Published by “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,”-Hebrews 12:1
“I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”-Ecclesiastes 9:11
Have endurance because the time will come and the chance will present itself and you must be ready when it does, salvation is a gift from God but you must be running the race to receive the reward at the finish line and the prize is available for all.
Behold salvation has been given to you the gift of God from the cross,
For Jesus died so that my life would not be a loss; nails in his hands and feet he was beat, pierced, and mocked,
Denied by man, scourged, spit upon, the sin of the world was placed upon him and for his clothes they cast lots.
And Jesus endured this pain in the flesh so we might be saved, Keep running, keep on running don’t lose pace you never know how close the end of the road is,
Seconds away from a great blessing and being to blind to see it you look back and forfeit.
God commanded Lot and his family to flee Sodom and Gomorrah for he would destroy it and when God’s judgment was brought,
Lot’s wife looked back from him and she became a pillar of salt.
“Why should I feel discouraged
Why should the shadows come
Why should my heart feel lonely
And long for heaven and home
When Jesus is my portion
A constant friend is He
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches over me”
There is nothing behind you but death, destruction, and damnation; looking behind at my old life there is no reason to go back to a place where there was no salvation but
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”-Hebrews 12:2
Run this race with encouragement, according to the word of the Lord fear not the enemy for the Lord will protect you from all danger,
God commanded Moses to speak unto the rock and it would bring forth water but Moses smote the rock out of his anger.
“And the LORD spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”- Numbers 20:12
For 120 years Moses lived and God showed him the land of promise which he labored 80 years to get the children of Israel to the promised land and when Moses seen his final reward
“And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD.”-Deuteronomy 34:4-5
“Why should I feel discouraged
Why should the shadows come
Why should my heart feel lonely
And long for heaven and home
When Jesus is my portion
A constant friend is He
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches over me”
This race is a covenant a promise from the Lord
The day we accepted Christ we inherited God’s promise and we made a covenant with the Lord.
To be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to enable to live like Christ, to inherit his home, and to love the Father and others like Christ,
To be molded into the image of Christ, the power to call on the Father and to receive salvation through the name the only name that man can be saved by Jesus Christ.
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”- John 10:27-28
To finish the race hear his voice and follow him,
He commanded us to abstain from sin, repent and live a life pleasing to him and faith is the only way to please him.
With all my mind, body, and spirit I should love him, we have transformed the security of salvation, into a once saved always saved a.k.a my personal excuse to sin doctrine,
We should really be in the practice of hating sin, and separating ourself from sin by the power of the Holy Ghost which is given unto God’s children.
Unto the grave, unto the grave, loving God even unto the grave
“And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”- Matthew 24:12-14
“I sing because I’m happy
I sing because I’m free
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches me (He watches me)
His eye is on the sparrow
And I know He watches
I know He watches
I know He watches me”
Well I’m not perfect I’m not Jesus and my answer to that is God knows, but be all that you can be and then be all the Holy Spirit makes you to be,
For Jesus became you, and from sin he made you free.
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”-2 Corinthians 5:17
Let us examine ourselves if Christ be in us then we must ask ourselves would he do the things that we do.
Temptation must come, for even the devil tempted Christ,
“Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”-James 1:12
You believe in God you do well the devils also believe, and tremble but they are not saved because they put no faith in him.
Jesus made promises to the seven churches, for those who overcome this world; saved by his blood you are a precious purchase.
To the church of Ephesus: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.-Revelation 2:7
To the church of Smyrna: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death.-Revelation 2:11 (I hear you loud and clear my God)
To the church of Pergamos: He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.-Revelation 2:17 (Get right church and lets go home)
To the church in Thyatira: And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star. -Revelation 2:26-28 (Don’t give up you don’t know how close you are)
To the church of Sardis: He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.-Revelation 3:5 (I’m listening for my name got to keep on running)
To the church of Philadelphia: Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.-Revelation 3:12(Keep on running we shall overcome)
To the church of Laodicea: To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.-Revelation 3:21 (No looking back)
The end of this race is completed upon are physical death and it begins with our confession being absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
For my personal testimony is that through drugs, through fornication, through alcohol abuse, through partying all night long every night, through being disobedient to my parents, through being a consistent liar to all men, through being a robber an a thief, through being a brawler, and without natural love, through a pornography addiction the joy of my life was stolen and all I felt in my heart was a perpetual sorry that I believed would never end even now reflecting it saddens me that I once never knew the joy of Christ and that my life could be over right now. Will I live I will never be able to express the joy of my salvation to all men the peace that I have knowing that trying to solve my problems myself was wrong but God gave me deliverance, knowing that God can transform my life I know that it is possible for all men to be saved. Finish the race and keep on running
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”-John 3:16
