“You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had…and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5, 11 NLT)
As Holy Week begins in 2 days, let us remember that we’ll still be in this refining fire and as we are, to continue to have the same attitude of Christ as we near the cross. We cannot have the same attitude as Christ if we don’t repent – turn away from our sin. Repentance comes after confession. And with repentance comes the attitude of humbleness, obedience, willingness and love as Paul writes.
These words from Kris Camealy‘s book Holey, Wholly, Holy: A Lenten Journey depicts what we read in Philippians 2:5-11 – Jesus “became obedient to death – even death on the cross.”
“When we imagine our Jesus hanging on that tree, nails split right through His hands and the crown pressed deep into His scalp, bleeding and oozing, when we look on His body there lashed within a fraction of life, skin barely clinging to the bones, muscles exposed and torn from the strain and stretching – we cannot help ourselves but to think differently. Gazing upon the cross we find our own place in this story. We realize that our view is that of the thief hoisted up there next to Him. We find our identity in the soldiers who mocked His and in the crowd who demanded His blood and rallied hard for His death. We see that we are not mere spectators in His suffering and death, but in fact are the cause of it.This living as Christ exemplifies our repentance and reveals a mind and heart transformed – that we would no longer live as those hiding from the fires of refinement, but would instead fling ourselves willingly into His furnace. We can trust Him to bring us forth sanctified, redeemed for His purposes.”
LET EVERY TONGUE DECLARE THAT JESUS CHRIST IS LORD, TO THE GLORY OF GOD THE FATHER!