Not how you start - but how (and that) you finish!

Preached last Sunday a message entitled "It's not how you start - but how (and that) you finish. I have realized that it's often way easier to begin something than to actually complete it. And sometimes when we start something, we are full of excitement and joy. But it's a completely different story to finish what we've started.

One area where I can see this in my own life is in regard to books. I get excited about reading something, and then 3 chapters into the book, I'm already eying the next book. I do finish books (gotten better at it!) but still, I have to be conscious about continuing and following through.

I've been saved since I was 5, baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit in my teens, started serving in my church at the age of 12, went into full time ministry at the age of 20 and have now been in full time ministry for 16 years. Although that is not a long time yet, I've still seen some things during these years. I can think about many friends from my youth and ministers I've had the privilege to serve with, who once were on fire, but all that remain now is smoke, if even that. That deeply saddens my heart. Maybe some of these people never realized that the Christian journey is described in the Bible as a race.

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (Hebr 12:1)

We need endurance and steadfastness to finish this race. Sometimes I've described the Christian race as a marathon, but it's still a picture that halts a bit. A marathon is finished in a couple of hours (if you're good at it), whereas our walk with the Lord for most people takes decades to complete. Many things can happen during that time. The two main hinderances are sin and encumbrances (unnecessary weights, burdens). Sin easily entangles, and it is always sad when someone quits their race because of them falling in sin. King David fell badly, but he also repented deeply, and finished his race well. Yes, he paid a price for his sin, but he still didn't stay at the sidelines. He continued to the very end. His son Solomon was a sadder story. He started out as the greatest, richest and wisest king of all time, but when he got older he started worshiping idols because of his foreign wives. He started well, but finished terribly. Sin entangled him.

Encumbrances (unnecessary weights, burdens) are another reason for people not finishing their race well. Those can be "lawful but not beneficial" things. Good things that take the place of the best things in our lives. It can be relationships or hobbies that just don't seem to lead us closer to the Lord, but even further away from him. Still, they are not necessarily sins. Lot lived in the sinful city of Sodom, and the Bible says that he was tormented in his righteous soul by the things he heard and saw. Still I have to wonder, why didn't he leave the city? Although he kept his purity, he lost his wife, and his daughters were so affected by the perversion of the city that they decided to get their father drunk, and get kids with him. How sick is that?

Prov 24:16 says: "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again."

If you fell and were sidelined because of sin, hurt, or wrong decisions, please don't stay there! Rise up! You have a race to finish. I love what Paul writes in his last letter to Timothy. If he lived today, this might have been his last blog post, Facebook post or tweet.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim 4:7)

We need to envision ourselves at the end of our race and to be able to say like Paul: I've finished the course. What a way to end our lives! To know that we didn't just start, but we finished, and finished well!

Let me finally throw in what Joyce Meyer just wrote today on Facebook:

"It's never too late to begin."

Costa Rica

I must admit that I haven't been a very successful blogger so far (2 posts in 1,5 years), but thought I'd give it another shot. With Facebook and Twitter, we just write a line or two, but sometimes I feel like telling a bit more. So if you're interested in what's going on in my life, my heart and my head, here we go:

Costa Rica was a great experience. I got the invitation to go just some weeks before I actually went, and I thought it would be impossible at this time. I presented the invitation to the elders of our church (my employer) and let them decide. I thought that they would say no, but they were all for it. So I decided to go!

Costa Rica was the 20th country I've gone to, and the 15th where I've had the privilege to serve the Lord, in worship or teaching/preaching the Word of God. What a beautiful country it is! Reminded me a lot of Hawaii where we spent our honeymoon 7 years back. Didn't really have time to see a lot since the schedule was very busy, but among many of the experiences was seeing an anteater in the backyard, fireflies for the very first time in my life, a spider in my bed, seeing an iguana killed with a machete and a gun, hearing monkeys in the distance, eating coffee beans fresh, plus much more. I love doing missions trips. You get to experience a lot of new and different things, but the main thing is definitely the spiritual part, preaching, worshiping, teaching, ministering. Got to do it a lot this time! Taught about 16-17 hours about thanksgiving, praise and worship, and led worship 2 times. If the Lord wanted me to do just this the rest of my life I would gladly do it. To see God's children get a deeper understanding about praise & worship is worth it a hundred times over.

It's Thanksgiving week here in the US and Thanksgiving Day is just two days away. When I was in Costa Rica teaching the young students about praise and worship, I spent quite a while just speaking about foundational things. One of them is thankfulness and thanksgiving. In the end of the week when I asked what had been helpful for them, many of them stated that the teaching about thankfulness and thanksgiving had been very helpful, even life changing. One of the things I asked them to do, which I've also done in other places when teaching about this subject, was to write a list of things they are thankful for. (You'll see the creativity of one of the students in the picture to the right) In one of the sessions we just spent about half an hour only thanking God for His goodness in our lives. Many broke out in tears (including myself just listening) as they gave thanks to God.

Psalm 100:4, Amplified version says "Be thankful and say so to Him." I think that pretty much sums up what thankfulness and thanksgiving is all about. Having an attitude of gratitude, and also expressing it. May we all live like that, then we glorify and honor God with our lives, and besides, we will be much, much happier and content.

Have a great week!