Praise the Lord for this wonderful day, as we are about to welcome the sweet and spectacular summer in a couple of days. We have already had a foretaste of summer here in this region. People are gearing up to celebrate and share the season, the wonderful gift of the Lord once again. Colleges are already closed after graduations and local high schools are winding down and preparing for graduation. It is also a season of transition for many of us. We are packing and preparing for the next step. I gave away a third of my library to be used by other pastors. The Lord had blessed us with many hundreds (thousands) of books over the past 40 years. I have a passion for books even as my wife has a passion for fabrics. It is bittersweet to see an empty space where my beloved books stood.
Just a reminder - we are looking forward to seeing all of you at our gathering on Saturday, the 27th. at 5.00 PM Our Church Family and Our daughters are all planning and preparing for this sweet event.
I am reflecting on Philippians 4:13-14. "Brethren, 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 of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
I love the fierce concentration implicit in the words “one thing I do.” To excel in any area of life, a person must say, “This one thing I do”. It is difficult, if not impossible to concentrate on “These 20 things I do.” A single-minded focus in any endeavor generally wins a great reward.
A great artist must say, “One thing I do.”
A gifted teacher must say, “One thing I do.”
A championship athlete must say, “One thing I do.”
A single parent raising her child must say, “One thing I do.”
A student who wants to graduate with honors must say, “One thing I do.”
Greatness in any arena comes to those who can say with the Apostle Paul, “One thing I do.” In Paul's case, it meant looking to the heavenly goal of winning the prize. That phrase covers all that God has for us when we finally stand before Jesus Christ and hear him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of the Lord." Most of us find ourselves saying, “I have so many things to do”. This is true for so many of us, and so we become fragmented people. But Paul (who was the consummate man of action) could truthfully say, “One thing I do.”
When famed missionary Dr. David Livingston returned from Africa to England, he was asked, “Where are you ready to go next?” “I am ready to go anywhere,” he replied, “provided it be forward." This must be the attitude of the child of God every single day. We say, “Lord, I am ready to go wherever you lead, no matter where that takes me.”
“I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (v. 14).
In the spiritual life, direction makes all the difference. True believers aren’t in heaven yet, but they aim their steps in that direction. Paul's life and ministry involved both a sanctified forgetting and a resolute pushing forward.
In 1905 a young man from a wealthy family entered Yale University. His family intended that after completing his degree he would enter a suitable career in America, but God gripped his heart with the needs of China and he volunteered to go to that country with the gospel, much to the dismay of his family and friends. He left America but never made it to China, succumbing to a disease before reaching that distant shore. After his death, a note was found in his Bible that summarized his life: “No reserves. No retreats. No regrets.”
I wonder how many of us could say the same thing?
Whatever we do, let us continue to press on toward the goal.
In Christ,
Pastor Brown.
https://youtu.be/GoYgi0sdOqc
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