Matter of Life and Death

²¹For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. ²²If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! -Phillipians 1:21-22

Interesting that I read this passage this morning, because Brad and I were just talking about that all illusive topic "life" yesterday. How do we make the most of it? What is it to really "live"? This verse at first seems to be all about "liberation theology." And certainly, dying is gain... although as mortals it seems our bodies strongly resist the notion. It's not really about this heavenly earth, and we know that in heaven we'll be united with our Savior.

But another important aspect of this verse is that to live is Christ. To really really live is to be in Christ... I remember the vine and the branches. In this life, what we are meant to do is be fruitful. I'm listening to the song, "Take My Life" by Third Day this morning... with the beautiful chorus: "Please take from me my life, because I don't have the strength to give it away to you." Lord, sometimes we feel to weak, overcome by the stress of work and classes and research and so much... we don't have the strength, Lord. So please take our lives... and help us to live, as Paul meant... in a way that living is You, Christ.

This morning I especially pray for my love. I know it was a very hard week for him yesterday. I pray that you'd guide him through this week... give him balance, peace and a renewed sense of focus and energy. Take his life, Lord and be with him all day, and help him to know this and feel Your presence in a real way.

¹ See, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth
and devastate it;
he will ruin its face
and scatter its inhabitants-

² it will be the same
for priest as for people,
for master as for servant,
for mistress as for maid,
for seller as for buyer,
for borrower as for lender,
for debtor as for creditor. -Isaiah 24:1-2

And this verse speaks not of individual death but of the death of a people, the destruction that would come before the peace. And it is the same for all these people! Jesus is the great equalizer, and death has been called such as well. In our American graveyards we can see that all the tombstones are roughly the same... reminding us that in the end we are all more similar than we admit. The master and the servant, priest and people, all have to face death. But what we often forget is that because of Jesus, we are the same in life... Jesus came to all of us "the same: for the priest as for the people, for master as for the servant..." Lord, help us to remember in life and death that we are humbly Yours... all Your servants.

⁹And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, ¹¹filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God. -Phillipians 1:9-11

This morning this is my prayer for everyone in my small group. If this is a hard time of the semester for people like Brad and myself, some of the new students must also be feeling the pressure. I really pray that each one: Kara, Kristi, Dustin, Nicole, Mary, Kuang, Jasmine, Jorge, Youngmin, Blake, Jennifer, Jess V., Jess L., Shijie, Mike, Christine, Joseph and Pacifica may all be filled with knowledge and depth of insight... able to discern what is best (how to study and how to give time to God) -to the glory and praise of God. Lord help to give Blake and Jennifer peace now as they look forward to tests this week. Make them efficient and effective- calm their hearts and steady their minds.