True Worth

Philippians 3:8 continued.
Paul counts both losses and gains as losses
in order to gain one thing: 'The surpassing
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.'

I looked that verse in the Amplified Bible:
'The surpassing worth and supreme 
advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord, and of progressively becoming more
deeply and intimately acquainted with 
Him, of perceiving, recognizing, and
understanding Him more fully, more 
clearly.'

ONE THING I asked of the Lord,
that will I seek after;
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the day of my life,
To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord
and to meditate in his temple.
(Ps 27:4)

These verses make my heart sing!
The Christian life is not an "ought,"
but a relationship.

That I Might Gain

For His sake I have suffered the loss of
all things and count them but rubbish in
order that I might gain Christ. 
Phil 3:8B

Have I suffered the loss of all things as
Paul penned, or only some things?

What do I consider essential to my well
being?

What does it mean--'that I may gain
Christ?' That He is foremost, essential,
foundational, to my life and my well
being. First and last? Do I believe this
with my whole heart in truth? Or, am
I a spectator of truth?

Christians in Iran risk everything dear
to them when they decide to follow
Christ Jesus. Have I counted the cost?

See my website and watch the roses
http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/index.php

The Exchange

Paul counts as loss those things he thought were gain.
He called these gains 'loss' compared to 'the surpassing 
worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.'

The exchange of dross for surpassing worth.
The exchange of the temporal for the eternal.

Those things that are gain to me do not give me life...

Papa--Such surrender is hard. I try to suck life from
what has no life at all. This house is beautiful but
gives me no life. The church is precious but only
because it contains spirit filled Believers. I feel
connected to the past here but you say, 'let the dead
bury their dead. I AM YOUR LIFE!' Ah, yes, I am
intertwined with Your incomparable eternal Son.
To know Him-- as my only source of Life.

Trees

A tree caused Adam and Eve to stumble and fall.
A Tree was the means of deliverance.
A Tree is now my source of Life.
Oh, glorious Tree!

The Lie

The snake says to Eve, '
...You shall be as gods knowing good and evil.'

'You shall be as gods,' has been passed from
Adam to all generations.

Yesterday, I shared the story of how Christ Jesus
gave up all to become a man.

The Creator empties Himself
The creature exalts himself

God becomes Man
Man becomes a god.

How very strange!

Dear God, how easy it is for man, for us,
for me, to climb up--to be the
best, the first, the only. So subtle.

From everlasting to everlasting Thou art God!

Stories from my website:
http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com/stories.php

A Different Perspective

In the last blog we saw the results of covenant
broken--death. The people broke the law that
they had promised to keep when God went
into covenant with them at Sinai. In those days
men went into covenant with each other. If one
of them broke that covenant, death resulted. So,
here we are in the middle of Numbers where
almost every chapter is a picture of failure. Man
simply could not keep his part of the covenant.
Perhaps God was unreasonable?

Philippians 2 gives another perspective.

'Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form
of God did not count equality with God a
thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by
taking the form of a servant, being born in
the likeness of men...he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.'

God tells us that we have to be holy, or
we will die. Then God becomes man and
takes our place so that He dies and we live.
His death on the cross makes us holy.
God keeps both sides of the covenant!

Reader, this is your God!

http://www.hisvictoriousindwelling.com

Jealousy; Rebellion

I am reading through the Bible chronologically this
year. Today I was in the 16th chapter of Numbers.
Korah pulled all the leadership into sin including
many from each tribe. Here are the results:

Korah, Dathan, Abiram including their families
were swallowed into the ground beneath their feet.

Fire came "out from the Lord" and the 250 men
holding censors were burned to a crisp.

Plague broke out among the people and 14,700
people died.

Jealousy and Rebellion certainly had a price!

After that awful day, Moses went into the
Tent of Meeting, the Tabernacle, and penned
the following words, Psalm 90.

"Lord, you have been our dwelling place in
          all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or
          ever you had formed the earth and the
          world,
From everlasting to everlasting, 
Thou art God."

Moses goes on to describe the frailty of man;
the issues of his sin; the length of his life;
God's anger. And then,

"Teach us to number our days so that we may 
get a heart of wisdom"

"Have pity on your servants!"

"Satisfy us in the morning with your 
steadfast love..."

Please, read Numbers 16, Psalm 90, and then,
come back tomorrow
for the rest of the story...

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