Pressed By The Mark

Welcome to 2012! While the New Year is fresh, we need to hear the testimony of the psalmist who said,"One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after..." (Psalm 27:4). There are way too many Christians whom are like the cowboy that was described by his five-year-old son this way, "He jumped on his horse and rode off in all directions!"

We need to focus in one direction for the new year! Hugh Allen of the Knoxville News Sentinel once stated, "The man who doesn't know where he is going can look forward to a long, exhausting trip." Sound, godly advice from the Apostle Paul will help us to determine our direction for this new year, if we will heed what he said in Philippians 3:13,14, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind , and reaching forth unto those things which are before. I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." The J.B. Phillips New Testament translation of Philippians 3:12-14 states," Yet, my brothers, I do not consider myself to have "arrived", spiritually, nor do I consider myself already perfect. But I keep going on, grasping ever more firmly that purpose for which Christ grasped me. My brothers, I do not consider myself to have fully grasped it even now. But I do concentrate on this: I leave the past behind and with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead I go straight for the goal-my reward the honour of being called by God in Christ."

The "one thing" that we all need for 2012 is for us to all grow to be more like Jesus Christ!

Praise God for the Apostle Paul's honesty and spiritual transparency! Paul is telling us, "I am not where I want to be in my spiritual life. I have not yet obtained the goal. But I refuse to let the past drag me down, and I am straining to reach my goal of knowing...really knowing Jesus Christ through His power, suffering, and His death" (Blevins paraphrase).

Will you join me in being a "one-thinger" in 2012 and dedicate the 527,040 minutes of 2012 (it is a leap year, so don't forget we will have 366 days instead of 365) to really knowing Jesus Christ and becoming more like Him?!

Pressed By The Mark,
Pastor David Blevins