The Convention Baptist Ministers Association (CBMA) will hold its Annual Assembly on March 22-23, 2022 at Camp Higher Ground with the Theme: “Padayon…Patuloy…Keep Going” with the Text from Philippians 3:12-14.
What are the things that we should “Padayon…Patuloy…Keep Going”?
According to Paul we should:
First, “Padayon…Patuloy…Keep Going” “of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.”
What does it mean? For Paul, it means to keep on doing our God-given purpose. Paul thought all the while that his purpose in life was to persecute Christians. And then God took hold of him. He was blinded in the road to Damascus, and then his life was changed. Paul was given his God-given purpose and he did it by the grace of God.
Now, imagine yourself being held by God. Either you are standing or sitting, and God is putting His hands in your shoulder or holding you hard in your hands. God is telling you, “stop what you are doing.”
It is God’s desire that we stop and reflect if what we are doing is our own will or God’s will.
Second, “Padayon…Patuloy…Keep Going” on “Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead.”
Paul was somebody who had a past that will surely hold him if he comes back to it. This is the reason why Paul explained what baptism is all about. In Romans 6:4 he wrote, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”
Ramon Gumban firmly believed that baptism expresses symbolically a series of acts corresponding to the redeeming acts of Christ: immersion (death), submersion (burial), and emergence (resurrection) – Romans 6:4-5. Baptism “represents the truth of the gospel pointing to the death and resurrection of Christ.”
Third, “Padayon…Patuloy…Keep Going” on pressing “on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
Living for Christ is living victoriously. Paul is telling us that our goal is heavenward. Are we living to win every day? Are living a life that goes forward heavenward?
Dr. Johnny V. Gumban, former Dean of the CPU College of Theology, once told his class with regards to eschatology. Understanding Christian Eschatology is like looking at a maze game. The best way to win the maze game is to start from the end. Once you start at the end, then you can easily navigate it towards the start. Now, put that perspective in eschatology. God is victorious at the end. Jesus has already won over death and Satan. It is only a matter of time of when it will happen.
If this is so, then let us be in the winning side. Let us be in the side of God. Let us live victorious lives. Let us live a heavenward life.
Rev. Francis Neil G. Jalando-on
#SeedsOfFaith
March 21, 2022