{"id":7463,"date":"2014-09-07T01:49:54","date_gmt":"2014-09-07T05:49:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/allandouglas.dougbittinger.com\/blog\/?p=7463"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:39","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:39","slug":"olympic-faith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/olympic-faith\/","title":{"rendered":"OLYMPIC FAITH"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Calvin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 One of the exciting things about the Christian faith is that\u00a0 it challenges the best that is within us.\u00a0 It will never let us be satisfied with inferior living.\u00a0 It reaches into the depths of our inner being with disturbing implications.\u00a0 There is no way we can look into the face of Jesus and be content with halfhearted devotion.\u00a0 He calls us away from everything that would make us less than what we can be.\u00a0 He nudges us toward everything that focuses on our spiritual potential.\u00a0 He inspires us to consider the high road of what is best for us rather than the low road of what is easiest for us.\u00a0 Like an Olympic athlete training for perfection\u00a0our Lord equips us to dream His kind of dreams.\u00a0 No one expects as much from us and yet comforts us when we miss the mark.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The tremendous\u00a0 challenge of being a Christian gives life its greatest sense of purpose.\u00a0 Without this struggle toward some degree of excellence we would lose ourselves in the monotony of mediocrity.\u00a0 There is more to us than what we normally accept.\u00a0 We frequently underestima<\/span>te our capacity for godliness.\u00a0 We fail to stretch our humanity because our expectations are too low.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0We are created to move onward and upward.\u00a0 To sense some progress on the journey is a great source of fulfillment.\u00a0 We have no better gauge of how we are doing than the gospel of our Lord Jesus.\u00a0 It tells us that “nobody” can be somebody and that anybody can belong to everybody in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 The process toward achievement keeps us believing there is a place for us in God’s scheme of things.<\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Let us, therefore, never minimize the demands of Christianity.\u00a0 It is harder than any other lifestyle because it brings out the best within us.\u00a0 If we sentimentalize our faith and turn discipleship into a syrupy ceremony we miss the meaning of commitment and sacrifice.\u00a0 We must never try to camouflage the cross lest we lose the strength of its dying love.\u00a0 God gave His best to show us what is best for us.\u00a0 Indeed His greatest challenge to us is to be baptized with His baptism and to drink from His cup of pain.\u00a0 In the difficulty of our task we will find His glory as we faithfully pursue His dream for us.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

     One of the exciting things about the Christian faith is that  it challenges the best that is within us.  It will never let us be satisfied with inferior living.  It reaches into the depths of our inner being with disturbing implications.  There is no way we can look into the face of Jesus and … Continue reading “OLYMPIC FAITH”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[72],"class_list":["post-7463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-matters-of-faith","tag-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19174,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463\/revisions\/19174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}