January 8, 2014 - "Shouting From Heaven"

As we begin 2014, have you made your new year's resolution(s)? I can't say that I sit and type out things, put them in my journal or paste them on my wall. But I can say that I contemplate the new year and my response to starting over. I do also spend time checking the high points from the previous year. I am always blessed by those who have a firm plan at the beginning of the year. I mean really impressed. My problem was not starting but maintaining my resolutions. What is a resolution anyway? resolution |rezəˈlo͞oSHən| noun 1 a firm decision to do or not to do something. Okay, a firm decision. I can make decisions, but the firm part was always the trap. Maybe just for me. Sometimes our good intentions are not the same as firm decisions, although they sound alike. But how many of you know, they are not! I was reading this morning in Hebrews 12:1 "let us throw off everything that hinders and so easily entangles and run with perseverance the race marked out for us." When we look up the term "throw off" in the Greek, it means to lay aside, cast down and toss away. Those are very deliberate actions. As I studied this, there is the indication of not gently tossing aside in a carefree manner but deliberately and intentionally. I am certain there are issues and behaviors in our lives that we would all gladly TOSS ASIDE. I am certain we intend for them to stay tossed aside. But don't you hate it when THAT issue decides to begin its shenanigans, again, and the next thing you know it's back off the floor and into your life? Most of us can attest to this. The verse reminds us that these issues so EASILY entangle us. I wish that were not true. Nevertheless, it seems to be a truth we must overcome as we run the race marked out for us. I want to conclude today with some encouragement. Sometimes when we start the new year with these good intentions (which we say are our resolutions) we need someone to help keep those bad guys on the floor and away from our resolve. If you return to Hebrews and read the beginning of verse one, it reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Have you ever considered who that is? Jump up the page one chapter to Hebrews 11 and start writing every name you read. These are they. And, if you examine their stories, I am more than certain that their new year's resolutions were challenged much like ours, but they were listed in the overcomers chapter - The Hall of Faith. And listen, if you read carefully, bad things happened to most of them but they didn't allow those hindrances (you know yours - I know mine) to keep them from the promise. So this year - yes, I have some goals and whatever plans to hinder my resolve to see these manifest in my daily life will be tossed, kicked, wrestled, and stomped to the ground. Then, hopefully if I decide to walk toward these issues and entertain touching them, the great crowd of witnesses that we read about in Hebrews 12:1 will begin to shout from the stadium of Heaven....."girl, stop!" They'll be shouting for you too. Have a great one, PK Hebrews 13: 6