The Reason Things Happen

Philippians - Part 3

Why Me?

And I want you to know, my dear brothers and sisters, that everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News. For everyone here, including the whole palace guard, knows that I am in chains because of Christ. And because of my imprisonment, most of the believers here have gained confidence and boldly speak God’s message without fear.

It’s true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. They preach because they love me, for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. But that doesn’t matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice. For I know that as you pray for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ helps me, this will lead to my deliverance.

Philippians 1:12-19 NLT

Have you ever wondered why things happen the way they do? Paul had every reason to feel depressed and frustrated because his efforts to share the Good News about Jesus had resulted in him spending much time locked up in prison, the recipient of beatings and stonings and much hardship. Still, he seemed to be so confident in the God he was serving, that he considered his hardship a blessing because it led to more people hearing about Jesus.

Many times, people have this hidden expectation that somehow if they do the right things, if they follow Jesus and go to church that their lives should be better, safer, happier and more __________ (you fill in the blank).

Somehow, we think that the purpose in following Jesus is so that we can have God's blessing in our lives. What we fail to realize is that we are not the centre of this universe. God does not exist to bring us glory or favour or blessing -- we exist for Him and by Him and because of Him. Our lives are intented to bring Him glory. Paul understood this so well -- and I think that is why he was able to rejoice even in his struggles.

Are you living life hoping to extract some kind of blessing from God for your "good behavior" or do you live to pour out your life in worship and service to the God who called and shaped you and is indeed worthy of everything we could give him?

Next time you are faced with a struggle -- instead of asking God "Why is this happening to me?" ask him how you can use this situation to honor His name and make him known.

Stry2K

Philippians -- Part 2 -- Growing

Growing

I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on
growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want you to understand what really
matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s
return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous
character produced in your life by Jesus Christ*—for this will bring much glory
and praise to God.
Philippians 1:9-11 (NLT)

One of the reasons I love the book of Philippians is that the author, Paul, balances the beauty and freedom of grace (that God accepts us even though we are broken) with the awareness that grace doesn't give us a reason to continue in harmful behaviours towards ourselves or others. In this passage, he highlights his strong desire for the people to continue growing in three key areas of our lives: Love, Knowledge, and Understanding.

Growth is an interesting term -- how does one grow? Does a tree focus all its energies on getting bigger and taller? Does a baby have to invest energy in thinking about how to grow and mature?

Having kids has taught me that growth happens -- simply by being exposed to the right environment. A healthy environment with the right balance of nutrition and exercise and a healthy dose of safe relationships allows a baby to grow and become a healthy toddler. Then as we get more mature, we need to become more intentional about growing -- as adults, we know that if we don't pursue growth, we can stagnate and become fat and lazy and bored.

In spiritual matters, I think it is too easy to think that growth comes from knowledge and understanding -- the more we learn, the more we grow. But this is not the truth. Knowledge doesn't produce spiritual growth any more than reading a book on physics makes you a physicist.

Growth happens when we experience truth. Science is all about the experiment -- creating an experience that tests a hypothesis so that we can gain knowledge and understanding. It is validated through observation and application.

In spiritual matters, the process isn't all that different -- except that we are dealing with things that we all know exist, but that really can't be explained in material ways. It's like love.

You can study about love all you want. You can read about it and write about it and talk about it, but unless you have really experienced it, it is pretty meaningless. The thing that makes the arts so valuable is that they reach out and touch our experiences and our feelings and reveal and confirm truth about them -- teaching us about ourselves and our world. Art is an experiment aimed at creating an experience of the emotions -- great art gives us new insight and understanding of our emotions and our relationships -- but only when we experience it personally. That's why some movies make such a lasting impression when we watch them. We share and experience with the characters in the movie and learn about ourselves and our world.

The same is true with an encouter with Jesus. Encounters with Jesus reveal truth to us. This truth revealed becomes knowledge and understanding. The more we experience Jesus (through worship,study, life, challenges, struggles, doubts, and fears) the more we are able to understand ourselves, our relationships and our world. As we allow a relationship with Jesus to have greater and greater influence in our lives, the Spirit of Jesus translates that knowledge into character -- expressed as a deepening love for God and people -- an overflowing love that leads us to desire to live a pure life that brings glory to God.

Thought for Today...

If you don't find yourself loving God and loving others more -- don't try harder to love -- rather -- spend more time encountering Jesus and let His love transform you.

Philippians -- Part 1 -- Unfinished

And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:6 (NLT).

Unfinished

One of the most freeing things about following Jesus is realizing that you don't have to be perfect to earn His love. You don't even have to be "good enough" -- in fact no amount of trying will make you any more deserving of God's favor than you are right now. The truth is, we are all unfinished. We are all messy and broken and prone to stumble on ourselves, we are selfish and we disappoint, we are imperfect.

There are those who think imperfections somehow disqualify one even from the pursuit of God. Some have lingered on the outside of religion -- unconvinced that it really makes a difference. Too often the religious people act like they have no struggles and that they have it all figured out -- and if you don't -- then you don't fit in.

The truth again -- anyone who has a serious relationship with God will have unanswered questions and an increasing awareness of their own limitations. We are all unfinished -- and those who don't realize that are just fooling themselves.

The beauty of the Good News is that in the midst of all your struggles and questions, failures and fears -- God is actively at work trying to draw you to himself. He is reaching out to you and wants to work in and through you to show you His love and to enable you to show His love to others.

You can resist or embrace it -- the choice is yours. If we resist, we are like a muddy cat trying to avoid a bath from his owner. If we embrace it -- we have the opportunity to be shaped and influenced by the author and designer of the universe.

We are not finished yet -- but we are in process, taking on the shape God has uniquely designed for us.

I don't know about you -- but with all of the influences in this world that try to shape us -- I believe and trust that God's influence, as revealed in Jesus, is most true and most noble and most capable of helping me have a fulfilled and joy-full life.

Today's Question:

What's shaping and influencing your life right now?