Philippians 3&4 part 2

Here again, Paul speaks such divine words that inspire a person to be more like Christ, that you know he truly was a man of God.  I am referencing v. 8&9 of chapter 4.  Look these two verses up for yourself and see if I am not telling the truth here. 

 

It’s like he is saying to us determine your own thought life.  Don’t let others do it for you, take control of your own life, wake up, be a man.  If not you are setting up yourself for a world of hurt.  Make your mind think on those things that bring peace and love to you and glory to God.  Follow other great men and women of God that God has placed in your life. 

 

I like verse 8, especially. The list that he is rattling off is one of character and conduct.  Meaning that character and conduct begin in the mind.  Think about that for a minute. Your actions are affected by the things you dwell on.  Paul is warning us to ponder on things that will result in right living and in God’s peace.  These two verses truly are great verses for a Christian to meditate on.  See if your own live is lining up with the Holy Scriptures.

Philippians 3&4 part 1

I love what Paul is stating in chapter 3:12-14, it speaks to me on so
many levels. Verse 12 — I could go on and on about, “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.” This
verse says to me that even the man Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
acknowledges to his readers that the road a Christian must go down is
not always easy.  But, but and here is the BIG BUT, we press on -
because he knows in the end it will be worth it!  He knows it’s worth
all the pain and suffering because Christ is about to grab hold of him
and give him riches and peace beyond what any of us can ever imagine.
Not the riches that we typically think of, but the riches of the glory
of God.  

But all these riches and peace just don’t come to us out of the thin
air; no they come at a price, a price of devotion.  They come with a
determination on having intimacy with God, right here and now. They come
in a world that is less than ideal, that laughs at the very idea of
following the path that Jesus has for us — one of being humble and
putting others first.  Paul is sharing with us here that this pressing
forward, this devotion, needs to be our driving force in life — the
reason why we do everything that we do.  This, by the way, should be the
lifestyle of a man or woman “after God’s own heart”.  

We should seek this quest at any cost — spare no effort in our pressing
toward the mark of knowing Christ.

Philippians 1&2 part 1

For a Christian trying to be more like Christ, Philippians is packed full of great information, so much that we could spend an entire year dissecting this short book.  But for the sake of time I will hit just some of my favorite topics. 

 

One being chapter 1 in verse 2, Paul uses a phrase that he starts out all his letters with grace & peace. Here, Paul modifies a standard Greek greeting “greetings & peace” into a greeting that could be the beginning of any prayer, grace & peace: “The grace and peace of God and Jesus be with you.”  Putting the Father and Jesus on equal ground as providers of grace that is given to all mankind who accepts Jesus as their Lord, and peace, true peace that one can only have in this crazy world with Christ living inside of them. 

 

Then we move on to verse 6 with “…He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”  The word good used here refers to a physical and moral sense, and produces benefits.  What this means for us is that we have to believe that God always finishes what He starts, including His work in you and me.  I don’t know about you – but I think that’s great news. 

 

There’s so much more that is packed into chapter 1 that I could go on for hours, but to summarize chapter 1 in it’s entirety – I believe its main theme is faith.  Faith, that our inheritance as a Christ follower, can only be received in it’s entirety by taking a stand on what God has said in the face of contradicting circumstances, sometimes even in hardships.  The stance of faith that does away with fear and worry and helps us see the freedom to rejoice, because true faith never says, I cannot, rather anything is possible in Christ our Savior.