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FREE IS RUNNING A RACE? I don't know about you but running a race in
faith doesn't sound all the appealing when you feel like you are trying
keep up with life itself sometimes. Life is hectic enough.
WHAT RACE? Apostle Paul writes "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. He continues with "Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker with you. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:22-27
THE RACE IS YOURS. No one obtains the race but you. You believe Jesus and trust in Him the race is yours. You obtain it by that "simply humble" understanding. You are responsible for you as you keep your eyes on Jesus Christ who has the price for you.
THE ISSUE. The problem is we sometimes get that simple truth mixed up along this walk of life. We seem to think we score points or lose points on what we do and not do. How much or long we read our bible. How long we pray. (Don't miss understand me, these things are important but quality then quantity is more important.) We even lose track of this satisfying and peaceful truth when we look at other people's life and compare. We start to think like the world that says "we have to earn our love and salvation from God. That is when we allow the race to be taken away from us. There is no longer freedom but bondage to some obligation God never forced upon us.
SIMPLE BELIEVING THE TRUTH. God simply asked us to believe and trust in Jesus Christ who paid for our sins so we may have eternal life in heaven and life more abundantly. Knowing the grace and goodness of God energizes me in faith of Christ but the philosophy, tradition, logic and doctrine of men steals that mindset of God's goodness and grace away. When that goodness and grace is stolen from you all you have is "religion." You may even wonder back and forth from religion and faith but when that happens are you satisfied? You poison the waters with religion and your faith is choking because of some human thinking.
"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving, Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to he tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." Colossians 2:6&7
Your value is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and knowing how much he loves you sets you free human mindsets we all have a tendency to fall into.
OBTAINING THE RACE? How do we stumble because we race against others or even some desired version of ourselves? Think the prize has already been won. We just have to keep our eyes on Christ to receive it.
Too often I find that I race against myself. I compare, I see my failures, I see how other human beings look upon me, and sometimes I even put too much emphasis on what I do "religiously" instead of what Jesus has done and is currently doing for me. That can lead to feelings of inadequacy to being puffed up
YOUR COMPETITOR. Your only competitor is yourself. Stay away from anything that isn't based on the simple truth of your value in Jesus Christ and what he has done. I am my worst enemy. It the thorn in my flesh of feeling inadequate. Jesus is our partner through the wooded trail of life where he points out the hazards on the pathway and helps us back up when we do fall down. He encourages us when you feel tired and want to give up. He is not just your teammate but your trainer. He isn't concerned on how fast we run or walk- just as long as we stay with him. Your validation comes from the love of Jesus Christ and this love keeps us from the allure of ideas and actions that lead us astray from the peace and comfort of God's love.
TEMPERATE. Paul writes "everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things."
Temperate means to be moderate or self-restrained; not extreme in opinion and statement. It means to moderate in regards in indulgence of appetite or passion and not be excessive in degree as things, qualities, etc. It is not a false humility that is secretly inflating pride or some other emotion and it's not yelling and spiting on the congregation in front of you either.
I know when I am being "religious" when I am being extreme or indulging my flesh in someway. Indulging my flesh is like the initial explosive flame fueled by a puddle of gasoline but slowly goes out. The initial stimulus was great like a drug to an attic but the results are the same. The effects wear off and you are looking for the next way to get a high. The byproduct of religious thinking or motives close me off, make me ridged, prejudiced, boring, indifferent and the world as colorless place.
LOST AND FOUND. Recently I have started to paint again. I haven’t painted in sometime because I thought I couldn’t honor God if I wasn’t painting something "religious."
WHAT RACE? Apostle Paul writes "I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. He continues with "Now this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be partaker with you. Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified." 1 Corinthians 9:22-27
THE RACE IS YOURS. No one obtains the race but you. You believe Jesus and trust in Him the race is yours. You obtain it by that "simply humble" understanding. You are responsible for you as you keep your eyes on Jesus Christ who has the price for you.
THE ISSUE. The problem is we sometimes get that simple truth mixed up along this walk of life. We seem to think we score points or lose points on what we do and not do. How much or long we read our bible. How long we pray. (Don't miss understand me, these things are important but quality then quantity is more important.) We even lose track of this satisfying and peaceful truth when we look at other people's life and compare. We start to think like the world that says "we have to earn our love and salvation from God. That is when we allow the race to be taken away from us. There is no longer freedom but bondage to some obligation God never forced upon us.
SIMPLE BELIEVING THE TRUTH. God simply asked us to believe and trust in Jesus Christ who paid for our sins so we may have eternal life in heaven and life more abundantly. Knowing the grace and goodness of God energizes me in faith of Christ but the philosophy, tradition, logic and doctrine of men steals that mindset of God's goodness and grace away. When that goodness and grace is stolen from you all you have is "religion." You may even wonder back and forth from religion and faith but when that happens are you satisfied? You poison the waters with religion and your faith is choking because of some human thinking.
"As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving, Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to he tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." Colossians 2:6&7
Your value is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and knowing how much he loves you sets you free human mindsets we all have a tendency to fall into.
OBTAINING THE RACE? How do we stumble because we race against others or even some desired version of ourselves? Think the prize has already been won. We just have to keep our eyes on Christ to receive it.
Too often I find that I race against myself. I compare, I see my failures, I see how other human beings look upon me, and sometimes I even put too much emphasis on what I do "religiously" instead of what Jesus has done and is currently doing for me. That can lead to feelings of inadequacy to being puffed up
YOUR COMPETITOR. Your only competitor is yourself. Stay away from anything that isn't based on the simple truth of your value in Jesus Christ and what he has done. I am my worst enemy. It the thorn in my flesh of feeling inadequate. Jesus is our partner through the wooded trail of life where he points out the hazards on the pathway and helps us back up when we do fall down. He encourages us when you feel tired and want to give up. He is not just your teammate but your trainer. He isn't concerned on how fast we run or walk- just as long as we stay with him. Your validation comes from the love of Jesus Christ and this love keeps us from the allure of ideas and actions that lead us astray from the peace and comfort of God's love.
TEMPERATE. Paul writes "everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things."
Temperate means to be moderate or self-restrained; not extreme in opinion and statement. It means to moderate in regards in indulgence of appetite or passion and not be excessive in degree as things, qualities, etc. It is not a false humility that is secretly inflating pride or some other emotion and it's not yelling and spiting on the congregation in front of you either.
I know when I am being "religious" when I am being extreme or indulging my flesh in someway. Indulging my flesh is like the initial explosive flame fueled by a puddle of gasoline but slowly goes out. The initial stimulus was great like a drug to an attic but the results are the same. The effects wear off and you are looking for the next way to get a high. The byproduct of religious thinking or motives close me off, make me ridged, prejudiced, boring, indifferent and the world as colorless place.
LOST AND FOUND. Recently I have started to paint again. I haven’t painted in sometime because I thought I couldn’t honor God if I wasn’t painting something "religious."
This soon gave me no desire to want to paint or do any other type of
artwork. Religious thought had in
essence closed off the doorway to the gift that God had given me. I lost the joy of doing it.
Then on a recent trip to my hometown in the Pacific Northwest, God awoke
a desire and interest to paint again. He showed me the clouds, the
rain puddles, the waters of the Puget Sound. The detail and colors of a
shake wood roof, the steam rising in the sunlight, the snow capped
mountains, the farm land, the mounding forests, the flowering trees, the
livestock, the peeling paint on a fence.
The world is full of God's transforming ever changing beauty but I wouldn't not have seen it if God did not free me from "my" religious mindset. I couldn't enjoy the walk of being an artist and that gift would have still been in the back of the closet in my mind.
Same if we have a religious mindset towards reading our bible or praying or worship. The joy would be stripped away and we would wonder away from the joy of walking with the Lord. The race would be yanked from us by our own mindset.
God is not "Religious". We can't earn anything that God isn't and hasn't already given us when we came to him and he showed us the saving reality of his Son Jesus Christ. Religious thought only builds up human understandings of God and old religious systems that were suppose to be torn.
Religious thought is: instead of opening a door or pulling up the shades or opening a window we grope for the same ordinary light switches.
The world is full of God's transforming ever changing beauty but I wouldn't not have seen it if God did not free me from "my" religious mindset. I couldn't enjoy the walk of being an artist and that gift would have still been in the back of the closet in my mind.
Same if we have a religious mindset towards reading our bible or praying or worship. The joy would be stripped away and we would wonder away from the joy of walking with the Lord. The race would be yanked from us by our own mindset.
God is not "Religious". We can't earn anything that God isn't and hasn't already given us when we came to him and he showed us the saving reality of his Son Jesus Christ. Religious thought only builds up human understandings of God and old religious systems that were suppose to be torn.
Religious thought is: instead of opening a door or pulling up the shades or opening a window we grope for the same ordinary light switches.
How many layers are we going to paint on the perfect good
surface before we realize the surface we originally started off suited us best?
How many building blocks are we going to add to a foundation
that is perfectly solid and sound?
Is routine…living in a box? Are we allowing God to take us on spontaneous ventures to touch other peoples lives or have we become stagnant in our thinking and seeing life. God has given us gifts and abilities but instead of using them we restrict them. We say this is the way it has always been done. Everyone else does it this way. So if everyone is stampeding over a cliff you are going to follow? Really? There are needs in every church. Not every church is the same. Those people who come need those needs met by a God who hears their cries. So if God has something to say during a service or a Sunday school lesson you are going to stick to your plans instead of His? Who really is the head of the church? Last time I checked it was Jesus Christ, I am I right?
READ THIS CAREFULLY: When are we really going to except the justice in Christ Jesus and the freedom and forgiveness it has permanently given us? Religious thinking makes us ignorant, blind and deaf to the needs of others. We don't hurt with them or celebrate with them. We don't offer them the grace or mercy God gives to us. We think if we fling a couple scriptures at them or ignore them or act as Job's buddies we have done our job. What is that proverb about singing a cheerful song to someone hurting?"
Is routine…living in a box? Are we allowing God to take us on spontaneous ventures to touch other peoples lives or have we become stagnant in our thinking and seeing life. God has given us gifts and abilities but instead of using them we restrict them. We say this is the way it has always been done. Everyone else does it this way. So if everyone is stampeding over a cliff you are going to follow? Really? There are needs in every church. Not every church is the same. Those people who come need those needs met by a God who hears their cries. So if God has something to say during a service or a Sunday school lesson you are going to stick to your plans instead of His? Who really is the head of the church? Last time I checked it was Jesus Christ, I am I right?
READ THIS CAREFULLY: When are we really going to except the justice in Christ Jesus and the freedom and forgiveness it has permanently given us? Religious thinking makes us ignorant, blind and deaf to the needs of others. We don't hurt with them or celebrate with them. We don't offer them the grace or mercy God gives to us. We think if we fling a couple scriptures at them or ignore them or act as Job's buddies we have done our job. What is that proverb about singing a cheerful song to someone hurting?"
Can we earn anything more that the Lord isn’t already given
and giving us? No. So way do we act the way do?
I think we can stand to learn a lot from children. They are full of
faith and sometimes their faith is greater then our own. Look how they run in the grass. Look at their curiosity
as they search for potato bugs.
Look how they are enjoying the moment. Look how they can see when someone is hurting and come to see if they can help. They know Jesus loves them because they believe the simple truth some adult taught them at home or at a church. Look what Jesus has done to set us free from our religious thinking. Let's walk freely with him and obtain the race marked out for us in thanksgiving and joy.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Hebrews 12:1-3 (NIV)
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