Oct 20 2008
learn humbly
Here is a link to today’s reading:
Change and growth are hard. Trying news things and learning new things are never easy. But the alternative to growth is death. This is true in our physical bodies and in our spiritual life. Even Paul, the greatest evangelist and church planter of the first century, recognized that he had not made it to the place God wanted him to be. He wrote the letter to the church in Philippi late in his life and still he saw the need to press on and keep growing. Paul had accomplished a lot and could have rested on that, but instead he looked forward to the growth God has planned for him.
Today’s Challenge:
Even with one month to live there is growing to do. Don’t let yourself get proud about where you are. Keep your eye on the horizon ahead of you. Write down four ways you would like to grow in God’s direction. Pick one growth goal to keep in front of you during the One Month to Live challenge. Make a plan to press on toward that goal.
Textual Reflections:
This text is an amazing window into the life of discipleship of the Apostle Paul. I will restrain myself and point out two absolutely transformative details.
Paul wants to know Christ. This is not the kind of knowledge you get from an encyclopedia. This is not a desire to know about Christ (although it would include that.) This is not merely the kind of knowledge that would come from research and experiment. Paul is not saying that he wants to understand Christ (although that would be part of it). This is primarily relational language. Christ is a person now. The king of the world whom GOd sent ot save all and set all things right is some guy named Jesus. To say I want to know a person is a very different thing than to say I want to know the capital of Kansas or to know how a chain saw works.
Imagine a raving fan of some celebrity. They know the details of their whole life and are even be able to imitate them so as to fool all but the most discerning eye, but if they have never met, then they do not know the object of thier affection they only know about them. Paul wants to know Christ. (and some other stuff too.)
The second detail that jumps out at me is Paul’s insistence that he is only trying to take hold of the very thing for which Christ took hold of him. This thing that Paul wants is what Christ Jesus wants for him. That is such a stark reminder. When we reduce what Jesus wants for us to just forgiving us or helping us avoid hell, we miss the bigger picture. Paul gets the bigger picture. This relationship for which he presses on is precisely why Jesus took hold of him.
If you are a Christian, then this is why Jesus took hold of you too.
on the walk
-Ethan
Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead….. I love this picture of letting go of the past, and looking forward to the future. A future full of growing closer to Him. I press on to draw nearer each and every day, thankful that He pressed on for me.
Pressing on,
pizzakids1
i am struck by Paul’s humility and yet his confidence. We can do “false humility” through self deprication which really has as it’s goal attention. Which is certainly not humility.
Paul models humble confidence. He states what he has has done and acknowledges it as part of the fuel that will assist inhim making it further.
There is always a further to go.