So I’m gearing up to preach on Hebrews 12:1-2 here in a couple of weeks…going to talk about how life is a race and like all races we have to endure. This is a race that takes us through the entire course of our lives and involves everything from the shape our character to our families and jobs to the people we impact and ends only when we come face to face with Jesus. It’s not a race about finishing first (as if we even could, having millions who have finished before we were even born), it’s not about being fast, it’s not even about being graceful (some of the most faithful people have stumbled through life)…but it is about finishing. Enduring. Persevering.
The very first thing the author mentions about running with endurance is the great cloud of witnesses who surround us. This, of course, draws us immediately back to chapter 11 where we are reminded of the stories of men and women from Old Testament times who were far from perfect but trusted in God. Some we know well like Abraham, Moses, and David. Some we just have small snippets of their lives like Abel and Enoch. And others are…well just that, “the others”—men and women who were mocked, beaten, destitute, wandering in deserts and living in holes in the ground (doesn’t sound like a fun life, but the comment is these are the ones “of whom the world is not worthy,” that’ll make you think).
Of course in the 2000 years since this was written we have many more who have joined that cloud of witnesses including those in our churches and families just a generation or two before us. These are men and women, brothers and sisters in Christ, who serve as the examples, mentors, friends, guides, and coaches we so desperately need to really know how to honor Jesus and live life fully for him.
So let’s open this up: who in your life has shined as a member of the cloud of witnesses, and how have they helped shape your Christian walk?
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Charlie Spicer, who was (at the time I met him) in charge of the Department of Development at OMS International (nee Oriental Missionary Society). He took an interest in me spiritually, and among other things invited me to go through some training in 1969-1970 that really kick started my career as a follower (vs just being a church member).
One of the gladdest things I am, of (?!?), is that Peg and I took a trip to Indianapolis in the summer of 2005, and I made an appointment with him and went to see him specifically to thank him for what he’d done for me. He had just that instant walked in the door from an appointment with an oncologist, who’d informed him he had metastatic stage 4 prostate cancer. One of my great privileges in life has been to anoint and pray over Charlie, then and there.
There are lots others .. Gene Bertolet and Elwyn Stafford come to mind; first and foremost, though (right after Jesus and my wife) is Charlie.
I could write for a long time, but I will share one of the recent ones. His name is Aaron Saenz. He was a deacon in my present church. He always lived his life as an unmistakable witness to the abundant life we have in Jesus Christ. He was much more than just supportive of the church and it’s staff. He poured himself into everything and everyone. If he saw a young man that he thought had potential he would take it upon himself to help him live up to it. He was always a voice of reaon in times of strife. He was as much a pastor as anyone that I have ever seen.
He was taken from us in an instant one day working in his yard. He lived a full life right up to the very end. I want it said that I lived my life just like Aaron Saenz.
Some thoughts on Hebrews 11:
“13 All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
14 People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.
15 If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. “
C.S. Lewis commented on this Scripture in his book “Mere Christianity”:
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. “
And in his book “The Last Battle” he expresses something of the phrase in Hebrews 11:14 ‘they were longing for a better country’:
“”I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now. “
That ‘Cloud of Witnesses’ ? They persevered by trusting
in the promises of God. Who ‘ goes before us always.’.
Mock if you will, but Cormac McCarthy has a similar thought in the dream report that ends his Novel made into Oscar Winner No Country for Old Men; Tommy Lee Jones concluding Soliquy
Hi STEPHEN,
I found this for you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrC7KRDy3w8&feature=related
I absolutely see the ‘connection’. Thanks for the reference.
Thanks; I saw it on TV again Sunday Night on Cable.
Google the Tom Conoboy blog on Suttree as a Christ Figure.
McCarthy was walkin around Knoxville,Tn in 78 about same time I was catchin the bus downtown to the Public Library. I kick myself I didn’t have aclue who he was then. He went West soon thereafter. I didn’t come across him till The Texas Trilogy of early 90′s but I have been to house of Lucas Black Twice in Speake, Alabama.
Lucas played the kid who double bred for Death by Fire in All the Pretty Horses, Jimmy Blevins.
A “Barefoot Jesus” to be more precise:
http://tomconoboy.blogspot.com/2009/03/suttree-by-cormac-mccarthy.html
I wish I could point to one mentor or another. The fact is that God hasn’t provided much in the way of person mentorship for me. My mentors have been those found in scripture. There was Abraham who left his home following God’s direction. There was Moses who didn’t defend himself before Aaron and Miriam, but defended God’s law to the point of sending Levites out to kill other of the people of Israel at Sinai for worshiping the golden calf. There was David who sinned and repented time and again and still was regarded by God as a man after his own heart. There were the prophets who proclaimed God to their own personal detriment to the greater security of God’s truth. There were the apostles and other disciples who gave all to proclaim the gospel in fulfillment of the GC. And there is Jesus, creator of the universe, who submitted to the Father’s will and came not to be served but to serve, even with his life for the reconciliation of his people – the purity of his bride.
So I have had no notable mentors. However, I have the testimony of God’s people in scripture.
Tim Gandy. No outstanding story, no nobel prize, no best selling book. Just steady love and service in the face of sometimes incredible opposition. Everything he is / has is yours .. for the sake of the Kingdom. He is the kind of man who would stand with you no matter what, and love you enough to tell you that you’re being a dork. Love this guy because he simply loves Jesus.
I found about 400 pictures of a Great Cloud of Witnesses I wanted to share.
Over time there are three photos in particular I want to talk about, maybe four
http://www.newbaptistcelebration.org/
Here is a Great Baptist Saint whose story shine brilliantly to cast light on lesser Preachers of his time like Criswell and FBC Jackson’s Doug Hudgins.
http://www4.samford.edu/pubs/belltower/090806/stallings.html
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