…a word in due season, how good it is! (Prov. 15:23 KJV)
“Righteousness is the keyword of the Christian faith. It is the granite foundation of our faith. The idea of righteousness is not a simple rudiment of the spiritual schools. Whoever understands St. Paul’s intense conception of righteousness knows that it was the secret spring of the Apostle’s spiritual power. To him the Gospel was primarily a declaration of the righteousness of God”
– SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON NICOLL
“The purpose of Christianity is not to avoid difficulty, but to produce a character adequate to meet it when it comes. It does not make life easy; rather it tries to make us great enough for life.”
― James L. Christensen
“It is for us to pray not for tasks equal to our powers, but for powers equal to our tasks, to go forward with a great desire forever beating at the door of our hearts as we travel toward our distant goal.”
– Helen Keller
“Record the vision and inscribe it on tablets,
That the one who reads it may run”
Habakkuk 2:2
The purpose of the Word of God is to communicate His thoughts and His purpose. They are not to convey a doctrine as it were but to define a “mark”*; Paul the Apostle abandoned his life to this. His Word is to portray vision and exhort quest. The Lord spoke to Habakkuk to make plain the vision of God to the intent that men and women would be empowered, encouraged and set aflame to pursue its fulfillment. While many have knowledge few understand they are to “run the race” set before them. “Run” is a New Testament word; it describes the posture we are to have in life. Paul exhorted the Church at Corinth to run. To what end? That ye may attain!
“So run, that ye may obtain”
1 Corinthians 9:24
In other words, there is no obtaining without the running and pursuit of Him. In the minds of many of God’s people “running” is not even a concept. The ministers of the Word of God have failed to set before His people a goal to be reached. The general message is often one of encouragement to support the church, witness when you can and try and be a good person. The true ministration of the Word of God should be one of exhortation and encouragement to “know Him” and to be “found in Him”. The pursuit of Him is that we might attain His likeness.
Make the Vision Plain
to the intent
That they who have eyes to see
ears to hear may Run…
with endurance the race set before them
Where there is no true and living vision the people of God will compromise with the goals and temptations of the world. They lose the motivation to run and the empowerment of the Spirit to live a life of passion and single-hearted devotion unto Him.
“Where there is no vision (purpose),
the people cast off restraint…”
Proverbs 29:18
Let us run the race* which has been so graciously set before us with endurance. Let us seek Him alone who can spark the fire and wonder of a fresh vision of God and His purposes. May we be the very flame of God to one another that we might run this race with a new fervor and determination to obtain the prize which is Christ Jesus!
* Philippians 3:14
“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded…”
* Hebrews 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 (endurance) the race that is set before us…”
Brian Troxel
“Faith does not grasp a doctrine, but a heart. The trust which Christ requires is the bond that unites souls with Him; and the very life of it is entire committal of myself to Him in all my relations and for all my needs, and absolute utter confidence in Him as all sufficient for everything that I can require”
– Alexander MacLaren
“Should the whole frame of nature be unhinged, and all outward friends and supporters prove false and deceitful, our worldly hopes and schemes be disappointed, and possessions torn from us, and the floods of sickness, poverty, and disgrace overwhelm our soul with an impetuous tide of trouble; the sincere lover of God, finding that none of these affects his portion and the object of his panting desires, retires from them all to God his refuge and hiding place, and there feels his Saviour incomparably better, and more than equivalent to what the whole of the universe can ever offer, or rob him of; and his tender mercies, unexhausted fullness, and great faithfulness, yield him consolation and rest; and enable him, what time he is afraid, to put his trust in him”
– William Dunlop
Let us not stop in our pursuit of God until this be the temper and the very spirit of all that we are.
Brian Troxel
“Faith is God moving in us to fulfill His Word”
Brian Troxel
“Even the righteousness of God which is by faith OF Jesus Christ…”
Romans 3:22
“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
but by the faith OF Jesus Christ”
Galatians 2:16
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith OF the Son of God”
Galatians 2:20
The Faith OF Jesus enables us to walk in the obedience OF Jesus.
“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God’ (Rom. 10:17). That is whence faith comes. It is not for me to sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me with a strong sensation, but is for me to take God at His Word”
– Dwight Moody
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
– Luke 4:4
“Only one life, a few brief years,
Each with its burdens, hopes, and fears;
Each with its clays I must fulfill.
living for self or in His will;
Only one life, ’twill soon be past,
Only what s done for Christ will last”
C.T. Studd
“And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be”
– Revelation 22:12
Part Two
“But none of these things move me”
Acts 20:24
The context of the above scripture is a revelation of the Apostle Paul’s heart: a man utterly bound to the will and purposes of God.
“And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me”
Acts 20:22-23
The words of Paul are substantiated by the life of Paul. His bonds to the Spirit of God are revealed by His walk. The steadfastness of his heart was tied to the dictates of God’s will; his own personal welfare was not a consideration. This is the chief mark of those who are in Christ Jesus. It is in the lives of His obedient ones that the true ownership of God is obvious. There is an ongoing daily revelation of the fire which burns relentlessly in their hearts to know the greater obedience. Many may speak of such, write books and give sermons on these things but it is in the crucible of everyday life that the verity of these things is known.
It takes very little discernment to know how much or how little it takes for individuals to be moved from the doing of God’s will.
“The slothful man saith, “There is a lion in the way”
Proverbs 26:13
They who are becoming His reveal in their lives a constant occupation with the learning and doing of His Will.
“And why call ye me, Lord, Lord,
and do not the things which I say?”
Luke 6:46
His Lordship is known by what we do not in what we say.
Brian Troxel