I Press Toward The Mark!

I was reflecting on St.Paul's life and was reading Philippians 3. It always amazes me how fast his transition was after The Lord put him on the ground on the Damascus road. After spending 15 years with Christ and now being hounded himself for Christ's sake, he writes this wonderful letter to the Philippians Christians. My favorite verses are in chapter 3. His love for Christ is so apparent in this chapter.
Paul counts all his worldly possessions as loss and as dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord. He doesn't want his own righteousness, only that which is through the faith in Christ. Verse 10 That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformable unto His death. Verse 14 says I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. That means we are to die to ourselves and be as Christ is. We are to get out of the way so The Holy Spirit can work through us to guide others to His Cross and thus find our lives in Him at the same time. This mark is so different than the one the anti-christ will require in our right hands and forhead. For it is the mark in our hearts and minds, bearing the very image of Christ.
We also see in verses 17-21 that we are to mark those who walk contrary to Christ and His Gospel, who are the enemies of His Cross, whose god is their bellies, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things.
There is no more urgent message than to die to ourselves and be conformed to His Image, Romans 8:29. Life can ONLY spring out of crucifixion, there is no resurrection without death, John 12: 24-26 and John 3:30. Beloved, we MUST DIE TO OURSELVES!!!
Through out the entire New Testament there is this theme over and over again. It is a theme so important that He must repeat it. For you see that the flesh of man is so strong and evil that He must make it perfectly clear. He destroyed the earth with a flood because of man's evil ways and soon He will destroy it by fire. We must come to Him, who gave His blood for the remission of sin. His blood is The ONLY Thing that has the power to put an end to our sinful ways.
So at this wonderful season, please remember the reason.