Training for life

Read : 1 Timothy 4:1-11

When Dean Karnazes completed the 26.2-mile New York marathon in November 2006, it marked the end of an almost impossible feat of endurance. Karnazes hud run 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. This exceptional athlete's ultra-endurance feats include: running 350 continuous miles, mountain biking for 24 hours straight, and swimming across San Francisco Bay. That level of fitness requires relentless, dedicated training.

Spiritual fitness, Paul told Timothy, also takes much more than a relaxed approach to live a God-honoring life. In a culture marked by false teaching, along with extreme forms of self-indulgence and self-denial, paul wrote:
"exercise [train] yourself toward Godlines. For bodily exercise profits a little, but Godliness ia profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come". ( 1 Tim. 4: 7-8 ).

Our bodies and our minds are to be dedicated to God and prepared for His service (Rom. 12: 1-2). The goal is not spiritual muscle-flexing but godliness --a life that is pleasing to the Lord. Vigorous study of the word, focused prayer, and bodily discipline are all part of the process.

How well we train greatly affects how well we run our race of life. --David McCasland

Exercise yourself toward godliness -- 1 Timothy 4:7

Just as the body grows in strength
With exercise each day,
Our spirit grows in godliness

By living life God's way -- D. De Haan

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Godly exercise is the key to godly character.
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How to walk

Read Ephesians 3:14 - 4:3

Dana and Rich went out for an afternoon bike ride expecting to come home refresed. Instead, their lives were changed forever. As rich rode down hill, he lost control of his bike and crashed. His body was mangled, and he barely made it to the hospital alive.

Dana faithfully kept vigil by her husband's side. He couldm't feed himself, and he couldn't walk. One day, as two of them set under a shade tree outside the hospital, Rich turned to his wife and said, "Dana, I don't know if I'll ever walk again, but I'm learning to walk closer to Jesus, and that's what I really want." Instead of shaking his fist at God, Rich reached out and grabbed His hand.

Sometimes in the midst of our trials, we need to think about someone like Rich to help us adjust our perspective-to remind us of the remarkable relationship we have with God through Jesus Christ. This is the relationship we need when the going gets the toughest.

We are not equipped to handle all the problems we face, but God is. That's why He told us to give them all to Him--to "cast your burden on the LORD" (Ps. 55:22). As Rich found out, walking with jesus doesn't depend on our legs. It depends on our heart. -- Dave Branon

That he would grant you, according to the riches of His Glory, to
be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man --
Ephesians3:16

I don't worry o'er the future,
For I know what Jesus said;
And today I'll walk beside Him,
For He knows what is ahead.-- Stanphill

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We can walk through the darkest trials
when we walk with God in the light
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Lost Prayers

Read: Psalm 86:1-7

The headline read: UNANSWERED PRAYERS: LETTERS TO GOD FOUND DUMPED IN OCEAN.

The letters, 300 in all and sent to a New Jersey minister, had been tossed in the ocean, most of them unopened. The minister was long dead. How the letters come to be floating in the surf off the New Jersey shore is a mystery.

The letters were addressed to the minister because he had promise to pray. Some of the letters ask for frivolous things; others were written by anguished spouses, children, or widows. They poures out their hearts to God, asking for help with relatives who were abusing drugs and alcohol, or spouses who were cheating on them. One asked God for a husband and father to love her child. The reporter concluded that all were "unanswered prayers."

Not so! If those letter-writers cried out to God, He heart each one of them. Not one honest prayer is lost to His ears. "All my desire id before You," David wrote in the midst of a deep personal crisis, "and my sighing is not hidden from You" (Ps. 38:9). David understood that we cast all our cares on the Lord, even if no one else prays for us. He confidently concluded,"In the day of my trouble I will call upon You, for You will answered me" (86:7) --David Roper

God has given you His promise that He hears and answers prayer; He will heed your supplication if you cast on Him your care. --Berstecher

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Jesus hears our faintest cry

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Two Kingdoms

Read : Matthew 22:15-22

In a report in USA today. Rick Hampson wrote: "The young generally don't have the old-time political religion. They look at voting and see a quaint, irrational act". One graduate was quoted as saying, "I don't care enough to care about why I don't care." I wander if this how we as Jesus-followers sometimes view our civic responsibility!

The insights of jesus in matthew 22 helped His followers think clearly about their civic duty in the world. The jews were required to pay taxes to the Roman government. They hated this taxation because the money went into Caesar's treasury, where some of it supported the pagan temples and decadent lifestyle of the Roman aristocracy.

They may have questioned whether they even had a civic responsibility to Caesar. Jesus reminded them, however, that they had dual citizenship. They live in a world with two kingdoms--Caesar's kingdom (human authority) and God's kingdom (spiritual authority). They had responsibilities to both, but their greater responsibility was to God and His kingdom (Acts 5:28-29).

As followers oc Christ, we are commanded to cooperate with our rulers, but we are called to give God our ultimate obedience and commitment.-- Marvin Williams

We live today as citizens of two worlds, and this demands duty to fulfil; But greater far should be our heart's desire To honor Christ and always do His will. -- Hess

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Government has authority,

but God has ultimate authority

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