Word for Today, Tue, 20 Feb 2001: I Want to KNOW Christ
Posted by: masinick <masinick@...>
I have a confession to make to you. I have a strong tendency to
set my mind on certain things and really stick with them. When I
was young, I remember hearing that I had "a one track mind".
Back then, I used to think about cars and radios. Those were two
of my favorite things as a child.
When I grew older, I maintained my interest in cars and radios,
but expanded my interests somewhat to science and electronics.
That interest led me to my career, a very good career in software
engineering. God has used my "one track mind" tendency in a
useful way, one that has enabled me to have a successful career.
But these messages are about things much deeper than that. I
really believe that God uses our personalities and our tendencies
to accomplish the purposes that He intends. As much as my
interests have benefitted my profession, God has used my natural
tendency to get stuck on things in a much better way. Why?
Because He has led me to get stuck on Him! What could be a
better thing than to be fixed on something other than ourself,
our own interests?
The disciple (and apostle) Peter wrote about how we can free our
lives of continual anxiety by placing our concerns in the hands
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is most definitely true. But I
like the way the apostle Paul thinks even more than that. He
talks about wanting to really KNOW Christ. That is my passion,
too. I want to use my tendency to get stuck on things with a
"one track mind" to think about the heart and mind of Christ.
Philippians 3 is the account of Paul, wanting to know Christ.
But if you read the entire letter of Paul to the Philippians, you
will see that in the entire letter, it is a yearning and an
appreciation for the humility of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ,
the all surpassing love of Christ, which captured the heart and
life of Paul.
I have attached the third chapter of the letter to this message,
and provided the Web page reference so that you can also read it
there, and/or search for other scriptures. My prayer is that
you, too, will be interested in the mind of Christ, and really
want to know Him more. I don't know about you, but for me, it
simply is not enough to know ABOUT Christ. I want a deeply
intimate, personal relationship, not just a history book story.
Do you want an intimate relationship with Christ? If you do,
cultivate it. Ask Him into a more intimate place in your life,
a place where no other can go. Personally, I identify with Paul.
I want to know Christ in every possible way. Everything else
takes on lesser importance to me.
Brother Brian
The Rendezvous
Youve probably completed this task, but just to seal it in your
mind, would you do it again... my way? 1 Peter 5:7
You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon Him, for
you are His personal concern (Phillips).
Casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you
(NASB).
Let Him have all your worries and cares, for He is always
thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you
(TLB).
THROW: to cause to fly through the air by releasing from the hand
while the arm is in rapid motion.
CAST: to hurl with force.
LET: to allow; to permit; a command using an auxiliary verb: "Let
him go."
* * *
Do you have something you are anxious about? Something youre
worried about?
Well, imagine yourself having wrapped up into a secure bundle
that "something" thats worrying you. Go through every step: Find
a box, get your wrapping paper, some twine, the scissors, and of
course the Scotch tape. (Every time we were wrapping a package my
sweet daddy used to say, "Anabel, what did we ever do without
Scotch tape?") Of course, youll have to reduce your problem in
size, but thats all right. A marriage or a seventeen-year-old
would be pretty hard to contain in a bundle!
Now its all wrapped and tied. Pick a secluded meeting placeone
of your choice. Go there mentally (or physically, preferably),
carrying your package.
You will meet the Lord there. Dont worry about what He looks
like. Youll recognize Him.
See? Over there. There He is. Go to meet Him. Now give the
package to Him. No instructions are necessary. He already knows
all about it.
Watch Him turn and walk away from you with the package under His
arm. Are you going to run after Him and grab it back? Never! It
is His. You just gave it to Him. Write down the exact time and
the date when you gave Him "the whole weight of your anxieties."
You have just driven a "stake."
You have just put into your memory banks a time when you really
gave Him your problem.
You have built a tiny altar where you and your God met and He
lifted a burden from your shoulders. Dont forget it.
I will meditate on Your precepts. I will regard Your ways. I
will delight in Your statutes. I will not forget Your words.
Psalm 119:15,16 my paraphrase
http://www.gospelcom.net/lifetime/everyday/stillness/
Philippians 3
1 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is
no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it
is a safeguard for you.
2 Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those
mutilators of the flesh.
3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the
Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no
confidence in the flesh--
4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence. If anyone
else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have
more:
5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the
tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a
Pharisee;
6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic
righteousness, faultless.
7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake
of Christ.
8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the
surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may
gain Christ
9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that
comes from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ--the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in
his death,
11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already
been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that
for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of
it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining
toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has
called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15 All of us who are mature should take such a view of things.
And if on some point you think differently, that too God will
make clear to you.
16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17 Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take
note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.
18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even
with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and
their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a
Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under
his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be
like his glorious body.
=====
--
Brian Masinick, "The Mas", mailto:masinick@yahoo.com
Home page: http://www.geocities.com/masinick/
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