You have a calling....an upward calling of God

There comes a time in a man's life when all he has is his faith, not his feeling, not his relationships, nor even his possessions that remind Him of past success.  Sure, I want intimacy with God....but do I demand it?

• Do I require signs for my faith to be sustained?  
• Do I love the Lord enough to strain forward DESPITE the void behind?
• Do I believe in Him enough to smile to Him when all seems lost?
• Is my faith strong enough to care about the lives of others when my life seems to need so much attention?

Later this month the Calvary Baptist teens are going on a trip, and they have been asked by the youth pastor (Brian Hall) to remember this verse as a prerequisite.  It seems to be a prerequisite to so much more.... straining forward to what lies ahead. 

    "But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

    Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

(Philippians 3:7-14 ESV)

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