"Moving On"

Philippians 3:7-14

But whatever former things I had that might have been gains to me, I have come to consider as [one combined] loss for Christ's sake. Yes, furthermore, I count everything as loss compared to the possession of the priceless privilege (the overwhelming preciousness, the surpassing worth, and supreme advantage) of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord and of progressively becoming more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him [of perceiving and recognizing and understanding Him more fully and clearly]. For His sake I have lost everything and consider it all to be mere rubbish (refuse, dregs), in order that I may win (gain) Christ (the Anointed One), and that I may [actually] be found and known as in Him, not having any [self-achieved] righteousness that can be called my own, based on my obedience to the Law's demands (ritualistic uprightness and supposed right standing with God thus acquired), but possessing that [genuine righteousness] which comes through faith in Christ (the Anointed One), the [truly] right standing with God, which comes from God by [saving] faith. [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] that if possible I may attain to the [spiritual and moral] resurrection [that lifts me] out from among the dead [even while in the body]. Not that I have now attained [this ideal], or have already been made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus (the Messiah) has laid hold of me and made me His own. I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

I dreamed I was walking down a hallway

seeing the present and past

Familiar and unfamiliar faces

and those that have now gone to black.

A religious man talked to the dying

empty words he spoke

Oh, how it grieved my spirit

for it seemed that he offered no hope.

I continued walking forward

looking for one I once knew

But she occupied no seat in this gallery

then I came to a door that was new.

I awoke and I saw the sun shining

I arose and I stood to my feet

Words of life were spoken

words of Christ went deep.

Not the same old empty tradition

but where true love is expressed

When the hand of God breaks through to earth

and gives you life for death.

I pray that I may know Him

the depths of Him to grasp

Continually pressing onward

forgetting what has passed.

For those things that once seemed so important

quickly fade away

In the face of God Almighty

in the brightness of the light of the Day.