Philippians 2:13-16
Have you heard the song, “I am a
Promise. I am a Possibility. I am a promise with a capital
"P." I am a great big bundle of potentiality, and I am learning
to hear God's voice, and I am trying to make the right choice. I am a promise
to be anything God wants me to be.”
If you and I who claim the name of Christ believed that little
song that is often sung by children, not adults, then we would be used of God
to be world changers. It is so
important that we go back to the basics, it is said that after five world
championships, Vince Lombardi began every practice with “gentlemen, this is a
football.” It was going back to
the basics, the fundamentals of the game, and that is never been more needed
than in today’s church.
So let’s address the fundamentals of the Christian life,
verse 13 does a great job of giving us the bottom line, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good
pleasure.” Just the
facts, it is not you its God, if you can do it then you have no need of
God. Not one thing is going to
happen in the spiritual life of your church unless it is the will and work of
God! And I hope this does not come
as to much a shock, but it happens for His good pleasure, it pleases God. It may please God to put you in a
desert for forty years as He did to His friend Moses. It may please God to put you in prison as He did His servant
Joseph, or to make you king as He did for the keeper of sheep, the man we call
King David.
One of the fundamentals is coming to the Father as a child;
many of us have become grumblers, we question everything, we know what we like
and do not like, and many of us are so polluted by the world and it’s system
that we believe God is like us.
But verse 15 is clear on these basic fundamentals; we must come to God
as blameless and innocent children.
“Do all things without grumbling or
questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without
blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine
as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of
Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” (Philippians
2:14-16)
Paul is telling us that someday you and I and he will stand
before Christ, and his hope and prayer is that his investment in the churches
of Philippi and all who read this will not try to invent some new way to be
light in this crooked and twisted generation, but will go back to the basics.
You’re a Promise. You are a Possibility. You’re a promise with a capital
"P." You’re a great big bundle of potentiality, and my prayer
is that you and I are learning to hear God's voice, and in doing so, we make
the right choice to believe that you and I can be anything God wants us to be.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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