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Values and Lifestyle
Prof. Dr. Chandrakumar Manickam
What we are is God’s gift to us, what we become is our gift to God.
What Lies Behind us and what Lies Before us are Tiny Matters compared to what Lies Within us - Oliver Wendell
When we have Nothing Left but God, we discover, God is more than enough.
In the book of Philippians, Paul is very clearly indicating that for the sake of Christ and for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus, he is willing to lose anything that is gain to him.
“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” (Philippians 3:7,8)
In the Worldly Sense – If there is a Loss then there is no Gain. But in the Spiritual Sense there is no Gain without Loss. You must be prepared to lose your Worldly Passions in order to Gain Christ.
Paul also said, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”(Philippians 1:21). He directly relates gaining Christ to attaining resurrection from the dead.
You might have to go through fiery ordeals in order to gain Christ and to live for Him.
Becoming a Christian is easy, but being a Christian is difficult. It is easy to die for Christ than to live for Christ.
In ethics, value denotes the degree of importance of something or some action, with the aim of determining what actions are best to do or what way is best to live. It deals with right conduct and living a good life.
Ethical values give qualitative identity to a person. These values help us to reach and fulfil the call and purpose of God. These values have to be caught, rather than taught.
1. Be Focused on Kingdom Values
Paul understood that the Lord took hold of his life with a goal in mind. And this is true for all of us. Determination and focus on kingdom values is necessary to reach the upward call of God. Your decision determines your destiny. Olympic Athletes are amazing individuals. Without the concentration, dedication and focus they would not have made it to the Olympics.
Value of Your Choices
Values generate behaviour and influence the choices made by an individual. Values are generally received through cultural means, especially transmission from parents to children. Parents in different cultures have different values.
Paul was clear about the value of his choices. He says, "This one thing I do." He is single-minded and is not distracted.
He makes it clear that he is stretching forward in order to reach his goal. He is not only concentrating, he is straining forward. The image is like that of running in a race. You see people in a race leaning forward to try to beat their opponent to the tape. This is the image Paul uses for his desire to exercise his spiritual values.
Some of mankind's greatest contributions have come from people who decided that no sacrifice was too large and no effort too great to accomplish what they set out to do. It is said that the Roman orator Cicero practiced before friends every day for 30 years in order to perfect his public speaking. A great persistence!
What is true in so many areas of life is also true of the most important pursuit of our values that helps us to build a vital relationship with God. In our text Paul tells us that in order to grow as Christians we must be focused and determined. We will not grow if we don’t work at growth. Salvation is by grace alone through faith, but growth requires that we work with God.
In verse 10 Paul wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in His death, and so, somehow to attain to the resurrection of the dead.” (Philippians 3:10).
2. With Right Values and Lifestyle Prepare for Rapture
7,200 years ago, during the cataclysm known as “Noah’s flood,” sudden changes in temperature, violent storms and water avalanches from Antarctica broke off from their ‘ice prison.’
3,600 years ago, during the Jews’ Exodus from Egypt in the middle of the second millennium B.C., the Earth suffered big cataclysms. “A celestial body that recently entered our solar system – a new comet – came very close to Earth causing the eventual disappearance of the glacier layer“ (Immanuel Velikovsky, “Worlds in Collision”).
After the Passover of Nibiru/Pole-shift, scientists think volcanic dust gloom will last up to 40 years. 3600 years ago, Moses reported 40 years where he wandered just east of the volcanoes in the Mediterranean.
Right now Planet-comet Nibiru (Wormwood, Revelation 8:11) is travelling at a speed of 70 Km per second, but still thousands of miles away from the earth. Since Nibiru is a highly magnetic planet and the earth is magnetic too as Nibiru draws closer the speed will increase and the damage will be great. But good news for those who have received Jesus into their hearts as their Saviour and Lord, they would be Raptured by the Lord from the sky before Nibiru approaches the earth. (1st Thessalonians 4:13-18). Please commit your lives to Christ and be ready to be Raptured!
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