Philippians 3:11

Attaining to the resurrection of the dead.  Dude this verse has me man.  I at first had absolutely no clue what it was talking about, then it hit me.  The rapture.  When we are Christians we attain the rapture.  We aren’t dead in sin and we are now alive.  The ones sleeping in the ground now will be resurrected from the dead and will join Christ in the air.  For the ones ones still alive, they will meet Christ in the air after that.  The Christian is not dead, just sleeping.  This earth is merely a place of which we pass through.  We should be so stoked about the rapture though and just looking forward to every moment of it. We should be looking for the things above, we should be ready for it to come any time and any day at any second.  Christ is coming back soon, it’s a matter of when though.  So today I will look forward to Christ coming back, I will think of the things above and be rapture ready.

Philippians 3:10

The power of His resurrection.  That’s one of the many things that separates us from the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church.  The resurrection.  How often do we just throw that to the back seat?  The fact Jesus overcame death.  We are quick to share that He died for us, but the true miracle was that He arose and overcame death.  Death can’t even trump the life of my God.  Jesus was not bound by death.  Jesus suffered for me.  He took my place on the cross and died, it truly is the most amazing thing ever, but He also came back to life.  How sad would it be if the story ended with Christ on the cross and not coming back to life?  It wouldn’t be the gospel, God would be dead.  My God is alive though, He isn’t dead.  Death can’t pin Him down.  Him rising from the dead gives power to us that we can die for Him.  If persecution comes remember that He died and was raised from the grave for you.  We are not pressed down by death, it can’t hold us down.  Life on this earth is merely a fraction of what we will experience in eternity.  If I die for Christ, no if I live for Christ and am martyred for Him, what a way to go.  Death of the physical body is just the beginning of everlasting life that I am promised by Him and how sweet is that?  So today I will remember that I am to live for Christ, I can’t expect to die for Him, if I don’t first live for Him.  I must remember that there is power in the resurrection and not just His death.  Death is just the first part, then comes life and life abundantly.

Philippians 3:9

All my life I thought myself as righteous.  In my own eyes I was a good person.  This is religion.  Religion is nothing.  Having the right relationship and making it a personal one with the Lord is what He views as good.  Keeping the law is cool and all, but the law of Grace is what abides in me.  Out of my faith in Christ works are produced, but doing works isn’t what saves me.  I can’t do enough good to cover my bad.  Also even I mess up once than I deserve Hell.  I am judged by faith and faith alone.  Thank God He took my spot on the cross for me.  I am so undeserving of His love for me yet He poured it out for me.  I am curious of why He chose the worm that I am for His usage, but He knows why and I know that I am the perfect tool for what He has for me. So for eighteen years of my life I was religious, I was under the bondage of my religion.  Christianity should be refreshing not holding me down.  Christ saved me from drowning, He didn’t hold my head under water.  Religion sucks, religion kills, religion made me miserable.  Christ saves us from religion and wants us in a relationship.  He loves us and we love Him because He loves us.  His love is unconditional, mine is completely conditional, until I rely on Him to help me not have conditions on my love.  I will wrap this up with one word, Grace.
Now to apply this grace to my life.  I love everyone on team Uganda.  Beyond that I love everyone in this ministry, but for Team Uganda, I can often put conditions on my love towards each of you.  If I am annoyed I won’t love you as much as I should.  So today I will lay down my pride, if I am annoyed I will love each of you as much as I should.  I will try to love unconditionally.

Philippians 3:8

Everything I own is garbage.  All is vanity.  Anything of this world, is as dust in the wind just blowing about.  My money, my Sandals, my clothes, my bicycles…Anything in this world.  If it’s not getting me closer to God than it’s just a waste.  Does it suck sometimes to give things up for Christ?  Yes, sometimes when you give things up it does, like no more smoking my pipe or cigars.  It’s enjoyable and relaxing, but does it bring me closer to God?  No, but does it bring others closer to Him?  Uhhhhh No.  Paul says he counts it as loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Sacrificing can be tough, but when you think about the sacrifice that Christ made for me, it is easy.  Paul then goes on to say he counts it as dung, literally garbage.  The things of this world is garbage.  Solomon in Ecclesiastes counts all things of this world as garbage, he lives his life in extreme wealth, then he at the end of his life looks back and sees anything without God as garbage.  If I see this now as everything of this world as just garbage, than I will be on a solid path.  Sacrifice my worldly possessions for Christ.  Today I will think of one thing I can give away, like a pair of shoes and then on Saturday at the outreach I will throw them out. 

Romans 12:16

I can’t do this verse without looking. at the verse above.  “Rejoice with those that rejoice, and weep with those that weep.”  That is how we are of the same mind as others.  We are not to put ourselves above others.  We can not achieve unity when I am better than everyone else.  We can not achieve unity if I think of myself as higher than you.  Unity is achieved when we are equal at the cross.  This takes back to two weeks ago, mutual submission.  Through mutual submission, which is at the cross through Christ…We achieve Unity.  When we are of the same mind we achieve unity.  On a complete other note, being in the same mind we get unity.  What does it mean to be of the same mind?  In Philippians 2:5-8, 

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”

That’s the mindset that gives unity.  When we are willing to serve and when we are willing to die for our cause.  The church can be the greatest showing of unity ever, but how often do we just argue over stupid stuff and just cause nothing but disunity?  All the time.  We need to all look at ourselves as equals at the cross and then that will cause unity.  So today, I will lay down my pride.  When I see someone screw up, instead of me thinking higher of myself, I will look at myself as lower.  Only then can I have unity.

Matthew 18:15

If someone sins against you go to them and them alone in a humble attitude.  I can’t go in an attitude of a, “Hey what’s wrong with you?” type of attitude.  I have to go in an attitude of restoring the relationship.  I have to put my self under the other too.  I as a human have this thing called pride.  Pride sucks and makes me want to be better than everyone else.  I have to go with an attitude of me being worse.  We all have sin so I have to expect others to sin too.  My life is no greater than everyone else’s so people are gonna be like me and mess up.  I can’t imagine how often I irritate others.  Christian came up to me in Xelah probably like 100 times and it was all one on one and just him telling me when I screwed up.  Which was quite often.  I am glad he came in an attitude of restoration too.  Now we are boys again, and in the midst of sin we can’t be as tight, but in the biblical attitude he came in we can be tight again.  Xelah wrecked me, Xelah showed me how much of a mess up I am, but then it also showed me how to be a biblical friend.  Now we are united once more and we are buddies again.  So today if someone irritates me I will go Ain an attitude of restoration, I will go in with an attitude of love and trying to be reunited with someone.  

Amos 3:3

Can two walk together except they be agreed?  The answer is no.  If two people are in an argument they aren’t going to try and walk with one another.  Unless they are trying to bring forth a resolution and then they wouldn’t really by arguing at that point.  When I am in an argument with someone, I am not in the best standings with them.  I can think back to times when I was in arguments with friends and we weren’t as close as we usually are.  Like my friend Brian and I were in this big argument and heated text messages were going back and forth.  We definitely weren’t the best of friends for the few days we were arguing.  The friendship was sense restored, but at that point of arguing we weren’t super close.  There has been other times too where I had other friends that I have argued with, oh like senior trip I got into a fight with my friend Colin.  We were so mad at each other and it’s still awkward between us.  The relationship has not been fully restored, two can’t walk when there is not an agreement.  So next time I have wifi I will text Colin and see what is going on with him and apologize for my end of the argument to try and restore the relationship.