For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain Philippians 1:21

The above text has both a present and a future dimension. Both are vital to the believer. But why is it Christians tend to find great comfort in the latter, future aspect, but at the same time go soft on the present, “to live is Christ”?

It has been rightly said, “If you aim at nothing in life, that’s exactly what you will hit.” But this should not be so among believers. Yet I see more and more believers ‘lowering their sights’ in order to achieve worldly targets that perish, rather than ‘going for gold’ which is of heavenly and eternal value.

We were reminded recently at our InStep Conference that worldliness is a sure, although subtle, killer of any local church. But how do we define worldliness? I believe as Christians we tend to have a legalistic take on worldliness. This lacks the depth of understanding on our part in order to deal with it properly in our own lives.

Well another InStep conference is over and again as God’s ‘children’ we were spiritually fed and challenged. The truth we all were confronted with must not be allowed to sit in the back of our minds to slowly be forgotten. As the text above tells us - there are dire consequences for not being obedient to the commands of the Lord.

Many associate the idea of ‘revival’ with yesteryear when revival campaigns were held by many evangelical churches in order to usher in the Spirit to bring about salvation to needy souls. Besides the truth that the Holy Spirit moves of His own accord and upon who He wills, when He wills (John 3:8), the Lord has seen fit to use some of those occasions to bring about His redemptive purposes in people’s lives. But when we think about revival, let us not be casting it away as something that was the ‘in thing’ back in yesteryear. Revival should be the hearts desire of every believer. 

“…I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18.

What awesome truth these words disclose concerning our Lord Jesus. We know these words well, we have read them often, and we freely testify that they are absolutely true. But how come we can so easily give mental acknowledgement to the veracity of such truth, without it changing and transforming us, as truth about Christ should?

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When we think of the intercessory work of Jesus Christ, we tend to think of this only in relation to our need for forgiveness of sins. It's almost as if we see Jesus continually pleading our case before God the Judge in order to guarantee atonement has been made for our sins. But this is not correct.

I find that many people are quite willing to discuss matters of faith, God, the bible, miracles, religion and even Jesus Christ. But you often come to a screaming halt in conversation when the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is claimed as truth.

Over the years I have heard my share of criticisms and reasons for why certain people think the church is weak, ineffective, and deficient. These often come from the ‘sideline’ with supposedly good intentions, but I rarely see these same people become willingly involved in fixing the problem.

"He is also the head of the body; the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he Himself will come to have first place in everything."

The above text is in reference to Jesus Christ. But please note the tenses used in this verse. Twice it is stated what Jesus “is” before we have an eschatological reference introduced by the word “will.”

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