But I Press On..

“..that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

“Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.” (Philippians 3:10-16 ESV)

We who are followers of Jesus Christ are called to suffer for the sake of Christ and for the sake of his gospel. For if truly we are becoming like him in his death, we are going to be hated and rejected and cast aside and treated like we are dirt underneath other people’s feet for them to stomp on, for that is how Jesus Christ was treated when he walked this earth. But suffering is for our good to make us holy and patient and steadfast in faith and to bring us to maturity in Christ and to keep us from falling.

Through suffering, if we respond to it in faith, we draw closer to God in our walks of faith in Jesus Christ. And we are being conformed to the likeness of character of Jesus Christ in mind, heart, thinking, attitudes, words and deeds. And we are becoming much less like the world around us, and we have less and less desire for the pleasures that the world has to offer us, and we become less earthly minded and more heavenly minded. For this is all about us dying with Christ to sin daily and obeying his commandments.

But this is a life-long journey that we are on, and none of us will be absolutely perfect (complete, finished) until Jesus comes back to take his faithful and pure bride to be with him for eternity. But we should all be moving in a forward direction, and none of us should be in the practice of sinning against our Lord and ignoring his commandments. We should all be living holy lives in moral purity, honesty, integrity, faithfulness, godliness, uprightness and in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his ways.

Therefore, lack of perfection is never to be used as an excuse for continued and deliberate and habitual and sometimes premeditated sin against God and against our fellow humans. But we are to be those who are pressing on in our walks of faith in the Lord in pursuing all that is godly, holy, pure, righteous, and obedient to our Lord. We are to be our Lord’s sheep who listen to him and who follow him in obedience, who daily deny self and take up our cross (die daily to sin) and follow (obey) him (Luke 9:23-26).

And when this talks about forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, it is not saying that we are to forget everything we have ever done in this life, for we still have our testimonies to share, as did Paul, and the Lord has allowed us to have the experiences we have had in our lives to teach us lessons which we then can pass along to others who may be going through similar circumstances (see 2 Corinthians 1:3-14). But we should be moving forward and not still living in the past.

And that really is the point that he is making to us here is that our past lives should not be our present lives, too, at least the part that we have control over. We should no longer be walking in sin and living selfish lives. But now we should be walking according to the Spirit so that we do not gratify the sinful cravings of the flesh. Sinful practices should be put to death in our lives so that we can now live holy lives pleasing to the Lord, and so that we can now be his witnesses in sharing his gospel with the people of the world.

Those of us who are mature in our thinking and in our faith will understand this, for we are those who are daily putting these truths into practice. Those who are immature and childish and self-indulgent will not get this. So please be among the mature and don’t remain in living according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit. For our eternity depends on us walking in obedience to our Lord and not in sin. So we need to hold true to the word of God taught in the appropriate context and keep on obeying our Lord.

[Matt 7:21-23; Matt 24:9-14; Lu 9:23-26; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14,24; Rom 12:1-2; Rom 13:11; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; 1 Co 1:18; 1 Co 15:1-2; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Heb 9:28; 1 Pet 1:5; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-17; 1 Pet 2:24; Tit 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-9; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 3:6,14-15; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15] 

My Lord, What a Morning  

Spiritual, United States, 18th or 19th Century

My Lord, what a morning!

My Lord, what a morning!

Oh, my Lord, what a morning

when the stars begin to fall.

Oh, you will hear the trumpet sound

to wake the nations underground,

Looking to my Lord's right hand

when the stars begin to fall.

Oh, you will see my Jesus come,

His glory shining like the sun,

Looking to my Lord's right hand

When the stars begin to fall.

Oh, you will hear all Christians shout,

'Cause there's a new day come about,

Looking to my Lord's right hand

When the stars begin to fall

My Lord, what a morning!

My Lord, what a morning!

Oh, my Lord, what a morning

when the stars begin to fall. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YIYxwnqcTM

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