RETREAT IS NEXT WEEKEND. I am trying to get everything ready. I turned in a room list to the hotel 2 weeks ago, but I will have to send another one in on Monday with revisions (nothing unusual there). We have women working on some fun games for late Friday night, other women working on snacks. I have not put in an order for our lunch yet. Still a lot of things to do.
I am spending every minute that I have studying for my part of the speaking, and I am really getting stirred up! Paul spoke some great words in Philippians 3:13-14 “Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
14 Paul uses terms that were commonly used referring to athletes running a race. Just listen to the terms he uses.
“Forgetting those things which are behind and straining forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal” straining forward is used for a runner who is stretching, reaching, straining running hard to win a race. Press toward the goal means to purse to drive, to persecute.
Imagine a runner, an athlete who competes. When he runs, he only runs. He is not thinking about a lot of other things. He tries to keep from being distracted. He looks forward, straight ahead. A runner does not turn around and look behind him in the middle of a race. He doesn’t look to see what other people are doing. That will only slow him down. He is focused on the finish line.
Paul was running a race to know Christ and to become more and more like Christ in every way. He did not just pick one way to follow Christ. He experienced Christ in deep ways; through deep personal times of prayer; in new revelations; in great visions; in suffering persecution, in doing mighty works, in spreading the news of the Kingdom, in close personal relationships with other believers.
Let’s run the race together. Let’s encourage one another to run the race. I have seen
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