April 23, 2025 -- Philippians 4:1 -- Follow the trail

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Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and my crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.
Philippians 4:1 ESV
 
For the last eight verses Paul has been urging the believers at Philippi to focus on the goal, the upward prize of knowing Jesus Christ. He gives a final summary to keep going in this direction as in the next sentence the letter will take a different direction. It is his clear warning to avoid idolatry, any substitute Christianity.

You might feel a bit smug and secure here. I am a Christian and faithful. Are you really? Consider these words:
Some of us attend the church on the corner, professing to worship the
living God above all. Others, who rarely darken the church doors, would
say worship isn’t a part of their lives because they aren’t “religious,”
but everybody has an altar. And every altar has a throne. So how do you
know where and what you worship? It’s easy. You simply follow the trail
of your time, your affection, your energy, your money, and your allegiance.
At the end of that trail you’ll find a throne; and whatever, or whomever,
is on that throne is what’s of highest value to you. On that throne is what
you worship. Sure, not too many of us walk about saying, “I worship my
stuff. I worship my job. I worship pleasure. I worship her. I worship my
body. I worship me.” But the trail never lies. We may say we value this
thing or that thing more than any other, but the volume of our actions
speaks louder than our words. In the end, our worship is more about what
we do than what we say.
Louie Giglio, as quoted by Brad Bigney, in
“Gospel Treason: betraying the gospel with hidden idols” page 117.
 
Spend a few minutes today and follow the trail. Ask yourself, what can easily displace my schedule, my plans, my finances. What is it that upsets my thoughts, my attitudes, my mood? When you’ve encountered your idol, whatever it is, are you prepared to tear it down so that you will stand firm in the Lord?
 
O Father,
Thou hast made man for the glory of thyself,
and when not an instrument of that glory, he is a thing of nought;
No sin is greater than the sin of unbelief,
for if union with Christ is the greatest good,
unbelief is the greatest sin, as being cross to thy command;
I see that whatever my sin is, yet no sin is like disunion from Christ by unbelief.
Lord, keep me from committing the greatest sin in departing from him,
for I can never in this life perfectly obey and cleave to Christ.
When thou takest away my outward blessings,
it is for sin, in not acknowledging that all that I have is of thee,
in not serving thee through what I have, in making myself secure and hardened.
Lawful blessings are the secret idols, and do most hurt;
the greatest injury is in the having, the greatest good in the taking away.
In love divest me of blessings that I may glorify thee the more;
remove the fuel of my sin,
and may I prize the gain of a little holiness as overbalancing all my losses.
The more I love thee with a truly gracious love the more I desire to love thee,
and the more miserable I am at my want of love;
The more I hunger and thirst after thee, the more I faint and fail in finding thee,
The more my heart is broken for sin, the more I pray it may be far more broken.
My great evil is that I do not remember the sins of my youth,
nay, the sins of one day I forget the next.
Keep me from all things that turn to unbelief
or lack of felt union with Christ.
“Union with Christ” from Valley of Vision
 
https://youtu.be/Uibmo9aQAlQ?si=cJlXls9yLJEwuICW Whiter than snow
 

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