TRANSFORM: DAY 35

SCRIPTURE READING - DAY 35


Philippians 1:21

For to me, to live is
Christ and to die is gain. (NIV)




MEDITATION BY Christiana Rice


Several years ago, I had the opportunity to go to a restricted-access nation in Asia.

I packed my suitcase full of Bibles and ventured off on a 10-day trip with a small group of Japanese Christians. We traveled from city to city by bus or plane, delivering Bibles to home church leaders all over the country.

At our last stop, we visited an elderly pastor who had been arrested multiple times and had spent 18 years in prison for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ in his city. Everything about this man pointed to Jesus: he breathed Jesus’ words, lived like Jesus lived, and his ultimate passion and pursuit in life was intimacy with Jesus—even in the face of persecution and death. I’ll never forget the light in his eyes as he introduced us to his faith community and told us of all the miracles they had seen as they served God together. As we left the pastor’s home, he handed me his business card with Revelation 2:10 written at the top. He pointed to the verse and said with a beaming smile, “This is my life verse!” It read, “Be thou faithful unto death.”

Later that night I looked up the scripture. The whole passage reads, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

The humanity of Christ came to life for me on this trip. When I picture Christ, sometimes he looks like an elderly Asian man with bright eyes and a beaming smile. My pastor friend followed the ways of Jesus in simplicity and purity—he practiced hospitality, pursued peace and justice, laid down his own needs for the needs of others, and loved his friends and enemies.

For him, to live was Christ. Yet anticipation, or even a longing for life beyond this world, meant hope for tomorrow, no matter what the circumstance.

Jesus came to earth to show us how to live and love…and how to die. As his followers, we learn to walk in sync with the rhythms of Jesus’ life and death, empowered by his Spirit moving in us. The deliverance of Jesus frees us from fear of death and instills in our souls a hope for life beyond this world.

Then we can say along with Paul, “…it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:20-21).




REFLECTION


Spend a moment reflecting on the humanity of Christ. In his journey to the cross, which of Jesus' experiences remind you of his humanity?


What does it look like to honor Christ with your body and be faithful even to the point of death?


Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a renewed hope for abundant life and eternal intimacy with Jesus.