Looking Back and Looking Forward

Bethel Mennonite Church – Gladys VA

Most of us probably spend some time looking back, whether with negative feelings or positive feelings. When the children of Israel felt trapped at the Red Sea or when they were hungry or thirsty, they looked back with longing to return to slavery. But when Paul looks back in I Cor. 10:1-13 at these same events, he says we can learn the lesson of not lusting after evil things as they lusted and not becoming idolaters as some of them were.

In Phil. 3 Paul says that he forgets the human advantages he had as a Jew because they are no advantage to him in his pursuit of knowing and laying hold of Christ. According to Paul, the highest goal to pursue is “the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Lessons: Do we have physical evidence of God being present with us, and if we do, what is this evidence? We do not need to live as Israel lived. Don’t forget that Christ is present, no matter the situation. God can give us victory when we are tempted. The resurrected Jesus is living in our space and in our hearts, in all his righteousness and power and love, so we are not running our race by ourselves in our own power.

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