EXPRESSIONS

Ramesh C. Reddy
Editor in Chief

Hi everyone :)

May the Lord Jesus bless you and may you know the excitement of living for the Lord in the present, for the Lord has your future in His hands! Amen!

Quiet Times (Psalm 128:1-2 and Philippians 3:12-14)

“Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD; O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.  If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness; therefore you are feared. I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning.  O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins.” (Psalm 130, NIV)

 ^“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. 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 3:12-14)

I learned that Paul lets the Philippians know that he has not already obtained all that he was mentioning in v. 3:7-11 and has not already been made perfect. This was significant for me because Paul is reminding the Philippians that he has not gotten where he wants to be but he is not going to let that get him down.

On the contrary, he intends to do something about it which is evidenced by, “but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”

This reminds me of sanctification, justification, and pontification on a daily basis where Christ Jesus is the catalyst for all that to happen. But before all that even happened, Jesus had conquered death and attained the resurrection from the dead so that those that come to Him will one day attain the resurrection from the dead themselves.

Paul again reminds them that on earth he is not where he wants to be including being perfect but he is not going to dwell on it but do something about it. This is evidenced by, “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.”

I was really excited to read these verses because I saw a lot of things Paul intended to do where he was at, not where he could have been:

1. Forgetting what is behind
2. Straining toward what is ahead
3. Press on toward the goal
4. Win the prize

I asked myself why would Paul mention forgetting what is behind.

I was reminded of the time that Paul was involved in the persecution of Christians including the martyrdom of Stephen. He could have allowed the past to haunt him and dwell on the mistakes he did but he decides to move on rather than living in the past, by making up his mind to strain toward what is ahead.

I asked myself what could to strain ahead mean?

I was reminded of Paul’s emphasis on the present and future. In the present he does not look back but looks to the future. It is not effortless though because he strains to look ahead which means it is possible that the memories of the past are fighting with him. But he does not give up!

 Why does he not give up?

He intends to press on toward the goal to win the prize. It is not any prize but the prize that God has called him heavenward in Christ Jesus. This in itself is so awesome to know because no matter what Paul had done in the past, he is joyful now because of God personally calling him heavenward in Christ Jesus! He is working on putting the past behind. That is exciting to know!

I saw important implications for my own life. Studying this passage has been really, really helpful to me as an application.

There are a lot of things that happened to me in the past but I am so thankful. Because the Lord has called me to be His child, I need not focus on what happened in the past. It is not going to do me any good to dwell in the past and the mistakes I have done. It is not like I can undo the things that already happened. Oh I wish I could turn back the hands of time and right every wrong but that cannot always happen.

The Good News for me is that I know Jesus loves me so much and wants me to look ahead forgetting the past. This does not mean I don’t learn any lessons from my past. My goal should be to focus on pressing toward the prize that God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. I know the Lord has called us to be His own and wants us to live in the present and look to the future as we do our best depending on Him and on that day receive the prize!

I ask you now dear friends, what has your past done to you?

Dear friends, our past can have such a hold on us that sometimes we can just get paralyzed and not move on. The pain and mistakes of the past can be lingering in our minds and the infamous ‘only-if’ starts to rule in us. ‘Only if’ will not change what has happened for me or for you. There are things that happened in our lives we had no control of, yet it could be eating us alive as we relive those moments in flashbacks! Other times we were responsible for what happened and that can eat us alive too! The pain can be too much to bear. Paul understood that because he had the blood of Stephen on his hands. What can be worse than having a hand in murdering someone? Paul was guilty of that, yet in Christ, He was able to come to the point to put the past behind him.

Friend, I don’t know what you are facing and what the past has done to you. I do not know the scars and wounds of the past that you carry. But this I do know, the Lord Jesus Christ knows the pain you have been through and the pain that some things still cause you. He sees your scars and wounds and wants to bring healing in your life. As long as you hold on to the past and dwell in it, you have not opened the door for Jesus to come and be your Healer. He wants to be your Healer whether you were responsible for what happened to you or others were responsible. Oh yes, He wants to heal you where you are at.

You won’t be able to turn back the hands of time but in Christ you can move on. Yes, you can! Don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking that you messed up so much that there is no hope for you. That is a lie from the pit of hell itself.

No matter what has went wrong whether it is in a relationship, academics, career, etc, Jesus knows about it and wants to help you. When you depend on Him and seek Him, He will open better doors. Things that cannot be changed, the Lord will give you the peace and endurance to get through and enjoy the present He has given you. So that you could look to the future and one day receive the prize the Lord Jesus has for you as you come to Him face to face.

I want to share with you a true story using the past-present-future as an example. This happened recently but I saw the concepts wonderfully played out.

I witnessed the Pittsburgh Panthers give up a crucial touchdown to the Boston College Eagles with 7:41 remaining in the 4^th quarter, trailing 16-13. It was a close game from the start. The defense let the Eagles go 86 yards in 7 plays to score. Now the Panthers were down in front of the home crowd.

The Eagles got the ball back with 5:50 remaining and still holding a 3 point lead. The Panther defense could have just focused on only if we did not give that touchdown, what if we had made that play, and all only/what ifs. If they just focused on the ‘what ifs’ and the fear of messing up again, their defense would have been paralyzed.

Instead, they strained to look ahead to give the ball back to their offense. They stopped the Eagles with 3:40 remaining and gave the ball back to their offense. The defense looked ahead!!

Now the Panther offense got the ball back with 3:29 remaining after the punt. After going 4 downs they still could not get a 1^st down and gave the ball back to the Eagles at the 50 yard line with only 2:12 remaining in the game.

By this time some saddened fans were exiting Heinz Field accepting a defeat for the Panthers thinking ‘what if’. In their minds they knew that the Eagles were going to try to run the clock down. Even if the Eagles wanted to score, all they needed to do was advance 20 yards and try for a field goal.

The Panther defense had to make sure that they don’t advance and strained to look ahead to give the offense the ball back again. They did not live in the past but took the opportunity of the present to make a difference. What a difference they made!

 When some gave up on the Panthers, the loyal many remained in their seats hoping for a glimpse of hope. These fans too were looking ahead rather than focusing on what would have been if they got the 4^th down. The defense came up big and stuffed the Eagles and received the ball back with only 1:19 remaining in the game when my brother in Christ, Shuan Robinson returned the punt 10 yards in 9 seconds. The defense had done its part.

They could have dwelled in the past of the moment when they had the ball with 3:29 remaining but rather than doing that, they focused on the present they received and the opportunity they had. They strained to look ahead to score that field goal to tie the game. What an exciting 70 seconds they were. They did not give up and throw the towel neither did the faithful fans!

What ensured was a thrilling 61 seconds, giving David Abdul the opportunity to tie the game. That’s exactly what he did and he tied the game 16-16 with only 5 seconds. Eventually, Pitt won it in OT.

I believe the difference was not living in the past but focusing on the present and straining toward the goal of winning.

I wonder if many of those players had Philippians 3:12-14 in mind when they were playing the last few minutes. I say that because I personally have met many of them and talked to them about Christ and heard them talk about Christ. I guess I will have to wait until I see many of them.

Please Anchor Savior's Truth! (P.A.S.T)/How do you handle the past?

I would like to close with this poem and prayer, I wrote for those who wanted freedom from their past. It is taken from my website at http://www.pitt.edu/~rcrst6/Devotional.html. It is poem #7

Love in Christ,
Ramesh

P.S. Check out the ZanyCrossword puzzle I created for you all.
It is interactive which means you can solve it online.

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