[p11] beautiful things.

So after a rough night of struggling with loneliness, I woke up ready for more Passion. We parked farther (but it was free!) and were a little late to morning CG session, but it's okay.

Our focus in morning community groups was Phil. 2:1-11...mmm, what a good passage.
"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
He opened with a reference to the Spartans and their warrior mindset; some points that really struck me:
They had focus and unity.
Their motto: "My sword is for my enemy, but my shield is for my brother."
They moved as one body and thus were a formidable, undefeatable force. What would we look like as the body of Christ if we lived in complete unity with one another, focused on the one prize we are all called to?
Why do we run after empty glory? Clamor only leads to trample. We are called to be citizens of heaven, even as we live our lives here on earth.


Man...there's just so much in that passage. Reflecting on it brought/brings me to tears. How could Jesus, our Savior and King, bear to humiliate Himself--in infinite condescension--to our level? And at the same time, He did not consider or use to His advantage the fact that He is God...wow. That blows me away. His name truly is the name above every name. What an honor to bear that name :)


How do you dislodge a beautiful thing from the heart? By replacing it with something even more beautiful.