Your Life, A Poster

Right message; wrong prop!

In Philippians 1, Paul lays out a 7-point strategic plan that effectively applies to all born again Christ followers. Don't read these with a religious mindset, but with the mindset of understanding what is the business of The Kingdom of God in the earth today. You/we are to be ‘poster children’ of this strategy at work in the earth. As you read, envision how your poster, your life, currently appears from Heaven’s perspective...

   1. Fellowship in The Gospel (verse 5): This is broad-based. As the Body of Christ grows, there should be greater opportunities for like-minded fellowship. However, growth attracts resistance and also spawns divisions. Just as the U.S. economy specializes in sub-dividing markets in order to maximize profits, the Church worldwide now specializes in sub-dividing itself. These divisions open fissures in which strife and contentions fester and grow. Consider how many times Jesus prayed for unity during His High Priestly prayer. (John 17)
   2. Partner in Grace (verse 7): This is specific targeting of those with whom you will partner (writ large, not simply marriage or life partners) in this Kingdom walk.

   3. Abound in Love in Knowledge/Discernment. (verse 9): This is the work of Christ in an through us, not our fleshly efforts.

   4. Display Right Fruits (verse 11): Would a poster display fruits or evidence contrary to the targets context in which it is being displayed? Imagine someone in a big, colorful, audio-visual poster who is surrounded with a plethora of things that are totally irrelevant to, and outright contrary the subject or topic of the poster!

   5. Further The Gospel. (verse 12) This objective seems to pivot the focus on the penultimate and ultimate objectives that follow. How??

   6. Be Fearless (verse 14), both living and sharing The Good News by faith, not in/by the flesh. Our experience and mindset accumulated from practicing the previous five objectives should enable us to move into ‘high gear’, fearlessly pursuing The Kingdom’s ultimate objective, which is to...

   7. Personally Preach/Magnify Christ. (verse 18) Only as He is magnified and becomes known to and by more people is His effectual power applied to situations in our lives, and to the many intractable problems across our world. This is the ultimate strategic objective to which all others contribute.

Each objective seems to point back to the cumulative previous ones, and is reinforced by them to move up to the succeeding, higher objective. This is how The Kingdom of God works in earth’s current dispensation. Remember, your life is a poster, which makes you a ‘poster child’. Ok, so how does the current version of your poster look? Which results (fruits) are displayed in your current poster? The best part of this story is that our posters are not still pictures, but living images that continually morph. By faith and obedience, we get to change what is displayed. :o)