Still going strong and I am thanking God for everything! He is our provider. He is our all in all. Simply, He is our completeness. It’s time again to celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. We, of all people, need to be thankful and show our gratitude to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ this year.
This year’s theme is: “Till We All Come in the Unity of the Faith.”
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Ephesians 4:13 (KJV)
Part of this scripture discusses us having the knowledge of the Son of God. After this, we are to be that perfect man. No one seems to be perfect today. In fact, we seem so far from this. We are all fallible and make plenty of mistakes. This doesn’t stop us from pressing, reaching or desiring to reach that mark. No, it is attainable through Jesus Christ alone.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Philippians 3:13-16 (KJV)
Paul completely understood in his day where we are in our day. As close as he was to God, he was just as challenged as we are today.
When we look at Philippians 3 we can see that Paul wasn’t held up by not being perfect, he was more driven to apprehend this very thing that had him apprehended already. He also knew it could only be achieved through Christ Jesus. Jesus was his life – so much that he wanted more. The very life he lived and breathed was only in Jesus. Being an Apostle of Jesus wasn’t enough, he wanted even more. He saw the prize before his eyes and he was running to it – Him.
We must stop looking around at all the things wrong and start doing right. Each day, choose to turn from those things that hinder us and press toward the high mark of Jesus. If we are truly taken in completely by Him and want nothing else, we will start making progress toward this mark.
Imagine gaining ground and not losing it. Praise God, I’m all for that! What if we abandoned self and relentlessly pressed, so much so that we did it without looking back or stumbling over our own feet?
Church, now is the day to let go of every weight and sin that so easily besets us.
WHEREFORE seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Hebrews 12:1 (KJV)
I don’t know about you, but I’m thankful for the progress we’ve made; and I will continue to press no matter what comes my way. God surely knows. If we truly unite in Christ Jesus, we can not only reach this mark, but also keep it and start minding the same things. When our minds are made up, just watch and see differences and the things that divide vanish away.
I’m all the time telling our local church, the only limits on God are those we place. Now, I’m saying as we move toward the mark of that high calling of Christ Jesus, we can become one in Him. Not one in ourselves or any one way some of us may perceive right now.
I am simply asking us all to lay aside all preconceived ideas and begin as one Body to press in the same direction under the same calling of Christ. Can’t you hear Him calling now? We can do this if we simply start.
