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Discovering the Goal!
The Christian life is a simply fantastic experience with times of great joy
and refreshing but also times of sorrow, concern and even discouragement.
While it is a fact that each of these is a part of life, they should never
distract us from life’s goal or purpose. We sometimes speak of those in places
of Christian leadership whose duty and responsibility is to “point the way”,
but then, what is “the way”? Where are we to be pointing people in their
struggle to find their own spiritual identity as well as their purpose for
living and being here? The Apostle Paul stated in Philippians 3:14, “ I press
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Jesus told His own disciples in Matthew 6:33, “ But seek ye first the kingdom
of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”.
Even in the midst of discouragement and the possibility of turning back to the
ways before they got saved, the Jewish believers were encouraged by the writer
of the book of Hebrews in this way. “Looking unto Jesus the author and
finisher of our faith.” You see, there are no guarantees that the path of life
you or I are on will be smooth, secure, or even somewhat tolerable at times,
but we are strongly urged to set the compass in the right direction so that
each day through every conflict, chaos or challenge we are always keeping our
eyes on Him as we seek to know Him and learn from Him more intimately. Joan
Coles is a wonderful testimony to each of us. Joan is bound to a wheelchair
and while things in her life may appear to be somewhat limited, her compass
has been set and even though she experiences the trials that MS can bring, her
favorite verse—the verse that she will cling to when times are especially
difficult, is found in I Corinthians 10:13. There it says, “There
hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to
bear it.”
Let’s
make sure that the compass heading is set by the truths of God’s Word and even
when the road traveled is bumpy or uncertain that we are reminded that if that
heading is Scriptural, the unseen road ahead is still secure in Christ.
Have a
GREAT Week!
Pastor
Richard Jones
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