In comparison to knowing Christ...

...the things of this world are rubbish. I have been reading the blogs of people on the "Secret Believers" website (there is a link on the side column) and this quote was so powerful yet so sobering. "This is a world where everything is accessible-- McDonalds, Coke a' Cola, Oreo Cookies, cheescake and Hershey's candy. But this is also a world where the Gospel is hardly as popular and no one wants it even if there is a fun pack and a kiddie bag to go with it or a chance to win a free trip to Disney Land. Yet it is a world where hearts hunger for life in the valley of the shadow of death." -- Al Janssen (author of Secret Believers). In 1 Cor. 1: 17- 18 it says, "For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void. For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." Only by the power of the Holy Spirit working in the lives of people will any one man come to a relationship with the Living God. In comparison to knowing Christ the appeals of this world are rubbish. Everything the world has to offer is rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ. For it says in Philipians 3: 7-10, " But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ, More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death; in order that I may attain to resurrection from the dead." For those who are "hungering for life in the valley of the shadow of death" I pray that they would come to know the living God. The Gospel will no longer be "foolishness" but the "power of God." Then they will be able to proclaim Philipians 3:7-10 with confidence declaring the things of this world to be rubbish in comparison to knowing Christ.