The Daily Word of Righteousness

Removing the Things That Offend, continued

What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8—NIV)

Is Jesus Christ your ticket to Paradise or is He the Goal of your existence apart from any reward in Paradise?

This is worth thinking about.

If Christ is your ticket to Paradise you will go through life making your circumstances as pleasant as possible for yourself while you wait to die and go to Paradise. Death has become your redeemer.

But if Christ is the goal of your life, as He was the goal of Paul's life, then every moment of every day and every night you are seeking to gain more of Christ; more of Christ; more of Christ.

Why? Because possessing Christ is an end in itself. It is enough that we are in Him and He in us. Do we truly love Jesus or is He the means we use to get what we want? A very interesting and significant question in our day.

When we have our pass out of Hell and our ticket to Paradise we don't want to hear about being saved by fiery trials, by the removing of the filth of our personality. Why should we listen to such negative teaching? Aren't we going to go to Paradise by Divine grace, by the blood of Christ?

But if Christ is our goal, then we hasten to judgment, we run to the fire so all that is not of Christ may be burned out of us. We are not trying to get to Heaven we are trying to gain Christ!

Also, we love the approval of God because the more of Christ we have in us the more we realize God is our Father. We are so desperate to please God that no dealing of God is rejected by us. We want more of God; more of God; more of God. We love to live in God's fire. Like David we desire that the Lord search and see if there is any wicked way in us.

How about you? Are you a disciple or merely a churchgoer? Know that we are in the valley of decision today. The sinners are going to be gathered out of the Kingdom. Separation is on the way. The path of the Lord must be made straight. Let the holy be holy and the filthy be filthy. We must be burning hot or freezing cold before the Lord returns. All that is crooked must be made straight. All stumbling blocks must be removed from before the King of Glory.

We need to revise our understanding of what salvation is. Salvation is the removal of that which is of Satan from our personality and the filling of our personality with Jesus Christ.

There will be no tares, no sin whatever in the Kingdom of God. But not all believers will reap the same amount of Christ, as we have said previously.

The parable of the sower speaks of thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Since Christ was referring to the fruit borne from the Divine Seed we know we are speaking of thirtyfold of Christ, sixtyfold of Christ, and a hundredfold reaping of Christ.

The "threeness" invites comparison with the Tabernacle of the Congregation. The Tabernacle of the Congregation comprises three major sections: the Courtyard, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies.

As we see it at this time, the Courtyard of the Tabernacle refers to the saved nations of the earth. The nations of saved people will have a portion of Christ or else they would not be part of the Kingdom of God and Christ, the Kingdom that will supplant the kingdoms of the present world.

To be continued.