Love/Works: A Cat Story

One hot west texas day, I found the litter of kittens hiding behind my neighbor's grill, they were all about 5 weeks old. I had someone help me get them out and I brought him (Milo) in along with two of his brothers. We were able to find the other two homes but without much success in giving Milo away we ended up keeping him and loving him.  

He is now 3 months old, super crazy and disobedient. He has a very spirited personality. A cat who isn't afraid of anything, who is strong and strong willed. But despite needing to pay for a hefty pet fee, despite ruining our window blinds, or despite the scratches left on our skin, we love him... 

Milo proudly standing next to the window blinds he chewed off.

I'm reading Philippians, slowly, trying to soak it all up. I'm now on chapter 3 and I've decided to start up the blog again. 


What is Paul talking to the Philippians about here? 

vs 2-4 "... beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, though I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh I more so"

We need to be aware of those who preach false doctrines and who say physical works is the way righteousness is achieved. 

Instead, true circumcision comes from the heart "for we are the circumcision..." This is the circumcision we have from our sin!  Paul says above that there are three aspects of circumcision of the heart:

1. "worship God in the Spirit" (we worship God for who he is, through the Spirit within us)
2. "rejoice in Christ Jesus"  (we rejoice in our salvation that comes from Jesus through his death)
3. "and have no confidence in the flesh" (there is nothing we can accomplish in this life, no matter how good we are, that can bring us to God.)

vs 5-6 Paul talks about how he was perfect in everything considered to the Jews and accomplished a lot. BUT in vs 7-8 he talks about how all these accomplishments are worthless compared to Christ. (See his story in Acts chp 9)

• Everything we see as gain (wealth, success, health...) actually can pull us further from God. 
• Everything is worthless compared to Christ. There is no greater gift than our eternity, which was given to us. 

It's like, Milo. I bought him countless of toys. I'm offering him to live with me and my husband for the rest of his life. Do you think he had to earn his way here? Do you think he should have to go catch me birds or go make money to earn the toys I loved to give him? No, even when he acts all stubborn I still love him. I hate the scratching but I love him. It would give me joy if he acted good because he respected us... but thats not what got him here in our house. 
God is offering us the gift of eternal life because He loves us, hates our sin, but loves us. We do things to please Him but there is no way we can pay the debt of our sins by doing good works. And there is no works we can do to make Him love us more, He just loves us. 

So how do we have righteousness then if we can't work for it? 

vs 9, "and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith"

Through faith, which is believing that through Jesus' death, who was innocent and without sin, we have been forgiven of our sins. 


So why should we still do good if our works doesn't save us? 


Because like milo, when we really know God's character, how much He loves us, how much we need Him and etc., we want to please Him. We also know that being filled with the Spirit we will see things change within us that make us want to respect and please Him. As well as knowing that we're an example of His love for the world. Phil 1:9-11, Phil 2:12-16 *note vs 12 says work out (meaning producing) not work for (meaning earning).*


It's really hard to understand this sometimes because we feel the need to work for our earnings. Most parents understand this love. Of coarse I'm no parent but I have a cat and despite his crazy disobedient ways I love him a lot... and that helps with understanding what Christ did for us and what this chapter is trying to say. 

Love, 

Tamara