"No Contest!"

"Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength: thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters." (Psalms 74:13) Now, I don't know what kind of experience you might have had with your faith being tested, but I can almost guarantee, that if your faith was in God, then it stood the test. Surely you don't put your faith in anything else, right? Yea, right; and I can fly like a bird when I want to also. The last speaker at the Men's Conference used ten minute periods of being faithful as a way to describe how strong we are, saying, "Lord, help me to be faithful for the next ten minutes," and then having an alarm on his watch to remind him to pray in eleven minutes for another ten. It's not that hard to imagine the need for that kind of discipline, given how easily we can be tempted by the things of this world. One thing is for sure, we can never think we have it all under control, or that we have somehow arrived at a place where we are strong enough to overcome being tempted. If you are thinking that keeping the faith and overcoming temptation are not the same, then think again, because they are one in the same. We overcome temptation by the strength of the Lord, and we keep the faith by keeping our eyes on Jesus; so it's pretty much all about abiding in Christ for all things, both faith and discipline. In other words, we are made holy in Christ, and we remain holy in Christ; we are never holy in our own strength or on our own. Let's just assume for a moment that God is the one appealing to us; not that I haven't already established that; but let's assume it in this moment. Having stooped low enough to doubt that God is even listening, and having entertained the thought that God has lost control of what is going on, what does God need to do to get our attention? He could flash some spectacular lights across the heavens, or part the oceans, as spoken of in the verse above; or He could simply remind us who He is! It's like the powerful moment when Elijah heard that "still small voice" on the mountain of God, or when Jacob spent all night wrestling with the Lord and the Lord touched his side. God has more strength in His little pinky finger than will ever be needed to do anything or overcome any obstacle that we could ever imagine. Why would we even consider trying to do something on our own? We serve such a great and mighty God!      
"That same day two of Jesus' followers were walking to the village of Emmaus, seven miles from Jerusalem. As they walked along they were talking about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things, Jesus himself suddenly came and began walking with them. But God kept them from recognizing him. He asked them, "What are you discussing so intently as you walk along?" They stopped short, sadness written across their faces. Then one of them, Cleopas, replied, "You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn't heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days." "What things?" Jesus asked. "The things that happened to Jesus, the man from Nazareth," they said. "He was a prophet who did powerful miracles, and he was a mighty teacher in the eyes of God and all the people. But our leading priests and other religious leaders handed him over to be condemned to death, and they crucified him. We had hoped he was the Messiah who had come to rescue Israel. This all happened three days ago. Then some women from our group of his followers were at his tomb early this morning, and they came back with an amazing report. They said his body was missing, and they had seen angels who told them Jesus is alive! Some of our men ran out to see, and sure enough, his body was gone, just as the women had said." Then Jesus said to them, "You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn't it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his Glory?" Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from the Scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24:13-27) NLT