Read: Philippians
3:7-13
That I may know him, and the power of his
resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto
his death;
Philippians 3:10
It always
makes me laugh when I hear one of the guys in the high school referring to a
professional sports team (usually basketball) as “we.” He’ll come into school
and say, “Yeah, it was really close, but ‘we’ won last night.” I always say,
“Really? You played with them?” They always come back with, “You know what I
mean. That’s my team and ‘they’ won last night.” The truth is, not only do they
not play on the team, they don’t even know the players. They may know
everything there is to know about their statistics and their game, but they
have never even seen them in person let alone hung out at their house or talked
with them. They know about them, but they don’t know them.
Unfortunately, many Christians are that
way with Christ. They have been in church most of their lives and have sat
through hundreds of sermons. They can talk about Christ and can give you many
verses that they have memorized out of the Bible. They know how to act right,
and they can blend in with the best Christians. But they only know of Christ;
they don’t really know Him.
Paul’s goal was to truly know Christ – to
be a part of His suffering, to know what it is like to be a real follower of
Jesus Christ. To be a real follower of Jesus Christ and to have real fellowship
with Him requires one to have self-denial. It is a sacrifice most are not
willing to make. That is why the majority of Christians will spend their lives
wallowing in the knowledge of who Christ is and what He can do, but never attaining for themselves the knowledge of what
Christ has done in their lives.
Most of the guys in our high school would
jump at the chance to meet an NBA player if they could. They realize it is most
likely impossible, so they settle for watching from a distance and following
statistics merely as a fan of the game. Not so with Jesus Christ. We have an
opportunity to not only meet Him, but also to truly know Him, to become a part
of who He is, and to partake of His power in our lives. He is only waiting for
us to seize the opportunity. Don’t let it pass you by and only be a fan of
Jesus Christ. Embrace the opportunity to truly get to know Him.
Quote of
the day: “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
– Corrie Ten Boom
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