We were talking in our men's Sunday School class today about how we as Christians have got to the state where we are. It is hard to tell the difference between the church and the world. As Christians the Holy Spirit is resident (existing) but not president (controlling) in our lives. One of the young men in our class stated that older and more mature Christians have dropped the baton. We are not teaching, we are not listening, and most importantly we are not making disciples as we should.
19"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."Matthew 28:19-20 (NASB)
Yes, the baton has been dropped, thrown down, slammed down, stepped on, and buried it. So what do we do now? When I was looking at the Olympics I got to see the Men's and Women's 4 by 100 relay. In the relays both the men and the women's relay teams dropped the baton. However, what happened after that was interesting. The men's team dropped the baton and that was it, race over, everyone was sad. The woman's team also dropped the baton in the last leg but instead of giving up the last runner ran back picked the baton and ran as hard as she could to finish the race. There was no way that she was going to win the race but she was determined to finish the race. That is what the Lord wants us to do. We need to finish the race. Yes the baton was dropped but we need to go back, pick it up and continue to run the race as hard as we can.
1Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, Hebrews 12:1 (NASB)
The Lord does not want us to look at our past mistakes as a reason to stop. He wants us to finish the race until we reach our goal.
2fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2 (NASB)
That goal is Jesus. We need to totally focus on Him and Him alone. There will always be obstacles in our path that will focus on our baton but we need to finish the race. If we drop the baton, we need to pick it up and continue to run as hard and as fast as we can to the Goal, The Lord Jesus Christ.
Grace and Peace
BCII
