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Key Bible Verse: I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death. (Philippians 3:10) Dig Deeper: Philippians 3:3-14

Saints are really sinners on spiritual steroids. They are people like you and me, people who want to know Christ more and more. The difference is that they are much more willing than the rest of us to do what it takes to know Christ.

They want to know Christ in his holiness. They want to know him in his power. They want to know his love. They want to know him in his glory. So far so good, we say.

Saints want to know Jesus completely and love him fully, and that means they want to know him in his humiliation. They want to know the Christ who is deserted by the disciples and abandoned by the Father. They want to know not just the resurrection but also the sufferings.

To know God—to be godly in the deepest sense—is to know the suffering of God, the utter grief he knows because of our abandoning him. This is, in part, what Christ experienced on the cross—the abandonment of all. It is what we must experience if we are to know Christ intimately and to be like Christ. It is what we must experience if we are to truly understand, at a place deep in our souls, the measure of God's love for us.

—Mark Galli in Jesus Mean and Wild

My Response: I will take time to reflect on what it means to suffer with Christ and share in his death.

Thought to Apply: Wicked men obey out of fear; good men, out of love.—Aristotle (Greek philosopher)

Adapted from Jesus Mean and Wild (Baker, 2006) by permission; All rights reserved by the copyright holder and/or the publisher. May not be reproduced.

Copyright © 2010 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
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Prayer for the Week

Lord, it's easy to say I follow you; it's much harder to show it by the way I live; help me, with your empowering Spirit, to choose daily to live in obedience to your calling.

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