March 14th Reflection by Bill Lynch

Philippians 3:4b-14

even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

Reflection
If you think you have your act together without Jesus, think again. Look at Paul. He was a religious man born of the heritage of his faith. Paul abides by the law, studies the law and did everything correctly, but without Jesus it's nothing. Whatever we think is a gain in our own righteousness, without Jesus, is nothing. We can't live without God. We need God. We cannot save ourselves or become so God that we earn God's favor. We must have Jesus. In no way can we rely on our own "goodness" to save us.

So, now what? On the the gift of belief in Jesus, we are made righteous through Jesus act of love for us. We have a relationship with Jesus because of what Jesus has done for us, not on what we have done for ourselves or even what we have done for Jesus. With this believing comes a deep desire to want to know Jesus more and more. We desire to follow Jesus as his disciple. We long to hear God's plan for our lives and to live in the faith and hope that God gives to us through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. We love to share in Jesus' suffering and are honored to give our lives to him because he gave his life to us out of love.

Love begets love. A love not bought with silver or gold, but rather a love that pays the price for our sin with sweat and blood. Jesus loves us with all he has and once we come to see this love, we return that love with all we have in faith and in service and in life.

In our baptism we daily die with Jesus and live a risen life right to the end of our earthly walk. Jesus snatched us from eternal death and we walk with him all through life. Don't believe you have arrived. You are on a walk of faith with Jesus. Our ambition is to live life with Jesus and hold on to him knowing that only through him and only when Jesus leads us to that final goal will we wear that wreath. So, as Paul does, we press on. We focus our sights on Jesus and live on with the knowledge that life, real life, is with and through Jesus. This is the joy and hope we live in with Jesus through belief that he is our only means of salvation.

Prayer
Jesus, I have you in my sights. Thanks for coming to me. Thanks for thinking of me. Thanks for living for me. Thanks for a life with you... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen