Knowing Him, continued

Philippians 3 has always been one of my 2 favorite chapters of the Bible (the other is Ps. 139)

Whatsoever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss . . . that I may gain Christ . . . that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings . . . Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I love that stuff. I think I was always impressed that Paul, while writing the Bible, said he didn't have it yet, but was pressing on. That's humility. But for the first time, I was struck by the next part of the passage:

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude . . . For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

I'm leaving parts out for brevity's sake (you can look up the whole chapter if you want to). But he is saying that we should have this attitude, and that of those who don't have it, many have become enemies of the cross. What attitude? The attitude of pressing in to know Christ, of calling everything garbage compared to knowing Jesus. That's what I think anyway.

As I said in my last post, I have recently been struck by 1) the number of young people who have been brought up before the Lord and have walked away; 2) the condition of the kids my kids have grown up around - kids who have seemed to be in a good place, but for whom I see a slow creep; and 3) the condition of my kids, who I think walk near to the Lord because they are near to their dad and me, and we are near Him, but I find myself asking the question, "Do they know Him?"

Because every waking moment, every home school hour logged, every diaper changed, every contraction in every labor is all grief if one of my jewels doesn't know the One who made them in His image.

So what is my response to all this heaviness?

Well, I'm praying and will pray and then will continue in prayer.

Also, I'm going to continue to and increase in my efforts to bathe them in the Word of God.

And I'm talking to them about it, challenging them. I cannot control their response, but I am showing the question. The Matrix's blue and red pill are out on the coffee table (figuratively - we don't have a coffee table, and if we had pills sitting out, someone would eat them).

ALL things are rubbish in view of knowing Christ.