The Race of Life – Tactics 5 and 6 “Lean Forward and Run Through the Tape!”

As we learn to respond to our Trainer in using Tactics 1-4 to avoid the snares and distractions of our opposer  by applying His opposite exercises, we enter the final phases of the race, the sprint to the tape! To finish well we will need the last two Tactics but, before we move on, let’s review the snares and entanglements used by our opposer and look at our Trainer’s opposite exercises. As we run we encounter the snares of: 1) Unbelief. 2) Complacency and compromise. 3) Self-righteousness. 4) The fear of, or desire for, the approval of Man. 5) Love of sensual or fleshly pleasure. 6) A worldly mindset or paradigm of life. 7) Self confidence. Hubris or arrogance. 9) Distracting and ungodly thoughts. Our Trainer uses the exercises of: 1) Faith in God and His Word. 2) The...

The Race of Life – Tactics 3 and 4 – Breaking Away!

Every race has a beginning, a middle, and an end. In the race of life we enter the starting blocks and sprint out when we join the Master’s team and receive our Trainer. We are off and running from that moment and, using tactics 1 – Develop and fight to Hold the Eternal Perspective of Life and 2 – Develop and Fight to Build Intimacy with Jesus Christ we get a good start. In the middle distance of our race, as we encounter the snares and entanglements that our opposer places in our way, we need to build our strength and skill in applying Tactics 3 and 4. Tactic 3 is to Develop and Fight to Maintain Self-Discipline. We can not continually allow ourselves  to indulge in the secret pleasure or sin that will trip us up and cause us to stumble sooner or later. Self-mastery...

The Race of Life – Tactics 1 and 2 – We’re off and Running!

To be successful in running the race of life we have to stay on the track and know where the finish line is. If we get off the track the best we can hope for is that we will lose and waste time and, since we only get to run our race once, that is costly. To succeed, and post our personal best, will need to train and to focus and to keep looking straight ahead for the tape. We can’t afford to listen to the noise of the crowd or to look away even for a moment. The race is too important, it’s to our destiny. We get on the track when we join the Master’s team and He assigns us the Trainer that will be with us through the race. From the moment we step on the track we are off and running! Our Trainer runs as one with us. He recognizes the snares and entanglements that will...

6 Tactics to Finishing Well – The Race that is Set Before US

We are all running…The clock is ticking… Each step takes us closer to the finish line… We run on toward the goal, the tape, the finish line… an end of our race that we can’t see but know is there. Man, it gets hard! We each carry some baggage, weights, and there are snares and entanglements in the terrain that we run through that cause us to trip and stumble. Man! This race is tough! For believers, Christ followers, we have each been assigned a race. One trip around the track of life on Earth.  Running into our eternal destiny. For some our race is a sprint, for others middle distance, and for some a marathon, but for each it is a race, even an obstacle course. Things get in our way as we run. We struggle to press on against the thought of giving up, to...