The Life of Running Towards Jesus
and throwing off everything that hinders us and especially the sin that so easily entangles us,
let us keep running with endurance the race set before us,
looking off to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of the faith, who, in view of the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
-Hebrews 12:1-2 (ISV)
The Christian life is an endurance race, like a marathon. Surrounding us, are witnesses of the ages; people who have walked in faith before us. In our sight, is Jesus, who is our life, our goal, our way; our everything. He is the prize we look to every day.
The goal of the Christian life is Christ. The goal of the Christian life is learning to trust God. Jesus is the goal.
When you see Jesus, you want to stop sinning, you want to let sin go and not pick it up. Have you seen him? When you see Jesus, you give up everything and follow him.
When you see him, you gladly give up anything and everything. Seeing him changes me and changes the way I do life and treat other people. He is the king of my life and I am his subject. I begin acting like he does - loving, kind, merciful, compassionate, and patient.
Sin and sinful ways become distasteful and unappealing to us when we see Jesus. Why would I want to do anything that would get in the way of my seeing Jesus?
From the day that Hebrews was written, up to today, we have needed to be reminded that sin and sinfulness needs to be dealt with in our lives. We each have the responsibility to deal with sin in our lives. We must take the action to get rid of it. We have to do it. We can not be victims or blame others.
Sins entangle our running of the race that is set before us. We need to get rid of things that trip us up in our journey in Christ. If it impedes us, as we run towards Jesus, we must throw it off or strip it off of us, so that we are free the run towards him.
There is an entangling aspect of sin that ruins the Christian's life. Let it go, lay it aside, throw it off, strip it off. Just stop, cut your losses, don't negotiate, and walk away from it.
One thing that we do not want to have at the end of our lives is regret. We only get one chance at life. Sin distracts us, hinders us, pollutes us, and slows down our walk towards Christ.
When tempted to sin, don't pick it up. You can learn to say, "no thanks". The Spirit of God empowers each believer to control their selves (Gal. 5:22-3).
Sin weighs a person down. Repentance is the message Kingdom of God (Matt. 3:2, 4:17; Mark 1:15), and repentance is not an event, but a lifestyle (Isaiah 30:15). Do not be ashamed to repent a thousand times (1 John 1:9).
Jesus is the goal we are heading to every day. Jesus is our teacher and example. Jesus is our companion along the way.
Jesus did not float through his life on earth, but he relied on God, and trusted in God. He suffered in life here (Heb. 2:18), and he is completely familiar with the human experience of temptation (Heb. 4:15).
We can fool ourselves into thinking we are good Christians, while holding onto sin that weighs us down and trips us up. Two wrong ways for the Christian are first, believing that only Jesus was holy and since we don't want to be 'legalists' and are under grace, we don't really need to look at personal sin. The second wrong way is to say that stopping sinning and and getting our flesh under control is what the Christian life is all about. The thinking is that, when we are being good, we can serve God and live the life. But, God wants communion with sons and daughters, who will carry Jesus into a broken world.
I believe that we are all about a person, Jesus Christ, and learning from him and trusting him, and letting him live out his life, in our lives; I believe that is what the Christian life is all about. We persevere, we suffer, we go through trials, we trust, we love; and we even take up our crosses and die, because we have seen Jesus. Have you seen him?
From the day that Hebrews was written, up to today, we have needed to be reminded that sin and sinfulness needs to be dealt with in our lives. We each have the responsibility to deal with sin in our lives. We must take the action to get rid of it. We have to do it. We can not be victims or blame others.
Sins entangle our running of the race that is set before us. We need to get rid of things that trip us up in our journey in Christ. If it impedes us, as we run towards Jesus, we must throw it off or strip it off of us, so that we are free the run towards him.
There is an entangling aspect of sin that ruins the Christian's life. Let it go, lay it aside, throw it off, strip it off. Just stop, cut your losses, don't negotiate, and walk away from it.
One thing that we do not want to have at the end of our lives is regret. We only get one chance at life. Sin distracts us, hinders us, pollutes us, and slows down our walk towards Christ.
When tempted to sin, don't pick it up. You can learn to say, "no thanks". The Spirit of God empowers each believer to control their selves (Gal. 5:22-3).
Sin weighs a person down. Repentance is the message Kingdom of God (Matt. 3:2, 4:17; Mark 1:15), and repentance is not an event, but a lifestyle (Isaiah 30:15). Do not be ashamed to repent a thousand times (1 John 1:9).
Jesus is the goal we are heading to every day. Jesus is our teacher and example. Jesus is our companion along the way.
Jesus did not float through his life on earth, but he relied on God, and trusted in God. He suffered in life here (Heb. 2:18), and he is completely familiar with the human experience of temptation (Heb. 4:15).
We can fool ourselves into thinking we are good Christians, while holding onto sin that weighs us down and trips us up. Two wrong ways for the Christian are first, believing that only Jesus was holy and since we don't want to be 'legalists' and are under grace, we don't really need to look at personal sin. The second wrong way is to say that stopping sinning and and getting our flesh under control is what the Christian life is all about. The thinking is that, when we are being good, we can serve God and live the life. But, God wants communion with sons and daughters, who will carry Jesus into a broken world.
I believe that we are all about a person, Jesus Christ, and learning from him and trusting him, and letting him live out his life, in our lives; I believe that is what the Christian life is all about. We persevere, we suffer, we go through trials, we trust, we love; and we even take up our crosses and die, because we have seen Jesus. Have you seen him?
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