FTW! (For the win, for the people unsure what it means)

So I guess sometimes better think stuff through before making promises, but I still think there is room on this blog for more religious content!

One of my favourite books in the bible is Philippians and have spent a lot of time over the years dipping in and out of this book. Something I have pondered recently is one verse, which is probably the most well-known let’s face it!

“To live is Christ and to die is gain” – Philippians 1:21 (NKJV)

We are often asked the questions, do we want life or death? Do we want lightness and darkness? Red or blue pill (Matrix reference, more asking do we want a life with Christ or without, knowing the full truth or not knowing anything about the truth)? For some, especially those who haven’t really read this before may think that living for Christ is constricting and laboursome and therefore would want the prize in death. With life it is often linked to suffering, Paul wrote the book of Philippians whilst in prison and would have experienced suffering, so how can this be for Christ?

But God blesses us through Good and the bad, we are lead through the valley of the shadow of death by our good shepherd who holds out his hand to us all when we go through hardships, whether we take his hand is another matter. But it is a blessing on many levels to suffer for Christ, since your faith is tested and will become stronger, who can say their faith has just got stronger, it is only through the storm where our faith is developed. Later on in Philippians Paul writes that he longs to experience the suffering of Jesus (Philippians 3:8-10), which to us may seem strange and maybe crazy that a person longs to suffer, however from this his faith is developed and made stronger, as well as being reminded of the incredible stress, pain, torment, abandonment, despised, and suffering of our saviour, Christ.

But in the good, we are blessed with the good and we can grow closer in our relationship with Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

Which leads on, relating to the previous blog post (despite being christmas related it is well worth reading, read it here if you haven’t https://thisisjoelc.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/christmas-motivation-2/, that everyday should be for the Glory of Christ (1 Corinthians 10:31).

There is so much more on the subject, but time is precious, I am going to do something brave now, and hand the say over to you the readers. Here are a couple of questions to mull over,

1. How do you feel about being blessed during our struggles?
2. Can you give glory to God during your struggles?
3. What are your thoughts on this verse/passage?

Later on Paul writes

 “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. ²³ I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. ²⁴ But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account. ²⁵ Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your progress and joy in the faith, ²⁶ so that in me you may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again.” – Philippians 1: 22-26

Dig into this and let this be our prayer that we as children of God we would experience the joy of knowing Christ as our saviour and considering all as loss in comparison to knowing Christ Jesus (Philippians 3)

The blog post should rather be called ‘FCW – For Christs Win!’ as it is not for our own glory but Christs which this message is about.

Tags: book of philippians, christ jesus, FCW, For the win, FTW, Glory to God, Paul, Philippians 1, saviour christ, valley of the shadow, valley of the shadow of death