Run To Win! The Lifelong Pursuits of a Godly Man

Every four years another Olympics begins and the whole world becomes obsessed with activities they haven’t thought about since the last games. Suddenly we find ourselves waking up early and staying up late to watch athletes pole vault and throw javelins and dive into pools. We can’t help but cheer as we watch little-known sports like field hockey and handball and water polo. What is it that compels us to watch these strange events and to cheer for people we don’t even know?

We watch the Olympics because we want to see the best of the best. Athletes do not get to the Olympics on the basis of natural talent or wishing upon a star. They do not earn the opportunity to represent their countries through parental privilege or dumb luck. They get to the Olympics by hard work, by committing their whole lives to the pursuit of their sport. They have a body that is very much like ours—the same 650 muscles, the same 206 bones, the same two feet—yet they can do things with their bodies that we can only dream of. We may not know much about high jump, but we do know that we are watching something that required thousands of hours of training. We may not know a tuck from a handspring, but we do know that it took years of painful labor to perform such an acrobatic move. They have become the best in the world because of their total devotion to their sport, because of their grueling training, because of their rigid self-discipline.

The Race

Read more: https://www.challies.com/articles/run-to-win-the-lifelong-pursuits-of-a-godly-man

3 Strengths Found In Struggles

https://www.christianquotes.info/images/3-strengths-found-in-struggles/

He’s Memorized 42 Books of the Bible and You Can, Too

Whoa!!

By Don Whitney

There may be other Christians more committed to the discipline of Scripture memory than Pastor Andy Davis, but I’ve not met them.

But I do know Andy, and can tell you that he’s the real deal. Not only is he the most diligent memorizer of Scripture I’ve ever known, he’s also a genuinely godly man, a devoted husband (to Christine) and father (of five), a careful expositor of Scripture, and a faithful pastor. Since his graduation with a Ph,D. in church history from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1998, he has been pastor of First Baptist Church of Durham, NC. Before that, Andy served as an SBC International Mission Board church planter in Japan.

In 2014, Baptist Press wrote a story about Andy, who at that time had memorized an astounding 35 books of the Bible. Since then he has added another seven.

A few days ago I interviewed Andy by phone in one of my seminary classes. I thought that the readers of this blog might profit from some of the highlights of that conversation.

Why you shouldn’t be intimidated 

Continue: http://biblicalspirituality.org/hes-memorized-42-books-of-the-bible-and-you-can-too/

Study theology

Rule #8: Purpose to be Godly (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)

~ Challies

We cannot overstate the importance of knowing our purpose. There is no doubt our lives will go awry and even go to waste if we neglect to learn the purpose for our existence and the purpose for our salvation. And central to understanding our purpose is understanding why God placed us on this earth. This is why the old catechism begins with the question of purpose: “What is the chief end of man?” This is the question that has provided fodder for theologians and philosophers since time immemorial.

Many believe the purpose of life is pleasure. Since we do not know what lies beyond, they say, we owe it to ourselves to satiate our thirst for pleasure with whatever appeals to mind or body. Perhaps this is what the old sage calls for in Ecclesiastes: “I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun” (8:15). A man dying of thirst will wring out a moist cloth to gain the very last drop of water. In the same way, many live for pleasure and die trying to wring out every last pleasure before they depart into an unknown eternity. Others fall on the opposite extreme, lauding austerity in place of pleasure, monasticism in place of hedonism, less instead of more.

There is a better answer that directs us to greater pleasure. The catechism’s first answer summarizes the wisdom of the Bible and calls us to something far more satisfying: Our purpose is to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Godliness is the path to pleasure, for by godliness we glorify God, and in glorifying God, we enjoy God. There is no greater pleasure than close fellowship with our Creator and, therefore, no higher purpose than godliness. As we come to the close of this series on “8 Rules for Growing in Godliness,” we see that our final instruction is one that encapsulates them all: Purpose to be godly.

The Power of Purpose

Go to: Rule #8: Purpose to be Godly (8 Rules for Growing in Godliness)

4 Reasons To Keep Pressing Forward

“Success is on the same road as failure; success is just a little further down the road.”

– Jack Hyles

What Doesn’t Work

Thomas Edison would never have invented the light bulb if he gave up after 300 tries, or 500 tries, or a thousand! It was what didn’t work which led to what did work for Edison. He didn’t give up. He found out by trial and error (most error), how to make the lightbulb that has been relatively unchanged for a century. Edison’s trip down the road of failure was the same road that led him to success.

Read more: https://www.christianquotes.info/images/4-reasons-to-keep-pressing-forward/#ixzz4eo6Pkqy6

Great Verses of the Bible: Colossians 3:1–2

 

Steve Shepherd, a Missouri preacher, tells a story about the time the French novelist, Honore de Balzac, was awakened by an intruder.

Balzac lived in a single room apartment. So the thief was trying to avoid waking Balzac as he quietly picked the lock on the writer’s desk. Suddenly the silence was broken by a sarcastic laugh from the bed, where Balzac lay watching the thief.

The startled thief asked, “Why do you laugh?”

“I am laughing to think what risks you take to try to find money in a desk by night where the legal owner can never find any by day.”

Read more: https://thepreachersword.com/2017/04/19/great-verses-of-the-bible-colossians-31-2/