Cloyce Sutton Online

Reflections on spiritual themes (and a few other things).

Page 13 of 15

A Long Obedience

May 24, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Americans LOVE speed and convenience. We want things easy, and we want them now. 

  • We want gourmet meals at microwave speed
  • We want to lose 30 pounds before the next holiday
  • We want Olympian fitness in just 20 minutes a day
  • We want instant communications – cell phones, video conferencing, emails, texts, Facebook, news

All these things have their place and are amazingly useful. BUT the problem is that we often expect the same thing in our spiritual lives – we want instant and easy spiritual growth; instant and easy relationships; instant and easy conflict resolution; instant and easy Bible knowledge. However, the reality is that spiritual growth takes time. It takes persistence.

What does persistence look like?

The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche said, “The essential thing ‘in heaven and earth’ is that there should be a long obedience in the same direction; whereby there results, and has always resulted in the long run, something which has made life worth living.”

A “long obedience in the same direction” is Biblical perseverance, endurance, or steadfastness. 

  • Jesus said – (Luke 8.15) “But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.”
  • The apostle Paul said – (Romans 5.3-5) “…tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint…”

Worthwhile things take time and effort and perseverance. They require “a long obedience in the same direction.” Whether it’s your career; or your marriage; or your relationship to your children; or your character; or your finances; or your spiritual life – these things take time, effort, and perseverance. They take this “long obedience in the same direction.”

One more thing: If persistence is this “long obedience in the same direction,” we must have a direction. But direction is determined by destination. If there’s no destination, we’re simply wandering aimlessly. For Christians, our destination is the Father, and Jesus provides the direction – “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14.6). 

Do you practice persistence? Do you have this “long obedience in the same direction?”

Stubborn Righteousness

May 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Have you ever tried to get rid of a stubborn weed or a sapling or bush that has sprung up in the wrong place? No matter how hard you try, it seems to win. You pull it; it grows back. You cut it; it comes back. You spray it; next season, it’ll be back!

Why do weeds so often win? Simple. They have deep roots. If you don’t kill the roots, you won’t kill the plant, and if you don’t kill the plant, it’ll always come back. 

However, the same thing is true of desirable grasses and flowers and shrubs and trees. If they have well developed root systems, they’ll also persist. 

I want to apply this to our spiritual lives. Think about the following Scriptures and what they have in common with each other. 

  • “A man will not be established by wickedness, but the root of the righteous will not be moved” (Proverbs 12.3 NASB).
  • “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD and whose trust is the LORD. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream and will not fear when the heat comes; but its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit” (Jeremiah 17.7-8 NASB).
  • “Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude” (Colossians 2.6-7 NASB).

We all understand persistent, stubborn, relentless weeds. These passages are telling us that we need a persistent, stubborn, and relentless faith. Not an obstinate or self-willed faith, but a resolute and committed faith. Righteous people don’t give up easily because have laid deep roots. 

How do you grow deep spiritual roots? It’s by cultivating the habits of Bible study, Scripture meditation and memorization, prayer, corporate worship, spending time with fellow Christians, and serving others. Whenever we practice these disciplines, our spiritual roots grow ever deeper and stronger.

How deep is the root system of your faith? How well grounded is your righteousness?

Of Bricks & Cathedrals

May 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Two masons were working hard building a wall. A stranger stopped and asked, “What are you doing?” 

One of the men glared at him with a scowl and snarled, “I’m laying bricks! What do you think?”

The other man smiled at him with a gleam in his eyes and said, “I’m building a cathedral!”

The difference between the two men wasn’t what they were doing, but how they perceived what they were doing. One man had vision, while the other didn’t. The same thing applies us. It’s the difference between going through the motions and using imagination in our work. It’s the difference between the ordinary and the extraordinary.

Biblically, it’s the difference between Simon and Peter. In John chapter one, Andrew introduced his brother Simon to Jesus. We’re told (John 1.42), “Jesus looked at him and said, ‘You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).” The name Peter was the Greek word petros, which meant a rock. In the gospels, Peter is anything but a rock: he’s rash, brash, boastful, cocky, and foolish, and at the end of the gospels, he publicly denies Jesus three times. But John also records that Jesus restored him in the end (John 21). So, when we get to the book of Acts, Peter (the Rock) becomes a source of strength and encouragement to his fellow apostles and fellow Christians in the early days of the church. Jesus had vision – he saw Simon for what he could become.

This kind of vision transforms everything we do. Typing an email becomes an act of communication. Staring at a spreadsheet becomes strategic business planning. Pulling weeds becomes landscaping. Laying tile becomes interior design. 

It also transforms our lives as Christians. Planning your monthly budget becomes stewardship. Sunday church attendance becomes worship. Studying your Bible becomes a spiritual feast. Socializing with other Christians becomes fellowship. Visiting the sick becomes serving the body of Christ.

Whatever your job, and however mundane you may think it is, apply imagination, perspective, and vision, and you’ll completely transform your attitude about your work.

Are you laying bricks or building cathedrals? The choice is yours.

Honest to God

May 11, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Are you honest to God?

Most of us have heard the phrase, “Honest to God!” It’s like saying, “I swear to God.” It’s an oath. An oath is a solemn promise that calls God as a witness. Even though people abuse oaths, calling God to witness the truthfulness of something is a valid biblical concept, and we see examples in the Bible.

In this post, I don’t want to talk about oaths, but rather about truthfulness. Specifically, I want to talk about truthfulness with God when we pray to him. Are we honest to God when we pray?

For many people, prayer is just polite religious chitchat, the kind of small talk you have with a total stranger. We don’t reveal anything deep or personal or sensitive. We’re afraid God will think less of us, or he’ll be shocked or angry, or he’ll terminate our relationship because of something we said.

However, some prayers in the Bible aren’t polite. And they were spoken by God’s most faithful people:

  • Moses’ complaints about Israel in the wilderness – Exodus 17.4; Numbers 11.10-15
  • Elijah’s complaint about being the only faithful Israelite left – 1 Kings 19.1-18
  • Job’s bitter complaints about his suffering – Job 3
  • David’s prayers for vengeance against his enemies – e.g., Psalm 58.6-11
  • Jeremiah’s complaints to God about his ministry – Jeremiah 4.10; 15.10; 20.7, 14-18

Why could these men pray in this way? Because they had an intimate relationship with God!

Intense prayer is like intense conversation: it’s the outgrowth of intimacy. You don’t talk like this to a stranger – you only talk like this to a friend, to someone whom you know and trust, and who knows you. That’s God! He knows our weaknesses but loves us anyway – “Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust” (Psalm 103.13-14).

Grace is God’s side of things; honesty, truthfulness, and integrity are our responsibility:

  • Are you angry (toward others or toward God)? TELL HIM!
  • Are your worried? TELL HIM! (See 1 Peter 5.6-7)
  • Are you bitter and struggling with hatred? TELL HIM!
  • Are you caught in greed or gossip or lust or pride? TELL HIM!

AND ask for his help. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139.23-24).

Today and every day, be honest to God.

Church Dropouts

May 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Why do people quit going to church? It’s an oft-asked question. A 2006 poll by LifeWay Research supplied some interesting answers (see the chart below). All the respondents were adults who had stopped attending church regularly. The average length of time these adults had been out of duty was 14 years.

Several things stand out on this list. First, the majority of the excuses blame someone or something for falling away: family, job, cliques, or church members somehow caused the member to stop attending. It’s the other person’s fault. Second, the excuses seem awfully shallow. They remind me of student excuses for not doing homework: “My dog ate it.” Third, they consistently reflect a lack of proper priorities in life. Work, family, and distance become more important than a deep and personal spirituality; more important than a nurturing environment with fellow Christians in the local church.

Perhaps the most glaring omission on the list was the one thing that would explain virtually everything else: Lack of personal commitment to Christ. Would it be too much for someone to simply say: “I don’t care about Christ. I don’t care about his church. I don’t care to live a godly and spiritual life.” The Lord deserves an honest answer: “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you” (Malachi 1.10). Jesus said: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3.15f).

Commitment to Christ precedes all other commitments. It’s the absolute denial of self and a whole-hearted willingness to give up all that defines our relationship to him (Luke 9.23-26). But that devotion to him also bears fruit in devotion to others (Hebrews10.19-25). You can’t be concerned about Christ without being concerned about his people.

Thus, those who are committed to Christ are also committed to their fellow Christians in the local church. In Syrian Antioch, those who “turned to the Lord” and who resolved to “remain true to the Lord” were the same disciples who became “the church” in that community (Acts 11.21-26). In Philippi, the Christians there were concerned about needy Christians in Judea. They expressed that concern by a generous financial contribution. Even Paul, who knew them well, was impressed when, “they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God” (2 Corinthians 8.5).

The only effective way to reduce the attrition rate in local churches is to increase the commitment rate. That is, each disciple in the local church must first be whole-heartedly committed to the Lord. When that commitment is in place, things like distance and busy-ness, cliques, hypocrisy, and all other sorts of potential obstacles will not prevent someone from serving Christ.

One other observation from the survey: Over two-thirds of former churchgoers are open to the idea of returning to church. So, there are good opportunities around us to reclaim the lost and to motivate the marginal. All it takes is commitment.

Top 10 Reasons People Quit Church

ReasonPercent*
Simply got too busy19%
Family or home responsibilities prevented attendance17%
Church members seemed hypocritical17%
Church members were judgmental of others17%
Moved too far from church17%
Work situation prevented church attendance15%
Church was not helping me develop spiritually14%
Stopped believing in organized religion14%
Church was run by a clique that discouraged involvement12%
Got divorced or separated12%

*Survey respondents could “check all reasons that apply”, so the answers total more than 100 percent. From Life Way Research (www.lifewayresearch.com). Conducted summer 2006. Survey of 469 adults who once regularly attended church, but now no longer do. The average length of time the respondents had not reguli1rly attended was 14 years. Two-thirds of the respondents were open to the idea of regularly attending services again.

The Fundamentals of Success

May 4, 2022 / / 0 Comments

“Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” – Jim Rohn

I’m not an expert on motivation, or success, or self-help. Although I’ve read books about success and motivation, I’ve never completely mastered any of them, and in some areas, I’m still not very good. But I’ve studied it enough to know that the principles of success aren’t mysterious, but, in fact, are reasonably obvious. My problem isn’t knowledge, it’s application. Or more accurately, lack of application.

Now, think of this in terms of your spiritual life. I’ll reword this quotation by substituting the word “spirituality” in place of the word “success.” It would then say, “Spirituality is neither magical nor mysterious. Spirituality is the natural consequence of consistently applying the basic fundamentals.” I find it helpful to think of spiritual growth in that way: applying a set of fundamental principles to the problems we face in our spiritual lives.

By way of application, which of these two components do you struggle with the most? Is it with learning fundamental spiritual principles? Or is it with putting the principles into practice?

This is where the discipline of self-examination becomes so critically important. Every day of every week, each of us needs to take a hard and honest look at ourselves to see where we should improve. The only way we can improve is to identify the problem, find the biblical principle that addresses the problem, and then put the principle into practice to eliminate the problem. That’s spiritual success.

As we said at the beginning, there’s nothing magical or mysterious about spiritual success. It’s a matter of applying the principles to the problem.

Jesus said it best of all: “If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them” (John 13.17).

The Bright & Morning Star

April 27, 2022 / / 0 Comments

Early this morning, as my wife and I were walking, we saw the moon and the morning star. The temperature was in the forties, and the sky was clear. The moon was in its waning crescent, so we saw just a sliver of it. But above it were two stars (planets, actually): above it and to the left was the planet Jupiter, and just above it and to the right was the planet Venus. 

The planet Venus was named after the Roman goddess of love and beauty. It’s called both the “morning star” and “evening star” because it can appear in the early morning and early evening hours. It’s the second brightest object in the nighttime sky besides the moon. About once a month, it appears in the nighttime sky in close proximity to the moon. On a clear morning, they’re a beautiful sight when seen together. 

In Revelation 22.6, Jesus said, “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” What did he mean, and how does that affect us?

First, I think Jesus was alluding to an ancient prophecy from the Old Testament Book of Numbers. The prophet Balaam saw a star coming forth from Jacob and a scepter arising in Israel (Numbers 24.17). He was talking about the Messiah’s future dominion over all of Israel’s enemies. Readers of the Book of Revelation were suffering intense persecution, and John’s allusion to Balaam’s prophecy would assure them that Christ was, even then, in the process of fulfilling his role. He would be victorious over the enemies of God’s people.

Second, Jesus was reminding us that he’s King of Kings and Lord of Lords. From the earliest times, the Roman emperors believed they were descended from the gods. Julius Caesar believed he was descended from the goddess Venus. The emperor Domitian (who may have been emperor when Revelation was written) believed he was descended from the god Jupiter. Around the time that John wrote the Book of Revelation, the Roman poet Martial honored the emperor Domitian, saying, “Thou morning star, Bring on the Day! Come and expel our fears, Rome begs that Caesar may soon appear.” So, when Jesus called himself the “bright morning star,” he was countering the notion that any human leader could be his equal.

Third, Jesus was reminding us that he’s our ultimate reference point. When we see the morning star rising above the horizon, we know that daylight is near. Jesus was assuring his disciples that despite their suffering and persecution, they could look to him as the dawning of a new day, the arrival of a new era. That promise holds true for us as well.

So, the next time you’re awake before dawn, take a moment to look at the eastern horizon, and look for Venus, the morning star. Then take a moment to remember that Jesus is the ultimate bright morning star. He’s our king and our hope. Because of that we can rejoice at the dawning of each day. 

Whose Feet Do You Wash?

April 18, 2022 / / 0 Comments

On the night of his betrayal as he celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples Jesus washed their feet (John 13.1-20). He washed the feet of men who were not worthy of him. He washed the feet of men who were clueless. He washed the feet of Peter who was full of himself. He washed the feet of Judas who was evil personified. 

Afterward (v. 14-15) he said, “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.” 

Will you wash feet as Jesus did? Will you wash the feet of the unworthy, the unloving, and the unwitting? Will you wash the feet of…

  • Your good neighbor?
  • Your bad neighbor?
  • Your white neighbor?
  • Your black neighbor?
  • Your American neighbor? 
  • Your foreign neighbor?
  • Your kind neighbor?
  • Your unkind neighbor? 
  • Your married neighbor? 
  • Your divorced neighbor? 
  • Your gay neighbor?
  • Your cohabiting neighbor?
  • Your richer-than-you neighbor?
  • Your poorer-than-you neighbor?
  • Your conservative neighbor?
  • Your liberal neighbor?
  • Your Democrat neighbor?
  • Your Republican neighbor?
  • Your Libertarian neighbor?
  • Your tree-hugging, ozone-watching neighbor? 
  • Your gun-loving, camo-wearing neighbor?
  • Your Christian neighbor?
  • Your atheist neighbor?
  • Your Muslim neighbor?
  • Your homeless neighbor?
  • Your jobless neighbor?
  • Your educated neighbor?
  • Your addicted neighbor?
  • Your neighbor with the nice yard?
  • Your neighbor with dandelions and junk?

Do you wash feet like Jesus washed feet?

The Old Rugged Cross

April 15, 2022 / / 0 Comments

In 1968 archaeologists in Jerusalem unearthed the skeletal remains of a Jewish man who died in his twenties in the middle of the first century. His remains were inside an ossuary (bone box) within a family tomb. His name was Yehohanan and he was executed for political crimes. We know this because of a single artifact found with his bones: a seven-inch nail driven through his heels. Yehohanan was crucified.[i]

The Jewish nation understood crucifixion. In Jerusalem and Judea, thousands of Jews were executed in this way during the Roman era. In 88 BC the Hasmonean king Alexander Jannaeus crucified 800 Jews in Jerusalem in a single day.[ii] When Herod the Great died in 4 BC Quinctilius Varus, the Roman governor of Syria, crucified 2,000 Jewish rebels in and around Jerusalem.[iii] During the Roman siege of Jerusalem in AD 70, the Roman general Titus executed as many as 500 Jews per day before the wall of the city.[iv]

Because of its extreme nature, crucifixion in the New Testament era was applied only to certain crimes: treason, desertion, robbery, piracy, sedition, and assassination. It was originally for slaves, fugitives, and prisoners of war. It was deemed so horrible a death that Roman citizens were spared this means of execution. Nonetheless, God chose this as the means of death for his Son (Acts 2.23; Philippians 2.8).

The four gospels altogether provide only about three pages of information on the actual crucifixion. Yet they furnish enough details to give us a sense of what Jesus endured for us. 

Fatigue. It’s easy to forget what preceded Jesus’ crucifixion. He had spent the previous week in Jerusalem, often in confrontation with Jewish officials (Luke 19.47-48; 21.37-38). He spent an intense period of prayer just prior to his arrest (22.39-46). His captors tormented and beat him in the night (22.63-65). By morning, he would have been nearly exhausted.

Trials. After his arrest, Jesus was interrogated six times before being formally condemned. He was first brought to Annas the former high priest who briefly questioned him (John 18.12-14, 19-23). This was done out of deference to him although he acted without authority.

Jesus then appeared before the sitting high priest Caiaphas. This hearing was at night, which was illegal, and was a pretext for finding suitable charges. False witnesses were produced, false charges were made, and Jesus was charged with blasphemy for affirming that he was the Christ, the Son of God (Matthew 26.57-68; cf. 16.13-20).

The Jewish council formally charged Jesus at morning by simply rubber stamping the previous two interrogations. They sent him to Pilate the governor of Judea, who had the authority to execute Jesus (Luke 23.66-23.1). He saw through their pretext and pronounced Jesus “not guilty” (23.2-5). They persisted, however, so he sent Jesus to Herod, effectively sending the case to a lower court (23.6-7). Herod continued the mockery and abuse but could find no reason to charge Jesus (23.8-12, 15). 

Pilate again affirmed Jesus’ innocence and tried three times to release Jesus, but to no avail (Luke 23.13-25). The Jews threatened Pilate (John 19.12-16), and when a riot nearly erupted, he gave Jesus into their hands (Matthew 27.24-26).

Scourging. Before being crucified, Jesus was flogged with the Roman flagrum or flagellum, a whip with three to twelve leather straps, each with a lead ball or piece of bone attached to the end. It lacerated the skin and left muscles, bones, and organs exposed.[v] Many prisoners died from this. It caused massive blood loss, excruciating pain, dehydration, and shock. Jesus knew this beforehand (Mark 10.32-34).

Crucifixion. As many as 600 Roman soldiers gathered to mock Jesus just before he was led away from the Praetorium to Golgotha (Matthew 27.27-31). Along the way, Jesus was too weak to carry the patibulum (the 30 to 40-pound horizontal beam of the cross), so the Romans forced a visitor from North Africa, Simon of Cyrene, to help (Mark 15.21). 

At the crucifixion site, they nailed Jesus’ hands (or wrists) and feet to the cross, which was dropped into a hole with Jesus’ feet only a few inches above ground. Victims were close enough to the ground that spectators could spit upon them and strike them. They were usually naked, adding humiliation to pain. While on the cross Jesus’ enemies continued their mocking and derision (Matthew 27.39-44). Often victims would scream and curse at the crowds, but Jesus is seen praying for them (Luke 23.34). 

The Romans supported the victim’s body by a small, pointed seat (sedile) and a footrest (suppedaneum) to prolong the agony and prevent a rapid death. The awkward body position made breathing difficult, and the lacerations on his back would dry and stick to the rough wood of the cross, adding to the pain. The heat and blood loss caused dehydration and produced an intense thirst (John 19.28-29). 

Death. After six agonizing hours, Jesus succumbed to death (Mark 15.25; Matthew 27.45-50). Many victims lasted for days. The mechanism of his death isn’t revealed. It may have been asphyxiation. It may have been shock. It may have been a heart attack. The cause of his death is beyond dispute: he died because of our sins (1 Peter 2.24).

Not surprisingly, the Roman statesman Cicero said, “Let the very name of the cross be far away not only from the body of a Roman citizen, but even his thoughts his eyes, his ears.” For Christians, however, the cross is our only hope. “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Galatians 6.14). 

The Romans thought that a crucified savior was nonsense. The Jews thought it was blasphemous. Even today atheist Richard Dawkins describes atonement as “barking mad.”[vi] But God used this to save us eternally: “…we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1 Corinthians 1.23-24). In the cross we see the love, glory, power, and wisdom of God.

“To that old, rugged cross I will ever be true, its shame and reproach gladly bear; then he’ll call me some day to my home far away, where his glory forever I’ll share.

“So I’ll cherish the old rugged cross, till my trophies at last I lay down; I will cling to the old rugged cross, and exchange it some day for a crown.”

[i] https://www.baslibrary.org/biblical-archaeology-review/11/1/6

[ii] Josephus, Antiquities 13.14.2

[iii] Ibid., 17.10

[iv] Josephus, Wars 11.1

[v] Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 4.15

[vi] Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion 253

The Asymptote of Perfection

April 14, 2022 / / 0 Comments

In geometry, “asymptote” refers to a line and a curve that get closer and closer together but never actually touch. If you really want to impress your friends and family, graph the equation y=2x. The asymptote is x=0. When you crunch the numbers, when x is negative and gets bigger and bigger (x=-1, -2, -3, -4, etc.), y gets smaller and smaller, but never reaches 0. But enough of the geekiness!

I want you to think about a Christian’s character in relationship to God. I would suggest that it resembles an asymptote. God is the absolute standard of everything we should be. God is love. God is holy. God is righteous. God is patient. God is merciful. As God is, we should strive to be. “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5.48). Thus…

  • God is love, and I must become more and more like God in my love.
  • God is holy, and I must become more and more like God in my holiness.
  • God is righteous, and I must become more and more like God in my righteousness.
  • God is patient, and I must become more and more like God in my patience.
  • God is merciful, and I must become more and more like God in my mercy.

We are to grow more and more Godlike in our character, but in this life, we’ll never fully reach his perfection. We’ll grow and grow, but never completely reach our full potential. In other words, God’s perfection and our growth form a moral and spiritual asymptote. 

Obviously, that’s easier said than done!

However, we should be encouraged by the fact that Jesus still expected it of his followers. I don’t think Jesus’ point in Matthew 5.48 is that we will, or even can, become morally flawless people. I think he was stating it to put before us an ideal that keeps us perpetually moving in a godward direction. 

I think the apostle Paul understood this concept when he said, “Not that I have already obtained it [the resurrection from the dead] or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained” (Philippians 3.12-16).

Paul said to press on. To keep getting closer and closer to the prize. To get closer and closer to the reality of heaven. Paul was saying to keep our eyes on the goal, keep our eyes on the standard, but at the same time worry less about the arrival, and more about getting there.

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