Thought for August 4, 2023

  • 1693: Dom Perignon invents champagne
  •  1790: U.S. Coast Guard founded
  • 1821: William Blair, Presbyterian minister, begins a 2500 mile horseback ride lasting 12 months during which he establishes 61 Sunday Schools, revives 21 more, and encourages 35 in six states from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Later writes an apology to the Sunday School Union for doing so little.
  • 1944: Anne Frank arrested
  • 1956: Elvis releases "Hound Dog"
  • 1958: First Billboard Hot 100 published--Ricky Nelson at #1 with "Poor Little Fool"
  • Born: Louis Armstrong, Barack Obama, Roger Clemens, Meghan Markle
  • Died: Hans Christian Andersen, Marilyn Monroe
Thought:
Reading Philippians 3:12-16. Another familiar passage. Here is what I see today:
  • I'm not there yet. Yesterday we looked at putting knowing Christ ahead of everything else--placing more value on it than anything. Yesterday, we thought about sharing in His suffering and being conformed to His death and saying, knowing Him in those was was of greater value than anything else because it led to sharing in His righteousness and resurrection. I am a work in progress, trying to become more and more like Him--knowing Him. As Paul says to the church at Corinth, now I see through a glass darkly, then face to face. What I admire about athletes is they keep training and working and improving--they recognize they have not yet reached their goal. Jerry Rice was recognized as the greatest receiver ever. Yet, even after achieving so many accolades and awards, his off-season workouts were so difficult that other young receivers would quit after a day or two. I have not achieved my goal of conforming to Christ, but I must keep laboring at it. 
  • Forget what lies behind. Satan wants to remind me of my past failures. If I have confessed my sin and the Lord has forgiven my sin, He remembers it no more. I should forget. My successes might need to be forgotten as well. I need to remember God's faithfulness and blessings, I need to forget about my accomplishments-- pride of the past comes before the fall. 
  • Reach forward, press on. Think about that. This tells me that getting to the goal does not just happen. I must stretch myself toward the goal and work at it--press into it, give every effort. In the front of my Bible are written these words "Pick a goal you cannot attain and work diligently to reach it." Today, I would change what I wrote years ago--God has given me a goal I cannot attain on my own; yield to Him, reach out, press on."
  • Remember the prize. Stephen Covey wrote a book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." His first habit was to begin with the end in mind. What is my goal today--live like Jesus. Now, reach out and press on. What is my goal for life--attain to the call that God has placed on my life [3:14]. What is that call--to be an ambassador for Christ, to be light and salt, to be a picture of the gospel. This requires me to reach out and press on. Reaching means I don't have it yet. Reaching means it is beyond me without Him. Pressing means enduring, sticking with it, getting up and trying again. But my eye is always on the prize--well done good and faithful servant, enter into th joy of your salvation.
Blessings
Larry

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