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We are looking at the Christian Olympics, as seen in Hebrews Chapter 12, where we are instructed in the vital training procedure for Christians running for gold. We are told in that first verse of Hebrews Chapter 12 that we must be stripped for action. Here's a reminder of what it actually says: 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 Notice that you can't take any extra weight or any sort of baggage with you. You must let go of anything which God can't use; any habit, any grudge, any sin you've been clinging to or which has, like mud, been sticking to you, so that you can travel light and run in the lane marked out for you.
The New English Bible says we must "run the race for which we are entered". In other words, we must have personally entered the race. My parents can't enter me, I don't run by accident. I once heard an American minister confess the greatest disappointment of his school years was when he came in FIRST in a school race and they gave the prize to the boy who came in second because he had forgotten to enter. Don't assume you're entered - make sure you are! You enter only by your personal commitment to Christ.
Another thing is that this race takes place in front of a world audience.
In my first church in a little Lancashire mill town, in my first week, a woman spoke to me in the street. She recognised me from a photograph in the paper. "I want to join your church. I want to be a real member. I want to be baptised - can I be?" I quickly got out my note book but before I could put down her address she said "But could I be baptised, say on a Monday morning, when no one else is around?" My reply was the Lancashire equivalent of 'No way baby', as I explained that in the Bible there are no such animals as secret Christians. Either your secret will kill your faith, or your faith will kill the secret. To be in this race, Christian secret agents must blow their cover. Paul said:
I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes Romans 1:16
A Prayer:
You, Lord, having every reason to be, are not ashamed of owning me: Forbid that I should ever be ashamed of owning you, whatever the company I am in.
Now read Luke 9:18-27
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