Count them but rubbish

If anyone has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I am up there with the best of them:

--licensed to the Gospel Ministry (Jan/84),

--commissioned to missionary service by my local Baptist church (May/86),

--Masters of Music degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (May/86),

--appointed by the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB-SBC) as a missionary (Dec/86),

--ordained to the Gospel Ministry (Sept/94),

--of the nation of the United States of America,

--of the tribe of Muse,being the son of legendary Baptist missionary parents.

--a Texan of Texas (the Mecca of American Christianity);

--as to religion, a Baptist: signer of the BF&M 1963 and 2000

--as to zeal, a missionary; Team Strategy Leader for the Coast and Lowlands of Ecuador

But whatever things were supposedly gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of [many] things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from [my background and upbringing, titles, etc.] but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.

--a personal paraphrase of Philippians 3.