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Word from Nairnshire

    by Sandy Shaw

Disqualified
Date Posted: May 7, 2013

A wheel is three centimetres beyond the limit and there is a penalty to pay. A foot is where a foot should not be, and an athlete is disqualified.

These are tough lessons to experience, especially after all the gruelling preparations.

In the letter to Jewish disciples of Jesus, we read that there is a race marked out for us, and the word ‘race’ is the Greek word for ‘agony’. It would be more accurate to translate it as ‘contest’. Do we not find that is what life is at times?

Using the athletic metaphor, we are in the sports arena here, surrounded by witnesses and spectators who have previously been participants in the work of God.

Writer, and written to, alike, find themselves as athletes engaged in the arena of the Christian life. They were not to forget the innumerable host of spectators, heroes of the faith, who are there cheering on the present contestants or disciples.

This is a great picture in a mere handful of words.

The emphasis is on the athletes never forgetting the example of those who have gone before.

There is a course which we have to run and complete, with all the agony and joy.

Adam was defeated in his contest. We needed another Adam to come and win, overcome and triumph, and Jesus Christ did all of that.

Your course will be different from my course, but the requirements and provisions are the same.

We have the same living Jesus who calls us, and the same Holy Spirit who directs and inspires us.

Paul was very much aware that after having preached, taught, and written for thirty years, there was that possibility of being disqualified, and nothing would persuade him to take his eyes off Jesus Christ.

Sandy Shaw
Nairn Christian Fellowship

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Biography Information:
Alexander 'Sandy' Shaw is pastor of Nairn Christian Fellowship in Nairn, Scotland. Nairn is 17 miles east of Inverness - on the Moray Firth Coast - not far from the Loch Ness Monster!

Sandy has a weekly radio talk which can be heard via the Internet on Saturday at 11:40am, New Orleans time, at wsho.com.
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