Four Lessons of Life From Philippians 3:8.

At the close of Philippians 3:8 Paul adds up all the things which had been his advantages, his profits, his ‘financial gains’ as a highly successful religious leader in the nation of Israel and “considers” them but ‘piles of dung’ {“rubbish”} so “that” he “may gain Christ.”  When he says this he means to ‘gain as a matter of permanent profit, acquire personal possession of.’  One writer I consulted many years ago said the verb kerdaino speaks “of so practically appropriating Christ to oneself that He becomes the dominating power in and over one’s whole being and circumstances.”  There is much for us to learn here... and emulate.

 I.  Sooner or later in our growth as Children of God, “all things” temporal must be subordinated to the spiritual.  This is what Paul meant when he said, “I keep on having to count all things loss for the sake of Christ.”

II. It is impossible to consider the things of this world as your ‘advantages,’ and at the same time “gain” the Son of God {appropriate Him as the defining value and dominating power of one’s life}.  What you hold onto in the temporal realm, what occupies your mind, attention and affection, and turns your focus away from the Person of Jesus, is not only a distraction but a ‘disadvantage.’  If you cling to it long enough it’ll become your curse.  James say’s, “Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world [an ‘intimate companion of The Matrix’] makes himself an enemy of God,” 4:4b.

III. Every step of faith taken in the Kingdom of Grace requires us to ‘lose’ a little more of self so as to ‘gain’ a little more of Christ.  There is excruciating pain involved here.  And I’ll tell you why.  Because self dies hard …and there is no spiritual anesthesia for the crucifixion of self.

Notice how in Galatians 5:24-25 Paul wrote, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature [past tense { . } = at the Cross] with its passions and desires [Here ‘passions and desires’ is used in an evil sense, the sinful ‘passions and desires’ of the ‘flesh.’].  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”  When Paul say’s, “those who belong to Christ ...have crucified the sinful nature,” what he’s saying is, “If you’ve rested your faith in Jesus you have overcome the flesh eternally— the victory is yours— and now you have the means to overcome it experientially!”

Therefore, “since we live by means of the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”  “In step” is stoicheo, a military word meaning- ‘march in ranks.’  I.e., we have to line up with our Lord, we have to ‘order our lives’ after the divine pattern.  And this is found in Jesus.  We don’t ask, ‘What Would Jesus Do?,’ we ask, ‘What Did Jesus Do?’  ‘Would’ is the wrong question.  Then we look to the Gospels for our answer.  How did He walk?  By means of divine power, by the power of God’s Spirit.  The power which perfected us in salvation is the same power which will perfect us in experience.

Galatians 6:14 is another place where Paul said, “May I never boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”  Notice the figure of crucifixion permeating both passages, the implication being ‘crucifixion to self’— which means the arrogant desires of the sinful nature, and the arrogant schemes of a self-centered, self-directed life— is accompanied by pain and even agony.

IV. The Child of God who loses all {even himself} on account of Christ, gains Christ.  The perspective which takes Eternity and eternal reward into constant consideration is the perspective of an overcomer in the Conflict!  In Matthew 16:24-25 Jesus said, “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.  For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will find it.”

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously

Liberty Means a Lack of Coercion.

There is much, at least in the minds of many fundamentalists, ‘righteous indignation’ over the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on ‘gay marriage.’  And honestly, the whole idea is silly in the extreme.  The very notion that the Supreme Court, or any other court for that matter, can redefine something which God has already clearly defined is ridiculous.  It demonstrates an incredible lack of self-awareness {‘I’m not God’} and an incredible amount of arrogance {‘But I like to pretend I am’}.  The same God who created Man “in His own image” and “likeness” and Woman in this same “image” and “likeness” {Gen. 1:26-27} created the very concept of marriage and set its defining parameters when he brought the Woman to the Man and said, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united [‘cling to and cleave desperately’] to his wife, and they will become one flesh” {Gen. 2:24}.

Jesus reestablishes this ideal for His own wayward generation when He strikes a blow against their hardheartedness toward spouses and callous attitude toward divorce.  “Haven’t you read ...that at the Beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?  So they are not longer two, but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate,’” Matthew 19:4-6.  The point here is that for those who believe in the Word of the Living God, we have an adequate and precise definition of marriage as man and woman, male and female.  This definition covers both the Old Covenant and the New.  We don’t need a new one.

Even culturally speaking, if we were to remove marriage from any Christian {New Covenant} or Judaic {Old Covenant} definition, we still see it unfolding through Time in culture after culture as fundamentally male and female, a man and a woman.  Sometimes these relationships are polygamous, meaning one man and several women, or even one woman and more than one man, but they are always male and female.  This is precisely my point: No culture, society, or nation in History has ever attempted to define the concept of marriage as two men or two women.  Marriage has always been seen as the foundation of family, the foundation of community, the foundation of cities, of states, of nations and empires.  Viewed through the lens of science, the idea of ‘gay marriage’ is biologically illogical, biologically ludicrous.  If a nation, a culture, a society, a community were to embrace this re-definition across the board and decide to put it into universal practice, you want to guess how long that nation, culture, society or community would last?  One generation.  One.  So much for longevity.

I believe there’s a simple, common sense solution to problems the gay and lesbian community are complaining they face because of not being ‘legally married, legally wed.’  Civil unions.  Each state, or even individual counties within a state, can decide for themselves by popular vote whether to offer a ‘civil union certificate’ to gay and lesbian couples, thus giving them whatever legal rights and / or advantages withheld from them now.  You could have ‘civil union certificates’ for the homosexual community on one hand and the traditional ‘marriage certificates’ for the straight community on the other.  The State of AR, e.g., might offer them both at the same price and with no religious affiliation whatsoever.  This way no pastors, priests or clergy are compelled by the State to officiate any ceremony they don’t personally choose to be involved in.  There is no force involved, and no crisis of conscience.  Gays can have sympathetic clergy officiate their ceremonies or, as many straights do, a justice of the peace.

Either way, no one is forcing anyone to do anything.  This, my friends, is the essence of Liberty.  It’s a simple, common sense solution— something not readily available in the Halls of Government today.  And apparently, from what one can discern from the outside, not readily welcome either!

HJC	Ric Webb  |  Shepherd Heart’s Journey Community 9621 Tall Timber Blvd. |  Little Rock, AR 72204 t +1.501.455.0296
hjcommunity.org
Heart’s Journey – Live Generously and Love Graciously