MY SOUL CRIES OUT HALLELUJAH, THANK GOD FOR PAVING THE WAY!!!

July 6, 2014

MY SOUL CRIES OUT HALLELUJAH, THANK GOD FOR PAVING THE WAY!!!

Today my friends we praise God and give Him all the honor and  glory but we must also focus on where does our Journey begin and where will it end. Paul places it all in the concept of a race. He tells us “Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run your race that you may lay hold of the prize and make it yours.”

Consistent with this, he goes on and tells us not to run this race with uncertainty or not having  a definite aim, but there must be a motive, and a goal, and that goal will allow us to be “conquerors through him that loved us” and once we are conquerors we will receive the ultimate prize which is the crown of eternal blessedness.

So my friends if our desire is to finish this race a child of God must restrict Himself to only “things that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report; and if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, Focus on these things.” We also cannot go into this race “beating the air aimlessly and with uncertainty but we must be sober and vigilant; because our adversary the devil’s aim is to keep us from finishing.

But like a boxer we must prepare our mind and body to endure the rough and painful Journey that lies ahead, and the hardships that our God is preparing His Children to endure because if we go into this race without preparation, then after proclaiming the good news of the Gospel to others, all the work we have put into finishing this race we would have still become unfit, not able to stand the test and will be  unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit simply because we did not understand that the testing of our faith produces endurance and endurance through Gods word and Spirit will always have a perfect and complete result.

Also, we were not willing to give it all to the Master and die to self-daily as we trained and we also allowed the god of this world to distract us from our mission and so my friends to complete this race we cannot be lacking in anything but most of all as a Christians our symbol of endurance must be to understand that this race will not be a smooth straight course but one with the challenges  of mountains and valleys, rough terrains and rocky roads.

But we can be assured that this course has been traveled before “so be of perfect peace and confidence because a child of God who runs this race will have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration; but our God tells us to be of good cheer, take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted! For Jesus Christ our Savior have overcome the world and finished this same course He has lead the way so there would be no power to harm us as we ran. Yes He conquered it for each of His Children and crossed the finish line at the cross.

But like Christ our example we will also have to get across the finish line carrying a cross, which is a criteria for finishing, but like Christ this can only happen if we deny self as we carry our cross. But in spite of it all my friends we must never forget “Were it not for grace, I can tell you where [each of us who have a desire to be in God’s kingdom would be] Wandering down some pointless road to nowhere With [our] salvation up to [our own merits] and I know how that would go. The battles [each of us] would face forever running but losing the race. [Oh thank God] were it not for grace” (Larnelle Harris)

In addition, once we have crossed over the finish line and received a  crown of eternal blessedness we will hear the words we have waited so long to here “well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! and throughout eternity our SOUL WILL CRY OUT HALLELUJAH THANK GOD FOR PAVING THE WAY!!!

So my friends today. Stay focused, remain faithful, love one another and endure till the end and never forget to STUDY&PRAY