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| DEVOTIIONAL FEBRUARY 2003 Philippians Chapter 3 (Click here to read the passage) After Paul's spectacular conversion on the road to Damascus he became a very powerful follower and preacher for the Word of God. We could all benefit from following his example but we would have to be prepared for the fact that this task would, as well as giving us joy in serving the Lord, involve the likelihood of various hardships throughout our Christian journey. It is easy for us all to become too complacent as a Christian and therefore a constant reminder is necessary in order to keep us on the straight and narrow path which will lead to eternity with our Saviour Jesus Christ. To this end the fellowship of other Christians is such a necessity to us all but especially as a source for spiritual encouragement. All through our lives we will need to be alert and aware of those who would be only too pleased to see us turn away from Christ as our Saviour and we must continually look towards God's Word and to listen to his voice when He is talking to us. God has never once told us that following Him was going to be easy but the one thing He does assure us of is that He will be there for us always and that we must strive to do His will rather than our own in order to achieve the ultimate goal of eternal life in Heaven. We must keep our sight firmly on His guidance that we may grow more and more to be like Him in thoughts, words and deeds. Paul's devotion to Christ was 100% but even he never once claimed to have succeeded in becoming perfect - in fact he went as far as to say that he was still "striving to win the prize for which Christ Jesus has already won for him". One of the important factors that Paul states is that we should keep our eyes and minds firmly looking forward as opposed to looking backwards and to seek the knowledge of what is ahead and to reach the goal for which Christ has already prepared for us through His death on the cross for our sakes. God loves us and will always love us regardless of what we may do or say and that love can never be taken away - we can however truly feel the benefit and gain from His love even more when we accept His Son Jesus Christ as Saviour in our lives and believe that He died on the cross for our sins and that on the third day He rose from the dead and is now at the right hand of God. I do wonder whether we could ever experience the devotion, strength and commitment that Paul so often portrays in his letters throughout the New Testament and whether we would be prepared to give up everything to follow Christ as he did. This is certainly a question to reflect on but not to concern ourselves too much with as we all have a purpose within the Church of Christ no matter how big or small our commitment. No one Christian is classed as any better than another as together we form a much bigger picture within the body of Christ. One way of expressing this is in relation to a puzzle - a single piece of puzzle on its own is worthless but when all the other pieces are fitted in around it then we have the full picture and so it works within the Church; we each have our part to play from helping with refreshments right through to being a Priest, or even a Bishop but together we form the body of Christ and we all belong to His family as one. Another issue that has been brought up in this passage is how some Jews believed that obeying the law of God made them a Christian - as we know Paul was once a practicing Pharisee and he too lived by rules and regulations and strictly followed the law. We need to realise that at the centre of Christianity there are two commandments that Christ has deemed to be our way to salvation; first a love for God with all our heart, with all our soul and with all our mind; secondly love for our neighbour as ourselves (Matthew 22: 37 - 40). Finally let us remember that it is through faith we can receive salvation by the grace of God. God is not interested purely in what we do, especially if our works are not Christ centered; it is what is in our hearts that matters and where our true allegiance lies; whether to God or whether to earthly riches. In answering we should take the time to recall that our life on earth is only temporary afterall and that we have so much to look forward to with Christ at the helm. God Bless you for now. My next devotional will be on or around the end of March. Chris |