Pressing

Philippians 3:14
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

The picture of pressing toward the mark is taken from the Olympic games. Having been a runner, I understand the effort that is called “finish line kick.” It has the idea of zoning out every distraction to concentrate on the finish line. Cheering crowds, other runners, even the sound of their footsteps close by are not allowed to draw the runner’s attention from the task at hand — finishing the race. Our “mark,” our goal, our finish line is to be like the Lord Jesus Christ (vs. 10). How are you doing in your race?

BY THE BOOK

 Great true story! Oh, that Hillary had such courage.

By The Book

Phillip Jennings is an investment banker and entrepreneur, former Marine Corps Captain who flew missions  in Vietnam and, after leaving the Marine Corps, flew for Air America in Laos. He won the Pirate’s Alley Faulkner Society short fiction award in 1998. He has a degree in business administration and is the CEO of Mayfair Capital Partners.  He is the author of two novels and one non-fiction book.

He authored the following article which appeared in the May 26, 2016 edition of USA Today.  It is short and should be required reading for everyone.

Secretary without honor

When I hear people say Clinton emails don’t matter, I remember a young Marine captain who owned up to his career-ruining mistake.

Apologists for Hillary Clinton’s alleged criminal mishandling of classified documents say that it doesn’t matter, that she really did nothing wrong, or nothing significant. But the real question is not so much what she did as how she has responded to being found out.

Once during the mid-1960s when I was on active duty in the Marine Corps, I was the air liaison officer for a battalion of Marines aboard 11 ships in the Mediterranean. As the air officer and a senior captain, I had a rotating responsibility for the nuclear code book, kept in the safe in the operations room of the lead amphibious squadron command ship. I shared that duty with another captain, a squared away young man, liked by all he commanded and the son of a very high-ranking Marine.

On the day our ships were leaving the Mediterranean, we met the new amphibious squadron near Gibraltar and made preparations to transfer security codes and other sensitive material to the incoming Marine battalion. The young captain was on duty and went to the operations office to pick up the code book. He was alone in the office. He removed the code book and placed it on the desk while closing the safe. In a rushed moment, he stepped across the passageway to retrieve something he needed from his quarters. Seconds later, he stepped back into the operations office and found the operations sergeant having just entered, looking down at the code book.

Against all regulations, the code book had been out of the safe and unattended. It mattered not that it was unattended for only seconds, that the ship was 5 miles at sea, or that it was certain no one unauthorized had seen the code. The captain could have explained this to the operations sergeant. He could have told the sergeant that he “would take care of it.” He could have hinted that his high-ranking dad could smooth it over.

But the Marine Corps’ values are honor, courage and commitment. Honor is the bedrock of our character. The young captain could not ask the sergeant to betray his duty to report the infraction, no matter how small. Instead, the captain simply said, “Let’s go see the colonel.”

That captain had wanted to be a Marine officer all of his life. It was the only career he ever wanted. When he reported the incident to the colonel, he knew he was jeopardizing his life’s dream. But he did it.

The results went by the book. The amphibious squadron stood down. Military couriers flew in from NATO. The codes were changed all over Europe. The battalion was a day late in leaving the Mediterranean. The captain, Leonard F. Chapman III, received a letter of reprimand, damaging his career. He stayed in the corps and died in a tragic accident aboard another ship.

I saw some heroic acts in combat in Vietnam, things that made me proud to be an American and a Marine. But that young captain stood for what makes our corps and our country great.

Clinton is the antithesis of that young captain, someone with no honor, little courage and commitment only to her endless ambition. This has nothing to do with gender, party affiliation, ideology or policy. It is a question of character — not just hers, but ours. Electing Clinton would mean abandoning holding people accountable for grievous errors of integrity and responsibility. What we already know about her security infractions should disqualify her for any government position that deals in information critical to mission success, domestic or foreign. But beyond that, her responses to being found out — dismissing its importance, claiming ignorance, blaming others — indict her beyond anything the investigation can reveal. Those elements reveal her character. And the saddest thing is that so many in America seem not to care.

RUNNING AND WEIGHTS

From the Pastor: James Harris

Heb 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Quite often in the Scriptures the Christian life is compared to running a race. Obviously, there are similarities, or the Apostle Paul would not have used the illustration.

In Hebrews 12:1 Paul lists two activities which are absolutely necessary if one is to successfully complete the race. First of all, the runner must put off all unnecessary weight. There is a reason runners do not compete in street clothes and dress shoes. For one, they weigh too much and would be a hindrance to their running. Similarly, there are weights and sins that we, as God’s people, carry around. These are detrimental to our efforts in running this race of the Christian life. What is “the sin which doth so easily beset us?” It is one you (or I) are most fond of. It may be something different for different people, but it is that area of our lives where Satan knows he can take advantage of us. God’s Word says we are to lay this sin aside, to get it far away from us, so that we do not give it opportunity in our lives.

The other thing we must do is “run with patience the race that is set before us.” Patience speaks of endurance. I have encountered people in races that, for one reason or another, were unable to finish. They didn’t endure. Maybe some began the race too fast and were overtaken by fatigue. Others might not have trained properly and just weren’t ready for the race. Still others may have expected an easy course and when faced with difficulties, dropped out. All of these remind me of various types of believers. Some burst on the scene, wanting to be involved in everything, but they soon burn out. Others make a good start, but because they are not properly trained in the Word, they falter and fall by the wayside. The third group finds the going a lot more difficult than they imagined and decide to quit.

It is my prayer that we will be a people well-trained and given to endurance.

The University of Missouri and the Problems Promised in Prophecy

Nov10by Bro. Jeff Haney

” . . . For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom . . .” – Matthew 24:7

The world has not changed for the better over the last 20 centuries.  If the Lord’s timing is different than what many people think, it will not change for the better over the next 20 centuries.  Society is, and will be, all that the Bible tells us that it is, and will be, and one of the things that the Lord Jesus told us in “bright red ink on bright white paper” is that prior to His return, that rising racial turmoil will be a hallmark of a hell bound society.  He did not give it to us as a spiritual virtue either, He gave it to us as a sign and symptom of the season before He comes again.

I remember as a younger man reading the great Olivet Discourse with eagerness to see if I could see what no one  could see, or had seen in over 2000 years.  It never happened.  What did happen was that when I came to verse 7 I would wonder if the Lord was just repeating Himself for effect when He spoke of “nation – nation – kingdom – kingdom.”  Most people think of a “nation” and a “kingdom” as the same thing; but in fact they are not.

When we look behind the king’s English we find that the word for nation is the word “ethnos” in which we get our word, “ethnic” from.  According to Dr. Strong the root and concept of this word is “race”.  Now that being said, Jesus told us that “race would rise up against race” and that kingdom or country would rise up against country.  This is not a flowering promise for people to embrace, it is a thorn for us to be aware of, and understand what it means.  It means that things are happening (as always) just as Jesus said they would.

This prophecy is a pre-revelation of the sin in society as the world keeps on turning.  And the bad news is it is going to get worse . . . before it gets better.

After reading through the happenings of the Missouri campus and listening to the talking heads the only thing I see and hear is a plethora of people who are totally confused about what to do, and have no idea about how to get a handle on it.

The fact is that every white man, and black man, and green, red, and blue man for that matter is depraved from the substance of their soul.  The Biblical terminology is our “sin nature” – every man, woman, boy and girl has it.  In the context of the Missouri problem, (whether we are talking about Ferguson, or the U of M) the depravity of man, and the spiritual ignorance of the lost has mixed together for a confusing chaos the Lord is not the author of.

There is no doubt that black people have suffered, and do suffer from the abuse of somewhite people. Only a fool denies that fact.

Neither is there any doubt that some black people are so saturated with an “entitlement” spirit and “victimhood” attitude that they think it’s morally wrong to be white.

Don’t misunderstand – there are “entitlement minded white people” as well as “abusive black people”but those are the predominant generalizations that exist in society right now.

One protester that I read of made the statement, “this is 2015, we should be past this.”  I hope I don’t sound condescending when I say this, but what makes us think “2015” has anything to do with it.  The Bible says there is nothing new under the sun.  They could very well have said “It’s 1860 we should be past this.”  They could have said, “It’s 1950 we should be past this.”  Societies and civilizations do not “advance” with the passage of time, they digress.  Admittedly, in many places the fellowship and friendship between the white man and the black man is much better in our generation than it was in the previous, at least on a social level.   On many levels however what we are seeing in Missouri is not just about “black and white” it is about “conservative and liberal.”

The events that led to the conflict were purely a racial in nature.  Some of the things that have come about since the President and other officials have stepped down, have divided people not necessarily along the racial divide, but along the conservative/liberal divide.

At the end of the day, things are happening as Jesus said they would.  It is a tragedy, but it is the truth.  There is only one thing that will change it, and the world does not want to hear it, or accept it.  It is Jesus.  When Jesus enters the heart of  a man, the man changes.  If the man doesn’t change, then Jesus didn’t come in.  Jesus does not just come in to the heart of white men.  Nor does He just change the hearts of black men.  Jesus changes the hearts of lost men.  Until the hearts are changed, the minds will never be convinced.

The problems in Missouri are unredeemed hearts, unBiblical thinking, and uninterested people.  A good solid dose of repentance of sin, and faith in Jesus Christ is the only thing that will change anything, and therefore the only change worth making.

Focus on Jesus

 

Hebrews 12:1, 2

 

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God,” Hebrews 12:2.

 

Jesus has set the race of life for each of us to run. Our focus determines how we will run that race. Fellowshipping with God must be through Jesus. God has made Jesus the finish line. He hung on the cross, writhing in pain, but he had joy in His heart because He knew He was bringing many children to the Father. Isaiah said that Jesus would be set as our banner, a flag, seen from afar to help orient the weary, lost traveler.

 

My youngest son once ran an important physical training test in the Army Reserves with a young African sergeant from Kenya. They were racing against the clock with a mile to go. The sergeant said, “Let’s make like a female lion is chasing us.” That would definitely make one goal-oriented, concentrating on the finish line.

 

Abraham was promised a city and a great nation of children. At the time he was a pilgrim in a strange land with no children. He died believing that God would keep that promise. He was focused on the One who made the promise and in faith lived his life toward that goal. Focusing on the goal gave him courage to keep running the race.

 

We must not expend all our energy concentrating on the problems that occur in the race, but look unto Jesus. He promised us a city where there are no more tears, pain or death. Keep your eyes on the finish line; He’s waiting with open arms.

 

 

Just Saying

 

A plowman looking backward always plows a crooked row (Luke 9:62).

 

Robert Brock