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Brothers and Sisters,

Back in 2016, I had the fantastic opportunity to take a seminary course centered on a study trip to Israel.  One of our days traveling involved a stop at the site of Capernaum.  Our visit to Capernaum was great, except for the slight annoyance of some group trying to film onsite while we viewed the town’s synagogue.  In hindsight, I’m quite grateful for the minor inconvenience.  The group that we ran into that day is an organization known as Appian Media.  They’ve now produced two wonderful, multi-episode, video series shot in Israel.  The first traces the life and ministry of Jesus, while the second explores the archeological evidence for Israel’s United Monarchy (Israel under David and Solomon).  I’ve enjoyed watching both for free at the Appian Media website, and now I’m enjoying them again with my kids.  As we enter into the week before Easter, let me commend to you, in particular, the series titled, “Following the Messiah.”  I think this well-done video walk through the life of Jesus will edify you as we recall, in a special way, our Lord’s death, burial, and resurrection.  Take an hour tonight and get started with the first 2-3 episodes.  Enjoy!

In Christ,

P.J.

Brothers and Sisters,

As we come to the close of another Lord’s Day, it’s been good to give attention to the Word of our God and to fellowship with one another virtually.  If you missed it this morning, you can view our virtual service on Facebook, or listen to just the sermon on the Felton Bible Church webpage.

Before we call our day “closed,” consider with me for a moment Psalm 65.  In verse five, David says something that really should cause us to wonder and give thanks.  He writes (ESV): “By awesome deeds you answer us with righteousness, O God of our salvation…”  The same statement in the NASB translation reads: “By awesome deeds you answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation…”  Regardless which English preposition you use (“with” vs. “in”), pairing God’s righteousness with our salvation shouldn’t make any sense at all, humanly speaking.  In fact, humanly speaking, to think that God answers us with, or in, righteousness should be profoundly frightening!

God is righteous (meaning he is without sin; he is altogether perfect; he is the definition of good, and right, and just, and holy), yes, but we are not.  We enter this world with a nature bent against God, one defined by, and corrupted by, sin.  Sin is anything that stands contrary to the character and commands of God.  Sin marks us from birth, not only in what we do, but in our very being.  Romans tells us that the wages (the payment) of sin is death (Romans 6:23).  When righteousness encounters sin, sin dies.  So how is it that God’s awesome deeds, which answer our sin in (or with) righteousness, result in salvation for his children?  The answer is simply this: The most awesome deed God ever performed was the crucifixion of his son, Jesus Christ, on a cross.  Jesus died to deal with the sin – to pay for the sin; to become the propitiation (Romans 3:25) for the sin; to soak up and consume, once and for all, God’s wrath because of sin – of all those he means to save, all those who by faith follow Christ as Lord and Savior (Romans 10:9-10).  Jesus Christ is God’s righteousness embodied.  At the cross, God answers our need with (or in) righteousness, and we are saved!  God is the God of our salvation, at the cross!

This means, of course, that you ought not to seek God except through the cross.  It is not safe to encounter the righteousness of God except through the cross of Christ.  To borrow an image from C.S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia, he (God) is not a “tame lion.”  But, through the cross, God’s righteousness becomes our life.  It is the only life that is truly life, and the only life that will, forever, outlast what we know as death.  Eternal life with God in heaven awaits those who meet God at the cross.

I’ll end by pointing us further into Psalm 65, where David paints an agricultural image of divine blessing poured out on the earth.  As you read these words, put Jesus’ church in the place of earth, and consider how God works for the good of his people whom he has saved:

“You visit the earth and water it; you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water; you provide their grain, for so you have prepared it.  You water its furrows abundantly, settling its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth.  You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with abundance.  The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.” – Psalm 65:9-13 (ESV)

Thus, and more is how God blesses the disciples of Jesus Christ.  As we enter into a week where we recall in a special way Jesus death, burial, and resurrection, may you encounter the God of all righteousness through the cross of Jesus Christ.  As that happens, may you rejoice – whether for the first time, or once again – in the God who answers you with salvation.

“Blessed [oh God] is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!” – Psalm 65:4b.

In Christ,

P.J.

Brothers and Sisters,

Routine sometimes gets a bad rap, especially when it involves any flavor of discipline.  Popular culture can often glorify the “spontaneous” or the “innovative,” the “fresh” and the “unprecedented.”  No one wants to be “stuck in a rut.”  And yet, wouldn’t we all appreciate some well-worn ruts at the moment?  Like, for instance, the “rut” of open schools, or thriving businesses, or just a simple handshake.  When everything is thrown “out-of-whack,” suddenly routine seems rather glorious.

My point here isn’t to downplay the beauty of spontaneity, or the importance of innovation, or the wonder of that which is fresh and unprecedented.  But, perhaps we should pause for a moment and simply appreciate routine.  Consider that God built routine (or, should we say, “regularity”) into the fabric of the universe, and our life depends on it!  The earth turns according to a 24-hour routine.  We routinely orbit the Sun every 365 days or so.  The seasons change with predictable routine (despite whatever may or may not be the case with global warming).  Not only in creation, but also in worship, God demonstrates the purpose and value of routine.  Read the Old Testament Pentateuch (Genesis – Deuteronomy), and you’ll find awesome “routine” patterns of worship that God commands Israel to remember and enjoy.  Finally, consider Jesus himself.  He was, if anything, incredibly innovative, and yet he was a man of holy routine.  He taught regularly in the Jews’ synagogues (not to mention gathering there for worship as a God-honoring Jew himself).  Each year he routinely visited Jerusalem for the feasts prescribed in the Law of Moses.  Perhaps most importantly, Jesus was a man of routine prayer.  Luke 5:16 (ESV) says, “But he [Jesus] would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”  The same verse in the NASB reads, “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”  For Jesus, life involved life-giving routine.

Tomorrow is Sunday.  Sunday is a day for God’s people, followers of Jesus Christ, Christians, to routinely gather together for worship.  Such gatherings are one of the great, holy, irreplaceable, life-bringing routines of living this side of heaven.  We’re walking through a moment of great upheaval, with strange realties and unprecedented new norms.  In the middle of it all, we’re reminded about the necessary beauty of holy repetition, sanctified regularity, glorious routine.  While we cannot meet as is our practice, we’re nonetheless thankful for the gift of technology that allows us a measure of Christian routine even in the midst of COVID-19.  Please, avail yourself of Sunday routine tomorrow.  Do so with your Felton Bible Church brothers and sisters, most especially through our Facebook Live broadcast at 9:30 am.  Our innovative God calls us to routine worship.  Let us delight in hearing that call!

In Christ,

P.J.

Brothers and Sisters,

Tonight’s devotional is quite simple (and coming in just under the wire still on April 3^rd!), since I’m writing only to cue you to another article.  Click here to read a post from March 11^th by Alasdair Groves, the Executive Director of the Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation.  I trust you’ll find it encouraging.  I’ve been helped today by the reminder that God’s rescue (in whatever difficulty we face) often comes through waiting.  Give this a read, and let your heart be helped.

In Christ,
P.J.

Brothers and Sisters,

I begin tonight with a story.  It’s a story that came to mind today while I ran on the trail behind our church property which leads down into Henry Cowell State Park.  I recalled an incident while running on the same trail last year when I came upon a small furry creature making its way across the path.  It was, I believe, a mole, though a mole curiously out of place on a relatively exposed trail.  I stopped while the little animal finished its course, if for no other reason than to prevent it being eaten by any lurking bird of prey.  Fast-forward maybe a week later, and I’m running back toward church along the same trail.  Suddenly, out of the sky (or some overhead tree branch) an object falls right in front of me, narrowly missing my head in fact.  I looked down to find the front portion of a half-eaten mole lying on the trail at my feet.  Perhaps that strikes you as a bit sad.  Truth-be-told, I found it rather amusing.  I imagined the mafia-like raptor whose meal I spoiled the week previous leaving me a none-to-subtle message: “Here’s to you, you do-gooder…I got him in the end all the same!  Signed…Hawk.”

While I recalled this dubiously amusing episode, my thoughts also went to a much less amusing – in fact a deadly serious – portion of Scripture.  In 1 Peter 5:8 (ESV), Peter writes a solemn warning to believers: “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  It’s no mole-eating hawk we face, but rather a true spiritual adversary – the devil – who’s better described like a deadly, opportunistic, and cruel lion.

Now, why would it be apropos for us to specifically hear Peter’s warning tonight and take heed.  Well, consider this.  In the last two weeks or more, we have all shifted much of our life to the virtual “world.”  It’s not that we weren’t there in days prior, but now we’re all much more present in cyberspace than in the past.  So are our kids, or grandkids.  As we’ve made this shift, have we remembered that cyberspace is not neutral space?  Do we recall that Satan has special tactics and special temptations which face us through a series of encoded ones and zeros?  Are we alert to the devil prowling via the internet?  Some of his tactics are well-known, though still deadly – pornography for one, or the social media “comparison game” for another.  But there are others; others like a constant stream of non-neutral, unedifying news primed to discourage; or even otherwise accurate news, but news in such quantity that we can’t possibly process it all accurately and well (we’re not God after all); or even just the ever-present temptation to waste time on nothing of substance (e.g. Should Christians ever “binge watch” anything, if by “binge” we mean a gluttonous unthinking consumption of so-called entertainment?).  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Luddite.  I’m also not talking down the wise use of something like Amazon Prime video (not Netflix…you should ditch Netflix…click here to read why).  But, in the middle of it all, do we remember there’s a lion who prowls?

As we learn to live wisely under “shelter-in-place,” let’s keep what Peter writes next in mind with reference to our lion-like adversary, Satan (1 Peter 5:9-11): ^“Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.  And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.  To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

Amen indeed…sleep well.

In Christ,

P.J.

Brothers and Sisters,

Well, “perseverance” was the right word for yesterday (Day 15’s devotion).  If you aren’t already aware, the shelter-in-place order for Santa Cruz County has been extended to May 3^rd.  We’re in a marathon, and that’s okay.  As we find our stride for the middle portion of the race, let me briefly return to the image of God as our Rock.  We last considered this image on March 25^th, with the Day 9 devotional.  I was reminded and encouraged again this morning (and I needed the encouragement) to remember God as my Rock by the words of Psalm 62:1-2, 5-7 (ESV):

“For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.  He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken…For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him.  He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken.  On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God.”

 After reading this I went and dug a rock out of the dirt behind our church facilities.  It’s now sitting on my desk inscribed as you see here:

 

 

May the Lord be a Rock for you tonight as you head to bed!

One more brief note.  You may be aware of Keith and Kristyn Getty and their outstanding ministry of profound Christian music.  Did you know that you can join their family live every Tuesday evening at 5:15 pm (our time on the Pacific Coast) for a hymn sing?  You can see the details and a link to Facebook Live on their webpage here.  Perhaps this can become part of your regular engagement with Jesus’ people until we emerge from this COVID moment.

Rest well…

In Christ,

P.J.

Brother and Sisters,

This evening it seems “perseverance” is an appropriate word for us to reflect on.  I say this as current guidelines suggest a continuance of our “shelter-in-place” and social distancing needs through April at least.  We pray that the Lord’s mercy will bring an earlier end to this pandemic and these extraordinary measures, but if he does not, does he cease to be merciful in our sight?  As the Apostle Paul cries out, “May it never be!”  Our merciful God knows exactly what we need, and we can trust him.  Now for perseverance…

It seems, if we believe God’s Word, that perseverance is an essential component to Christ-like character.  God perseveres, which means to know him we too must know something of holy perseverance.  There is a word in Greek – hypomone (if you care to read the transliterated original) – variously translated in the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible as, “steadfastness,” “patient,” “patience,” “patiently,” or “endurance.”  On two occasions the New American Standard Bible renders the same word as “perseverance.”  This term hypomone appears thirty-two times in the New Testament.  Let me share a sample of four such instances with you now:

Romans 5:1-5 (ESV) – “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

[Notice the absolutely necessary link between endurance and hope, and between hope and the glory of God – the glory of God that brings us life!  We do not truly enjoy the glory of God if we have not learned endurance.]

Romans 15:4 (ESV) – For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

[Notice once again the link between endurance and hope.  Also, did you catch how the Scriptures fit into this process?  Endurance for endurance-sake alone is of limited value only.  But endurance paired with, grounded in, God’s Word yields hope!]

2 Thessalonians 3:5 (ESV) – May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ

[Ah!  So, this perseverance thing is a Jesus thing; it’s about the character of Christ.  No wonder we need to learn perseverance as his followers.]

2 Peter 1:3-8 (ESV) – His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.  For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

[Perseverance is not a matter of self-enabled “boot-strapping.”  Rather, it is the product having been laid hold of by Jesus Christ for salvation by grace through faith.  Perseverance is the outworking of faith, and it is itself a builder of faith. Perseverance is essential to being a fruitful Christian; someone for whom the knowledge of Christ shapes their heart.]

Now, in many ways we’re not all that excited about the word perseverance.  It tends to make us think of long, arduous, painful endeavors, and rightly so at times!  But, once again, notice how much Scripture pairs perseverance with things like joy, hope, glory, usefulness, fruitfulness, and faith.  If those words ring with a beautiful, positive note in our ears, so also should the word, “perseverance!”  It may help us to hear “perseverance” in a positive way if we add two more words into the mix: Perspective and Creativity.

Perspective reminds us that our in-the-moment feelings do not define reality.  Indeed, what we experience as a period of “persevering” may in truth be a mere blip of an instant – not only in God’s history-spanning view, but even in the time-bound existence we live.  Hebrews 12:3-4 (ESV) exhorts us to perspective: “Consider him [Jesus] who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”  Here’s a bit of helpful perspective related to our COVID-19 “shelter-in-place” crisis…we’re not even a month-in yet.  This too shall pass, all in God’s good time.

And lastly, creativity.  Perseverance need not be a slog if we engage the need to persevere with God-given creativity.  Every moment God affords us is a moment of opportunity.  What are the opportunities in front of us should we find ourselves living the COVID-19 lifestyle through April or beyond?

So, what will we do if on April 30th, a month from now, we find ourselves still facing the difficulties we’re experiencing in the moment?  We’ll simply put one foot in front of the other, thankful for each moment, and continue persevering with hope until the Lord brings us into a new day.

Love in Christ,

P.J.

 

Brothers and Sisters,

Today’s devotional is a bit heavier.  It’s also one where I mean to communicate carefully, but clearly, as best I can.  Also, I should note, my thoughts here are not wholly original.  I listened to a podcast episode this morning produced by a wonderful servant of the Lord that set my mind thinking in this direction.  So here goes:

The world is in crisis mode.  Schools are shut down…hospitals are working overtime to save lives…businesses are facing ruin…and the abortion clinics, well they’re still functioning.  They’re still open for “business.”  That includes the Planned Parenthood Clinic located in downtown Santa Cruz.  If you look at its website, the Santa Cruz office of Planned Parenthood will tell you how to access their facility while maintaining the necessary COVID-19 precautions.

The horrible, wicked irony of this situation is nothing short of breathtaking.  We’re laboring long and hard as a society – and rightly so – to fight an unseen virus.  Our singular goal is to prevent more death in a global pandemic that has thus far killed approximately 30,000 people.  Meanwhile, at least in California entities central to what one commentator calls our “culture of death” continue to function.  The pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute cites that in 2017 there were 808 clinics across the United States providing “abortion services.”  These 808 clinics contributed to the deaths of 862,320 unborn children in that same year alone.  That’s nearly 30x the number of fatalities thus far from coronavirus.

Now, advocates of Planned Parenthood will tell you that abortions represent only one part of the total “health services” provided by the organization.  In fact, our local Planned Parenthood location does not call itself an abortion clinic.  It is a “Health Center,” according to the Planned Parenthood Santa Cruz website.  Be the statistics what they may, Planned Parenthood’s self-description is both misleading and euphemistic.  Planned Parenthood, at its core, is an organization built on the practice of abortion.  Consider this January 2019 statement on Twitter from the then President of Planned Parenthood, Leana Wen: “First, our core mission is providing, protecting and expanding access to abortion and reproductive health care.  We will never back down from that fight – it’s a fundamental human right and women’s lives are at stake.”  This sort of commitment helps to explain why, by its own count in the organization’s 2018-2019 annual report, Planned Parenthood conducted 345,672 abortion procedures.  That’s 10x more human lives lost than those fallen thus far to COVID-19.

On Sunday I preached a sermon titled, “The Great Coronavirus Plague of 2020.”  I believe it is both right and good to liken coronavirus to the plagues we read about in Scripture.  Having done so, we then need to consider God’s good purposes in plagues, and our response to his work – his work to judge, to discipline, to demonstrate, and to give opportunity (Note: May I suggest listening to the sermon, available at the Felton Bible Church webpage).  My purpose was not to highlight abortion and then identify COVID-19 as God’s judgment on this particular sin, this particular wickedness.  But, insomuch as judging sin is one of God’s purposes in a day of plague, I did specifically identify the slaughter of unborn children as one evil God means to address in this moment of societal crisis.  Is it logical to assume that God will indefinitely remain silent, even in a temporal sense, in the face of a society that annually kills 800,000+ unborn children?  God did not remain silent at such wickedness in the Canaanite nations he judged through Israel.  He did not remain silent at such wickedness in Israel itself.  Why should we assume our day will be different?  Right at the end of the sermon I said, in effect, the following:

“As we labor to kill our own sin in the face of a plague, may we also let God use us to actively oppose Satan; to expose his schemes, and to love our neighbor by calling our world to account.  1 John 3:8 [ESV] says that, “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of devil,” and we [meaning believers in Jesus Christ, Christians] are people of the Son of God.  Would we dare to carefully and judiciously assert that there is a link between the Great Coronavirus Plague of 2020 and the sin our community so easily imbibes, the schemes of Satan we accept? – The slaughter of unborn children…the injustice of racism…the abuse of sexuality…the distortion of gender…the condoning of greed…the denial of families…and the list could go on.”

It’s important to note that I made mention of such societal sins only after addressing the sin we must wrestle with first in our own hearts.

How is it that God would have us expose the schemes of Satan in this day of plague?  Here again, let me encourage you to listen to the sermon.  Our first call as Christians in a day of plague is to become messengers who proclaim today as the day of God’s salvation; messengers of reconciliation who act according to God’s Word in order to reconcile God and those he means to save.

So, while coronavirus rages and people die, we meet the moment with a message of Gospel hope.  The workers at Planned Parenthood Santa Cruz do not need my animosity or shrill note of judgment in the midst of this plague (or any other time for that matter).  Rather, they need from me, and from all those who follow Jesus, a clear testimony of God’s grace in the face of sin.  They need a clear word that abortion is wicked, and that God has judged, is judging, and will judge wickedness, even through plagues.  They need to know that because of the cross, they need not remain in wickedness; they need not suffer God’s judgment.  Freedom, and hope, and forgiveness, and reconciliation, and cleanliness await.  Such is Jesus’ call while the plague rages on.  May we have ears to hear.

In Christ,

P.J.

(Note: To be clear, I consider “abortion” the unjustified killing of an unborn child at any point after conception.  I do not include in the term pregnancy-ending medical efforts undertaken to save the life of a mother.  In such scenarios the purpose is to save life, not end it.)

Brothers and Sisters,

Once again, my Sunday devotional will be brief.  It was my privilege to lead us into God’s Word today, and I would encourage you toward this morning’s sermon – whether via the Facebook Live video or the recording online.  Let me also reflect the joy and blessing of seeing some of you today via Zoom during our Sunday School gathering and our prayer meeting.  God is good to give us the grace of technology in a time of separation.  In this sense, what we’re experiencing is unprecedented in the life of Jesus’ church.  Our spiritual fore-bearers in 1918 weren’t connecting virtually!  While we’re very aware as Jesus’ people of the pitfalls inherent to technology, these days also help us remember to be grateful for the tools that God gifts us with in cyberspace.  May we use them well in the week ahead!

I’ll close today by commending to you this video of a virtual choir singing “It is Well With My Soul.”  The last verse in particular tugs at my heart in a special way.  May it be a blessing to you this evening.

Until tomorrow…

In Christ,

P.J.

Brothers and Sisters,

The word for today (or rather this evening) is competition.  When the COVID-19 crisis first broke over us in earnest two weeks ago (or so), the air was thick with competitive juices, and not the good kind.  I felt it most perniciously when, on Friday, March 13^th, I braved fields of unfriendly strife at Costco.  It wasn’t that people were outwardly aggressive or rude to one another, but competition reigned nonetheless, even if it was only in our minds.  Everyone was bent on securing their needed items for their family in the face of building social panic over an unseen virus.  Thankfully, by the common grace of God that holds together even a world fallen in sin, the Costco run on Friday, March 28^th felt much different – more organized, more measured, less panicked.  It seems our fear-driven competitive juices have subsided a bit while we’ve learned to live “shelter-in-place.”

Now, even as our society has dubiously decidedly that he who has the most toilet paper wins (sorry, couldn’t help myself), ironically we’ve had to postpone that most iconic of competitive gatherings, the Olympics.  This year, 2020, was the year of the summer Olympic athlete, but no longer.  We’ll have to wait until 2021 to see if anyone can best Usain Bolt’s 9.58 seconds in the men’s 100-meter dash.  Meanwhile though, as Christians, we can let both the regretful competition of fear, and the disappointment of competition postponed, become a spur to things more fruitful.  There is, after all, a holy competition that belongs to believers.  In fact, competitive language shows up repeatedly in the New Testament.  Consider these passages:

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NASB), the Apostle Paul writes, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may win.  Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.  They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”

Paul again takes up the image of an athlete running a race (alongside the corresponding pictures of a soldier and a farmer) near the end of his life when he writes to encourage his companion and co-laborer, Timothy.  Paul desires that Timothy, like an athlete running a race, will be strong, not in his own strength, but in grace: “You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.  The things you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also…Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules…Consider what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything” (2 Tim. 2:1-2, 5, 7 NASB).

Finally, the author of Hebrews, in Hebrews 12:1-2, writes, “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author of perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Yes, we are competitors!  We have been “put in the game” by the grace of God that has rescued us in Christ Jesus.  The best athletes compete because they love their sport.  So also, love is the engine that fuels those sprinting after Jesus – the love we have received from God; the love we have for God; the love he gives us for others.  We lovingly compete our way through life, not for the glory of self, but all to the glory of God as we strive to do what Paul commands in Romans 12:10-12 (ESV): “Love one another with brotherly affection.  Outdo [this word has a competitive vibe] one another in showing honor.  Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.”  

I leave you tonight with perhaps my favorite Christian athlete of all time, Eric Liddell.  A gold medal sprinter in the 1924 Olympic games, Eric died in February 1945 while a Japanese internee at a camp in war-torn China.  For all it lacks, the 1980’s film Chariots of Fire is a keeper.  The film is at its best in this moment of conversation between Eric and his sister, Janie.  Eric Liddell was a true Christian athlete.

May you and I run our race this week fueled by love, and secure in the victory Jesus has already won for us.

In Christ,

P.J.