The Christian Race

The Christian Race

We have watched those moments when athletes are about to start their race for the Olympic gold medal. They have done this so often since they first lined up to race, perhaps when they were still in grammar school. In various ways the official has said, “On your marks, get set, go.” The starting gun sounds, and the race begins.

Those starting words vary depending on the place and circumstances. In England, the words sometimes used are, “On your mark, steady, go.” As I grew up, the phrase most often used was shortened to, “Ready, Set, Go.” It is interesting to see how these three words are used to apply to our Christian lives.

The Christian is “ready.” You see this in Paul’s letter to the Romans. After he said that he was a debtor to all men, he said, “So as much as in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also” (Rom. 1:15). When he said “as much as in me,” he emphasized how devoted he was to getting the gospel to all mankind. He gave as much as he had! When he used the words, “to you who are in Rome also,” the word “also” emphasized that he felt the same toward teaching in every place.

When Paul wrote Titus, he said, “Remind them…to be ready for every good work” (Tit. 3:1). Faithfulness to God causes us to see a work that needs to be done, and then because we are ready, we do it! As the runner crouches to start the race and awaits the starting gun, so the Christian is “crouched” and his “starting gun” is seeing something needing to be done.race

The Christian is “set.” The book of Hebrews describes our lives as being participants in a race in which we are surround by a great company of witnesses. Evidently those witnesses are the heroes of faith mentioned chapter eleven. The writer then says, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1-2). The race is set and so are we! Our affections are firmly
“…set on things which are above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:2).

The Christian is prepared to “go.” When Jesus called men to follow Him and become fishers of men, they responded, but there was no way they could have understood all that was involved in following Jesus. However, just before He ascended, He gave them detailed instructions of what being a follower of Jesus involved. They were told to go to all nations, to every creature and teach them the words Jesus had given them (Matt. 28:19-20; Mark 16:15). The response to the invitation to “come” is then to “go.”

So, as you run your race, remember that it involves three things—ready, set, go. Let’s run the race faithfully.

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The Soul of the Psalmist

The Soul of the Psalmist

We do not always know the circumstances in which the psalmist found himself when he took his pen in hand. However, as we can read his psalms, we often find that we have experienced similar circumstances in our lives, which have brought about the same feelings he had. Consider Psalm 43 where David asks, “Why are you cast down, O my soul?”psalmist

The psalm begins with the man of God surrounded by evil. His enemies and their actions are described as being deceitful and unjust. His reaction  was to walk about mourning because of their oppression. How do you deal with life when there seems to be “no light at the end of the tunnel” and then your heart reaches out to heaven asking God to vindicate you against those who trouble you?  David cried out, “Vindicate me, O God, and plead my cause” (v. 1).

How do you deal with such situations? How did the psalmist deal with them? While you may feel that God has cast you off (v. 2), you still know that God is the God of your strength and the reality is that He has not actually cast you aside. Notice the psalmist’s prayer as He deals with this matter: “Oh, send our Your light and Your truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy hill and to your tabernacle” (v. 3). He knew his help was found in His temple.

When he entered the presence of God and His altar, he could cast aside the mourning. God changed that into “exceeding joy” and David began praising God. Sometimes our life can be just like David. We grope about mourning our situation and choose to not even go to worship. It is as though we think we must handle trials all by ourselves, yet when we go to the place where His light shines and His truth is found, our mourning is changed into joy. It is remarkable that we can be so overwhelmed that we pull back from God.

When David came into God’s house, he knew God had not forsaken him, and he said, “I will praise You, O God, my God” (v. 4). It was then that David was reminded that he belonged to God and God truly was my God. He is personally concerned about all of His children, personally!

Notice how this brief psalm ends. He looked again at how his soul had been cast down, and said, “Why are you disquieted within me” (v. 5)? He then gives the answer. “Hope in God.” God had not forsaken him and left him all alone to deal with life’s trials. God was “…the help of my countenance and my God.” It was in His presence, in His tabernacle, that God said he would find help and praise Him again.

When trials come, never withdraw from coming to worship Him in His presence in His temple. His truth and light change how we view trials!

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Parables and Understanding

Parables and Understanding

While Jesus taught more than thirty parables, only two of them are explained. He used these earthly stories to convey heavenly truths, and the message of each of these stories becomes obvious to those who seek to understand them. These two parables both deal with the planting of the seed (the word of God) in the hearts of men. After Jesus told the parable of the sower, He said, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?” (Mark 4:13).Are your roots deep?

There is a danger as one studies the parables of trying to find truths beyond the primary message the Lord had in mind when He taught them. However, since Jesus revealed the meaning of some of the details, we must not overlook their meaning.

In God’s divine plan, the seed of the kingdom (the gospel) was to be deeply planted in the hearts of those who heard it. The emphasis in the parable of the sower is to reveal that those who heard the gospel would respond in different ways. The seed was always the same but the soils determined the outcome of the seed planted. When that seed was planted, most of the seed failed to produce fruit, but in the right soil it produced amazing fruit.  The fruit is described in the second parable as “the sons of the kingdom” (Matt. 13:38).

The application in our lives is that we have become the children of God because when we heard the message, we understood it and began to produce fruit (Matt. 13:23). Now contrast this with the failure of that seed when it was planted on stony ground. They heard, but they had no root (Matt. 13:6, 21).  Think of what this implies about the “root” of those who are in that kingdom of heaven planted by Jesus.

Christians have deep roots. Solomon said, “The root of the righteous cannot be moved” and “the root of the righteous yields fruit” (Prov. 12:3, 12). Paul told the Ephesians that Christ dwelt in them and that they were “…rooted and grounded in love” (Eph. 3:17). He also reminded the Colossians that they were “…rooted and built upon Him and established in the faith” (Col. 2:7).

Notice that those in Colosse had their roots established in the faith. There are no deep roots which are not founded in the faith, the word of God. He also urged them to “…continue in the faith” and to not be “…moved away from the hope of the gospel which you have heard” (Col. 1:23).

What does this have to do with each of us? We will be fruitful children of the kingdom as we continue to read His word and let it sink deep within our hearts. Our deep roots are from Him who is described as the Root of David (Rev. 5:5; 22:16). Stay grounded in His teaching! Bear much fruit!

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Boundaries of God’s Grace

Boundaries of God’s Grace

If we are saved by grace alone, then all men would be saved, for His saving grace for all mankind had appeared to all men by the time Paul wrote to Titus (Tit. 2:11). If grace immediately covers all sin, then there is no reality to sin, for it would be impossible for sin to separate us from God (Isa. 59:2). It is vital that we understand the boundaries of God’s grace.

The previous paragraph shows that while His grace is infinite, it does have boundaries. The first time the word “grace” is found in the Bible is when God was about to bring judgment on a world filled with corruption. “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen. 6:8). His grace is truly “amazing grace,” but it does have boundaries.

Grace originates in the heart of God and He is the one who sets its limit. Because He is sovereign, He could destroy hell and send no one there, but that is not His nature. We are the ones who have wronged Him by our rebellion, and we humbly ask Him, “How can I make it right again?” It is not our right! He is the one to answer that question. Micah speaks directly to this. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the High God? …Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? … He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:6-8).

Christendom has moved that boundary in two opposing directions. The idea fostered by wrongly defining predestination, which was adopted centuries ago by the Protestants who taught that atonement was specifically set so firmly that the number in heaven cannot be increased or decreased at all, denies the closing words of the Bible. “Whosever will, let Him come.” The same is true of those who have set the number at 144,000. When men move the boundaries in either direction, the result is religious division.

The boundaries of grace are clearly fixed and revealed in the Bible. We must never ignore the words of God about any matter by adding anything to these words or by removing anything from them (Rev. 22:18-19). There is no mortal who has ever lived who has been given this right. The words of God are so fixed that on the final day we all will be judged by the words He has given to us (John 12:48).

Think about how God set the boundaries for the tribes of Israel as they settled in the Promised Land. They were fixed by God and defined by Him. Think about these words from Solomon: “Do not remove the ancient landmarks set by your fathers” (Prov. 22:28). We cannot remove the ancient landmarks set by our Father.

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A Religion of Sadness?

A Religion of Sadness?

Christianity was never designed to be a religion of sadness. The words “joy” and “rejoice” are found more than 400 times in the Bible. How could any relationship with God be anything other than the most marvelous experience one could have on this earth? When Paul described the fruit of the Spirit working in our lives, the second word he used was “joy.” Life with Him can never be a life of despair and gloom.no sadness

There is joy associated for those who teach others. There is great joy for those who teach. When Jesus told His disciples that the fields were ready to be reaped, He said that both those who sow and those who reap shall rejoice together (John 4:36). The psalmist said that those who sow shall without doubt come rejoicing (Psa. 126:5-6).

There is joy for those who are taught about Jesus.  On the day of Pentecost, there were 3,000 who received the word with joy (Acts 2:41). When Philip preached in Samaria, “There was great joy in that city” (Acts 8:8). The Ethiopian “…went on his way rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). The man who found the treasure of the kingdom, “…for joy over it goes and sells all he had and buys the field” (Matt. 13:44). Think about your own experience. Has there ever been any day surpassing the day your sins were forgiven?

There is joy in the midst of trials as a Christian. When adversity comes into our lives, God tells us to “…count it all joy when you fall into various trials” (Jas. 1:3). How can this be? God gives the answer in the verses that follow. It is the trials in our lives which make us “…perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” Notice also that God said, “count it all joy”! We must not focus on the trials of adversity but on the results of them.

Jesus used some amazing words to describe our response when we are hated by others for His sake. “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy” (Luke 6:23). He does not see such times of adversity as a time to weep but as a time to rejoice. But, even more than just a time for joy—a time to leap for joy!

There is immeasurable joy awaiting us at the end of our lives. As Paul journeyed to Jerusalem for the final time, he passed through many cities. In every one of them there were prophets who foretold the chains and tribulations which he would face when he arrived. Such did not deter his resolve, for he longed to “…finish my race with joy” (Acts 20:24). It was this same joy which Jesus spoke of when His disciples were rejoicing that they had the power to cast out demons. He said, “Do not rejoice in this … but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice.”

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