Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Finish The Race" – Saturday, 15 November 2014 - Scripture: James 1:1-18

Kansas City, Missouri, United States - Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - "Finish The Race" – Saturday, 15 November 2014 - Scripture: James 1:1 I, James, am a slave of God and the Master Jesus, writing to the twelve tribes scattered to Kingdom Come: Hello!
Faith Under Pressure
2-4 Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way.
5-8 If you don’t know what you’re doing, pray to the Father. He loves to help. You’ll get his help, and won’t be condescended to when you ask for it. Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.
9-11 When down-and-outers get a break, cheer! And when the arrogant rich are brought down to size, cheer! Prosperity is as short-lived as a wildflower, so don’t ever count on it. You know that as soon as the sun rises, pouring down its scorching heat, the flower withers. Its petals wilt and, before you know it, that beautiful face is a barren stem. Well, that’s a picture of the “prosperous life.” At the very moment everyone is looking on in admiration, it fades away to nothing.
12 Anyone who meets a testing challenge head-on and manages to stick it out is mighty fortunate. For such persons loyally in love with God, the reward is life and more life.
13-15 Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
16-18 So, my very dear friends, don’t get thrown off course. Every desirable and beneficial gift comes out of heaven. The gifts are rivers of light cascading down from the Father of Light. There is nothing deceitful in God, nothing two-faced, nothing fickle. He brought us to life using the true Word, showing us off as the crown of all his creatures.
"Finish The Race" by David J. Felter
Bill Iffrig had been running for years; he had taken up the sport to improve his health. At age 78, Iffrig was one of the older runners in the 2013 Boston Marathon. As he neared the finish line, the blast from one of the bombs that exploded on that infamous day blew him off his feet.
Millions of television viewers witnessed Iffrig’s terrible fall to the pavement and wondered if he had been hit by flying shrapnel. They would learn that though he had not been seriously injured, the shockwave of the blast had knocked Iffrig down just short of the finish line.
After being helped to his feet,,Iffrig walked the last steps to the finish line, coming in second in his age group. “After you’ve run 26 miles, you’re not going to stop there,” he told reporters.
Perseverance is about finishing the task. It’s about focusing on the finish line regardless of what adversity, setbacks, or challenges we may encounter.
As Bill Iffrig knows very well, only those who finish earn trophies. Persevere. Finish well, even if you’ve been slowed to a crawl.
Hymn for Today:

"Little Is Much When God Is In It" by Kittie L. Suffield
1. In the harvest field now ripened
There’s a work for all to do;
Hark! the voice of God is calling
To the harvest calling you.
Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
2. In the mad rush of the broad way,
In the hurry and the strife,
Tell of Jesus’ love and mercy,
Give to them the Word of Life.
Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
3. Does the place you’re called to labor
Seem too small and little known?
It is great if God is in it,
And He’ll not forget His own.
Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
4. Are you laid aside from service,
Body worn from toil and care?
You can still be in the battle,
In the sacred place of prayer.
Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.
5. When the conflict here is ended
And our race on earth is run,
He will say, if we are faithful,
Welcome home, My child—well done!
Refrain:
Little is much when God is in it!
Labor not for wealth or fame.
There’s a crown—and you can win it,
If you go in Jesus’ name.

Thought for Today:Discipline in 

“a Long-Distance Race
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!"(Hebrews 12:1-3).
Prayer Needs:
For the distribution of Holiness literature in Mesoamerica.
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