Running the Race to Reach the Goal - DeVern Fromke

We must be careful not to exhort people to run the race before they have been placed on the race track. It is important to make the distinction that we must first experience the grace of God in receiving the gift of life. Then and only then can we begin to run the race in fulfilling the purpose of our life and reaching His goal.Generally there are two groups of people which misunderstand this. One, those unregenerate people who attempt to run before they have experienced His grace and assume that getting to heaven or achieving salvation is the goal. And two, those who know they have received the gift of eternal life by grace, yet have not been enlightened to see how they are called to run the race to reach the goal of their "high calling". Both groups emphasize parts which are not properly related to the whole plan. Since we have considered grace (the gift of eternal life) let us now turn our attention the need of a goal in running the race.THE POWER OF HIS GOALConsider an individual who has his eye set on scaling the world's highest mountain. This is his life's ambition-his only goal. After repeated failures, he finally succeeds and triumphantly stands in the rarefied air of his accomplishment. His mission is achieved! Now no other goal lies before him. What is the effect? First, reflect on the planning, the physical training, the growth of strength accrued to him as long as his goal was before him. Now consider the fading interest, the physical weakness, the unrestrained living, and atrophy which follow, because there is no pull or power of a goal to challenge him.Again consider a people who are captivated with the need of a church building. They are strangely united as they overcome obstacles and dedicate time and resources to achieve their goal. Finally, their object is realized. On dedication Sunday they move into the church and settle down to enjoy their labors. With no other goal before them they soon become soft in their moral fiber, and careless in their dedication. Since dedication was to a goal, but not to His goal, nothing fails like success.It would be well at this point to recognize not only the symptoms, but the cause of breakdown of purpose in the lives of individuals and congregations.Many have allowed certain goals to become the end instead of means to an ultimate goal-His Purpose. They have obtained the assurance of salvation and settled down, they have arrived at a separated life and settled down; they have experienced the filling and anointing of the Spirit and settled down. Having achieved their new building, their attendance quota, their missionary budget- there is nothing more to live for. They have been dedicated to a project or some person instead of the Person. There is far more concern for receiving the grace of God, than living to give and thereby to find the fuller meaning of life.When there is no supreme goal or spiritual purpose, people generally concentrate on motion. Instead of working toward ultimate fulfillment of the Fathers intention, they keep changing their goals and call this progress. They do not know where they are going, but they are certainly on their way. Those who find no clear meaning or destiny in life really can never say they are making progress in the race. If there is no fixed course and destination, they can never measure whether they are getting to their goal or not. Life under such circumstances is boring and meaningless. Let us not be like the sculptor who was hacking and cutting away at a block of marble all day. When he was asked, ''What are you making?'' he said, "I really don't know I haven't seen the plans ''cont...

THE PERCEPTION OF HIS GOALThis leads us to ask the important question, ''How much does God intend to reveal to us of His plans?" Are we to work blindly but devotedly confident that He, the Master Architect, knows what He is doing and all we need is to get orders sufficient for each day? That might be ample for servants, but we are sons who are called to share and reign in that great day when the sons of God are revealed. Surely God intends to unveil not only the principles, but also the patterns by which He works when we are ready and our perception is increased.We find here a law of God's working. First, He gives us the ''bud.''As our power of perception increases, it blossoms into the full flowering of our place in His ultimate intention. Let us observe this in four examples. In each, whether Abraham, Israel, Paul, or the Church, we see God sharing His intention in a nutshell, then ever waiting to unfold His intention as men walk in obedience. How much did they understand in the beginning? We can be sure it was sufficient to pull them toward His goal. In each case there is continuous revelation to bring progress toward reaching the goal.THE GOAL UNFOLDS1-When God our Father called Abraham to be the earthly shadow of Himself, it was first indicated to him that he would be the father of many nations. Yet, it was many years before Abraham was able to comprehend all God meant in those initial words. Finally, after many and devious experiences, in the hour of his supreme dedication of Isaac on Mount Moriah, we see Abraham's eyes opened to perceive God's goal. In the measure that he walked in obedience, this purpose was realized though him.2- Consider how God sought to make Israel responsive to His goal. Having delivered her from Egypt, He speaks at Mount Sinai indicating Israel was to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation and a peculiar treasure unto Him. (Ex 19:5-6). Yet through repeated disobedience, we see her perceptive powers numbed. She faltered in the race. Paul uses Israel in 1 Corinthians 9 as both an example and a warning so that we will not miss God's ultimate intention as she did- "know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible '' (1 Cor 9:24-25) Of course, Paul is not here considering salvation. He is showing how Israel, though delivered from Egypt, wandered in the wilderness and failed to realize the purpose God had set for her. Paul is not speaking of losing the gift of salvation. He is concerned lest (like Israel) he become a castaway and fail to fulfill God's ultimate intention.3- Consider Paul. Immediately after his Damascus road experience, Ananias spoke in prophesy over him indicating the calling and ministry for which God had set him apart. This was what God gave in bud form, which later unfolded in the great Apostle's life. Finally, we hear from him sharing his deep purpose of running to reach the goal of this race course. "Brothers, I do not consider myself to have won it; but ONE thing I do-forgetting the past, and straining to those in front, I rush along the track for the prize of the supreme calling of God in Christ Jesus '' (Phil 3:13-14).It was the clear declaration of the goal which pulled him. Nor are we left in any doubt as to his perception. He knew where he was going. But Paul is never once concerned just for himself. How typical is his further admonition: ''And if in ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you '' (verse 15). Paul hands them a measuring stick for evaluating their own attitude in the race. If they are living for a lesser goal than he is living as their pattern, they can expect God to make it known to them.4-Finally, consider the exhortation to the Church. Through Paul God shared His glorious intention that His Son should have a Body through which to express himself. This is the glorious calling and destiny of the Church. The question is, does she perceive the goal of her Lord? She has been given the bud of promise, but we wonder why the flower is so slow to blossom. It would seem that the writer of the Hebrews was concerned about this question. He reminds us of all the past runners in the race who are now looking down upon the race course. ''Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us '' (Hebrews 12:1).Throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews we have this ringing exhortation constantly before us: "Let us go on'' to reach full maturity, which only comes by living unto God and realizing His ultimate intention.cont...

THE PERSPECTIVE OF HIS GOALStill another law governs our running of the race-the law of spiritual perspective. To the natural eye something in the distance seems small and unimportant, while everything close by looms very large and impressive.Suppose you look down a long row of telephone poles. The pole by which you are standing seems very large. The one on the distant horizon appears to be only a pinpoint in comparison. It seems to be true, your eyes tell you it is true, and yet it is not true. If you will get into your automobile and drive to that exact point on the horizon and have another look, you will find some of the almost unbelievable changes have taken place. The telephone pole which once had such great importance in your eyes has now become small and insignificant. Whereas the one you once thought appeared of no consequence has now doubled in size and importance many times. What appeared to be the least of telephone poles a few miles back now becomes the most important one of all.This illustrates the deception of looking at things in the natural.That which is seen and temporal can make distant, spiritual goals seem small. It is only when spiritual eye-salve has been applied that we can see according to His perspective. Paul wrote from God's perspective when he said, ''For our light affliction (the nearest telephone pole) which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen. For the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor 4:18).You may have tried this interesting experiment. A nickel placed over your eye will blot out the biggest star. A quarter will blot out the sun. Of course that does not mean the quarter is larger than the sun It is just closer to your eye.This deception which applies to space, also applies to time. If you have a six-year old son who has a financial problem you may test his perspective by asking him which he would rather have, a quarter today, or a dollar next month. Unless he is a very unusual boy, the quarter right now will loom much larger in his eyes than the dollar will thirty days in the future.You will remember that this is the kind of deception that got Esau into trouble. One night Esau came home hungry and Jacob said, ''Esau, if you will assign to me all the lands, cattle, goods and properties contained in your birthright, I will give you a mess of pottage.'' From the perspective of one who has just had a good dinner, that proposition seems a little bit ridiculous. But Esau was hungry, and hunger can change one's perspective so much that a mess of pottage seems exceedingly important.I suppose Esau thought, ''What difference does it make about what happens tomorrow. I am hungry right now." It is possible for almost any small, unimportant ''want'' to be held so close to the eyes as to blot out the entire future purpose of God. I can hardly fathom what ''a mess of pottage" really is. It has never sounded very appetizing to me, but Esau gave up his entire future to get it.There is a divine perspective which God has always shared with those who walk in His light "in thy light we shall see light'' (Psalm 36:9). Walking in His light will help us not only to keep every "telephone pole experience'' in perfect alignment, but also to keep it in God's divine perspective. This means what appears to me as a lesser goal will telescope into His ultimate goal. The man of vision is one who can see telephone poles on the horizon in the same scale as they will appear when he actually gets to them. He lives with the power, the perception and the perspective of His Goal