Philippians 3

Wow - now I am a bit lost!

Put no confidence in human effort! Rely only on what Jesus has done for us!

Paul goes on to list off his whole pedigree as the perfect Jew - all his accomplishments - all his accolades. And then he says but I count that all as loss in the view of Christ.

The Lord brought these questions to mind...

What do I need to consider worthless - in light of knowing Christ? What would I say my pedigree is - and why am I still clinging to it? What seems to be worth it still? (I still need to answer this!)

I have no idea what the answers to these questions are - they are new ... and I have nothing...

Then as I continued on in the passage Paul was calling everything garbage and said that it needed to be thrown away! Horders keep trash - but trash needs to be chucked. This is knowing about what is trash - and being willing to let go of it.

Then it goes on to say that our righteousness comes through faith in Christ ... or another way to put it - is that righteousness comes from the faithfulness of Christ. Then it says we have to know Him, experience His mighty resurrection power, suffer with Him - share in His death ... and then we get to attain to the resurrection of the dead. This brought my thoughts to Romans 6 - that we died with Christ - and rose with Him when we were joined with Him through baptism.

But then the Lord took me on a tour of Hebrews. I remembered a verse a friend had shared with me from chapter 5 that she said the Lord had impressed on her for me. I didn't get it then - I am still unsure now - but I am sure the Lord is trying to break thru and show me something! Anyway the verse says that Jesus had to LEARN obedience from the things he suffered. Which made me ask the question - what did Jesus have to LEARN about OBEDIENCE?

The verse right after says that this - that then he was qualified to become the High Priest. I asked is it because he had faced the same tests as us and yet did not sin - as it says in 4:15? Because then He is able to deal gently with us - as it says in 5:2?

Then I read a bunch more of Hebrews ... but before that I went back to Phil 2 and asked is the obedience that he had to learn - Jesus becoming human - becoming a slave? So he had to be a perfect human - so he could be a perfect slave - so He could be the perfect sacrifice - Heb 8:3 and thus the perfect High Priest 8:1-2... then in 10:7 and following it talks all about Jesus coming to do Gods will perfectly and then he is able to sit down beside the Father... - the Father's will was to make us holy - which He accomplished!

This whole tour through Hebrews needs to happen again ... I am just scratching the surface of some great understanding of Jesus as High Priest and what that is supposed to me to me - to us - as believers.

Lord I confess I have been tired and lazy since I got back from the retreat - draw me close again... unfog my mind!