Fear not, focus on the cross

Wednesday March 3rd, Philippians 3: 17 Christian sisters and brothers, live your lives as I have lived mine. Watch those who live as I have taught you to live. 18 There are many whose lives show they hate the cross of Christ. I have told you this before. Now I tell you again with tears in my eyes. 19 Their god is their stomach. They take pride in things they should be ashamed of. All they think about are the things of this world. The ones Paul is talking about would include some of us all the time and all of us some of the time. We do tend to get overly concerned about how we are going to make it in this world and a bit underly concerned about the calling of the next. We are not alone. When Jesus died on the cross, he died alone and forsaken, all had fallen away. Keep your eyes on the cross, sooner or later we all get there, the gift is walking with Jesus along the way. When we divert our eyes on all the cares and concerns of this world, we lose sight of the cross, we lose sight of Christ. When we are so blinded by politically partisan or ecclesiastically partisan fights, it is simply the tempter trying, and succeeding in turning out eyes away from the cross, away from Christ. Keep your eyes and your heart and your soul focused on the cross, on Christ and you will not lose your way, and along the road, your enemy will become your brother or sister.