I Want To Know Christ

May 10, 2016

I Want To Know Christ

“I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.”

Philippians 3:10a

In our journey to make the life in Christ our way of life, we walk by faith not by sight. Our focus is not on our strength, our ingenuity, our wisdom; our focus is always on Jesus.

In our journey to make the life in Christ our way of life, we are sensitive to God’s time, not our watch or our calendar. It’s not our agenda, but God’s agenda that orders our steps. 

In our journey to make the life in Christ our way of life, we don’t need a change purse so we can pay our way with good deeds, as though we were paying a toll. Our acceptance by God has been secured by Jesus, and our tolls for the journey have been pre-paid by Jesus.

In our journey to make the life in Christ our way of life, we do not need to fret over trying to understand God’s will for our lives. Sometimes on our journey, we get side-tracked because we think God’s plan for our life is more complicated than it is. We strive to know God’s specific will for our life’s profession, our church membership, who we’ll marry and where will we live. God may well lead us to discernment of these incidentals to our life, but God’s ultimate purpose for our life, His will, is much simpler to grasp.

When God first begin interacting with human kind He said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us” (Genesis 1:26a). This original purpose of God for humankind has not changed. The writers of the New Testament affirmed this over and over:

“Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives” (Galatians 4:19);

“For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory” (Colossians 3:3-4);

“And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:4);

“And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing his glory” (Colossians 1:27b).

How is God’s purpose realized in our lives? The Apostle Paul answers for all of us: “I want to know Christ” (Philippians 3:10a). Graham Kendrick’s song, Knowing You, which is based on Philippians 3, helps us order our lives to know Jesus.

All I once held dear, built my life upon,

All this world reveres and wars to own;

All I once thought gain I have counted loss,

Spent and worthless now compared to this.

Chorus:

   Knowing You, Jesus, knowing You

   There is no greater thing.

   You’re my all, You’re the best,

   You’re my joy, my righteousness,

   And I love you Lord.

2- Now my heart’s desire is to know You more,

To be found in You and known as Yours

To possess by faith what I could not earn

All surpassing gift of righteousness

Chorus 

3- Oh to know the power of Your risen life,

And to know You in Your sufferings;

To become like You in Your death, my Lord,

So with You to live and never die.

Chorus 

Graham Kendrick

Copyright © 1993 Make Way Music,

P.O. Box 263, Croydon, Surrey. CR9 5AP, U.K.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.