Philippians 3
Press On!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Tuesday, December 1.
Did you know that today is day #259 of these daily phone calls? Pastor Ken and I are 100% committed to persevering with you through this pandemic and through this second surge and through the holidays and into 2021.
One of the psychological tests the Army would do in the US Army Ranger School would be to give us false finish lines and then push us past them. This was done in various ways, whether in pushing us through very long nights and days of movements with heavy equipment loads on our backs or on routine runs that did not end when expected or hours on the rocks training our bodies. All of this physical work, was really mental work, training us to persevere and be resilient.
You may not know this, but the book of Philippians was my favorite book in the Bible when I was going through Ranger School. We may not be in a military school right now, but today’s reading from Paul is essential to our Christian lives in the midst of this Covid-19 pandemic. Paul teaches us in Philippians 3:10-14:
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Seize the moment and press on to the goal of becoming like Jesus! Now is a great opportunity; don’t waste it! Persevere!
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