A Life Worthy

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body (Philippians 3:21).

Paul isn’t trying to body shame you.

He has no idea when you last went to the gym, or Fatty Burger Barn, and he doesn’t care.

His point is, when Jesus comes for us we will be transformed.  The aches, the pains, the flab, the laugh lines, the frown lines, the receding hairlines, the fading eyesight, the flaring back pain, the bags, the sags, the general raising of our cholesterol and lowering of our center of gravity–all of it will be gone.

Poof

We will be given a body like Jesus has.

I don’t know exactly what that will be like, but my extensive research and decades of Biblical education lead me to this deepest of theological insights:

It will be better.

So, as you haul your bacon out of bed today, remember the promise:

You are going to be amazing.

You are going to be glorious.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I need a donut.

And a nap.

Happy Monday, Beloved.

But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ… (Philippians 3:20)

Eagerly

Like a little kid on the last day of school

Like my pooch at the back door when the neighbor’s cat is in the yard

Like an office worker at 4:59

That’s how you think I’d be, contemplating the arrival of the Most Important

Person Ever.

But I’m not…at least, not often.

Not enough

Oh, the reasons are many–busyness, stress, the surreality of it all.

But the fact remains

I’m not.

How about you?

Hey, whoa, look, I’m not going for guilt here.  You manufacture enough guilt on your own; you definitely don’t need my help. Besides, we serve a God of redemption, of transformation, not of guilt.

Then what are you doing, Michael?

I’m trying to remind you–us–that we can have that eagerness. We can have that excitement. You see, the kid on Christmas morning is excited because he has been obsessing about these presents for months.  He has been thinking and wondering and imagining and picturing himself with his new Nifty Zoom 3000. It’s filled his eight-year-old brain, the same way the neighbor’s cat fills my dog’s brain.

Such as it is.

So here’s the challenge, Beloved of Christ. Think about him today. Not only in prayer, but in your mental down time. Your in-between moments. Imagine what it will be like when he comes to you, when he transforms you, when you stand before him clean and whole and forgiven and bathed in his perfect love. Dwell on it today, and see if that doesn’t produce a little eagerness.

But don’t drool.  Dogs can get away with it–you can’t.

Happy Thursday, Beloved

For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is their shame. Their mind is on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-19).

Even with tears.

That’s the part that gets me.

Paul was not exulting over his enemies.  He wept over them, because he knew the truth.

They weren’t really his enemies.

They were Christ’s.

And as such, they were utterly, thoroughly lost.

We all know people like this, folks who are far more concerned with their stuff life than their spiritual life.  We shake our heads in their general direction, we sigh at their shallowness, we may even pity them.

But do we weep?

Do I weep?

Father God, give me your eyes, your tears, your heart today. Let me care–no matter how much it hurts.

Happy Tuesday, Beloved

Only let us live up to what we have already attained (Philippians 3:16).

So, this could be my life verse.

Except I hate it.

It’s way too specific.

And reasonable

I like vague. Vague is safe, because it keeps me from having to do anything.

Vague, and somewhat ambiguous–that’s my favorite kinda verse.

Beloved, what would our life be if we stopped worrying about the things we don’t understand  or can’t explain and just followed what God has made abundantly clear?

Yeah…I know.

Let’s consider it our challenge today, ya?

Happy Friday, Beloved.

But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14).

He came to be with us.

One day, at the end of all things, he will call us to be with him.

We will be…what we were always meant to be.

Complete

Whole

His

That’s the prize, Beloved.

You’ll get to be the real you.

Finally

Forever

Happy Wednesday, Beloved.