Pastor Barry's "Chapter & Verse"  Day 74

March 15;     Philippians 3:10;    74/260(II);    ‘The Heart of Paul’

Philippians 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,

The Apostle Paul is giving us insight into himself.  Since the Holy Spirit is the Author of the Bible, what Paul has written had to be in obedience to what the Spirit of God inspired him to write.  Paul was a Pharisee, incredibly taught the religion of the Jews by their finest scholars.  He was extremely zealous in persecuting the Church and was proud in ‘keeping the Law.’  Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus and everything changed.  Paul lost everything he had worked for so diligently as a Pharisee and considered the loss of all of that as if losing rubbish.  Once he met Jesus, nothing else mattered.  Paul took the same zeal he had for his religious training and persecution of Christians into his work for the Lord Jesus.  His results and attitude are staggering.  Paul forgot all about the lie of being righteous by keeping the Law.  He was taught by the Holy Spirit that no one was.  He now knew that the righteousness he had was by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ’s finished work on Paul’s behalf.  This epistle (letter) was written after Paul had been in the ministry, doing his apostolic work for many years.  Paul was in jail at the time the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write this epistle.  How can you not be humbled by this man’s attitude after years of ministry, many, many hardships and now imprisonment.  Yet the cry of Paul’s heart still is that he may know the Lord.  If anyone knew the Lord it was Paul and yet he wanted to know Him more.  Paul craved the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and was willing to be persecuted.  Christ died for Paul and Paul willingly gave his life for Jesus.  Wow!