Praise the Lord
for this new day. I praise the Lord for you all. It was great blessing to hear
from so many of you on my birthday, from all over the world. It was a great
thrill and joy to receive the loving and kind affirmations. I praise the Lord
that through Jesus we are linked with each other in the bond of His love. The
Lord gave me a very brilliant and beautiful day yesterday. It was cloudless.
The night was brilliant with moonlight. Our daughter reminded me that I was
good boy all year so the Lord gave me a flawless day. Only one other thing she
wanted was that it could have been a little warmer. She encouraged me to do a
little better this year so that it would be a warmer day next year. Our
grandchildren called to wish me Happy Birthday. Ada said " Happy birthday
Grandpa... She then lingered on the phone for long time. It was precious and
priceless.
We will gather
for our Wednesday Evening Fellowship and study this evening, starting at 6 PM.
We are blessed to have so many who love to serve Jesus. We have new chef who is
preparing a special meal for this evening. It beats going to a restaurant. The
Lord has blessed us with a full service Church. Those of you live in the area
join us at 6 PM. We will be looking at Hebrews chapter
3.
Many metaphors
are used to describe the Christian life. Abraham would call it a journey. Job
would call it a struggle. Paul often used athletic metaphors and spoke of
running a race. In 1 Corinthians
9:24, Paul said, "Do you not know
that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a
way as to get the prize." The writer of the Book of Hebrews picked up on that
metaphor and said, "And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for
us…"
It seems that there are
some folks who always win. Everything they touch "turns to gold". Others
struggle and struggle; for them, it's two steps forward, three steps back. It
seems that Hebrews 11 is the roll call of those who have won through their
faith. Rahab was a prostitute who lived in a wicked city. Yet, when she saw
the Israelites approaching, she knew whose God was really God, and she hid the
Hebrew spies. In Hebrews 11:32, the writer said, "I do not have time to tell
about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the
prophets…"
As we read through the
lives of these men and women, you see they were all flawed individuals, yet they
accomplished great things through faith. They, "conquered kingdoms,
administered justice, gained what was promised, (and) shut the mouths of lions,"
to name a few things. As we continue reading through the heroic feats we
might wonder, "Who wouldn't want to sign up to live the life of
faith?"
In the midst of this list
of inspiring accomplishments—just as the heart swells, courage builds, and we're
on our feet cheering - the tone changes. We know the names in Hebrews 11
because we have learned their stories in Sunday School. Still, there are others
who are unnamed in the text because their life of faith didn't end well from an
earthly perspective. We read, "Some faced jeers and flogging, chains and
imprisonment. They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they
were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,
destitute, persecuted and mistreated…" Yet, the writer says, the world
was unworthy of them. Their work, lives, and witness mattered as much as the
people whose names we know.
We cannot know at the
beginning whether our story will shine with earthly triumph or be overshadowed
by seeming defeat, but we can run our race faithfully. It is not a superior
faith that makes some triumphant and others apparently defeated.
We know that ultimately the
prize is Jesus. We need to get rid of everything that holds us back, throw off
every weight, and experience the connection to the body of all of those who have
lived before us because we're surrounded by the cloud of witnesses. We
anticipate joy. There is joy in the journey, but ultimate joy comes when we
meet the object of our faith—Jesus Christ Himself. He is the One who, for the
joy set before Him, endured. Faith in Him can keep us going in our
race.
In
Christ,
Brown
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