Philippians 3:13-14

Good morning friends,

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 I hope you will pardon my divergence from John this morning.

Every New Years day for the past six years my wife and I have made a 10 x 14 poster to hang on the fridge. These are not New Year’s resolutions, but something more along the lines of a theme, a reminder, to keep before us for the coming year. Because we had company over the holidays we did not get to the poster until this last Sunday. This time has become sacred to us both if you will. We prayerfully consider what God has impressed on us over the preceding months then we translate that into a picture. We don’t discuss what Scripture God has impressed on our conscience before we start. We retreated into her “cwafty” room where all her scrapbook accessories live and spend most of the afternoon working on our posters. As our posters began to materialize it became clear that basically we were impressed with the same theme. Janelle had chosen Hebrews 12:1-3 with the emphasis on running with endurance, with the vigor of an athlete, and I the verse above. The Christian is always humbled by the contrast between what he is and what he desires to be. It will be 32 years ago on the 23^rd of January that Christ called me into His fold and there are moments I realize the zeal that I once possessed in my “youth” turned middle aged and pressing on at times seems to be more of a drudgery than the joy if ought to be. I reason with myself “ah ya but that was zeal without knowledge.” I will admit, at times I miss those early days of my Christian naivety. I wonder if Paul ever experienced such emotions. I wonder if there were times when he had to tell himself “right foot, left foot, right foot etc.  Paul had a proper view of knowledge of the things of God – there was always more to “lay hold of.” He knew he had not, nor would not; reach perfection this side of glorification. It appears Paul always possessed a fire to press on within him. How does one keep hold of that vigor? One of the things Paul points out here is forgetting what was behind. I am sure that like us, Paul had things in his life that dogged him from time to time. There are regrets that go back years and years. Yes I have done business with God concerning them, I have made restitution where needed, but the memory at times comes by to dog me. The next thing Paul injects is “forward.” I tend to be more retrospective than I ought. I suffer from the “what if’s”. “What if” we had not moved to Florida, I might be still pastoring that small church in Oregon. We recently bought a house. It is the first house we have owned since the house we sold in 1986 to go to Bible College. And while it is a wonderful blessing I have to admit the “what if’s” have niggled at me since – “what if” God wanted me to return to the pulpit – now I have shut the door.”  I know good and well this is nonsense thinking. I am a Calvinist and I do really believe in providence. I believe God is in control of my life and that the purchase of the house was what He had for our lives, but that looking behind stuff sneaks up on me. Paul says “don’t” it will hinder our ability to press on or as the ESV puts it “straining forward.”  We must keep in view what lies ahead, we must focus on our upward calling. This is the goal – it is the goal for our earthly lives. It is not to look behind, it is not to live in regrets (thought some may be very grievous and we may need to seek forgiveness). We are to forget what lies behind, strain forward. What matters is that from this moment on we are to strain forward toward the “prize” of God’s calling. The last point is where the vigor comes from “in Christ Jesus.” We do not have the muster the vigor up within ourselves it is already ours in Christ Jesus. As the Hebrews passage that my wife chose shows us; “fixing your eyes on Jesus the author and prefecter of our faith” it is done. We are “in” Christ, the author, the founder, the prefecter of our faith. We do not create it, we do not write it – we live in it. We have been joined together with Christ Jesus so we strain forward in His strength.

Bill

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