Washington [D.C.] is not a place to live in. The rents are high, the food is bad, the dust is disgusting and the morals are deplorable. Go West, young man, go West and grow up with the country.

— attributed to Horace Greeley, New-York Daily Tribune, July 13, 1865

These are words that stirred many a caravan of people to travel west to uncharted lands, in search of wealth and land.

The hopes of free wide open country and gold were too alluring to many people the Oregon Trail was blazed years before by people like Robert Stuart, Jedediah Smith, Marcus Whitman, and Nathaniel Wyeth, so the people knew that it cold be done.

May made it out west and settled as far as California,but there were dangers and casualties along the way. One family resorted to eating their pack animals others were not as fortunate like the infamous Donner Family, who got stuck in the Nevada winter because they started too late you know what happened to them.

If Christ and countless others before us endured, then so can we.

Running the Race with Endurance

Casting aside every hindrance Running naked

rocks in your pockets

Every weight

1 Corinthians 6:12 ESV

“All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything.

In one sense it would be nice if we had a list of things that we could just check off and say stay away from this and this and that. But the reality is that what might be a hindrance to one person might be a help to another. We must be careful on this. There are many things that may in and of themselves be neutral, that is they are neither morally good, or morally bad. But it is what we do with them. It requires discipline in our christian life. Self-control one of fruits of the spirit.

I love to hike and canoe and do basically anything outdoors. Out in Missouri every year I would take a group of guys canoeing down one of the many streams and rivers. I knew that the river that we were going down this one particular time was running kind of low and that there might be some shallow parts. I really encouraged everyone to pack as light as possible so that our canoes would float higher and perhaps not drag. One of the guys in one of the canoes did not take my advice and brought the taugue mahal. They had this huge tent and all this gear, their canoe set so low in the water and sure enough the entire time they were dragging the bottom, constantly getting stuck having to walk, it definitely slowed us down.

The text puts it as simple as can lets us cast aside, like its nothing. Lets just do it, don’t think about it, don't ponder it or consider it. When it comes to things that are questionable, the more we think about it the more time we have to come up with excuses as to why we should be able to do the thing. Remember in the Lord of the Rings when Frodo and Sam are almost at the opening to the fires of mount Doom. Frodo is at the point of exhaustion because of the ring. Sam says in a decisive action, then let us be rid of it once and for all. I can carry the ring but I can carry you.” We live in a culture that is all about comfort and pleasure we know nothing of sacrifice or denial and we need to develop a habit of discernment about the things that hinder us in our christian walk. It may be fine and it may be perfectly legitimate, but the test is, is it sin, and if it is not then the follow up question is will it hinder or will it help my christian life?

Every sin

easily ensnares

1 Corinthians 9:24 ESV

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

1 Peter 1:6 ESV

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials,

Keep your eyes on Jesus.

A Cloud of witnesses before us.

These are the bystanders who have already run the race and who know that faith is worth the hardship worth enduring such hostility.

It is easy for us to see how Christ went before us, as he preceded us in history. But how is it that Christ preceed those men and women of faith in the OT. Clearly Jesus was not yet born when Abraham and Moses, and the others walked the earth. We must remember that Christ being the eternal God certainly did preceede all others, infact in scripture we have examples of what is called a Christophany, that is we see the preincarnate Christ. John tells us in his gospel that Moses wrote about Jesus Moses also saw Jesus in the burning bush, in chapter 8:58 John says that Abraham longed to see the day of Christ and he did, Abrham was visited by the angel of the Lord in his tent, which many including myself believe to be the preincarnate Christ. John 12:41 john says that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus in the temple of the Lord in Isaiah 6. Jude 5 if you have a copy of the ESV it says that Jesus was the one who led the Israelites out of Egypt. Other translations say Lord, but in a nutshell there has always been a manuscript variant there and the arguably the best text reads Jesus. Hebrews 11 and the rest of the book argue that Jesus was the one whom the prophets and the martyrs bore witness of.

The term witness (μαρτυσ) did not take on the idea of martyrdom until after the development of the New Testament. Later but still early on in history it began to take the form of giving of ones life for the Christian faith. Certainly the imagery of the Colosseum brings to mind the countless Christians put on spectacle and killed even for sport.

Christ withstood it all for us.

Jesus is both the founder and the perfecter. The idea of founder or author is that He is the first of many, or first in a series. Jesus is said to be the first born from the dead. Because He suffered, because He had faith, because He rose, we too can suffer, we too can have faith, we too will one day be raised in His likeness.

Hebrews 2:10 ESV

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.

He trusts in God says Psalm 22:9. Indeed it is rather ironic that the very thing that they said at the cross, in Matthew “He trusts in God, let God deliver Him now.” Infact Jesus did trust in the plan of the Father. He prayed in the garden, Father if possible remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will but yours. Jesus though He should be crushed by the weight of our sin, knew and trusted that the Father would not abandon Him to the grave, but would raise him up from the dead. So in this way Jesus is both the author, the pioneer, the founder of our faith, and the perfector, the one who walked the path of suffering for us.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

No one ever found joy in in suffering itself. Joy is realizing what the suffering will produce. Years actually probably 18 years ago we visited Zion National park in Utah, and climbed one of the most dangerous trails in all of the US. It is extremely step and no wider than a foot in some places, dropping straight off on either side. There are warning signs and even heavy steel chains to hold onto while you ascend to the most beautiful look out. You cannot look down because if you do you might actually fall. Looking down is sure you get your heart beating out of your chest. The christian life is very much like that with hazards and dangers all along the path one false step can spell disaster, but Jesus is there holding your hand all along the way saying look at me, look at me, don't look down look at me. He walked the path before us, he is the one who bolted the chains down and made cleared the way. He never said that it would be easy, but He does promise that He will be with us every step of the way if we will just keep our eyes on the prize. It Jesus He is the prize, He is the reward.