Oh boy, how long has it been? I am not sure I am up to this blog stuff, but one conviction I have is the need to try to at least get one post per week on here. Please pray for me to do that, and for my thoughts to be helpful for building up the saints at Living Hope Church and whomever may read this.

Yesterday's sermon was on Acts 20.24, part of Paul's farewell message to the Ephesian elders: "I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God."  --  Paul was looking to the end of his life and ministry at this point, and he realized the big challenge was to finish the race. (See 2 Timothy 4.7 for a similar thought.) So with us, the issue should not be "new beginnings" per se, though those can be fine, but rather finishing the ministry to which God has called us. Note that here in Acts as well as the passage in 2 Timothy 4,7, Paul does not mention WINNING, the race, but FINISHING it. The Christian life, and the life and ministry of the Church, is a marathon calling. It is not about "winning" or "success" - things the world puts so much into these days. (Are you following the college football or NFL playoffs and seeing how many coaches are being fired for not winning?)

"If we do as God commands, and do not seem to succeed, it is no fault of ours. Failure itself would be success as long as we did not fail to obey." (Charles Spurgeon) - Or try on this quote from Spurgeon: "The difficulty of the Christian is very seldom the commencement of the work; the true labor lies in the perseverance which alone can win the victory." (Yes, that one talks about "victory", but the real issue is not victory but perseverance.)  May this be so for us, by God's grace. ("...to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.")