How's Your Endurance?

Where to begin, where to begin; God is good; and that’s always a good starting place. For some insane reason, I allowed my cousins and dad to talk me into waking up at 5:20 this morning to go to the YMCA for some good ole’, competitive basketball. I’m still trying to figure out why I allowed myself to be persuaded to such things. Ahh…family fun – of course and perhaps the breakfast afterwards pulled some weight in that decision. As we started to play our game of 3 on 2, the Eppling’s vs. the Grooms I began to realize something: I am 10 times more out of shape than I had originally thought. (Oh joy!) I was sucking air like it was going out of style and salivating as if there were a drought on the horizon. Eventually, the game ended, (thank goodness!), and we began the commencement of “chow down alley.” My cousin, who is also the youth pastor at FBC, was telling my dad and me how he was preaching at a Christian schools chapel this morning. For some reason, I suppose it’s due to the fact that my human nature tends to focus on SELF as often as my brain tells my body to breathe, as my dad was paying and off went my 3 wonderful family members, I thought to myself, “I hope he doesn’t find some life lesson in the fact that I was sucking air like I needed an oxygen tank and he use it as an example in his message this morning.” As soon as I began to think about it I chuckled to myself saying, “Em, what is there to even say about your lack of tenacity in the game that could be related to God and His relationship with His children?” Then it hit me: there is a BIG correlation that can be grabbed from my puny attempt on the court. I struggled out there this morning because I had been out of practice. I hadn’t run up and down a court in many, many, months – therefore I wasn’t at a place where my level of competition would be matched by the 9 year old, 13 year old…and we’ll leave the 2 old guys out of it.( Just kidding! I love my Dad and Chris!) It’s just like our relationship with God. When we are out of His word, how can we be prepared to face the battle of the day? We can’t. We MUST be wrapping ourselves in the voice of our Father and yearning to love Him more that we wish to love ourselves. It’s a conscious effort, guys. A friend said to me the other night, “Emily, you’ve always been better than me anyways.” Well, besides that being a lame excuse, (I love you, if you’re reading this), we cannot blame the fact that we are essentially satisfied at where we are on anything other than our focus on self Here are your 2 options: You either choose to sacrifice the rights to your life and live for God, denying yourself and your wants, desires, and trade your focus on self for a focus on Him, or you choose that you really do wish to live for yourself. Running is not the easiest thing to do – I hate it. But I make myself do it because I know that my body needs it. I know that I need to increase my endurance so I don’t half kill myself trying to play basketball. Just like Paul said in James 1:4, “And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

We must run so that we can build up endurance to run the race. We must stay in the Word that we may continue to be filled with the Holy Sprit and do what He wants us to do.

Satisfaction

Busy, busy, busy! At times, life really does seem like there is simply too much going on. The past month I have had a whirlwind of thoughts, emotions, and comforts. I’ve even hit a few realizations as well. (Hooray! As long as I’m learning) I suppose I’ll get started on my little rant: satisfaction. The question I really want to focus on is “What does it take for you to be satisfied?” As a Christian we should be satisfied in Christ. The beautiful hymn, It Is Well, comes to mind. That exact peace in the Lord to say it is well in the midst of terrible circumstances. (My favorite hymn!) I met up with a dear friend this past weekend. I haven’t seen in her quite sometime so it was very nice to have her company. As we chatted away we began discussing how we have really started to notice how so many self proclaimed Christians have been choosing to satisfy themselves in worldly things. I know it may not seem like a big deal, but when you begin to yearn for the things of this world you may want to take a look into your heart because I’m here to bet that something isn’t quite where it needs to be. Guys, Christ is our aim. As a Christian, why should we be longing for the attention of sin? Essentially, that’s what we are doing when we place ourselves in situations where sin will be enticing us to its luscious pleasures. But in the end, it never ceases to leave you empty, broken, and longing for more. Why even entertain the thought of having those few moments of sinful pleasure? We should be doing everything but! Praying and begging God that we never get to that point where we truly long to fall away from Him. Of course, He loves us so much that no matter what we do He will always love us, but He doesn’t always give us second chances. (I’m going to write a blog on this later. There’s a song that plays on Air 1 radio by Stellar Kart that talks about how there will always be second chances. Well, in reality – we don’t always get another chance up at bat. But, I’ll save that for another day.) We cannot abuse God’s love and so many times I believe that Christians do. We tell everyone about how much God loves us but we fail to mention His holiness and justness – without it, His love wouldn’t mean as much as it does. It breaks my heart to see so many Christians – being satisfied in their walk with God; being content in playing both roles, one at church and one at school. It’s time to be REAL. A friend of mine in high school would always say, “Let’s be real guys.” So lets! BE REAL. Don’t settle for anything or anyone. Get some convictions and stick to them – but I don’t want to hear about any of those wimpy convictions that straddle the fence. Go all out for Jesus, because He gave His ALL for you.
2 Corinthians 3:5-6, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit, for the letter kills but the Spirit gives life.”
Our adequacy is in Christ. Not in this world and not in the people of this world. Remember that, and claim Him as YOURS!

He is Risen!

Well, I’ve ventured to Tampa many a times; but never as the driver. It’s a quick trip, never longer than three and half hours depending on how many stops we make. Today is Easter. (He is risen! He is risen indeed! – I feel as if I must say it) After I tended to the Easter festivities with my family this afternoon I made my way down the scenic 301, I hate that road, and on to 75 so I could spend the fist half of my spring break with my sister and her family. As I was driving I found myself actually enjoying the peace and quiet. Some of you may think it’s weird, but I actually do enjoy being alone at times and as I convinced myself to enjoy the what seemed like never ending roads of 301, I had some time to reflect on what today actually means. It’s Easter – every Christian knows that Easter is the time we celebrate when Jesus conquered death and paved the way for us to go directly to the Father. Dr. Brunson really hit it home this morning. His sermons are always inspiring but this morning it was not only inspiring but refreshing and convicting as well. God has really been convicting me lately about my lack of enthusiasm for sharing the gospel. I mean, I want to, but I find a million and one excuses as to why I can’t or shouldn’t. (None of them are good enough reasons not to, by the way.) As I sat their thinking about the sermon and my lack of tenacity for sharing the gospel I kept being reminded of the one verse Mac Daddy Brunson (I say that with the UPMOST respect) touched on this morning. Luke 24: 11-12. “But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.” I don’t know about any of you but when I read this passage I see an image of Peter – running as fast as he can, darting through crowds, leaping over sticks and stumps in the road; forget the parents claim that they walked through rain, sleet, and snow so they could get to school on time or so they could change the channel. This guy was running full force because of the LOVE that he had in his heart for Jesus. I have to think – do I run to Jesus like Peter ran to see if his Savior had risen from the dead? Do I have the tenacity to hear His words or be reminded of His truths and immediately get up and RUN to carry out the message of Christ? Peter stooped and looked into the tomb. He didn’t stop a mile away when he saw the huge stone had been rolled away. I know what I’m saying is a different way of looking at the verses, but my aim is this – where are you and the gospel? Too many of us Christians operate our lives in this small little bubble that we convince ourselves that we don’t need to share the gospel. “Sure it’s needed, but let someone else who knows more lost people do it.” Our lack of tenacity for the gospel should break our hearts and make us sick. Guys, Jesus is RISEN. There is a lost, dead, and dying world that needs to know there is VICTORY in death and VICTORY over sin through Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus to you? Is He your ticket to heaven, some guy you talk about in church, your Shield, your Father? He’s ALIVE and He’s God’s Son. We have got to start sharing His love, His nature, and His justness with the world. Pray for the courage of the believers – to take a stand and share Jesus. Happy Easter – He is RISEN, He is risen INDEED!