What Do I Owe Jesus?

What Do I Owe Jesus? 

New English Translation ( Based on manuscript analysis)

Php 3:10  My aim is to know him, to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, and to be like him in his death,

Php 3:11  and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Php 3:12  Keep Going Forward Not that I have already attained this — that is, I have not already been perfected — but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.

Php 3:13  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,

Php 3:14  with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Php 3:15  Therefore let those of us who are "perfect" embrace this point of view.

 Modern KJV

Php 3:10  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death;

Php 3:11  if by any means I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I am pressing on, if I may lay hold of that for which I also was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.

Php 3:13  My brothers, I do not count myself to have taken possession, but one thing I do, forgetting the things behind and reaching forward to the things before,

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as are perfect,{justified Innocent } be of this mind.

What Do I Owe Jesus?  The wealth of the universe could not pay that Debt!

The question should be, "What would I with hold from Him?"    (Not what will He give me, What is in it for me?  Not even what did I give Him or do for Him? )

He in love, stepped accost time and eternity and was born a man. Totally GOD (second person of the Trinity, existing for all eternity,  Became, Totally a man just as we are. The man had a beginning with birth and was rewarded and seated with God in heaven.)

He lived as a man, learned a trade, taught us to know Him, and paid a debt we could not pay.

He is, He must be, my all, my all in all, life and Lord, Master and FRIEND.

Lord and Master, yet wants to commune with us and be a true friend.  We owe Him ALL. 

I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

In that private personal place of thought and hope,

WHAT WOULD I WITHHOLD FROM HIM?

The twenty first century Christian needs some first century Living Reality of Christian Life. Mr. Wesley was accused of ”experiential theology”, the educated of the day made fun of him basing any part of his “theology” on having lived it. Yet the only way to know it is to live in Christ. The problem in the Church today is “we are so busy we fail to stop to worship, pray, or just be still and let Him speak to us.” To know Him is to understand His word. To know Him is to hear Him speak. If you have studied scripture long I am sure you have read a familiar passage only to have some new truth pour over your soul and thrill you with God’s meaning. This is God speaking to you through scripture. But, we have to listen, be quiet and listen.

How can we teach our children and young Christians about adoption into the family of God it they do not know what a “family” is?

Break down modern family=

Data overload

B U S Y

No rules of social order

                     No formal meal or family time

                     No family alter

                     No family Bible study

Every one goes in their own direction with their own problems and wants.

Destroy the family and destroy the social structure it supports.

Psa 46:10  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 

The first point in knowing God is to Be Still and let Him have an opportunity to speak to us.  We need to take the time to meditate on His word and 

Know that I am God - Understand that I am the Fountain of power, wisdom, justice, goodness, and truth.

I will be exalted among the heathen - By the publication of my Gospel among them, they shall know me to be the God of goodness.

I will be exalted in the earth - I will have my salvation proclaimed in every nation, among every people, and in every tongue.

Be still and know that I am God – How can we know it’s God?
“…and know that I am God” denotes recognition, acknowledgement, and answering God. First, we must know that God is God, the one and only Supreme Being who created all the heavens and earth.

When we realize that we are truly incapable of controlling life, we can surrender our will to God’s will. It may be a matter of finally saying we trust Him. This will open the door so that we may experience the fullness of all God wants and has for us. After all, He is our Creator and has a perfect plan for us when we let Him orchestrate it.

This command — “be still” — forces us to think on two things: that we are finite, and that God is infinite. That being the case, we need to drop our hands, go limp, relax, and “chill out.” Christian people ought to “come, behold the works of Jehovah,” (v. 8) that we may enjoy a calm confidence in him who gave us his Son.

“Shall he not also with him freely give us all things?” Paul reasoned (Romans 8:32). Psalm 46:10 encourages us to reflect on what God can do in the face of what we are unable to do.

Spiritual serenity is derived from a steady, deep reflection on the ways God has intervened in history on behalf of his people (cf. Romans 15:4).

So as your world crumbles around you, the call from Scripture is: don’t flinch in faith in God. Stand still — not because of a self-made confidence, not because you are the most composed person in the face of disaster, not because “you’ve seen it all.” Be still because of what you know about God.

It is “God’s past” that provides calm for “our future.” Know that he is God! Know it, not merely intellectually, but practically, spiritually, and emotionally. He is your God. He is the ruler of kingdoms of this earth and the all-powerful Creator of the Universe.

Second Step in knowing God is to willingly turn to GOD. 

Mat 11:28  Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Mat 11:29  Take My yoke on you and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. 

Mat 11:30  For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. 

The yoke is a symbol of Service, Subjection, Obedience, This is where we need to be with Christ

The Cross is a symbol of death.  The yoke is a symbol of obedient service. To know Him We must serve and obey Him.

To call those who are weary and heavy laden, to take a yoke upon them, looks like adding affliction to the afflicted; but the pertinence of it lies in the word my: “You are under a yoke which makes you weary: shake that off and try mine, which will make you easy.” Servants are said to be under the yoke, and subjects, To take Christ's yoke upon us, is to put ourselves into the relation to servants and subjects to him, and then of conduct ourselves accordingly, in a conscientious obedience to all his commands, and a cheerful submission to all his disposals: it is to obey the gospel of Christ, to yield ourselves to the Lord: it is Christ's yoke; the yoke he has appointed; a yoke he has himself drawn in before us, for he learned obedience, and which he does by his Spirit draw in with us, for he helpeth our infirmities, Rom_8:26. A yoke speaks some hardship, but if the beast must draw, the yoke helps him. Christ's commands are all in our favour: we must take this yoke upon us to draw in it. We are yoked to work, and therefore must be diligent; we are yoked to submit, and therefore must be humble and patient: we are yoked together with our fellow-servants, and therefore must keep up the communion of saints: and the words of the wise are as goads, to those who are thus yoked.

3

A new mind to Worship God!

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God

Therefore gathers up all the great argument of chapters 1-11. Now Paul turns to exhortation, “I beseech you.”

to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

παραστησαι ^Present τα ^the σωματα ^body υμων ^you θυσιαν ^sacrifice ζωσαν ^living αγιαν ^{Most Holy} ευαρεστον ^Acceptable τω ^to θεω ^GOD την ^the λογικην ^{logical (reasonable,)} λατρειαν ^worship υμων ^you

Which is your soul’s spiritual logic for worship.

Old Testament sacrifices were Dead. The New Testament Christian makes a LIVING, HOLY, Pleasing to God, sacrifice. (As has often been quipped about this text, "The problem with living sacrifices is that they keep crawling off the altar.")

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

“… but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” Knowing God is the renewing of your mind. There is a lot to know, a lifetime of growing closer to Him, but we start here with this reasonable Service. The soul’s ability to reason and understand truth and then worship based on this truth. What is worship, ‘present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God”