ell as people have accused me of preaching I have thought of pissin them offff the limit !! ( daily prabhu ke baachan padke asshish pana na bhuliyega ) _pastor john_s I am starting a preaching services online :-) !"For me to live is christ,and to die is gain." ( philippians 1: 21 ) In philippians 1:21 paul says, "for me to live is christ,and to die is gain." in this verse there is a contrast between christ and gain. some many think that the gain here refers to christ.al though in a sense it may refers to christ , it refers to christ in a diffrent way, not the christ we experiance by living him.In a practical way, the gain in verse 21 is the presence of christ. when paul said, " to die is gain ", he meant that to die is to enjoy christs presence in better way. in verse 23 paul says that his desire is to depart and to be with christ. to be with christ is a matter of degree, not of palace. while paul was desiring to be with chrsit in a higher degree, he was already with him continually. through his physical death, he would be with christ to a fuller extent than he enjoyed in this earthy life.when paul was in prison, he enjoyed christ and experianced him in two ways. one way was to enjoy the presence of christ. and the other way was to live christ. there is a vast diffrence between enjoying the presence of christ and living christ. for example,I may enjoy my girlfriend's presence, but I cannot live her by this we see that we may enjoy a persons presence without living that person. paul not only enjoyed the lords presence, but he also lived him. he knew that when he died he would have no further oppurtunity to live christ but he would enter into higher enjoyment of the presence of christ.therefore, to die would be gain.what paul valued was not only the presence of christ, but also the oppurtunity to live him. To be continued ......