In Philippians Chapter 3, Paul wrote:<\/p>\n
7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. <\/p>\n
8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, <\/p>\n
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the<\/em> Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes<\/em> from God on the basis of faith, <\/p>\n 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; <\/p>\n 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.<\/p>\n Paul urges us to live by a Spiritual standard established by Jesus Christ. There will be many who will not view this standard as their priority but have chosen the reward of worldly pleasure instead. Paul, on the other hand, counts those things as \u201crubbish\u201d and loss. He realized that FATHER had set aside a remnant who would press on to attain the resurrection from the dead and that was his goal. There are some of us who grasp that goal and are in pursuit of it as well.<\/p>\n Everyone wants to operate in the power of His resurrection who have read the Book of Acts and saw how the disciples went from average men to those having signs and miracles following. However we must look at the second half of this verse where we have \u201cfellowship\u201d of His sufferings and become \u201cconformed\u201d to His death. What does this mean? Paul explains this in Romans chapter 8:<\/p>\n 13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.<\/p>\n We must die to the flesh in order to live and walk in the SPIRIT. Are you willing to die to the flesh or is your flesh overtaking your desire to come into full maturity in Christ? Each of us must individually determine our own priority and assess our progress. Over time our understanding expands and we realize there is more to life than what the world offers. FATHER reveals HIMSELF to those whom HE has chosen to set a standard of Christ on this earth. When you realize this high calling you will truly respond in the same manner as Paul in counting all things \u201closs\u201d in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ!<\/p>\n In Philippians 3, Paul continues:<\/p>\n 12 Not that I have already obtained it<\/em> or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n 13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it<\/em> yet; but one thing I do:<\/em>forgetting what lies<\/em> behind and reaching forward to what lies<\/em> ahead, <\/p>\n 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. <\/p>\n 15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect (fully mature), have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; <\/p>\n 16 however, let us keep living by that same standard<\/em> to which we have attained.<\/p>\n We must not get discouraged by this time period prior to HIS coming in us and through us to minister as lights unto the world. We must embrace the fellowship of sufferings through the cross by nailing our old man to that cross and being raised up on the other side. Our flesh must die! As we die to the flesh we gain Christ and as we fully mature we attain the standard which men will see. That standard of righteousness will expose rampant sin and unrighteousness and men will be judged accordingly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In Philippians Chapter 3, Paul wrote: 7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4444"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4445,"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4444\/revisions\/4445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/servias.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}