Philippians

Hello people! I am back! I am excited to share with everyone what God has been telling me as I study through the book of Philippians! I am so pumped! So I am not going to waste any more time! I am sharing with you two sections of memorization through Philippians since I have not posted last weeks yet!

Philippians 1:19-26

19 For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will be not at all ashamed, but with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 I am hard-pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is much more necessary on your account. 25 Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, 26 so that in me you may have ample cause to the glory of Christ, because of my coming to you again.

All I can say is WOW!! Literally. That is all I can say. So this blog post is done. Okay, so maybe not really. I may have a tad bit more to say than wow. Although that is a great description of this passage. :) However, I guess I will start dissecting. Paul starts off by claiming that his imprisonment is going to turn out for his deliverance. I don't know about you, but I can't really say that I think everything that happens in my life will help with my deliverance. But Paul immediately takes a horrible situation and claims that it will turn out for his deliverance. However it is clear that Paul wants no glory at all in this situation. He claims that it is only through the prayer of this church and the Spirit of Jesus that this situation will ultimately lead to the deliverance of Paul. He is so happy about it. Paul is excited about death. He wants to die so that he can be with Christ. Being with Christ is more important than anything to Paul. He gives all the glory to the Lord. I am constantly struggling with this. I do something and I want the glory for it. I don't want to accomplish something only to give up the glory for that accomplishment. True humility is gaining absolutely nothing but achieving absolutely everything. Paul had true humility. Paul did not know exactly what was going to happen to him, but he knew that no matter what was done to him, he was going to honor Christ in life and eventually in death. For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Stop reading for a second and meditate on that verse.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Keep thinking................................................................................................................................................................................................just a few more seconds................................................... Okay. To live is Christ. What does that even mean? Paul is weighing two options throughout this passage of scripture. On one hand he can stay alive. On the other hand he could give up his life in service to the Lord. To remain alive, and to keep sharing the love of Christ with others is Paul's mission. To live is Christ. To live is to have the opportunity to keep sharing the gospel. To live is to remain in Christ and glorify Christ in every action. But to die is gain. Paul would love nothing more than to give up his life and go live with his Lord. To die is gain. Paul is in a bad place in life. He is in prison. He is persecuted. To die would give him a relief from all the worldly struggles that Paul faces every single day. To die is gain. Nothing in the universe is better than being with God. Paul claims that living simply gives him more options to do good works for Christ. Wouldn't it be amazing if we adopted that attitude?!?!?!? If we stopped worrying about all the struggles of life, if we stopped focusing on all the busy things that we must do. And we really instead focused on why we are on the earth? We are here to serve Christ. That is a grand mission, and we should never be bored by that! How can we ever get bored serving the Creator of the Universe and sharing his love with everyone?????? This perplexes me greatly. I am so lazy it kills me. I need to just get over myself and really focus on the mission at hand. My life is no where near as crappy as Paul's (although I sometimes feel like I am in prison), yet he greatly rejoiced in all that happened to him. Paul at this point in his writing (from what I gather anyway. This is just my opinion) really does not know which to choose at this point. LIfe or death. He is working through this problem, weighing the pros and the cons of each, throughout this passage. He claims that it is an extremely tough choice to make. His true desire and what he truly wants is to simply die and be with Christ because that is infinitely better than anything this world can offer. But, he realizes he has responsibilities. He is completely aware that he has an obligation to lead more people to Christ and to disciple those people. He comes to the realization that the people's need for him is greater than his own desire to be with the Lord. This is true altruism. Complete selflessness. I challenge you (and myself) to begin to change your though process. Begin to think of others first, and put that to action. Thoughts have no consequences if the thinker chooses not to act. Listen to yourself and adopt Paul's attitude. He is giving up his pure desire of being with the Lord to remain on the earth and disciple these people. He is not staying for his own benefit. He explicitly states that he is staying for the church's progress and joy in the faith. He knows that he may be the only chance some people have to hear about Christ. We need to think about this. Think about your coworkers, or people you pass on the street. These encounters may seem extremely insignificant, but the smallest smile or action can change a person's life. You may be the only chance some people have. They will go their entire life before that moment and after that moment never having heard the gospel. That one opportunity is all they get. They will recognize you as they are standing at the gates of heaven. They will be in the line across from you. You will see them again. As God is telling them to depart for He knows them not. They are going to then walk over to you and ask you why you didn't share this information with them when you had the chance.

Philippians 1:27-30

27 Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may here of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, and of your salvation, and this from God. 29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for His sake 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

I struggle with these verses. A lot. They convict me beyond belief. All this week after memorizing verse 27, I cannot get it out of my head. My manner of life is not in any way worthy of the gospel of Christ. I have been thinking about this constantly. Although my life is not worthy of the gospel, God's grace and forgiveness has cleansed me of all my stains. That does not in any way get me off the hook. I can't help but think there are so many more things that I could be doing to serve my Creator and Father. As I am writing this, I am in awe of my own stupidity and unworthiness. All I want to do with my life is live in a way that will honor Christ. Keep in mind that Paul is writing this letter to a church and not to an individual. There is a lot of turmoil in the church at this time period. Paul does not want the church at Philippi to stop serving the Lord. He is encouraging them to remain strong in one another so that they can remain strong in their community and throughout the world. There are many people who will persecute Christians all over the world, even today. It is clear that we are meant to suffer. I am not at all an advocate of preaching the Prosperity gospel that says becoming a Christian will solve all of your problems and make you extremely happy. Happiness is an emotion. Christianity may create situations in which it is impossible for you to be happy. However, Christianity creates joy. Joy is an attitude. Believing in Christ is not enough. We must suffer. This does not necessarily mean physical persecution and death. This could mean any form of persecution. Like not getting a job, or people ignoring you, or people rejecting you when you try to share the gospel or even just mention that you are a Christian. It is comforting to know, however, that you are not alone. This is a message to all Christians from another Christian. Paul was facing these same problems (he was in jail!). Paul remained strong through all of this. Adversity will happen. The sign of a true Christian is not avoiding adversity. A true Christian will be joyful through adversity because they follow a God that can get them through absolutely any eventuality.