Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. - Phillippians 3:13-14

    Good morning friends, believers, my fellow brothers and sisters in the Gospel.  Today is a new day.  And because it's a new day in CHRIST, I have a clean slate!  And oh boy, do I rejoice in that, to know that my vile sins, my rebellion against our Lord is not counted against me.  My slate is clean in the eyes of God, and my conscience is clean as well.  I can enter into the Holy of Holies in prayer.  I can lift my head up like a child does to a loving parent and expect nothing but kindness from my Father above.  Isn't that wonderful?   

    And today also starts a new year for me.  I hope not to look behind me today, but ahead to the heavenly prize, my high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  The quarrels and troubles of the past, they are behind me.  

    Here in this passage, the Apostle Paul says he was forgetting those things which are behind.  What does that mean?  Well it's not so much our sins, which are forgotten in Christ, but those things that Paul strived for after his conversion to the truth.  Those things he performed in the ministry of the Gospel, he's not looking to, and he's not relying upon.  His hand is to the plow and he's pressing on, forgetting his labors of the past.  He is not dependent upon them, but upon Christ. And that is the way God would have all of His children.  

    So today, I've ditched all the strife, all the struggle, all my efforts, and all the vain things.  At least I hope so in this moment as I'm writing this.  Let's press toward the mark, toward the finish line, shall we?  Let us press toward the finish line for the prize at the end of the race together in our calling.

    Grace and Peace,
    Brandan