1 And that’s about it, friends. Be glad in God! I don’t mind repeating what I have written in earlier letters, and I hope you don’t mind hearing it again. Better safe than sorry—so here goes.
2-6 Steer clear of the barking dogs, those religious busybodies, all bark and no bite. All they’re interested in is appearances—knife-happy circumcisers, I call them. The real believers are the ones the Spirit of God leads to work away at this ministry, filling the air with Christ’s praise as we do it. We couldn’t carry this off by our own efforts, and we know it—even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God’s law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting the church; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God’s law Book.
7-9 The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I’m tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I’ve dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn’t want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God’s righteousness.
10-11 I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it. – Phil 3:1-11
This passage always stands out to me. It’s one that really helped me put things in focus when I was 18 and made me realize the things of this world that I was striving for – didn’t really matter.
Even today, as I read it for the umpteenth time the words rang just as true as they always have.
It is definitely a Monday morning. I woke up earlier than normal, sometime before 5 a.m. because I apparently rolled on my back and started snoring. Laurie did exactly what I’ve been telling her to do – wake me up if I’m keeping her awake. But I was frustrated at myself because I simply don’t know how or why I tend to roll onto my back when I sleep. After that trying to go back to sleep was useless. I finally got up, made some coffee, ate some breakfast and went to let Presley out.
And despite the warning stuck to our back door – “Turn the alarm off” – I didn’t. So the alarm went off as soon as I opened the door.
I finished getting ready and sat down to check my e-mail. Laurie headed off for work and I waited my time to leave. At 6:45 I started the “process” of getting Presley back into her crate. She was perched on her favorite chair with a warm blanket and wanted no part in moving. I got her to her crate and noticed she was avoiding one side of it. Upon further examination I discovered she had an accident during the night and of course wanted to avoid laying in it. Apparently the pot roast left overs I gave her yesterday didn’t sit well with her and she couldn’t wait till morning.
So despite the time on the clock, I had to clean up the mess. She obviously knew she had an accident but unfortunately that doesn’t mean she’s going to help clean up. ;-). I finally got things cleaned as best as I could in a brief time, threw her blanket in the wash and put her back in her crate – smelling like an accident myself.
I headed out the front door at 7 a.m. only to realize my windows were frosted over again. Arrgh! I grabbed a glass of luke-warm water to clean them off, which did a great job getting rid of the frost, but apparently wasn’t warm enough to keep the water from re-freezing before I could get the truck warmed up – so I was back to scraping the ice off by hand.
I finally made it to the bus stop around 7:20 – just in time to catch the bus to work.
As I read the above passage, with the smell still in my nose of Presley’s accident it was an screaming example of how Paul felt about the things not of Christ – “dog dung.” I prayed and pray that I will feel the same way. The same sickening smell I’m smelling today should be the same smell we experience when we stray from Christ and His call on our life.
How do your sins/distractions from Christ smell?
