RON LOFLIN

Philippians 3:12-14 (CEV) I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. My friends, I don't feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done.

Paul, arguably the greatest example of a Christ-follower we have, said it so well in these verses.  He says that although he wants to be perfect, he knows he is not.  But none the less, he continues to strive to live the life God wants him to live.  The wording he used is that of an athlete training…always wanting to be better and to eventually be the best.  The goal for our relationship with Christ should be the same:  always determined to be more like Christ and to be as close to Him as possible.  This means we should do the obvious things like reading our Bibles, praying and LISTENING/DOING what He says.  But in the CEV translation above, Paul says Christ has taken hold of him and he runs towards the goal to be more like Christ.  I think when we do the obvious things, we are sort of walking, maybe jogging towards the goal…but when we are doing the less obvious things like refusing to gossip, sacrificing our time to serve others, being an encourager instead of a critic, thinking of others instead of ourselves, admitting when we make a mistake, correcting our mistakes, choosing joy in our situations, being patient and all the other things the scriptures teach us…then we are running towards the goal.  A lot of people are walking…they read their Bibles, they pray,  they even listen/do sometimes…but I believe few are running.  I know personally I need to run faster…what about you?

Pastor Ray said something last night at Pastor Brian’s ordination service that hit me right between the eyes!  He said, “As goes the pastor, so goes the church.”  In my case, “As I run, so runs the Denton campus.”  So I had to take a look at how hard I am running towards the goal of being more like Christ…and I realized I can run much harder!  It’s not that I have intentionally not run hard, it’s just that sometimes as we have to jump over obstacles in the way we tend to slow down…we even get tired.  But Paul says in Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through Him who gives me strength…so even when we are tired, we can still run in Christ’s strength.  So, this is my recommitment to run as hard as I can after the goal of being more like Christ so that the people of High Rock community Church and the Denton campus in particular, can run as hard as they can as well.  Let’s no longer choose which parts of the race we want to run, but run the entire distance with everything we have in Christ.

Let me start running here by admitting and correcting a mistake I made yesterday.  In the message, I made a misspeak when I said Adam and Eve ate from the Tree of Life(ToL) in the Garden of Eden, instead of saying they ate from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil(ToKGE).  I can only chalk it up to a brain cramp…yes, pastors have those , too!  Just to clear it up, I know the difference and just said it wrong.  But it’s important that everything I say from the pulpit is Biblically accurate so let me correct it.  in Genesis 2 we read about how God created the Garden of Eden and in the middle He planted the ToL(which represents eternal life with God) and the ToKGE(which represents separation from eternal life with God).  Then God put Adam in the garden to tend and keep it, but gave him specific instructions not to eat from the ToKGE.  In Chapter 3, after God created Eve, we read about how satan in the form of a serpent tricked Eve into eating from the ToKGE, and then Eve convinced Adam to eat from it as well…and sin entered the world.  Adam and Eve quickly learned the guilt and shame of sin and tried to hide from God…but they also learned it’s impossible to hide our sin from Him and WE are responsible for our choice to sin.  The point of the message yesterday (in case you missed it because of my mistake) was that when faced with our bad choices, we cannot blame someone else…our choices are OUR choices.  We must choose how we act, react and interact in every situation.  Our happiness/joy/contentment cannot be based on what others do around us, but how we allow God to work in us and through us.

So why the long blog?  Just to say I’m not perfect, but Christ is molding and making me into the person and pastor He wants me to be.  I’m not there yet, but I’m going to run as hard as I can after Him, no matter how much the struggle.  My prayer is that you will do the same!

Pastor Ron

Isaiah 40:31