Passion 2011: First Session
Doesn't this verse often rank in the, "oh yeah, I know this verse" category? How many times have I come across this verse and read over it quickly, because I'd let familiarity slip in and blind me to the meaning behind this verse? Too many times.
I find this verse so hard to grasp because, for one, it is so grammatically strange.
"To live is Christ."
Whhaat...?
"To die is gain."
I'd never really heard much of an explanation of this verse besides, while you life, live for Christ's glory and when you die, rejoice because you will be with Christ. And while this may be true, it didn't carry that much weight for some reason. But sitting in the Fort Worth Convention Center that first night of Passion, flipped this verse upside down and inside out for me. With some simple sentences, Louie Giglio shed light on this verse in a new way.
"I think Christians today have flip-flopped this verse. We say, 'For to me to live is gain and to die is Christ.' You see, we believe that we're living to LIVE and to get as much out of life, to GAIN during this life, but when death comes along, we're not TOO sad, because we still get Jesus after a long, successful life."
I shifted in my seat and allowed that sentence to sift through my mind. Was that what was happening? We were living to gain and then dying for Christ? Was I living to gain? My thoughts raced, skidding to a stop at my dreams and goals and ambitions. I want to live and make a lasting impact on this world. I want to live long enough to see a dent in poverty, to see the captives free, to see lives transformed. I want to be a mother, a wife. I want to live.
And while I think we are meant to live life-- and to live it abundantly (John 10:10)-- this cannot be the be all, end all. I cannot be more preoccupied with living so I can do things for Christ, than living so I can glorify him through everything. My ultimate reward, my prize worth living for, is my precious Savior. The things of this world ought to grow strangely dim when I contemplate his glory.
"To live is Christ," I whispered, "and to die is gain."
Oh Jesus, that I may live only for you, that you would be my supreme treasure, that I may live knowing that if I died today, I missed out on nothing because I have you.
I shifted in my seat and allowed that sentence to sift through my mind. Was that what was happening? We were living to gain and then dying for Christ? Was I living to gain? My thoughts raced, skidding to a stop at my dreams and goals and ambitions. I want to live and make a lasting impact on this world. I want to live long enough to see a dent in poverty, to see the captives free, to see lives transformed. I want to be a mother, a wife. I want to live.
And while I think we are meant to live life-- and to live it abundantly (John 10:10)-- this cannot be the be all, end all. I cannot be more preoccupied with living so I can do things for Christ, than living so I can glorify him through everything. My ultimate reward, my prize worth living for, is my precious Savior. The things of this world ought to grow strangely dim when I contemplate his glory.
"To live is Christ," I whispered, "and to die is gain."
Oh Jesus, that I may live only for you, that you would be my supreme treasure, that I may live knowing that if I died today, I missed out on nothing because I have you.
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