The Prize
December 17, 2008
A prize that is given for winning a race, be it a trophy or a ribbon, needs to be won after great striving. Some people may want to take shortcuts though. My oldest son, Gabe, was with me one day as we were out looking at garage sales. He had some money in his pocket and he wanted to buy something. He saw a huge trophy that someone had won and did not want any more. For the low price of fifty cents, he now had a trophy. He had done nothing to earn what it meant, he just spent the money. I do not know if he still has it but I shook my head when he bought it. Now I see that God had that incident and another that show the real meaning of trophies.
Philippians 3:14 Weymouth
14 with my eyes fixed on the goal I push on to secure the prize of God's heavenward call in Christ Jesus.
With this verse, the former children's pastor of my church, Jeremy Conn, took a ribbon and metal that he had won from track and field and gave it to her. She was having some problems dealing with others at school and was just wanting to give up. He told her that the only reason that he had that ribbon was that when others had given up on practicing, he was still out there running another lap. Now Annie, had done nothing to earn that trophy either. But there was a message there. We have to push on, to the prize that we have in Christ Jesus.
There is a price to be paid if we are to win it. We need to strugle, not just pay our way in. I urge you all, to take some time and refresh yourself for the race that you are in today, that of the high calling of Jesus Christ.
Still working on catching up from sick and accident at work also
