IF YOU COME INTO OUR LAND WITH NO
PERMIT YOUR NOT ABLE TO STAY AND TAKE MONEY. The Libs want it so
you can come and suck our funds and eat things you did not pay for.,
It is not right in the bible to eat if you do not work btw. The
bible said you are to work for your food and if not you do not eat.
Now if you are unable to work that is another thing. But if you are
able body and do not work we do not need to feed you. If you just
lay and do nothing to food. If you are not looking for work and you
can work you do not eat. If you are in our land and did not come
here in the right way you need to leave and come in the right way.
If you are here for school fine welcome. If you are seeking freedom
from a bad government ok but you need to leave if we think your
lieing
Thursday, November 29, 2018
Saturday, November 10, 2018
saved by faith
God’s Righteousness Through Faith
21 But now the righteousness of God
apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the
Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God,
through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For
there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His
blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in
His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously
committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His
righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who
has faith in Jesus.1
WHERE DOES SINLESS PERRECTION GO IN THIS PASSAGE? GOD
TAKES YOUR SIN AND GIVES IT TO jESUS. I GET THE RIGHT STANDING IN
CHRIST AND HE TAKES MY SIN AND PAID FOR THEM ON THE CROSS. JESUS IS
THE PAYMENT FOR SIN AND WE ARE FORGIVEN BY GTRACE.
Romans 3:24 (NLT)
24 Yet
God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this
through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
Romans 3:24 (NLT)
24 Yet
God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this
through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
3:24 all are justified. “All” is not in the
Greek text but is carried over from v. 23. Justification is an
important Pauline theological teaching. Paul uses the verb for
“justify” (Greek dikaioō) 25 times, primarily in Romans
(15 times) and Galatians (6 times). In addition, many of the
occurrences of the related word for “righteousness” (Greek
dikaiosynē) relate to the doctrine of justification (Paul
uses this noun 56 times, 32 times in Romans and 4 times in
Galatians). “Justify” language is taken from the world of a court
of law and refers to a declaration of status, not to moral
transformation. Justification has a negative and a positive side: God
no longer holds our sins against us in his judgment (4:8), and he
gives us a righteous standing before him. freely by his grace.
Whatever God does for us is done in grace (4:4–5; 5:1). grace.
“Grace” is a thread that runs throughout Romans. The display of
God’s grace in the gospel is rooted in the character of God
himself. As 4:4–5 makes clear, no human can ever make a claim on
God because of anything they have done (11:5–6). A holy God can
never be indebted to his creatures. Whatever he gives us, therefore,
he gives “freely” and without compulsion (4:16). Not only is
grace needed at the beginning of the Christian life, but believers
“stand” in grace (5:2): we live in the realm in which grace
“reign[s]” (5:21; see 5:15, 17, 20). That reign of grace, Paul
hastens to clarify, does not absolve us of the need to live
righteously before God; rather, it gives us the power to do so (6:1,
14–15, 17). So interwoven is grace in this new era of salvation
that Paul can even speak of his own ministry (1:5; 12:3; 15:15) and
the ministry of believers generally (12:6) as a matter of “grace.”
It is quite appropriate, therefore, that Romans is framed by prayers
that God’s people might fully experience this grace of God (1:7;
16:20). redemption. In Paul’s day referred to paying money
to secure a slave’s freedom. In Christ, God has paid a price to
secure the release of every believer from sin’s slavery (v. 9). The
OT uses “redemption” to refer to the exodus: God intervened to
release his people Israel from their slavery in Egypt (Ps 111:9; cf.
Ex 6:6; 15:13). Christ’s death provides a new, spiritual “exodus”
for the people of God.2
PENAL
SUBSTITUTION
After the rubric of obedience to the Father, the most
fundamental description one can ascribe to the atonement is that it
is a work of penal substitution. That is to say, on the cross, Jesus
suffered the penalty for the sins of his people (hence penal)
as a substitute for them (hence substitution). When man sinned
against God, his sin erected a legal and relational barrier between
him and God. The divine law was broken; man thus incurred guilt and
is required to pay the penalty of spiritual death. The holiness of
God was offended, and thus God’s wrath was aroused against sin.
This leaves man alienated from God; broken fellowship and even
hostility mark the relationship between God and man, who is in
bondage to sin and death. If there is to be any redemption from sin
and reconciliation to God, man’s sin must be atoned for. And yet
man’s spiritual death and depravity leave him unable to pay the
penalty for his sin. However, God in his love has appointed the Lord
Jesus Christ to stand in the place of sinners to bear their sin,
guilt, and punishment and thereby satisfy God’s wrath on their
behalf.
For this reason Isaiah characterizes the suffering
servant as the one who “has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows” (Isa. 53:4), who “bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12).
“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6),
and so “he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Thus, when
Jesus comes into the world, John the Baptist announces him as “the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)—that
is, by taking sin on himself. The apostle Paul declares that “for
our sake [the Father] made [Jesus] to be sin” (2 Cor.
5:21a), which cannot mean that the Father turned Jesus into
sin in any ontological sense but rather that he made him to be sin in
the same sense in which he makes us to become the righteousness of
God (2 Cor. 5:21b): by imputation—that is, by counting our guilt to
be his. The curse of the law that we were under was borne by Christ,
who became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). The apostle Peter says, “He
himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to
sin and live to righteousness.” Then, quoting Isaiah’s account of
the suffering servant, he adds, “By his wounds you have been
healed” (1 Pet. 2:24; cf. Heb. 9:28). The Lord Jesus Christ bore
the punishment of the sins of his people and thereby brought them
blessing: “He was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed
for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us
peace” (Isa. 53:5).
In addition to these clear statements, the New Testament
attaches the concept of penal substitution to the cross of Christ by
using four Greek prepositions that all have a substitutionary force:
peri (“for,” “concerning”), dia (“because
of,” “for the sake of”), anti (“in place of,”
“instead of”), and hyper (“on behalf of”). First,
Christ “suffered … for sins” (Gk. peri hamartiōn, 1
Pet. 3:18) and thus is “the propitiation for our sins” (Gk. peri
tōn hamartiōn hēmōn, 1 John 2:2; 4:10). These texts teach
that our sins demanded that we suffer under the wrath of God yet that
Christ has done this in our place. Second, Jesus is said to have died
“for your sake” (Gk. di’ hymas, 2 Cor. 8:9; cf. 1 Cor.
8:11), another clear indicator of substitution.
Third, the preposition anti is perhaps the
strongest indicator of substitution, literally signifying “in place
of.” This sense is clearest in Matthew 2:22, where it speaks of
“Archelaus … reigning over Judea in place of [anti] his
father Herod.” Matthew 5:38 also uses anti to translate the
lex talionis—“An eye for [anti] an eye and a tooth
for [anti] a tooth”—which mandated that an offender be
deprived of his eye or tooth in place of the eye or tooth of which he
deprived someone else. Jesus uses this phrase with respect to his own
death when he says, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served
but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Gk. anti
pollōn, Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45). That is to say, while sinners
deserved to die because of their sin, Jesus laid down his life as the
ransom price in the place of the lives of his people, so that they
might go free.
Finally, while anti has the strongest
connotations of substitution, hyper is a close second, meaning
“on behalf of.” It is also by far the most common preposition to
signify the substitutionary relationship between Christ and his
people. The body of Christ is “given for you” (Gk. hyper
hymōn, Luke 22:19; cf. 1 Cor. 11:24) and “for the life of the
world” (Gk. hyper tēs tou kosmou zōēs, John 6:51), and
the blood of the new covenant is poured out “for many” (Gk. hyper
pollōn, Mark 14:24) and “for you” (Gk. hyper hymōn,
Luke 22:20). That is to say, Christ’s body and blood are given as a
substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of sinners so that they might
avert wrath and punishment. As the Good Shepherd, Jesus lays down his
life on behalf of the sheep (Gk. hyper tōn probatōn, John
10:11, 15; cf. 1 John 3:16), and he died on behalf of us, the ungodly
(Gk. hyper asebōn, Rom. 5:6; hyper hēmōn, Rom. 5:8;
1 Thess. 5:10). He gave himself for his bride, the church (Eph.
5:25), which Paul describes both collectively (Eph. 5:2; Titus 2:14)
and personally (Gal. 2:20). On our behalf (Gk. hyper hēmōn)
he was made sin (2 Cor. 5:21), became a curse (Gal. 3:13), and tasted
death (Heb. 2:9). The Righteous One suffered the penalty of sin on
behalf of the unrighteous (Gk. dikaios hyper adikōn) so that
he might reconcile those sinners to God (1 Pet. 3:18).
As the above passages show, there is no more
well-attested doctrine in all the New Testament than the vicarious
suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of his people.
Penal-substitutionary atonement is woven into the fabric of new
covenant revelation from beginning to end, for it is the very heart
of the gospel message. In free and willing obedience to his Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ has stood in the stead of sinners, has died as
a sacrifice for their sin and guilt, has propitiated the Father’s
wrath toward them, has reconciled them to the God for whom they were
created, has redeemed them out of the bondage of sin and death, and
has conquered the rule of sin and Satan in their lives. Each of those
themes—sacrifice, propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, and
conquest—is a different facet of Christ’s substitutionary work
and deserves further examination.3
1
The
New King James Version. (1982). (Ro 3:21–26).
Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
2
Moo, D. J. (2015). The
Letters and Revelation. In D. A. Carson (Ed.), NIV
Zondervan Study Bible: Built on the Truth of Scripture and Centered
on the Gospel Message (p. 2297). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
3
MacArthur, J., & Mayhue, R. (Eds.). (2017). Biblical
Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth
(pp. 522–524). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
FALSE TEACHER ALERT
THE CREDIT CARD GOSPEL
I hear people say things like “All my sins are credited to Christ’s account and His righteousness is credited to my account, so God saw Jesus as sinful and He sees me as righteous even though I still sin daily. And I am saved even though I still sin because all my sins (past, present, and future) are credited to Christ’s account and not to mine.”
19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation1
Jessie you lie right out of the start. Yes Jesus took all my sin and gave me all his righteousness.
Then you say all my sins are not forgiven another lie
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. 13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.2
He died for all past and furtue sins so you lied there
It sounds to me like their whole view of the scheme of salvation is like a “credit card” that lets them buy sin. They can keep Sinning and don’t have to stop because of this credit system. Jesus becomes like a credit card and you can rack up an unlimited debt because Christ will pay for it.
In this view, the atonement isn’t a means by which you can be pardoned if you repent of your sins, or a means of being saved out of your sins and transformed in heart and life, but instead the cross allows you to continue in your daily sins and still be saved because it is all credited to His account. No personal change of conduct or character is required because all is charged to Christ.
So it to you is a work if you change thus making your good works a thing to trust in when the bible said they are like pure dung. No it is not a thing to just let you sin and yews you will sin less but you think you must be perfect and there is n o forgiveness of sin.
God doesn’t see your sins as your sins but as His, punishing Him for them and not you. No amount of sinning would incur the punishment of God to you personally. Your account before God is always righteous no matter how many times a day you actually sin.
Jesus did die for all sin and thus his righteousness is now mine. God punished Jesus for all my sins and gave me his righteousness. It is called Justifcation. And I got it the day I got saved.
It’s like a billionaires Son given an unlimited credit card to go on a shopping spree and the son is never liable to pay because the card is in his fathers name. Likewise, people think salvation in Christ allows them to unlimited sins with impunity. NO
The whole idea is that we have exchanged our personal identity for His, and He assumes ours, so He “positionally and legally” became us in punishment and we “positionally and legally” became Him before the eyes of God.
These doctrines of imputation, Penal Substitution, Belief without Repentance, and Eternal Security all go hand in hand as a system of thought.
Yep called the Gospel which you do not teach. Nope you are false
PENAL
SUBSTITUTION
After the rubric of obedience to the Father, the most
fundamental description one can ascribe to the atonement is that it
is a work of penal substitution. That is to say, on the cross, Jesus
suffered the penalty for the sins of his people (hence penal) as a
substitute for them (hence substitution). When man sinned against
God, his sin erected a legal and relational barrier between him and
God. The divine law was broken; man thus incurred guilt and is
required to pay the penalty of spiritual death. The holiness of God
was offended, and thus God’s wrath was aroused against sin. This
leaves man alienated from God; broken fellowship and even hostility
mark the relationship between God and man, who is in bondage to sin
and death. If there is to be any redemption from sin and
reconciliation to God, man’s sin must be atoned for. And yet man’s
spiritual death and depravity leave him unable to pay the penalty for
his sin. However, God in his love has appointed the Lord Jesus Christ
to stand in the place of sinners to bear their sin, guilt, and
punishment and thereby satisfy God’s wrath on their behalf.
For this reason Isaiah characterizes the suffering
servant as the one who “has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows” (Isa. 53:4), who “bore the sin of many” (Isa. 53:12).
“The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isa. 53:6),
and so “he shall bear their iniquities” (Isa. 53:11). Thus, when
Jesus comes into the world, John the Baptist announces him as “the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29)—that
is, by taking sin on himself. The apostle Paul declares that “for
our sake [the Father] made [Jesus] to be sin” (2 Cor. 5:21a), which
cannot mean that the Father turned Jesus into sin in any ontological
sense but rather that he made him to be sin in the same sense in
which he makes us to become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21b):
by imputation—that is, by counting our guilt to be his. The curse
of the law that we were under was borne by Christ, who became a curse
for us (Gal. 3:13). The apostle Peter says, “He himself bore our
sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to
righteousness.” Then, quoting Isaiah’s account of the suffering
servant, he adds, “By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Pet.
2:24; cf. Heb. 9:28). The Lord Jesus Christ bore the punishment of
the sins of his people and thereby brought them blessing: “He was
pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace” (Isa. 53:5).
In addition to these clear statements, the New
Testament attaches the concept of penal substitution to the cross of
Christ by using four Greek prepositions that all have a
substitutionary force: peri (“for,” “concerning”), dia
(“because of,” “for the sake of”), anti (“in place of,”
“instead of”), and hyper (“on behalf of”). First, Christ
“suffered … for sins” (Gk. peri hamartiōn, 1 Pet. 3:18) and
thus is “the propitiation for our sins” (Gk. peri tōn hamartiōn
hēmōn, 1 John 2:2; 4:10). These texts teach that our sins demanded
that we suffer under the wrath of God yet that Christ has done this
in our place. Second, Jesus is said to have died “for your sake”
(Gk. di’ hymas, 2 Cor. 8:9; cf. 1 Cor. 8:11), another clear
indicator of substitution.
Third, the preposition anti is perhaps the strongest
indicator of substitution, literally signifying “in place of.”
This sense is clearest in Matthew 2:22, where it speaks of “Archelaus
… reigning over Judea in place of [anti] his father Herod.”
Matthew 5:38 also uses anti to translate the lex talionis—“An eye
for [anti] an eye and a tooth for [anti] a tooth”—which mandated
that an offender be deprived of his eye or tooth in place of the eye
or tooth of which he deprived someone else. Jesus uses this phrase
with respect to his own death when he says, “For even the Son of
Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a
ransom for many” (Gk. anti pollōn, Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45). That
is to say, while sinners deserved to die because of their sin, Jesus
laid down his life as the ransom price in the place of the lives of
his people, so that they might go free.
Finally, while anti has the strongest connotations of
substitution, hyper is a close second, meaning “on behalf of.” It
is also by far the most common preposition to signify the
substitutionary relationship between Christ and his people. The body
of Christ is “given for you” (Gk. hyper hymōn, Luke 22:19; cf. 1
Cor. 11:24) and “for the life of the world” (Gk. hyper tēs tou
kosmou zōēs, John 6:51), and the blood of the new covenant is
poured out “for many” (Gk. hyper pollōn, Mark 14:24) and “for
you” (Gk. hyper hymōn, Luke 22:20). That is to say, Christ’s
body and blood are given as a substitutionary sacrifice on behalf of
sinners so that they might avert wrath and punishment. As the Good
Shepherd, Jesus lays down his life on behalf of the sheep (Gk. hyper
tōn probatōn, John 10:11, 15; cf. 1 John 3:16), and he died on
behalf of us, the ungodly (Gk. hyper asebōn, Rom. 5:6; hyper hēmōn,
Rom. 5:8; 1 Thess. 5:10). He gave himself for his bride, the church
(Eph. 5:25), which Paul describes both collectively (Eph. 5:2; Titus
2:14) and personally (Gal. 2:20). On our behalf (Gk. hyper hēmōn)
he was made sin (2 Cor. 5:21), became a curse (Gal. 3:13), and tasted
death (Heb. 2:9). The Righteous One suffered the penalty of sin on
behalf of the unrighteous (Gk. dikaios hyper adikōn) so that he
might reconcile those sinners to God (1 Pet. 3:18).
As the above passages show, there is no more
well-attested doctrine in all the New Testament than the vicarious
suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of his people.
Penal-substitutionary atonement is woven into the fabric of new
covenant revelation from beginning to end, for it is the very heart
of the gospel message. In free and willing obedience to his Father,
the Lord Jesus Christ has stood in the stead of sinners, has died as
a sacrifice for their sin and guilt, has propitiated the Father’s
wrath toward them, has reconciled them to the God for whom they were
created, has redeemed them out of the bondage of sin and death, and
has conquered the rule of sin and Satan in their lives. Each of those
themes—sacrifice, propitiation, reconciliation, redemption, and
conquest—is a different facet of Christ’s substitutionary work
and deserves further examination.3
There are elements of truth in every heresy. It is true that Christ died for our sins, that we are imputed righteous by faith apart from works of the law, that through Christ God wont punish us for our sins, etc, but only if we first repent of our sins. No such salvation exists for those who continue in sin. Turning from sin is a condition to getting saved and staying away from sin is a condition of staying saved. The Bible warns that you can lose your salvation and also that people can still go to hell for their sins, despite the atonement of Christ that was made for them, if they remain impenitent over their sins.
NO WHERE IN THE BIBLE DID IT SAY YHIS. LIE. IF JESUS DIED FOR THEM THE SIN IS PAID FOR.
Nothing ruins theology and twists the scriptures more than sinful minds who want to accommodate their sinfulness.
My encounters with these people over the past 18 years often results in them accusing me of preaching “another gospel,” or “false gospel,” or “salvation by works,” or “heresy,” or “not preaching the Gospel” or “trusting in your own righteousness,” etc. At first I was always baffled and dumbfounded by these wild and bizarre accusations.
I understand now why these people say that I am preaching “another gospel,” and “works” or even “heresy” when I preach that you must repent of your sins to be saved from Gods wrath, that real Christians live holy and righteous by faith, and that your eternal security is conditional upon perseverance in living faith so that you can lose your salvation and are once again under God’s wrath by returning to your sins. And I understand now why they say “If Jesus died for everyone, everyone would be saved” given their view of the atonement, and why they get so upset and emotional if you question Penal Substitution and the Imputation System, since that is the essence of their gospel. And, since I don’t preach these things, they accuse me not “not preaching the gospel,” even though I preach that Jesus died for everyone and those who repent are forgiven through the cross.
I have always believed that “salvation by Christ” was primarily a change of moral character, whereby we are born again into new people with new hearts and new conduct, and are only saved from hell or from the penalty of our sins after such a change has taken place. I never viewed salvation as a scheme whereby I was saved by Christ from hell while I continued in my sins, or as salvation from the future penalty of sin but not from the present practice of sin. I’ve always viewed “salvation in sin” as the counterfeit Gospel of false converts who haven’t really been born again. So my accusers really are right when they say we are preaching different Gospels
THEN YOU DO NOT TRUST THE GOD OF THE
BIBLE. YOU DO NOT TRUST JESUS ALONE FOR SALVATION AND YOU ARE NOT IN
JESUS. JESUS CHANGES YOU YOU DO NOT CHANGE TO GET SAVED. YOU DO NOT
PREACH THE TRUTH RAY COMFORRT IS NOT A ALLY OF YOUR YOUR IN SIN AND
YOUR NOT SAVED.
1
Tyndale House Publishers. (2013). Holy
Bible: New Living Translation (2 Co 5:18–19).
Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
2
The
New King James Version. (1982). (Col 2:11–15).
Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
3
MacArthur, J., & Mayhue, R. (Eds.). (2017). Biblical
Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth
(pp. 522–524). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
Friday, November 2, 2018
My son pulled this picture out today, it's almost ten years exactly
since this picture was taken. As I looked at this action shot, in a
moment, I return to that game, I remember what it felt like to take the
ball to the hoop against Candace (a superb player, by the way). What
fatigue felt like towards the end of the game, the thrill of victory
that came, once the clock hit 40 minutes that night. I thought about
life back then, and life over these past ten years.
As a professional athlete, we trained as a way of life back then, you don't make it at this level, unless you are a fierce competitor. The gym is more home than your actual home, you train endlessly, weight training, sprints, endurance training, you eat in a way to aid your performance, you study the minute details, science even, of your on court form. Your defensive intelligence, and stance always needing improvement. Your follow through, mechanics of your shot, it never ends.
As a team, you find a way to work as one unit, drilling, sometimes endlessly over, and over, until habit forms, and you see improvement in the area of moving five parts as one unit. You are physically strong, the stronger you are in mind/body, usually, the stronger you are on the court, and the final remainder of the equation, is victory, champions.
I thought about how much softer my arms are now, how I would look semi ridiculous running sprints amongst professional athletes today, endurance is all but gone, and my competitive edge is basically non existent.
But I have grown, I have become strong in another way, by Gods grace, He has softened not just my arms, but my spirit. I have grown in humility, in compassion for others, and maybe most drastically, becoming wife/mom teaches you, amongst other things, to live for someone other than yourself.
1 Timothy 4:8 says, 'for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.'
God has revealed Himself to me in such sweet ways these past ten years, through trials, heartache, challenges, sweet moments as well. He has revealed so much of the junk in my own heart, humbled, and strengthened my spirit, in the light of living for Him.
I love the expression on my face in this picture, I by no means believe that there is no longer a battle that rages in my current life. I battle every single day against my own desires, against my flesh, against my self exalting, self pleasing, self centeredness. We have an enemy who roams the land seeking whom he may devour. This calls for fierce warriors, armed with the armor of God, to fight strong in Him, through Him, and for Him. I need to be more of a warrior now than ever. Fighting for the souls of the little precious people, entrusted to our care for such a short time. Battling fierce for unity in marriages, teaming up with our church families to find a way to shield our congregations from the onslaught of false teaching, pride, legalism, weak theology. There are endless ways to fight, even in my current state of life, it just looks a lot different than it did ten years ago. Im thankful for the lessons that 8 years of completing at the highest level taught me, I just compete for a different kind of prize now. I love my current season of life, and while the lessons are dear from those years of ball, I would never want to go back. By Gods grace Im not what I was, butI am not yet what I ought to be....
Keep fighting the good fight.....
As a professional athlete, we trained as a way of life back then, you don't make it at this level, unless you are a fierce competitor. The gym is more home than your actual home, you train endlessly, weight training, sprints, endurance training, you eat in a way to aid your performance, you study the minute details, science even, of your on court form. Your defensive intelligence, and stance always needing improvement. Your follow through, mechanics of your shot, it never ends.
As a team, you find a way to work as one unit, drilling, sometimes endlessly over, and over, until habit forms, and you see improvement in the area of moving five parts as one unit. You are physically strong, the stronger you are in mind/body, usually, the stronger you are on the court, and the final remainder of the equation, is victory, champions.
I thought about how much softer my arms are now, how I would look semi ridiculous running sprints amongst professional athletes today, endurance is all but gone, and my competitive edge is basically non existent.
But I have grown, I have become strong in another way, by Gods grace, He has softened not just my arms, but my spirit. I have grown in humility, in compassion for others, and maybe most drastically, becoming wife/mom teaches you, amongst other things, to live for someone other than yourself.
1 Timothy 4:8 says, 'for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.'
God has revealed Himself to me in such sweet ways these past ten years, through trials, heartache, challenges, sweet moments as well. He has revealed so much of the junk in my own heart, humbled, and strengthened my spirit, in the light of living for Him.
I love the expression on my face in this picture, I by no means believe that there is no longer a battle that rages in my current life. I battle every single day against my own desires, against my flesh, against my self exalting, self pleasing, self centeredness. We have an enemy who roams the land seeking whom he may devour. This calls for fierce warriors, armed with the armor of God, to fight strong in Him, through Him, and for Him. I need to be more of a warrior now than ever. Fighting for the souls of the little precious people, entrusted to our care for such a short time. Battling fierce for unity in marriages, teaming up with our church families to find a way to shield our congregations from the onslaught of false teaching, pride, legalism, weak theology. There are endless ways to fight, even in my current state of life, it just looks a lot different than it did ten years ago. Im thankful for the lessons that 8 years of completing at the highest level taught me, I just compete for a different kind of prize now. I love my current season of life, and while the lessons are dear from those years of ball, I would never want to go back. By Gods grace Im not what I was, butI am not yet what I ought to be....
Keep fighting the good fight.....
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