Just Stay in the Race!
What perfect timing for a great message from one of the FAM Fellowship member’s pastor, Dave Stone, at the Southeast Christian Church in Louisville, Kentucky this past weekend! This message, My Home, is especially well timed in light of the casual attitudes now prevalent in the body of Christ regarding marriage and divorce, rejecting marriage as a covenant of life long commitment, and even more so with the high profile news about so many Christian leaders now divorcing! How refreshing it is to hear a man stand up in the pulpit and teach about the power of God to RESTORE marriages no matter how bad things are, instead of condoning and supporting divorce as most pastors and preachers do today!
So we want to stand up and applaud Pastor Dave Stone for preaching from the Word of God without flinching or trying to water down God’s truth to make it more palatable for many itching ears! And the timing of this particular message is not at all a coincidence! It’s the fourth in a series of related messages, and since the current events in the news and the timing of this message were ALL known and orchestrated by God, it’s like He just wanted to confirm His Word in Psalm 37:12-19, which says:
12 The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.
14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright.
15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken.
16 Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever.
And if the timing of this message, along with the news coverage of so many divorces among Christian leaders, doesn’t serve to uphold the righteousness of someone with the courage and conviction to stand up and proclaim the truth of God’s Word as this message does, I don’t know what else does!
Something Pastor Dave Stone shared in this message that really made an impact on our member, and the rest of us when she shared it with us, is the story he told about Charlton Heston as he was preparing for his role in Ben-Hur. Apparently he had a difficult time learning to drive a chariot and spent a lot of time trying to learn how to do so. He finally came to William Wilder, the director of the film and told him that he thought he could drive the chariot and stay in the race, but he didn’t think he could win the race. And Mr. Wilder told him to just stay in the race and HE would make sure he won! And that’s what God says to all of us as we stand for the restoration of our marriages and families, and the only way we will fail to win is if we don’t stay in the race. So instead of focusing on winning the race, we just need to focus on running the course set before us and staying in the race…God will make sure we win!
Yet, we do need to beware of false teachers and anyone else with negative and discouraging words, because Galatians 5:7-9 warns You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” That last line is SO important as we stand for the restoration of our marriages, because the Jews ate unleavened bread, which meant that yeast in the dough was a bad thing; just as are ANY negative words and attitudes, which is why the posting guidelines of the FAM Fellowship private sites are so strongly adhered to. All it takes is one person spewing negative, self-pitying and self-centered attitudes to discourage others and cause them to give up on running the race set before them! And the ONLY one who wins in that case is the devil himself, which NONE of us want or can afford! So we need to adopt Paul’s attitude as expressed in Philippians 3:12-15, where he wrote:
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
And when our marriages and families are restored, we will all be able to say just what Paul said in 2 Timothy 4:7, where he wrote I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
As I finish this, I can’t help thinking of something one of our members shared as a Praise Testimony on the private sites last night as follows:
“I had no intention of writing a post tonight, but one of my brothers turns fifty next month and I was asked by one of his coworkers to bring in some old pictures. So I just sat down and sorted through old pictures for about two hours. Of course, that brought on a lot of tears as I reminisced about the past twenty-five plus years of marriage and raising our family. One might think that it was a stupid thing to do, and I even considered that when I started. But, I knew I could handle it! And I knew what “handling” it meant. I knew there were tons of tears coming and I actually did quite well for much of that time.
But then it just hit me, and I cried like a baby and was more convinced than ever that I can NOT give up on this family! That was brought home to me in a totally new way as I went through picture after picture of grandparents holding my kids, and family get togethers, where both my parents and my wife’s parents were in the pictures. Her parents were married for over fifty years and my parents will celebrate sixty years of marriage in December, so I cannot let Satan
destroy our lives — for our kids, our grandkids, and us. My kids deserve more from
me and I will not let them see me give up on God.
So what Satan thought was going to be a sad and depressing event for me, God turned around completely and used it to increase my faith and determination to follow His Word and be obedient in my stand for my wife and me to be restored. What an enormous praise to God that He is my strength and He is ALWAYS there!”
What a touching testimony! Most of our members (close to all, in fact) are standing in faith and obedience for the restoration of their marriages, with the goal of breaking generational curses of adultery and divorce, which is certainly a worthy calling. But to think of this family’s wonderful legacy being thrown over by the works of the devil as he tramples on the covenant of this marriage just makes me mad, as it should all of us. So whether we’re standing as this member is to prevent Satan from stealing, killing and destroying such a beautiful family legacy or if we’re standing to break the generational curses of adultery, divorce and remarriage, we just have to stay in the race and trust God to faithfully uphold the power and promise of His Word as HE makes sure we win the race and that all of our marriages and families are restored for HIS glory! And the timing of this message with current events just confirms God’s awesome promises in Isaiah 46:11 and in Isaiah 55:10-11! So be blessed and encouraged and JUST STAY IN THE RACE!