Book: Philippians

Because Christ’s return is imminent – the Lord is at hand – and he is present with us now, we are not to be anxious about anything. If during our moments of anxiety we could see Jesus sitting next to us, ready to take our hand, would that not be a comfort to us? And yet, he is indeed ready to do that through the gift of prayer.

Though the enemies of the cross shall wish to steal everything from you, they can only steal those earthly things which they hold valuable. But in imitating the saints and martyrs like Saint Paul, we will desire something greater, giving us a Faith in Christ, which can never be taken from us.

Christ’s example of willing obedience, as extolled here in the hymn of Christ – is the ultimate demonstration of God’s divine love. True love cannot be separated from the freedom of our will.

God’s justice is perfect and His generosity inexhaustible. If God’s justice and mercy do not align with our own limited understanding, therefore, then we should challenge ourselves to think differently. In so doing, may God increase our trust in Him, even when we do not understand His ways; increase our love of heavenly things; and increase the joy of our salvation in Jesus Christ.

This greatest and most important spectacle – the celebration of Holy Week, culminating in the glory of Easter, portrays all that was, all that is, and all that is to be in the drama of our salvation.

Beloved, the Church is the only place where people can find true healing and refuge from the failings of a fallen world. We have an obligation to stand as outposts of truth and sanity amid a culture that is losing its collective grip on reality. This requires the Church to no longer abandon her simple duty to point out what is right and wrong, even when it is “controversial.” Our call to embrace the incarnate life, then, is to accept our duty as the Church – to be the hands and feet of Christ in our communities.

God spoke the universe into existence. God created all we can and cannot see. This same Divinity broke into time and space, born of a Pure Virgin, to save all of humanity. But we in our folly refuse to accept this glorious truth while at the same time believing we will make science fiction a reality. This contradiction must not be so for the professing Christian.

Paul explains to the Philippians how Christ is the ultimate example of counting others as more significant than yourself. Christ’s entire life, in fact, was singularly oriented toward His willing humiliation and death on the Cross, a perfect sacrifice for our sins, to the Glory of God the Father. Jesus, of all people to ever live, had every excuse and every means to exalt himself and save his life, and yet He laid His life down without grumbling or complaining. Let us examine ourselves, therefore, against Christ’s perfect standard of humility.

The LORD says through the prophet Isaiah, “I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert… for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise” (Isaiah 43:19, 21). We all have wilderness experiences in our lives, but God will never leave us or forsake us, and it is the mark of the Christian to praise God even when everything life appears to be going wrong.