AUGUST 2 

OUR PERSONAL PROMISES

Zephaniah 3:17 ~ ~ “The Lord your God is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory;  He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will be quiet in his love;  He will exult over you with loud singing.”

Comment by John Piper (continued from yesterday):

And when I hear this singing I stand dumbfounded, staggered, speechless that He is singing over me—-one who has dishonored Him so many times in so many ways.  It is almost too good to be true.  He is rejoicing over my good with all his heart and with all his soul.

  He virtually breaks forth into song when He hits upon a new way to do me good.  I would not dare say this on my own authority.  Nor could I say it if I had not seen another foundation for his joy than my own righteousness, but I have it on the authority of the prophet Jeremiah in 32:39-41:

“and I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will fear Me always, for their own good and for the good of their children after them.  I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts, so that they will not turn away from Me.  I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and all My soul.”

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This month we will continue the book, “Whatever Happens – How to Stand Firm in Your Faith When the World is Falling Apart.”  By a contemporary author of many best-selling Christian books, Robert J. Morgan.  He took care of his wife when she had MS, until she went home to her Savior.  “He knows of which he speaks.”  I pray that this book blesses you.

Philippians 3:7-11

“But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

WHATEVER HAPPENS….GROW DEEPER EACH MORNING

I WANT TO KNOW CHRIST BETTER AND BETTER

In verse 10 (above), Paul went a step further, talking about the lifelong process of knowing Christ better.   “I want to know Christ— yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation of His sufferings, becoming like Him.”

The other day I stopped in Atlanta to see Frank Fry, the man who introduced me to my wife, Katrina, half a century ago.  He’d been on staff at Columbia International University, and when I returned at the beginning of my senior year, he wanted to introduce me to his new secretary.  I followed him into the office, he said, “Robert, this is Miss Polvinen.”  Katrina looked up and smiled, and I remember that moment clearly in my mind.  I don’t fully know why.  Over the last half-century, I’ve met thousands of people I can’t remember, but I clearly remember meeting her though I had no idea I had just met my future wife.

If someone had asked me the next day if I knew Katrina, I would have said, “Yes, I met her yesterday.”  But did I really know her yet?  Our momentary meeting was only the beginning of the process of getting to know each other.  Doing so involved working together that year, building a friendship, and later falling in love, getting  married, and building a home together.

It’s that way with Jesus Christ.  There comes a day when we meet Him by receiving Him as our Savior and Lord.  But for the rest of our lives and for all eternity, we’ll be getting to know Him better and better.

How do we do that?

THROUGH FELLOWSHIP WITH HIM

It’s like getting to know another person better.  It happens through conversation, through fellowship, through spending time together.  As a young  man, I bought a copy of the Amplified Bible and began reading the book of Philippians.  When I came to Philippians 3:10, it changed the way I understood the concept of knowing God.  I memorized this verse from that translation and have gone backs to it again and again.  Here it is:

“And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did];”

The translators took that one word – KNOW – and used 27 words to define it.

Knowing Christ means to progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him.  The primary way of doing that is through daily conversation with Him, which happens through daily Bible study and prayer. 

We meet Christ originally at the cross, and that is conversion.  But then we meet with Him daily in the prayer closet, and that is conversation!  At the cross, we come to know Him.  In the closet we come to know Him better and better!!

THROUGH THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTION

Let’s look at Paul’s words in verse 10  (above) again:  “I want to know Christ – yes, to know the power of His resurrection.”

I believe the Holy Spirit inspired the ordering and arrangement of the book of the Bible as well as their actual writing.   Philippians follows Ephesians, and it seems to me Paul was referring to what he wrote just a few pages earlier in Ephesians 1:17-20 where he says that the same power that fueled the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is available to fuel our daily living.  We’re to live in that resurrection power.

Where do we get fullness of joy?  Fullness of courage?   Fullness of the spirit?  It’s from the emptiness of the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth.  The same power God exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead provides the energy for one abundant and eternal life.  As we experience more and more of that, we come to know Him better and better, once and for all, now and forever.

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