scandal

The apostle Paul wrote 4 short letters 4 or 6 chapters long to 4 churches - Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae.The letters are called, respectively, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, & Colossians.

These 4 short little letters are fat with good stuff. If you haven't read them, or if you haven't read them recently, haul out your BIble & read them, one chapter at a time, in a translation that makes sense to you. There's some pretty towering stuff in these short little books. Mine are underlined a lot!

Here's some of the things that stood out for me this morning.

Philippians 3
1a Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.

8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ 9 and become one with him.

I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law;

     rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.

For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

10a I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.


12 I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.

But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,

       but I focus on this one thing:

Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.


20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives.

     And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own,

       using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.



Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

It's hard to "forget the past". I don't know about you, but sometimes I pretty overwhelmed by my own stupidity. It's hard to forgive ourselves & move on.

But I think Paul is telling us to let go of the past. If we're forgiven by God for all the stupids sins & sinning we've done, then we should forgive ourselves & move on.

Easy to say, hard to do.

But none the less, we should. Otherwise, it will keep us from being & doing all that God has in store for us.

Besides, God's forgiven us, & let it go - forgotten about it. That's the scandal of grace - He's forgiven us & forgotten about it.