Today's thought:
Hebrews 12:1, "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..."
Eighty-six-year-old Joy Johnson, a veteran of 25 New York City marathons, died with her running shoes on.
Johnson, who was the oldest runner in last year's marathon, fell at the twenty mile marker in the event. She cossed the finish line at about eight hours. After the race she returned to her hotel room, laid down with her shoes on, and never woke up again.
Amazingly, Johnson did not run her first marathon until she was sixty one. The only hint of the sport was the verse from Isaiah 40:31 which hung on the kitchen wall in her family farm house in rural Minnesota: "But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Ironically, the career gym teacher, Johnson was a stranger to personal exercise until she took a three-mile walk in 1986. Then she started jogging and competing in 10-k races. By 1988 she competed in her first New York City marathon. Three years later she recorded her best time at age sixty four with a time of 3 hours and 55 minutes. A few years ago she told a reporter about her exercise regime. She would wake up at 4 am, drink her coffee while reading her Bible, and then set out on an 8 mile pre-dawn run. "When you wake up it can either be a good day or a bad day," Johnson said, "I always say, "It's going to be a good day."" The devout Christian ran every day but Sunday so she could attend church. Johnson sang hymns to herself to pass the time while running. According to Johnson's daughter, "She was always a happy runner—and besides her faith and family, this was something she loved the most." Now she has joined that, "great cloud of witnesses," cheering the rest of us on in our races.
The point of Hebrews 12:1 is that we finish well, that we finish with our running shoes on. The Christian life is a marathon race where the only ones on the side lines are those who have already finished. It is our faith that leads us to strap on our running shoes and "run the race marked out for us." When you came to Jesus in faith you joined the race. You are never too old, too young or too out of shape to run. Are you running in such a way as to receive a prize? Paul, the apostle who penned most of the New Testament, died with his running shoes on. He said, "For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:6-7). When your race is done will you be able to say the same? Like Johnson, we too should die with our running shoes on.
Prayer: Father, we know we are in a marathon race. The winners will be those who finish with their running shoes on. You marked the path for us through Jesus and we must follow. Help us to cast off what will slow us down and fix our eyes on that finish line where You wait for us who will claim the victory through our Savior Jesus. In His name, amen!
Suffering for good...
Today’s Thought:
1 Peter 3:13-17, “Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear their threats; do not be frightened.” But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.”
What does this look like?
In his book, Everyday Evangelism (IVP, pp. 21-22), Tom Eisenman tells a moving story that shows that we all can be effective witnesses in this hostile world if we will combine good deeds with verbal witness in submission to Christ’s lordship. David, a ninth grade boy in their youth program, was big for his age and very tough, but he had a heart for Jesus. In school he was making a coffee table for his mother as a Christmas gift. He finished it a few days before Christmas and left it in the shop so he wouldn’t have to take it home and hide it. On the last day of school before vacation David went to pick up his table. He was shocked to find that someone had stolen it.
David had a lot of friends. It didn’t take him long to find out who took his table. It was a younger boy who was unpopular and frail. David easily could have beat him up. Instead, he spent his entire Christmas vacation in the shop at school making a duplicate table. When he had it finished, he went to the other boy’s house. When the younger boy opened the door and saw David standing there, he was petrified. David just said, “I have something I’d like to give you and your family for Christmas.” He handed him the new table.
The younger boy burst into tears. He went into the house and came back with David’s first table. The boys talked. The younger boy asked forgiveness, and David granted it. Within a few weeks the younger boy was attending the youth program at the church and eventually he became a Christian.
Would you examine your own life? Are you zealous for good deeds, even when you’re mistreated? Are you able to give a gentle defense of the gospel? Do you fear the Lord Christ above everyone else? If not, make the necessary adjustments. Then God will use you mightily as His witness in this hostile world.
Prayer: Father, you ask us to follow the great example of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Would You give us strength and the proper perspective to do that? We thank you that Jesus, the righteous, died for us, the unrighteous. It is through His grace and mercy and by His example we pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.
Not perfect but forgiven...
Today's Thought:
Matthew 5:48, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Years ago, the world's most complicated clock was displayed for the first time in the town hall in Copenhagen, Denmark. It took 40 years and a million dollars to build. The clock was accurate to two-fifths of a second every 300 years. The ten faces of that clock told the time of the day, the day of the week, week of the month, the month of the year, the year of the century, and tracked the movements of planets and suns for 2,500 years. There were parts in the clock that would not move for 2,500 years.
But there was something disturbing about the clock: it was not accurate. It lost two-fifths of a second every 300 years. How did they know that? That clock in the town hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, was measured against the clock of the universe, with all of its myriad parts, from atoms to suns to planets to stars. That clock is so accurate that every clock on Earth is measured against it.
Near perfect is not perfect. None of us are perfect. We all fall short. The Galatians writer tells us, "For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, as it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law" (Galatians 3:10). Everything written. There are somewhere around 600 commandments in the Old Testament! By the time you learned them all you would have already broke at least a few. Perfection does not exist in the world of man, cannot exist.
You see, the Galatians writer said that we are cursed for being less than perfect, for not keeping everything written. But then he says, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole"" (Galatians 3:13). God demanded perfection. Man can never be perfect. So, God then supplies what he demands Himself through His son, Jesus.
Jesus' perfection, or sinlessness, is important because without that perfection he could not be a sacrifice for sin, or as Peter calls him in 1 Peter 1:19, "a lamb without blemish or defect." In perhaps one of the most powerful statements of Jesus perfection the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews 4:15, "For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin." At all points tempted but never gave in. At all points tried but found true.
Because of His perfection He can offer to you the greatest gift of His perfection--forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Prayer: Father, we recognize that we will never be perfect, but we know the One who is. It is because He lived a perfect life that He can offer us the forgiveness we all need. Thank you for such grace. Thank you for Jesus. In His name, amen.
(Adapted from: Rock Solid: Part 2. Listen to the full message here:www.arvadachristian.org/sermons/)
Never give up...
Today's thought:
"He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." (Revelation 3:21)
The Dewey Bozella story is one of dealing with incredible adversity but coming out the other end by sheer determination and undaunted courage. Bozella, who comes from a troubled upbringing, a violent broken family (where his pregnant mother was beaten to death by his father and two brothers died), and having gone through the Foster Care system, was a troubled 18-year-old in 1977 when Emma Crapser, 92, was murdered in her Poughkeepsie, New York, home after returning from playing bingo. Six years later, based almost entirely on the testimony of two criminals who repeatedly changed their stories, he was convicted of the murder.
Bozella maintained his innocence through out the next 26 years of his incarceration at Sing Sing prison in New York. Though there were several opportunities to be freed in those 26 years it would have required Bozella to admit his guilt and show remorse. “I could never admit to something I didn’t do,” said Bozella, "I realized that if I was going to die in prison because of saying I’m innocent, well that was what was going to happen.” He would get out one way, he said, either in a box or as an exonerated man. The box seemed more likely.
Though a lessor man might have rebelled at being sent to jail for a crime he did not commit, Bozella took a different path. He became a model prisoner. At Sing Sing, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Mercy College and a master’s from the New York Theological Seminary. And he boxed in the prison’s “Death House,” once the scene of electrocutions, then a boxing ring, where he became Sing Sing’s light-heavyweight champion. Bozella remained a model prison for his entire imprisonment.
In the end, he was saved by a miracle. The Innocence Project, a legal clinic dedicated to overturning wrongful convictions, believing in his case but unable to pursue it absent DNA evidence, referred it to the law firm WilmerHale. Lawyers there eventually found the Poughkeepsie police lieutenant who had investigated the case. He had retired, and Bozella’s was the only file he had saved. It included numerous pieces of evidence favorable to Bozella that had not been turned over to his lawyers. On Oct. 28, 2009, he walked out of the courthouse in Poughkeepsie finally a free man.
Despite having lost most of his life and now being in his 50's Bozella wanted to follow his dream of becoming a professional boxer. To do that Bozella needed to take the rigorous California State Athletic Commission test on Aug. 24, 2011, to get licensed to box in the state. He failed. It seemed that his wrongful conviction not only took the prime of his life but also his dream. But Bozella did not give up. He went into strict training.
Bozella's trainers were skeptical. “I’m thinking, ‘I’m going to kill this old guy,’ ” said Danny Davis, one of Bozella's trainers. “There’s no way this guy can make it through my training.” But Bozella got tougher, leaner and more nimble, dropping 10 pounds in little more than a week. He sparred with, and took serious lumps from, a world-class fighter: Lajuan Simon, a middleweight title contender. Bozella took the test again on Sept. 29. This time he passed.
Bozella scheduled his first professional match. Bozella took on Larry Hopkins, 30, of Houston, who was 0-3 as a professional. The purse in the pay-per-view bout was in the very low four figures. That was not a motivating factor for the 52-year-old boxer whose ultimate goal is to open a gym and work with at risk teens. “I want to go out there and give 100 percent and then move on with my life,” he said. “This is not a career move. It’s a personal move and a way to let people know to never give up on their dreams. My favorite quote is ‘Don’t let fear determine who you are and never let where you come from determine where you’re going.’ That’s what this is about.”
On Saturday October 15th, 2011 Bozella won his pro boxing debut against Hopkins, beating him by unanimous decision. It was, he admits, his dream come true. Bozella will now go on and inspire people with speeches. His foundation will help raise money so that he can build a gym and help kids in Newburgh, which one magazine recently called "The Murder Capital of New York."
Dewey Bozella retires undefeated.
Never give up is the message that Bozella wanted people to take away from his life of tragedy and troubles. Never give up.
When God is at work in your life He takes your troubles, tragedy and trials and transforms them into the very things that change us into His image. "And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us." (Romans 5:3-5) God takes the garbage in our lives and transforms it something of value and worth. Romans 8:28 promises, "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." I do not know what the "all things" you are facing--marital troubles, financial worries, watching a child struggle in life, health issues--with God your troubles become a crown God fashions upon your brow. So, we cannot give in or give up. "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." (2 Corinthians 4:17) Let Jesus encourage you in your struggles with his words, "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) It can take time but dreams still come true. Your victory in Jesus is secured. Wait. Don't give up. Never give up.
Prayer: Father, we look to Jesus who overcame this world and we find the courage to fight the good fight, to never give up. You have the won the victory through Jesus all we must do is claim that victory in our lives. Take these trials and tribulations of ours and work them out for good according to Your will. We patiently wait to see Your glory shinning in our lives through Your Son, Jesus, amen!
A living hope...
1 Peter 1:3, "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."
Peter says we are born into a "living hope." How is this hope different than the world's hope?
Joss Whedon, a creative and intelligent screenwriter-producer who has become famous for films like Toy Story and The Avengers, was interviewed by Entertainment Weekly. Whedon was asked if he had hope that the human race is becoming smarter and better. Whedon said:
“I think we're actually becoming stupider and more petty …. What's going on in this country, and many countries, is beyond depressing. It's terrifying. Sometimes I have to remember who I'm talking to. I'll say something about how terrible things are, and meaningless, and the world is headed toward destruction and war and apocalypse. And at one point my daughter goes, "Hey! I'm 8!” She doesn't want to hear that stuff. But I can't believe anybody thinks we're actually going to make it before we destroy the planet. I honestly think it's inevitable. I have no hope …. I want to be wrong, more than anything. I hate to say it, it's that line from The Lord of the Rings-“I give hope to men; I keep none for myself.” [James Hibberd, “Joss Whedon on killing an Avenger and why Loki's not in sequel,” Entertainment Weekly (8-27-13)]
When we look at the world it seems like a fools quest to find hope. Why hope when you live in the darkness of a hopeless world? So, the world's hope is no hope at all. The world uses the word hope to mean, “something I desire to happen.” But wanting something to happen does not make it happen. We were all children once. Life taught us all that truth. We live in a cause and effect world. Everything that happens has a cause. The problem with the world's hope is that it has no cause, it has no basis, no foundation. So hoping becomes the same as having a dream that may or may not come true or making a wish on a star. No certainty. No guarantees.
When I look at the Bible I see a completely different hope. Biblical hope, as it is in the Bible, can be defined as, “a complete trust in a guarantee of a future reward.” There are two words for hope in the Old Testament: “Yachal” which means trust, and “towcheleth” which means guarantee. The New Testament word for hope is “elpis” which means, "to expect with pleasure."
When Peter says we are born into a living hope, he's saying we have a hope that has a foundation. The foundation is the resurrected Christ. Peter says our living hope comes through, “the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” We have a living hope because we have a living Savior! Therefore, we sing, "He lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives! He lives! Salvation to impart. You ask me how I know he lives? He lives with in my heart."
When Jesus rose from the dead he brought with him not only the promise of resurrection but the power of resurrection. Hope, in the world, was a dead and lifeless thing but when it heard Jesus call its name it breathed again, walked out of its tomb and began to live! That's the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ and our "living hope."
Prayer: Father God, just as you caused us to be born into a living hope You caused hope to be born in us. And that hope has a name. It is Jesus. Remind us today that our hope is a living hope because our Savior is a living Lord. We hope in Him and our hope will not be disappointed. In the name of hope, Jesus, amen.