"Instead of fearing death, we should look it in the face and recognize it for what it is--a friend that has come to release us from the bondage of flesh," writes Jo Petty in her 1962 classic Christian advice book, Apples of Gold. "Out of the seed the flower; out of the flower the seed. Out of the need the power; out of the power the deed. If seeds in the black earth can turn into such beautiful roses, what might not the heart of man become in its long journey toward the stars?"
“Trust in the Lord is choosing not to trust in other things,” says Columbus, Ohio preacher David Reid. “When Ephesians 2:9 ends with ‘lest any man should boast,’ what that's telling you is the Word's designed to take every thing you could possibly claim; it is giving up reliance on anything other than Christ.
“Paul’s talking in the present tense in Philippians 3:8 when he says, ‘Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.’
“Do you see how that’s different from verse 7? In Philippians 3:7, he says, ‘But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ,' that's in the past.
“So all those things that were on Paul’s human resume and to his credit, he said, ‘You know what that is? It’s worthless, it’s dung; it does me no good whatsoever.’
"But Philippians was written many, many years after he was saved. He continued to count all of those things loss and then he tells you the reason why: ‘For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.’
“Here’s what he’s saying, and we should believe this but we don’t. He’s saying that as a saved person, you should count EVERYTHING in your life as loss, as dung, in comparison to the ‘excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.’
“You know what happens with us? There’s a lot of things we still esteem. There’s a lot of things that occupy our time, that become obsessions for us, and we don’t really believe that verse that the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ is so surpassing that it makes all the other things in which we spend our time dung.
“Webster 1828 defines excellency as ‘being of great virtue or worth.’ The second definition is ‘distinguished for superior attainments.’ The core of what it means to be excellent is to be superior. It’s something that is better.
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“I think Matthew 13 is an interesting picture of this. This is in the kingdom program, so please don’t misunderstand, but this is a good picture. Matthew 13:44 says, ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.’
“So you find a treasure in a field and it’s just surpassing--it’s beyond anything you’ve ever experienced. It is then a rational decision to sell everything you have; to give up every other possession you have just to get that field because that treasure is so great. That is the same concept that Paul is saying with regard to the ‘excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.’
“Think of it this way. Do we spend a lot our time occupied in worldly stuff that just fascinates us? The point in Philippians 1:10 is not simply to approve things that are different (through right division); it’s to approve things that are excellent; that are superior.
“In life you don’t look to simply be a dispensationalist because being a dispensationalist means you recognize the right division chart and the differences in things over time, but what you do is approve things that are excellent and invest your LIFE in those things. When we make decisions in life, we need to make decisions about what is the best thing. Oftentimes the question we ask is, ‘Is it okay for me to do this?’
“Does scripture tell you to think about life that way?! I Corinthians 6:12 says, ‘All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.’
“Romans 6:4 says, ‘Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.’
“Today, we are not under the law, period. You should make ZERO decisions in life on the basis of whether something is lawful. The fact is you don’t need Scripture to do anything you want; you already DO anything you want.
“By the way, there are consequences for everything you do. When you make bad decisions in life, there’s often physical consequences. You harm your body. There’s legal consequences. There’s reputational consequences. There’s consequences at the Judgment Seat of Christ.
“I Corinthians 6 says ‘all things are lawful to me but all things are not expedient.’ That’s the test! I Corinthians 7:23 says, ‘Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.’
“The idea there is, forget lawfulness as the test; the test is expediency. The word ‘expedient’ means literally ‘hastening, urging forward. Useful, profitable.’ In other words, does it move the ball forward?
"There’s a lot of things we do in life that just don’t advance the cause of Christ. It’s not expedient because it doesn’t contribute to our edification or the edification of others in the Body of Christ. It doesn’t lead to someone getting the gospel.”
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