Chaplain's Corner!

In my last article I established the fact that we love our racetracks. If you still have it, re-read it for better comprehension of this one. To help bring it back from memory, let me summarize it for you. We spend a lot of money to get there and to have something ready to race. It costs! Next we do everything possible to stay on the track. That's adhering. Then, there's our thinking, planning, imagining and dreaming in regard to the running of the track. We call that meditating. Let me add the hard work of preparation and getting the proper set up at the track. While all of this is so obvious to us in regard to our racing life, why then is it so difficult to transfer this over to the Word of God, Jesus and the truth lived out called the Kingdom of God? It's all so clear, the cost and the necessary adherence to follow Jesus, the meditating on his Word, and the hard work of service.

To answer the question of this difficulty, in the first place, it's elusive. Matthew 13:44 Jesus says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field." Secondly, we may be blind. 2 Corinthians 4:4 reads "The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. As with racing, there is also a cost. In Matthew 10:39 Jesus says "Whoever finds his live will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." I have just begun to establish what it means to be a follower of Jesus. I hope you are as humbled as I am when we see our lack of commitment to what really matters compared to our love of the track. The fact is that none of us are worthy, but God in His mercy has opened the door for us through his Son, Jesus' death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sin and the new birth that we might see. In John 3:3 "I tell you the truth no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

The reason we love the track may be the thought for the next article. I think it has something to do with some needed fulfillment. What do you think? In regard to the Kingdom of God, Jesus said in John 10:10 " . . . I have come so they may have life, and have it to the full."

Chaplain Ken