For thought and meditation

[rl69]

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.—Philippians 2:12–13 (http://harvest.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=4f108f827aed8d503b5fca9fa&id=cef1ec4b04&e=3dd732485b)There was a special bond between Paul and the believers in Philippi. They were in great agony over the fact that Paul was in prison and could not be with them. So Paul was saying, "I don't want you to lower your guard spiritually, even if I am not around. I don't want you go into some kind of a spiritual cruise control and not continue to move forward."

Paul wanted the believers to stand on their own two feet spiritually. How were they to do this? We see the answer in verse 12: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."

This doesn't say to work for your own salvation. It says to work out your own salvation. This phrase, "work out," means, "to carry it to the goal and fully complete it." In the original language, the phrase also could be translated to mean working a mine, as in mining for gold.

God wants us to carry on to the goal and fully complete our own salvation. In recognition of what God has done for us, we have to realize that He has placed the mother lode of His grace and forgiveness in our lives. We need to mine it. We need to discover it. We need to appropriate it. We need to carry it to the goal.

That may seem like a tall order. It is. But let's not forget verse 13: "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure."

Remember, the calling of God is the enabling of God. If God asks you to do something, then He will give you the power to do it.

[USMC87]

Amen, Taught very well within the context.

[square butte]

Thank you rl - Good start for this mornin

[Blackwater]

What a poignant and timely lesson! This country has for years, been grieving and losing faith in our nation. We have been given an 11th hour reprieve now. I just hope we can learn from this lesson, not to ever lose our faith or keep striving and witnessing and studying to show ourselves approved. It matters more than we usually relize, and all we have to do is look back on our own history, and how when we disengaged from the mechanism of our governance, things got so consistently worse and worse. We are NOT "above" taking part in our governance, PARTICULARLY when it's sliding off into oblivion!

God reached down His mighy hand this time, and saved us from ourselves and our ennui. It's up to US, now, to keep the ball rolling that He has so graciouisly given us just now. All praise and honor be to His holy name, and all credit be to our Lord, and not to us. All we really CAN do is just follow the inestimably good advice and counsel He has given us. Do this, and our nation will thrive again. Neglect it, or not do it for whatever reasons we can conjur up, and we will fall right back into the cesspool, and in so doing, we'll condemn our younger loved ones to never having the chance to know 1/10th of what we have. Folks my age have been called the "war babies," and the "ME generation." We need to finally find our purpose in this life, and it's NOT to just lay back and live off the fat of the land. We have been blessed like no other generation before us, ,and we've failed to ensure our young have been truly educated, and have allowed them instead to be indoctrinated into the godless ways of PC. We have been so aloof that we disengaged from the processes that control us, and determine what we and our progeny are faced with. How could it not go so terrribly wrong when we've done THAT????

It's time to take a lesson from Paul as he wrote to the Phillippians. It's not very flattering to my generation, but it's STILL the best advice and counsel we could ever get. I pray we have the wherewithall to heed it, at long last. Blessed be the name of our Lord! Amen.