I Want to Know Christ

“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Philippians 3:10-11, NIV.

I met John* at a restaurant – one of many Burmese (from Myanmar) working in the country where I live. His father died when he was young and his mother abandoned him to his grandmother who raised him. He has one year left to finish a degree in physics, but because of conditions in his country he plans to stay here instead of returning to Myanmar. He hopes to earn money to support his grandmother.

I have shared with him the good news and he has watched the “Passion of the Christ” three times. When he has Sundays off, he attends church with me. He loves to sing the songs and listens attentively to the message. Yet he still has a little altar in his home to worship his traditional family “god.”  

I recently bought John a Bible in Burmese, and he was so excited and thrilled to receive God’s Word in his heart language. This past week I saw him briefly. He was wearing on one of these rubber bracelets that everyone seems to be wearing lately. I called him over and asked to see what was inscribed on the bracelet. His bracelet said: “I want to know Christ!”

*Names changed for security reasons. Written by a Last Frontier missionary serving in Pacific Rim.

Pray that:

John will come to know Christ in all His fullness.

God will grant me wisdom as I talk with him in coming days about what it means to “know Christ.”

Pacific Rim is a region of the International Mission Board, SBC.