"Still more, everything seems to me, as nothing, compared with the knowledge of CHRIST JESUS, my LORD. For HIS sake, I have let everything fall away, and I now consider all as garbage, if, instead, I may gain CHRIST. May I be found in HIM, not having a righteousness of my own, that comes from the law, but with the righteousness that GOD gives, to those who believe.
May I know HIM, and experience the power of HIS resurrection, and share in HIS sufferings, and become like HIM, in HIS death, and attain, through this, GOD willing, the resurrection from the dead!
I do not believe I have already reached the goal, nor do I consider myself perfect, but I press on till I conquer CHRIST JESUS, as I have already been conquered by HIM. No, brothers and sisters, I do not claim to have claimed the prize yet. I say only this: forgetting what is behind me, I race forward, and run toward the goal, my eyes on the prize, to which GOD has called us from above, in CHRIST JESUS." - Philippians 3:8-14
(When JESUS forcefully entered into Paul's life, it was a matter of losing all and Paul from then on accepted to regard as garbage all that he had been proud of.
Forgetting what is behind me. Paul only wanted to "forget." Forget his merits and his gains [in the judgment of others] so as to receive more fully the free grace of GOD; forget what he already knew of GOD and be available for new experiences.
The greatest thing for Christians is not to perform miracles, or to speak in tongues, but to know CHRIST and meet HIM as a living person. May I know HIM and experience the power of HIS resurrection. All of us would like to feel the presence of GOD and to see HIM in some way, but the way to experience HIS power that transfigures us is by sharing in CHRIST's sufferings [2 Corinthians 1:3-5].)
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