What's your Goal?

Wow, so it's been a while since I last posted and it's completely my fault. January and February were pretty rough months with work. I put in a lot of hours and worked on the weekends pretty much every weekend. I even missed mid-week on Wednesdays and church on Sunday's which certainly is not healthy for my soul. The body is important and at some points I felt disconnected from the body. Fallen. Broken. Depressed. And when I felt like this, I was tempted to sin.

1 Corinthians 12-27 states:

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

So whats my goal? Well, first of all, I don't want to miss church on Sundays or mid-week on Wednesdays. 2 or 3 years ago, even a year ago, if I was asked this question, I would have told you that my goals were those of this earth. Money, greed, pleasure, etc. Earthly desires...nothing but sin.

But now, my goal is to understand Christ. Develop a relationship with him. All of this earth around us is temporary. Nothing lasts forever. The only thing that will last forever is that not of this world. But of another. And I want to make every effort to build my wealth in heaven, not of this earth.

Just as Paul wrote in Philippians chapter 3:

Pressing toward the Goal
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it,but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you. But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.

Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

So what's your goal I ask. I sometimes fall into that category where Paul writes that "they think only about this life here on earth." So many times, this was my path. I didn't think getting drunk was a sin, or sleeping around was a sin. Or if I did, I always thought I could be forgiven just like that. I didn't truely understand what repentance meant. I didn't understand the meaning of living a life for Christ, through Christ. I didn't understand what the resurrection meant. I didn't understand what baptism meant. Because if I did, I would have turned away from these earthly passions and desires. But now my goals are different. They are not of this world. Only my brothers and sisters understand. Only followers of Jesus Christ know what I am talking about.