Posted in Spiritual

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My guess is that the phrase of my title is a somewhat universally recognizable one to anyone with the Disney channel!    Around here we've got a few anxiously awaiting August 17th, which is not only the premier of High School Musical 2, but also (providentially coincidentally, I'm sure!) my 3rd-born's birthday!  Mommy is rejoicing because this means we can invite children over to watch the show in my livingroom, thereby avoiding multiple zillions of dollars in theatre ticket fees!

Anyway, I didn't come here to blog about High School Musical.  The past few days as I've been studying Philippians 3, there's been one strong emphasis:  do not set your mind on earthly things.  Paul talks about watching out for dogs, evil workers, and the false circumcision--and here and in other places goes on to define those people in several ways; they are (2 Peter 2 says) false teachers, sensual, greedy, daring, self-willed, etc. etc.  It surprised me as I read through many of these descriptions to find that one of the major commonalities between the type of people Paul was warning us about was greed and a love of money.  Flip on the television or head to your local mega-church and you're quite likely to find love of money on full display.  If they're not openly teaching a prosperity gospel (and some do!) then perhaps you'll find that they're simply making materialism acceptable. 

Today this verse jumped out at me:

"Many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ . . ."  Phil. 3:18

Now, the funny thing is that you'd expect the verse to be different grammatically.  Shouldn't it say "Many walk . . .as if they are enemies of the cross of Christ?"  That's what I thought it said.  But instead it just says, "Many walk."  That's kindof funny!  The truth is that in the church, "many walk."  And yet, though they walk, "they are enemies of the cross of Christ."  Okay, so they're enemies of the cross of Christ.  We can just read that as meaning they're enemies of Christ, right?  But it doesn't say that; it says they are enemies of the cross of Christ.  Hmmm; that's a different thing.  Wouldn't it be a good thing, on the surface, to be an enemy of the cross of Christ?  I mean, the cross is what killed Christ!  What would it mean to be an enemy of the cross?  To be an enemy of its symbolism?  Someone who hates crosses as signifying Christianity in general?  There are lots of those people out there.  But this scripture is talking apparently about those who claim to be Christians, so they probably aren't against the cross as a symbol.

What does the context say?  In the next verse, Paul says, "whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things."

Now we're getting somewhere.  The cross is an instrument of death.  Jesus told us to take up our cross--not to be an enemy of it!  The cross is where we die to ourselves.  And when our god is our appetite, when our glory is in our shame, when we set our minds on earthly things . . .we become enemies of that cross.  We are fighting the thing God knows will cause death to ourselves.  There's a popular doctrine out there about loving yourself--that we need to love ourselves so that we can love others.  And yet I don't think many of us are truly in need of that admonition!  I know I'm not--I love myself more than enough as it is!  I can tell when I make my coffee in the morning (and complain if I'm out of creamer!) and when I pour myself a bubble bath and when I tell the kids to be quiet so I can read . . . Indeed, we are warned about being a "lover of self" by Paul in 2 Timothy 3:2 and 4 . . .