Earlier in this series we looked at

Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego and Belteshazzar. 

Today we take a closer look.
Belteshazzar was missing in action (MIA) and the Bible is silent as to why. So when the king called together everyone to participate in his vanity affair, only Rack, Shack and Benny had to stand and explain themselves. In Daniel chapter 3, we see three men stand up for their beliefs regardless of the consequences. Their response is

 ^”…If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king.But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.”

Their response wasn’t conditional on God’s reaction. They were willing to die for what they believed in. They ran their leg of the race to the fullest. But 3 quarters does not make a whole.

After being thrown in the fire, King Nebu looks in and says

²⁵ “Look!” he answered, “I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.”

The three guys ran their part of the race but only Jesus could finish it. They put in all of their strength and energy but only God could complete it. Just like these three men, without Jesus our race is incomplete. Jesus is the only anchor that can finish our race. For some of us, the reason why Jesus is absent in our race is because we have barely run our own leg of the race, content to watch from the sidelines, for others we have allowed the evil one to prevent us from even lacing up. Running the race comes by practice. As long as we neglect to continually exercise through reading His word and praying, we will never be fit enough  to run our lap. So the next time you feel the urge to take a break or watch from the sidelines remember that …..

An Olympian is one who puts in their best and let’s God do the rest
An Olympian is one who realizes that Jesus is the only Anchor that can complete the race
An Olympian is one who doesn’t weigh their choices by God’s presents but by his presence

Rack, Shack and Benny are Olympians

Second chance
His country protested and he was subsequently reinstated. On Tuesday, he showed the world that his effort was golden by winning the 1500m.

One wrong decision and all her dreams went up in smoke
I don’t know how she ended up in that situation, caught red-handed with another woman’s husband. But the fact remains that it was a conscious choice on her part. This act got her paraded in front of Jesus, barely clothed by the blood thirsty Pharisees.

Second chance
Jesus protested her treatment (not her sin) by pointing out to the Pharisees that nobody was in a position to judge. On Passover Sunday, she showed the world that her faith was true by being the first to run to the tomb to see if He had risen.

Sometimes we mess up and we have no one to blame but ourselves. The world acts as judge and jury and hands down a harsh sentence, but we have an Advocate who as long as we breathe offers us a second chance. I don’t know what you have done in the past, but the next time someone tries to define your future by your poor past decisions remember that …

The inception of her nation was incest and drunkenness.
In order to satisfy their greed they sacrificed their children to the god Chemosh.
This is her ancestry, her people and yet with class she let’s her mother-in-law know

Your people shall be my people,
And your God, my God.
 Where you die, I will die,
And there will I be buried.
The Lord do so to me, and more also,
If anything but death parts you and me.
She could have chosen to return with Orpah, she also could have stayed and told Naomi that ” Look you need help, you are old and decrepit and need someone, so I’m here, be grateful. You owe me big time. Consider it from a materialistic perspective Ruth was doing Naomi a favor and not the other way around. Even Boaz affirms this point when he first meets her.

A couple of months (or years) later she seeks out Boaz at the threshing floor, and once again with humility and class she proposes to him and says “I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative.” She could have found a young spry man but she didn’t, she sought him out at the cover of night to provide him a perfect cover in case he wanted to refuse her. Boaz realizing his good fortune says “Are you sure you want an aged man like me”

A classy faith is beautiful to behold because it bestows grace and favor on the unfortunate. Winning sometimes isn’t everything, the manner in which you carry your victory also makes a powerful statement about your character. So the next time you succeed, remember that ….

Words cannot describe it but seeing 6 of the fastest men in the world on the same stretch left me speechless. Here’s the weird thing, I’m not from the Netherlands, Trinidad, USA or Jamaica and yet with anticipation I sat at the edge of my seat, eyes glued to the screen, fixated on Usain.

At the beginning of the story, he started slow

At the midpoint, he struggled to catch up

At the end, he overcame

At the beginning of his story
David started out as a forgotten kid stuck with the animals. Even when Priest Samuel didn’t anoint any of his brothers, his father, Jesse had to think twice before recalling that he indeed had one more son.

At the midpoint
His father-in-law tried to kill him, not once and definitely not twice.
15+ years after that, he messes up and gets busy with a lady taking a bath, named Bathsheba.
Raised messed up kids, synonymous with incest, murder,coup, rebellion.

At the end
He is called a man after God’s own heart.

It isn’t about how you start the race. It is about how you finish it. So run with endurance the race that is marked out for you. Stay in your lane, keeping your eyes fixed on the One who is the Author and Finisher of your Faith. The Alpha and Omega, has marked out your lane and it MUST be different from mine because our spiritual genetic code is as diverse as the physical ones. So wake up, where ever you are in your journey, get back in the race and remember that ….

How does someone with no schooling teach?
How does someone who grew up on the streets preach?
How do 11 untrained men driven by materialistic goals change the world?

Faith is confidence that what we hoped for will come to pass. 

This isn’t cookie-cutter faith that is assured by back up plans.
This is walk on water when you don’t know how to swim kinda faith.

Do you have it?

Don’t let anyone ever tell you that faith is easy, cuz it’s not. The disciples followed Christ for 3 years and then preached like crazy after he left, but have you ever thought what that would look like in 2012. A bunch of men leaving their families and friends, selling their possessions and taking it to the streets. Talking to anyone and everyone about this guy who disappeared. Some would end up in detainment camps like Abu Gharib, while others were shot in the back. One was sentenced to die by electrocution but for some reason the volts weren’t enough to zap him dry and then his pardon  from the Governor came through and so he got on a plane and went to spread the word. Blacklisted and ridiculed with only the clothes on their back, believing that what He spoke will come to pass, they pressed on. So the next time you are asked to serve and excuses cloud your mind remember ….

An Olympian believes that what they hoped for will come to pass
An Olympian dedicates mind, soul, body, to achieve their ultimate goal.
An Olympian does not cower behind their inadequacies, but focuses on their abilities
An Olympian is one who realizes that every mountain is just another stepping stone to greatness

The disciples are Olympians

The truth is that I haven’t been watching the Olympics but today I sat down for 10 minutes and watched Gabby Douglas win gold in the all around competition. So small and yet so magnificent, so young and yet so determined. Last year, no one knew her name, this year she raises to fame as the first African-American to win the all-round.

She tweeted yesterday:

Gen 22: 9 – 10
…And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order; and he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. 

Two questions
What possesses a young virile boy to lie down and allow his old arthritis ridden father to tie him up?
What convinces a father to trust God with the life of his only son?

The easiest thing to do is to give an excuse, one of  the hardest thing is to sacrifice that which you would prefer to keep. The world we live in justifies the former and shuns the later. The bond between a parent and a child is profound and can elevate or eliminate a dream. A godly parent is hard to find and a trusting child even harder. From toddlers to high school kids, CEOs to head–of-states excuses abound, distrust reigns and destinies are altered. Be the godly parent, or be the trusting child and never forget that …

The shooting shocked a desensitized nation previously bent on pleasure and struck chords of terror in the heart of many parents.“No matter how well I do, I’m going to give my best in every single race, and every single race, I’m going to have that Colorado incident on my mind.” She got on a plane, knowing that her life is a gift that must honor those whose story has ended and even with the pain still fresh, she did just that.

As blood ran down the streets, Shadrach paused to get one last look at the burning stump which represented all that was left of the tree he climbed countless times as a boy.

Meshach mumbles a prayer for sanity, and thanks God that his mother’s death came before his younger sister’s repeated violation by the Babylonian troops.

Hands tied behind their back, with their feet shackled, united in misery and in bondage. their minds forever seared with the images they left behind, they wonder what the future would hold.

By the river of Babylon, Abednego bends to slake his thirst and silently washes his tear stained face as he remembers Mount Zion and his father’s butchered corpse at its foothills.

Belteshazzar looks ahead, scared that if he glances his faith would fail and his body would crumble beneath the burning heat. He recalls the ransacked temples walls, the bodies in the street and asks, “Father why am I still standing”

Stripped of their names, dignity and pride, wealth and position, family and culture, ridiculed and possibly castrated.

But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies. Daniel 1:8

SERIOUSLY.

Familial problems have a way of making us docile. They strike at our core and so we retreat to lick our wounds and pray for deliverance, sometimes abandoning the call Christ has placed in our hearts for lost souls. I’ve tried in the past to fix my family, but I’m beginning to realize that I can’t solve all their problems. I’ve resented God at times because He has allowed things to happen, and point blank told him “When you fix my family, I will go preach to the needy.” So if you are like me, the next time you feel overwhelmed by the dangers close to home, pray and remember that …

Sorry. I know that you must be tired of hearing, reading, and watching it,  but for the next 10 days let’s stretch the Olympic metaphors a bit further and hopefully gain insights that will not just impact our discussions for the present but ultimately change our lives.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Heb 12: 1 – 2

10 days, 10 stories, 10 Olympic-sized acts of Faith.

Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord. – Proverbs 18:22 (KJV)

In 78 days, 7 hours, 6 minutes, and roughly 19 seconds I will take my walk down that aisle and become one with the gift God has reserved for me.  Just thinking about that, as cliche as it sounds really does give me a rush of goosebumps.  I’m one of those who has perhaps over-analyzed the relationship, but when two independents merge into one synergistic and cohesive bond in a world full of broken and corrupted marital unions – it truly is a beautiful thing.

So approaching this big step is such an emotional eruption of happiness, anticipation, and yes – a little of stress with the wedding planning. Going through this process it is easy to lose track of your mind, and really manifest crazy “love,” that may not even be love at all. I stumbled across this quote reading EGW’s Letters to Young Lovers last night, and it inspired a post.

Love is a sentiment so sacred that but few know what it is. It is a term used, but not understood. The warm glow of impulse, the fascination of one young person for another is not love; it does not deserve the name. True love has an intellectual basis, a deep thorough knowledge of the object loved. – LYL 36.4

Now I’m not even going to pretend to be the biggest EGW fanatic, but let me just say this book is loaded with powerful nuggets any young couple should contemplate and commit to live by.  I recently attended a powerful Family Life marriage conference, and was impressed to share more on this topic as I believe often the local church needs to do better at fostering healthy intimate relationships.

Think about it. When you glance around your congregation, do you get the sense that you want to be just like that cute couple sitting in the second to last pew on the right-hand side?  Is there someone you feel comfortable divulging the latest developments of  your dating diary to?  While it is very important to have spiritual mentors, and the church should minister to familial relationships in the most effective ways, we cannot excuse such a grave mistake of selecting and bonding ourselves to the wrong mate, because there weren’t enough positive examples at my home church.

We are not to place the responsibility of our duty upon others, and wait for them to tell us what to do. We cannot depend for counsel upon humanity. The Lord will teach us our duty just as willingly as He will teach somebody else. If we come to him in faith, He will speak His mysteries to us personally. – LYL 39.1

It’s difficult. To balance this love for your potential future spouse, with the love of a never-failing Savior. We have to keep things in check and put Him above him, ladies.  And guys, you have a role model whose shoes you will never fill, “For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.” -Ephesians 5:23

So Ellen writes to these young lovers sweet letters that at times sound harsh, but the sweetness of wise rebuke is ever so needed in a time where blind love and infatuation can implant the heart with false perspective.  Listen to a piece of this one she writes from Hastings, New Zealand September 13, 1893:

Dear Janet:
I have been awakened early this morning at three o’clock. I was in earnest conversation with you in the night, and was saying, “Janet, the Lord has a work for you to do.” I was presenting before you the perils of your past life.
I have felt the burden laid upon me to have a watch-care for your soul. You are in danger of making grievous blunders in following impulse. God has saved you from entering into marriage relations with persons who were not in any way calculated to make you happy, and who were corrupt in morals and would have fastened you in Satan’s snare, where you would have been miserable in this life and imperilled your soul. Will not the past lessons be sufficient for you? You are altogether too free with your affections, and would if left to your own course of action make a life-long mistake. Do not sell yourself at a cheap market.

- Letters to Young Lovers, p.76

Imagine getting a letter like that from EGW.  Wow! You can read the rest of that letter and many others along with counsel in the book Letter to Young Lovers. Google it and you can even download a free electronic copy.

I have much more to share that I’ve learned in the last few months just from this engagement experience.  Perhaps my newlywed aYAs and I will be back for a mini-series on the plight of young lovers in the near future. In the mean time check out this incredible testimony Oluwakemi Ola shared with me and the resources below.

Thinking about marriage? Check out these other resources:

1) Gary Chapman’s Things I Wish I’d Known Before We Got Married

2) Dennis Rainey’s Preparing for Marriage

3) Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University

4) Family Life’s Weekend to Remember