February 1, 2025 -- Philippians 1:22-25 -- Ambassadors of the King

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit’s power: Sh’ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

If I am to live in the flesh that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which shall I choose, I can not tell. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith...    Philippians 1:22-25 ESV
 
What glorious confidence Paul has in Jesus. Life, even life as a man who is wrongly incarcerated but serving this time so that Jesus will be made known to people who otherwise couldn’t be reached, is fruitful labor for him. He is writing to people who need his counsel, prayers, and encouragement. So, he knows for now God will keep him alive.
 
What is striking is the repetition of the theme found one verse before, “For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain” (verse 21). In fact, the prospect of death is not fearful or loathsome to him because he knows Jesus is present while he lives and when he dies faith will become seeing. He will be in the blessed presence of Jesus. What joy fills Paul at contemplating this glorious truth.
 
My question for you today is this: do you see your life as filled with opportunities for serving Jesus at every moment, day and night? Do you live with the great awareness He is near, in fact, it is His Spirit Who fills you? Perhaps the Christian’s contemplation of his own death is so fearsome among believers because there is not, right now, a living knowledge of Jesus?
 
Perhaps, my dear fellow Christian, you are drifting aimlessly because there is no clear sense of the person, or people God, is calling on you to minister to. No sense that there are people who now, in this life, long for Jesus, even though they have not yet met Him, He has planted this desire in them. He has appointed you as His ambassador. Show them Jesus. An ambassador loves his country, delights in the king of the land. At the command of the king, he goes to others as the representative of the crown, proclaiming the wonders of citizenship in that Promised Land. He defends that beautiful land from the scoffing ignorance of those not yet familiar with it. He speaks, glowingly, of the king and his beauty. He serves willingly as an ambassador, but longs for the day when he will be recalled to that beautiful land so that he himself, having completed his abroad, can be with the king.
 
Father in heaven, by Your Spirit, show me Jesus as the King of Peace, splendid in beauty. At the mention of His Name stir within my soul, Spirit of Jesus, instilling in me a holy longing to know Him far better. Help me, as one who has a profound, lively connection with Him, to be an ambassador for Christ. Amen.
https://youtu.be/odKxftGhVRE?si=frbZ-LFr4apo6EOf The King in All His Beauty
 

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