the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
John Gossner's Treasury
Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14. I count all things but loss that I may win Christ and be found in him. Philippians 3:8-9.
You seek many things; you strive to obtain everything. Yet, one thing you lack: a prize in which everything is contained. If you do not seek and find this, you will at last possess nothing, because you do not possess that without which everything is nothing. Do you not know that no man, "having put his hand to the plough, and looking back," is fit for the kingdom of God? Forward! Before you lies the prize. Do not look back for that which Hes behind you. "Let everything lie and follow me," Jesus calls to you from above; He urges upon you this one thing. Count everything that is called gain on earth but loss. There is only one gain. Christ gained, all is gained; Christ lost, all is lost. How much still lies in your mind and in your desire! He who presses forward to a given mark, has this mark only before his eye; for as soon as he loses sight of this mark, he runs the risk of getting farther away from the mark instead of getting closer to it, or to get in upon by-ways, or to take steps that are in vain. Ours is a heavenly, a divine calling, and therefore our mind, our effort, our whole existence and activity, ought also to be directed to heaven, to God, to Christ. Away, world! away, sin! away, honor and licentiousness! away, everything, from my mind and heart! Christ, be Thou alone my mark, my prize, for which I strive until I possess Thee wholly, and am wholly found in Thee.
We wait for Thee; here Thou hast won
Our hearts to hope and duty;
But while our spirits feel Thee near,
Our eyes would see Thy beauty;
We fain would be at rest with Thee
In peace and joy supernal,
In glorious life eternal.
