Notice what happens in a race when you move forward, but you keep looking back. You can’t see the obstacles in the future, so you fall over them. You make mistakes. You hurt yourself. This is what you do when you keep looking back, while running forward. You hurt yourself because you can’t see the challenges and the hurdles ahead of you.

Here is the challenge for us as Christians, and as churches. Turn your head around. Start looking forward. Run the race that God has for you by looking forward. This means a couple of things:

1.You will only grow if you keep looking forward. You can’t say – “I want it like it was before.” Growth means that you change some things. For Christians, it may be some habits. For churches, it may be some methods and traditions.

2.You will only win the race when you look forward to Jesus. You can’t say – “I can do this all by myself.” Winning the race means that you work in a team with Jesus. Jesus is there to coach you. He is your cheerleader. He will help you win the race. But you have to keep looking to Him – not to anyone else, or anything else. Jesus needs to be your Source. This takes prayer. You have to be praying and listening to Jesus to move forward.

3.You have to believe that the future is brighter than the past. You can’t say – “It can’t get any better.” The truth is: Yes – it will get better. You have to take all of your negative thoughts and submit them to Christ. Christians need to think forward because God thinks forward. God doesn’t stay in the past. You shouldn’t either. Your church shouldn’t stay in the past.

4.You have to know that God’s love for you didn’t end when you accepted Jesus. You can’t say – “God doesn’t love me anymore.” God still loves you right where you are. He just doesn’t want you to stay right where you are. God’s love for you grows just as you decide to look forward and grow. God wants to help you with your future. Why? Because He wants you to reach the goal – eternal life with Him in heaven. You can’t there by looking back to your past here on earth. Nothing will separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ, not even your past. There is much more ahead of you in God’s love than behind you.

So keep looking forward. God has big plans for you – for you as a Christian, as father, as mother, as a student, as a couple, as a church. Keep your head up and keep looking forward. There will be much more for you with God’s love. Look forward to it.

(JIM ERWIN)

Whenever I consider Solomon, I am faced with the question of how a man of such great wisdom and discernment could end his life so far from the Lord.

He had 700 wives, and 300 concubines. His wives turned away his heart so that it was not wholly true to the   Lord   his  God.  Solomon’s   heart   was  at  first
divided between women and God, but it soon turned away altogether.

This is terrifying, is it not? A man with the wisdom of Solomon, a man who had had the Lord appear to him twice and who had heard the Lord command him not to turn after other Gods, still turned away. Though a wise man, the Lord told him “you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you.” How could this happen?

It seems to me that the key to Solomon’s downfall is found in one of his own proverbs. In Proverbs 19:27 we read “Cease to hear instruction, my son, and you will stray from the words of knowledge.” Those who cease to listen to wise instruction, instruction based on the fear of the Lord, will quickly stray. While we cannot know for certain, I am increasingly convinced that this is what happened to Solomon. When he was only a boy, but still a king, he called out to God in what seems to be a healthy apprehension of the difficulties he would face as king. God was pleased to hear, pleased to answer, and pleased to give to Solomon far more than he asked. Solomon asked for discernment, but was also given great wisdom, great wealth, and great power. God lavished gifts upon him.

But as Solomon grew older, I believe he began to depend less on God. I believe he began to depend on his own wisdom and to stray ever-further from God’s instruction. Where there was once humble dependence on God, there was now dependence on himself. In so doing, he strayed from words of knowledge, and strayed from God Himself. Solomon preferred his wisdom to God’s wisdom, his ways to God’s ways. The whole earth once “sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.” But I believe Solomon soon allowed his own earthly wisdom to overtake his mind. He ceased hearing instruction and strayed from words of knowledge. He strayed from wisdom. He strayed from God.

If Solomon could stray so far from the Lord, I know that I could too. This is a sobering thought. This is even a terrifying thought. Thankfully, the solution to avoiding the folly of Solomon is clear. I need to ensure that I never cease to hear instruction. I must live constantly focused on God’s Word, never believing that I have learned enough. I must know that from this day to the day I die, I need to maintain a humble dependence on God. I must trust that His words of instruction will continue to edify and strengthen me, protecting me from straying from the words of knowledge, those words that I trust to keep me on the straight and the narrow path.
(TIM CHALLIES)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything  that hinders and the sin that easily entangles.                                                            And let us run with perseverance the race  marked out for us…

HEBREWS 12:1

The army of Alexander the Great was advancing on Persia. At one critical point, it appeared that his troops might be defeated. The soldiers had taken so much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighted down and were losing their effectiveness in combat.

Alexander commanded that all the spoils be thrown into a heap and burned. The men complained bitterly but soon saw the wisdom of the order. Someone wrote, “It was as if wings had been given to them—they walked lightly again.” Victory was assured.

As soldiers of Christ, we must rid ourselves of anything that hinders us in the conflict with our spiritual enemy. To fight the battle effectively, we must be clad only with the armor of God (Ephesians 6:11-17).

The Bible also likens Christians to runners. To win the race, we must “lay aside every weight” that would drag us down and rob us of our strength and endurance (Hebrews 12:1). This weight may be an excessive desire for possessions, the captivating love of money, an endless pursuit of pleasure, slavery to sinful passions, or a burdensome legalism.

Yes, if we are to fight the good fight of faith and run the spiritual race with endurance, the watchword must be: Off with the weight!
(RICHARD DE HAAN)

Fight the good fight with all thy might!
Christ is thy strength and Christ thy right;
Lay hold on life and it shall be
Thy joy and crown eternally. —MONSELL

If your Christian life is a drag, could it be that worldly weights holding you back?

Why was Paul so careful making sure he mentioned that the result of Abrahams faith extended to us? The Scriptures say that, “Abram believed the LORD, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6). Paul is noting that the same credit of righteousness is extended to everyone who firmly relies in Jesus as Lord.

Abraham’s faith was a channel of the righteousness that God bestowed upon him, but his faith rested in the promise. The promise extends to us because the promise referred to the Messiah. Abraham saw a glimpse of this and knew that the Salvation of the world would come through his heir. Fortunate for us, God extends this hope of salvation to everyone who believes in Jesus. Romans 2:11 says, that God is no respecter of persons. This is a great thing because it doesn’t rely on who we are or what we do, it only relies on the Person and the grace of Jesus.

There is a warning however. To have righteousness credited unto your account you have to believe that God raised Jesus from the dead. To the natural man, this is utterly ridiculous and hard to understand. On the other hand, many people confess this, but their confession is merely words. The Amplified Bible explains what truly believing is… to believe you must firmly rely on, trust in and adhere to what you confess. We can take lesson from Abraham because he was fully persuaded in the promise and because of that any doubt that remain was overpowered by his faith. To have God’s righteousness credited to us, we have to be fully persuaded that He raised Jesus from the dead, and we have to believe this by faith.

Today, I praise God that we have Abraham as a powerful example of faith. I praise God that the blessing he received extends to us. I am so thankful to have obtained this righteousness apart from the Law, which is by faith. The same faith working in all who believe in Jesus. What a marvelous thing!
(JULI CAMARIN)

I love lists. I make to-do lists, grocery lists, lists of things to clean, etc. Whatever it is, if I can make it into a list, I probably have.

There’s something about checking things off a list, signifying that that task is done and it’s time to move on.

It’s tempting to make the Christian life into a list. Bible read, check. Volunteer at a homeless shelter, check. Tithe, check. Sometimes I feel like it would be easier if I could just have a list for how to follow God. But the thing about that list is that it’s been tried before. And the people failed, miserably. The Torah was what the Jewish people used to follow God before Jesus came.

There are 613 laws to follow in the Torah. 248 of these are positive (do this…) and the rest are negative commandments (do NOT do this…). Talk about a long list! With all of those rules, I’m sure to break one somewhere and possibly not even know it. But that’s the thing about lists. They are straightforward and leave no room for grace. You cleaned your house on the Sabbath because it was the only day you could? Sorry, you broke that rule. You wore polyester? You broke another rule.

That’s why Romans 4:13-25 is such good news. We don’t have to follow those 613 laws. And when we mess up (which we inevitably will), God’s grace is there for us. And that is great news!

God knows that we could never follow every rule or do everything exactly right. We are imperfect creatures, and our best will always fall short of God. BUT God promised us that we are His children, that He would love us no matter what, and that Jesus’ sacrifice means that we can be God’s friend forever. Grace sets us free from being buried in lists, from the anxiety that comes from never being able to follow all of the rules exactly right. Our faith makes us righteous in God’s eyes, not our ability to complete to-do lists.

(JESSICA ASBELL)

This past Sunday, I was reminded, how easy it is to mindlessly sing songs like “I Surrender All” in our time of worship and never give any thought to what it means to actually live that way.  How willing I am on Sunday morning to give everything to God.  How quickly I take it all  back on  Monday  morning.  If  the  song were  written mirroring  my  life during  the  week  it  would  read  more  like  this:

I surrender SOME, I surrender SOME
Half-heartedly to Thee, my blessed Savior
I surrender SOME.

How simple it seems to surrender when all is going well in my life but how hard it becomes when it’s falling apart.

I had a friend, Traci, who died of cancer about two years ago and I think of her often.  She was in her mid-thirties, had two wonderful little girls and a loving husband.  I watched as she struggled with her battle against cancer and witnessed her walk of faith grow stronger and stronger with each passing day. Just months before she stepped into the presence of her Savior, she penned these words: I am looking each day for God; around every corner, in the sunlight and in the shadows I see Him. I feel His arms around me very close.  If I were given the chance to choose this course my life has taken, do you know that I would actually CHOOSE this life? I never would have had the chance to see Him like this otherwise.

When Traci sang “I Surrender All”, she just didn’t sing it, she lived it!  She understood what it meant to follow God without reservation, with eyes wide open, ready to receive whatever God had for her.  Deep down at the core of who she was, she believed that God was GOOD no matter how things might seem.  She tasted of His goodness and knew Him in ways I only dreamed about.

A few years ago, I came across some verses tucked back in the book of Habakkuk that took my breath away when I read them.  I’m reminded of them as I think about Traci and the life she led. “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and cattle barns are empty, yet will I REJOICE in the Lord!  I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!  The Sovereign LORD is my strength!  He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.”  (Habakkuk 3:17-19)

This was Traci’s way of life. No matter what might be taken from her, no matter how difficult the journey, she chose to rejoice in the God of her salvation.  He was her strength and might; her strong tower. I watched as she journeyed, as a surefooted deer, from this life into the next with God at her side!

I thank God for allowing my path to cross Traci’s and for Sundays like this that remind me that it’s not what I say (or sing) but how I live!

(KRISTI HUSEBY)

Lord, I write and pray this prayer to You,
May all who read it pray it too.

Give us all a missions heart,
To pray, to go, or to send—
To every nation, both foe and friend.

You came to earth to die for me,
And to set the captives free.
So may we go,
That the world may know!

And may each missions heart,
Continue to grow,
Continue to sow,
Continue to flow in Your presence.

Thank you for this missions heart,
And as Your Word goes forth,
May we not depart,
From every law and every command,
Even to go to every land.

It’s Your inheritance,
The nations are Yours to claim,
We go in Your Spirit,
In the power of Your name.

Thy Kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
Bless each missions heart,
For the glory of Your Son.

Give us all a missions heart,
To pray, to go, or to send—
To every nation, both foe and friend.

Lord, I write and pray this prayer to You,
May all who read it pray it too.