Snow, we all seem to have had lots of it. For the home schoolers, physics has suddenly become a popular subject as youngsters and their parents venture outside, sledge in hand to measure the force of gravity and kinetic energy as they slide down the nearest hill. No doubt there have also been a few biology lessons as people learn the proper name for the area of their body where they now have a nice contusion! For others, snow can be a bit of an anxiety inducer, given it makes moving about outside a bit of a challenge.
But whether we love the snow, or perhaps just wish it would go away… we can all agree that to look out on the world covered with a fresh blanket of snow is to look upon beauty.
Change that lasts?
Yet, the transformation snow brings is fleeting. It only momentarily hides the potholes in the road, the discarded plastic bottles, crisp packets, and other litter that is all so common. When the snow melts, this rubbish becomes all too visible to us again. This Sunday at QPLive we will be looking at Philippians 3: 1-9 where Paul talks about rubbish. Not the kind we find littering our streets and countryside, but anything, … everything that tries to present itself as the basis for his identity, the foundation of his sense of worth or his standing before God, that is not Jesus Christ.
Letting Go
Paul uses the language of loss in order to gain Christ. The loss he is talking about is not like losing a key, rather the kind of loss Paul describes is closer to a letting go. Paul seems to be saying that if we are to hold onto Christ or to use Paul’s words “gain Christ”, then we need to let go of other stuff. That sounds hard… but Paul encourages us, gives us some good news… the stuff we need to let go of, when compared to knowing Christ, when compared to being found in him, that stuff is like rubbish. Not the kind of rubbish that gets hidden temporarily with snow, but something we fundamentally get rid of and are released from. That sounds like good news to me, I pray it sounds like good news to you!
Questions
As you read and think about Philippians 3: 1-9 for Sunday, why don’t you write a note to yourself so you remember QPLive will start at 10:15am not 10:30am. We have integrated the sung worship into the one service, so there will no longer be a separate worship video before QPLive. As well as writing yourself a note to remember the time change, why don’t you, as you read and think about Philippians 3: I-9 ponder these questions.
- What does it mean to gain Christ and be found in him?
- Is Paul asking the impossible of us? Practically, what can we do individually and as a community of believers, to “let go of the rubbish”, so that all of who we are is to be found in Christ?
New QPLive Start Time!
So, I’m looking forward to sharing with you from Philippians 3, and please remember the new start time of 10:15am for QPLive.
See you Sunday.
Brodie