12. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14. I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
15. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you.
16. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17. Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.
18. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
19. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
20. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,
21. who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
1. How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
2. My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
3. Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young-- a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.
4. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you. Selah
5. Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.
6. As they pass through the Valley of Baca, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools.
7. They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion.
8. Hear my prayer, O LORD God Almighty; listen to me, O God of Jacob. Selah
9. Look upon our shield, O God; look with favor on your anointed one.
10. Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
11. For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.
12. O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.
Return