testimony only, rather to preach the word of God, the Gospel.
Do not make this mistake as is being done in many Churches today: Do not water down the word of God. Do not succumbed to this pluralistic culture and say that as Christians we must accept everyone in love, homosexuals, living together without marriage, divorce, etc., that all is ok and accepted when God has revealed this is wrong in His word. Do not be thrown off course when people point out that you are a sinner and do not have the right to this action. Yes! You are a sinner: a sinner saved by grace!
There is a snare when a person imagines that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do. God's purpose is to make us one with Himself. As Paul states: "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" (Philippians 3:112-14).
May this be your mind-set: living for Jesus Christ, not for self and realizing the upward call of God. Life will be life, good, bad, and everything in between while on this earth, but, Authentic Christians have the Holy Spirit that will lead them, aid them, to overcome whatever may come. Praise God for you are not orphans left to yourself.
But I am like a green olive tree
in the house of God: I trust
in the mercy of God forever and ever.
I will praise You forever, because
You have done it: and in the presence
of Your saints I will wait on Your name,
for it is good.
Psalm 52:8-9
Our God is Good
Richard L. Crumb
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