It's about the Finish Line

Yesterday, thousands ran the NY Marathon. Up before dawn, bused to the starting line on Staten Island, they knew that they had a tough 26.2 miles to go! Just over 49,000 people finished the race in an average time of 4 hours and 39 minutes!  Reading about how runners do this I discovered that there is a combination of mental tricks.  In the middle of the race as fatigue starts to set in many think about making the next mile, getting over the next hill.  But, most also said that they kept telling themselves it is about the ‘finish.’  Make that line, just make it happen.

Life is comparable to a marathon.  We can’t just sprint through today and think we have done well or pleased God. So many claim to find Jesus, make a big bang with a whole ‘new life’ and then – a year or two into their discipleship – tire of the effort to live against the world and drop out.  In the letter to the Hebrews the image of a distance runner is offered as an example. We are told to set a pace that we can maintain- steadily and consistently, living for Jesus– with patience, with endurance. The original language of the NT uses this word: “hupomone.” The word literally means  ‘to stand under’ and is about not collapsing even under intense pressure.

All around us we can find examples of people who start something with gusto- only to collapse in the backstretch!

Marriages begin with great romance and fireworks.  About half are allowed to fold when subjected to the multiple pressures of jobs, kids, bills, and ‘life.’

Ever seen that burnt out person at work who started as the star performer, who just gave up on life?

Students go off to college intending to make the Dean's list and too easily get sidetracked into the three day weekend party life style.

Did you start your Christian life with enthusiasm?  It’s an interesting word derived from these roots: en “full”  theos “God.”  High performers, the enthused, were once thought to be full of the spirit of the gods.  In fact, Christian we can be filled with the Holy Spirit and His power will sustain us in this marathon called life.

Are you a finisher?
Do you take time to think about commitments, praying for guidance - and only embrace those that you will see through to completion?

No realistic person just shows up to run a marathon. He trains, he gets in shape.  He mentally prepares for the experience. He learns strategies and skills for the race.

If we hope to reach the finish line of life and win the prize of God’s approval, we need to understand the importance of daily discipline. Yes, the grace of God is a gift, but the life of discipleship involves our choices, a willingness to ‘walk with the Spirit’ as He leads.

Jesus told a teaching story about this. "Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: `He started something he couldn't finish.' Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce?" (Luke 14:28-32, The Message)

The implied conclusion is - FINISH what you start! Remember that it isn't "all guts, no glory." Finishers enjoy what mere starters never find: the satisfaction of a job well done, a life well lived, a victor's crown!

Need a boost to stay in the race today?

Here's the way, the follow up verse to the one where we started today– "Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God —he could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God."

(Hebrews 12:2, The Message)

Run well today! Honor your Savior.  Keep the finish line in sight, even as you remind yourself that you can take this next hill.

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You Make Me Brave

I stand before You now

The greatness of Your renown

I have heard of the majesty and wonder of You

King of Heaven in humility I bow

As Your love in wave after wave

Crashes over me crashes over me

For You are for us You are not against us

Champion of Heaven

You made a way for all to enter in (to Your love)

I have heard You calling my name

I have heard the song of love that You sing

So I will let You draw me out beyond the shore

Into Your grace

You make me brave

You make me brave

You call me out beyond the shore into the waves

You make me brave

You make me brave

No fear can hinder now the Love that made a way

You make me brave

You make me brave

You call me out beyond the shore into the waves

You make me brave

You make me brave

No fear can hinder now the promises You've made

Because of love in wave after wave

Crashes over me crashes over me

For You are for us You are not against us

Champion of Heaven You made a way

Champion of Heaven

You made a way for all to enter in

Amanda Cook

© 2013 Bethel Music Publishing

CCLI License # 810055

The Beauty of a Broken Life!

While counseling a couple who are searching for answers and restoration, I felt a surge of empathy as they described their feelings of being ignored by Christian people. A believer from our fellowship had joined me in the session, offering support from her own experience. As she spoke of her journey to wholeness, the compassion in that room was powerful and healing!  After the session, as I prayed for that couple, I realized what a different man I am now.  I am softer, more tender, as a result of my own journey through brokenness. Whatever Pharisaical notions of self-righteousness that gripped me in the past have been stripped away by not one, not two, not three – but many experiences of wounding. And, I am thankful!

Please understand that I am not glorifying suffering. I am not suggesting that only road to God requires that we inflict terrible pain on ourselves.  However, I do believe that there are incredible experiences of the Divine that are only possible when we follow our Savior wherever He leads, including through times that break us. We love the story of the Resurrection, claiming the new life and power that were released at that moment as our own – as well we should. We cannot forget that that Easter Sunday would not have happened without Good Friday!  The pathway to that eternal triumph led Him to the humiliation of the Cross, His willingness to be broken becoming the means of our being made whole. 

In her new book, The Broken Way, Ann Voskamp points us to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper which is a re-telling of brokenness – bread, from broken wheat, telling us of the Broken Body of the Savior; the cup, from  crushed grapes, telling us of His Spilled Blood.  It is a ugly rite that tells a beautiful story.

Paul writes "I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.” I am with him there, aren’t you, too?  Yes, Lord, give me power to live in triumph, to banish fears and anxiety, to beat back sickness and hurts. Take away the temptations. But, the apostle completes the thought this way.  “I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!" (Philippians 3:10-11, NLT)  Not so excited about that part, are we?  Suffer? Death? Feelings of inadequacy emerging from my awareness of my weakness?  Yet, there it is. No Resurrection without a prior death!

Millions of Christians do all that they can do to avoid painful honesty, difficult places of services, or even living with the mystery of unexplained hurt. They live in the fool’s paradise of denial, shouting about victories they have not won. They choose to sing songs of adoration on Sunday while living in childish selfishness that avoids the pain of their world all week long. They cover over their doubts, their fears, with platitudes and proof texts as if every situation in life can be neatly explained to our satisfaction.  The result is a kind of “Christianity” that is sickeningly superficial and impotent.

Let me say it again.  God does not ask us to beat or to inflict pain on ourselves like the ascetics of another age.  Life will do that for us if we are walking with Christ, dying to Self, taking the pilgrim pathway.  However, when those times come instead of insisting on relief, instead of cursing the darkness, instead of wailing about the unfairness of it all – let’s choose radical faith that lets Him lead where He wills even it if means finding wholeness only through being broken.  I can tell you something I could not have said with much conviction even a few years ago –  His grace is sufficient for us each day.  I would have told you that I could not survive a 20 month journey through cancer to the death of my beloved wife, but He allowed that path and, in trusting Him, I am here a man battered and broken but alive to God and discovering new grace for each day.

Here is a word from the Word. May it encourage those of you who are in hard places to trust Him for strength. 
"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. …

For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! … We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. …

We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead." (2 Corinthians 1:3-9, NLT)

“And, when the battle’s over, we shall wear a crown!”

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Blessings

We pray for blessings,

We pray for peace comfort for family

Protection while we sleep

We pray for healing for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand

To ease our suffering

And all the while You hear each spoken need

Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near

And what if trials of this life

Are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom

Your voice to hear

We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness

We doubt Your love

As if ev'ry promise from Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear each desp'rate plea

And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us

When darkness seems to win

We know that pain reminds this heart

That this is not this is not our home

It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is a revealing of a greater thirst

This world can't satisfy

And what if trials of this life

The rain the storms the hardest nights

Are Your mercies in disguise

Laura Story

© 2011 Laura Stories (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)

New Spring (Admin. by Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc.)

CCLI License # 810055

The last resort?

Been to a prayer meeting lately? In my lifetime I have been to hundreds of those gatherings, in some just 2 or 3 of us gathered, others where thousands joined to seek God. I attended a massive men’s prayer rally on the Mall in Washington, DC in the mid 90’s. The experience of hundreds of thousands of us calling out to God was amazing! Some of those prayer meetings were quite formal, prayers prepared more like speeches, with polished phrases. Others were hastily assembled in time of crisis and the prayers were raw, accompanied by tears and groans. 

I know that nostalgia creates a rosy glow but I do remember Sunday evening church gatherings 35 years ago that invariably closed with people on their knees around the front of the church, worshiping together, seeking God, confessing sins, and finding the empowering Presence of God.  There was a bond of the Spirit created in those times where we made an altar of prayer that is largely missing in my life today.

Praying together can be difficult. We may feel self-conscious. “What do I say?” We may be reluctant to open our heart to God in front of others, wondering what they might think of us.  We may be embarrassed when emotion overtakes some follower seeker who shouts or weeps. Often there is that one person who starts to pray who has no ‘off’ switch, who drones on and on. Our mind loses focus on God and we wonder if they will ever run out of words! And, then, too there is this – when God’s people pray there is the opposition that arises in the spiritual realm because prayer, no matter how awkward or poorly phrased, is an act that honors God and changes the world. The Devil hates when God’s people pray.

Peter and John were arrested for preaching Christ’s Gospel in Jerusalem in the early days of the Church. The authorities warned them to stop and threatened them with death if they persisted. Here is how that little band of Believers responded. "As soon as they were freed, Peter and John returned to the other believers and told them what the leading priests and elders had said. When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them— you spoke long ago by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant, saying, ‘Why were the nations so angry? Why did they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepared for battle; the rulers gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’ … . And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” (Acts 4:23-31, NLT)

Christian let us never say “Well, at least I can pray!” That phrase reveals a hidden conceit, a kind of faithlessness that needs to be replaced with the witness of the Scripture to the power of God. We are too ready to trust our strategies, our organizational skills, our programs and make prayer the last resort instead of the first response.  May the Lord forgive us and call us to renewed faith.

We are taught to be in constant conversation with the Spirit. “Pray continually,” Paul teaches.  Our smartphones keep us in constant contact with others. Day and night we are just a text away from any person with access to the electronic network anywhere in the world. The Spirit invites us to stay in touch with the Throne of God!  When we find ourselves facing need how about saying, “Let’s pray, together, right now, about that.”  There is no need to make a production of it, nor does that mean going on for 10 minutes. A simple, earnest Christ-focused expression is sufficient. I pray (yes, I do!) that the Church will rediscover her voice in prayer.  When those first Christians prayed, Luke records this result - After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness."

Oh, Lord, teach us to pray!

Here is a word from the Word. "Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises. Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord. Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results." (James 5:13-16, NLT)

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Come Alive (Dry Bones)

Through the eyes of man it seems

There's so much we have lost

As we look down the road

Where all the prodigals have walked

And one by one the enemy

Has whispered lies and led them off as slaves

But we know that You are God

Yours is the victory

We know there is more to come

That we may not yet see

So with the faith You’ve given us

We step into the valley unafraid

We call out to dry bones come alive come alive

We call out to dead hearts come alive come alive

Up out of the ashes let us see an army rise

We call out to dry bones come alive

God of endless mercy God of unrelenting love

Rescue ev'ry daughter

Bring us back the wayward sons

And by Your spirit breathe upon them

Show the world that You alone can save

You alone can save

(So) breathe oh breath of God

Now breathe oh breath of God

Breathe oh breath of God now breathe (yeah oh)

We call out to dry bones come alive

Lauren Daigle | Michael Farren

© 2012 Wordspring Music, LLC (a div. of Word Music Group, Inc.)

CentricSongs (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.)

Farren Love And War Publishing (Admin. by Word Music Group, Inc.) CCLI License # 810055