--The Urgent Call ~~

~"I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
---(Philippians 3:14)

AS I WAITED to board my flight in the Atlanta airport, I noticed a man walking hurriedly down the concourse. He was taking as long a stride a he could without actually running. His wheeled suitcase clicked rapidly across the occasional tiled crosswalk. He pulled out his phone now and again to check the fleeting time. With his coat flying out behind him, the man bent forward in an urgency to get to his gate before the flight left without him Urgency! We all face moments when we wish we had more time, so we press forward with an earnest desire to accomplish all that we can in the time we have left. We place our faith in this world rather than in God's Word.

Today's key verse speaks of pressing toward the mark for the prize of our high calling. That word press is translate form the same Greek word that is rendered persecuted in Acts 22:4, where Paul was describing how he had pursued the Christians. Before his conversion, Paul was urgent in his quest to eliminate what he perceived as a threat to the Jewish religion. Now he was telling the believers to exercise the same urgency for God's kingdom!

Why have so many professing believers today succumbed to spiritual lethargy and apathy? Those who are casual and careless about the Christian life will not make in the the end! This world's culture will diminish our sense of urgency if we focus on the material and sensual aspects of life. The effects of that are all too evident in Christianity today. The high calling of God is an urgent call to walk closely and intimately with God. ~~

--'Beside Still Waters/' NS

--"What Faith Can Do" // Kutless (lyric video) <https://youtu.be/3BQUAfC2jhU>
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