Notes of Faith July 31, 2025
No Coasting
Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
Hebrews 12:1-2
Earlier this year at the Faun-Ardèche Classic bicycle race in France, the leading group of riders went in the wrong direction near the end. Cyclists were sprinting toward victory when they took the wrong turn at a roundabout, allowing Romain Grégoire of France to claim the victory.
Each of us wants to finish the race well. We don’t need any wrong turns near the finish line. Someone called this “long-distance Christianity.”
Leighton Ford wrote, “God has a purpose in and for our aging. That purpose has to do with the hidden life of the Spirit so that, as the body grows older, our spirit may grow deeper and stronger. Our ongoing calling, in later years as in earlier years, is to die daily, perhaps even hourly, with our Lord, and to realize (especially in our later years) the reality and power of his death and of his resurrection.”1
Ask God to help you stay focused on the goal of the Christian experience rather than becoming distracted by the things of the world. Look to Him today!
Live ready to go when Christ comes for you.
J. I. Packer
Hebrews 12:1-3
1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
Every day we receive of life is by the grace of God. Babies in the womb, young children, teens, young adults, middle age adult, elderly adult, are all awaiting the same end…death.
Let us pursue Christ, to live pure and holy as Christ, to show the world and speak to the world the truth of Christ that they might live eternally with Him and not be judged and condemned for their sin eternally in the Lake of Fire.
Live every moment with an expectation to do something for Christ. Worship and serve Him with your whole heart. Love others the way He loves you!
Pastor Dale