Saturday, September 22, 2007

Day 6 – Intimacy

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.
Philippians 3:7-9

The apostle Paul was a rockstar.

If you look at his life, you would quickly discover that he was a spiritual giant long before coming to Christ. He was a devout Jew who was raised to be passionate for God. He had grown up under the best teachers and actually memorized the laws that God had given His people. Not only did he memorize them, he obeyed them better than most. He was from a respectable Jewish tribe, the tribe of Benjamin. You couldn’t find anything wrong with the guy. In fact, he loved God so much that he was easily offended when people would belittle God or make Him out to be less than His character and Word suggested. And if someone said that they were on the same level as God, Paul would be the first to cry, “Heretic!”

Which is why Paul hated Christians so much. They actually claimed that Jesus was the Son of God – God in the flesh. Paul made it his mission to wipe these guys off the face of the earth in an effort to purify the Jewish people from those who would seek to draw attention to this supposed messiah.

It wasn’t until Jesus met Paul on the road to Damascus and changed his life that Paul realized his real purpose in this world. In Philippians 3, he lays it out for us. “My mission” said Paul “is to know Jesus.” Period. End of sentence. Thanks for coming. They’ll validate your parking stub at the front desk.

Isn’t it strange how far we’ve come since Paul wrote the words, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” It seems nowadays it is so easy for us to determine our spiritual condition by how involved we are in spiritual things. We go to church regularly; we read our Bible; we give money to the church and to the needy; we’re kind, honest, moral people who are respected both at work and in the community. And all these are great things, but are they a true measure of how we are doing as followers of Christ? According to Paul, the true barometer for our spiritual condition is how intimate we are with God through Jesus Christ.

Paul said, “I had all the religious stuff to brag about and I want you to know that I consider all of that to be meaningless, even detestable, compared to what I consider to be the most important thing in this world – knowing Jesus intimately.” How intimate are you with Christ? Is He the distant stranger whom you fear discovering your secret weaknesses? Is He the guy they talk about in church who is really important and did that great thing on the cross a couple thousand years ago? Is He just a religious area of your life that you bring up every once in a while because you’re a “good, church going person”?

Or is He your friend who sticks closer than a brother. Your life companion. Your hopes. Your dreams. Your goal in life. The reason you live. Your God. Your Savior. Your everything.

The easy question you can ask yourself as a test of where you are is this: “How much of my day is focused on developing intimacy with God and how much of my day is focused on me, my family, my house, my friends, my job, my goals, my dreams, my problems, my past and my future?”

Paul teaches us that Jesus is supposed to be more than just a religious notion or a bumper sticker on the back of our car. He’s supposed to be more than something we do on Sundays. Knowing Jesus is to be our life’s passionate pursuit. The reason we live. Our purpose. Our mission. All of life comes down to this singular passion: to Know Jesus and to make Him known.

Make knowing Jesus your passionate pursuit today. Seek Him in His Word. Seek Him in the sunrise and the sunset. Seek Him in the laughter of your children. Everywhere you turn, whether it be at work, at the store, in the car, watching the news, engaging your family and friends – seek Him. He is always there. If only we would look for Him.

As you pray, allow these prompters to ignite a passion for knowing Him better today.
  • Thank God for the fact that He is always near, even when we don’t notice.
  • Thank Jesus for doing everything necessary to bridge the gap between God and man.
  • Ask God to make knowing Jesus the passionate pursuit of your life.
  • Ask God to give you renewed fervor for reading the Word of God, not just to read it, but to develop intimacy with God and His Son through it.
  • Ask God to open your spiritual eyes to His activity all around you throughout your day.

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