4 minute read
Seeking A Crown
36 // May 2020
by Ron Culbreth
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If you are a sports fan like me you know something about winning crowns, defending crowns, and losing crowns. Last month we crowned LSU as the champions of college football; if they hope to remain as champions they will have to have a stellar regular season, be chosen as one of the four teams to play for the title and win the tournament all over again.
The Apostle Paul said in I Cor 9:24 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize” (NIV). He then says “Run as in such a way as to get the prize. You can’t just decide you are going to run or participate without first training your body. It takes countless hours of running and exercising before you are ready to compete. Why do they punish their bodies to receive something they could well lose in the near future?
As much as I enjoy sports, each time I see an individual, or, a team hoist the trophy in celebration I can’t help but think how fleeting that moment is and how quickly people will forget. The Apostle Paul says “They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
I once heard it said concerning success, there is nothing more disappointing than to scratch and claw your way to the top of the ladder only to find out, once you have gotten to the top, you discover you’ve had you ladder leaning against the wrong building the entire time.
Basically, that is what Paul was saying, you may get to the top but is the reward one that is temporal, or, is it everlasting. Paul went on to say, he didn’t run like he had no plan or no destination in mind, he didn’t run wildly as someone beating the air, no, his run was deliberate and with far reaching consequences, not only for him but, for those he would encounter.
In verse 27 he says, “No I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I my self will not be disqualified from the prize.”
How do we beat our bodies?
We, don’t physically, beat our bodies, we bring our entire being to the Lord and offer it as a living sacrifice to Him. It’s pretty simple, if you have two dogs and you feed one and do not feed the other, which will live, and which will die. What we read, hear and see will affect our spiritual life and, it will be evident to others as well. Let us rejoice with
Paul in saying “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day- and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Ron Culbreth lives in Cleveland, Tennessee. He is a graduate of the Pentecostal Theological Seminary. He is also a retired crisis counselor and is a member of the Wesley Memorial Methodist Church in Cleveland. About The Author
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