news from benin

When I consider the madness in footballing and other athletics, how people are craving to become good at it, because of the money in it, it calls my mind to an illustration given to us by the Apostle Paul, from the Grecian contests in 1 Cor.2:24, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?” That is a question, then he concludes by saying, “So run, that ye may obtain.”

I am talking about the Christian race; in this race we must check out what can hinder us. In Gal.5:7 we read, “Ye did run well; who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth?” Doubt can cause us to derail from the track. We read that any double minded man is not fit for the Kingdom. The Bible is our only option.

We read in Philippians 2:16, “Holding forth the word of life; “ i.e. the Holy Scriptures, “that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.” And the Apostle Paul continued to say in Phillipians 3:14, “I press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ”; that is eternal life, nothing is greater than that. But it will not come easily; the goal is our final destination, let our minds always be on the goodies in the gospel and if it is so, then we can be able to care less for all the flashy things we see around us which are temporal.

Another thing we must remind ourselves of is that we are not the first to enter this race, there are those who have gone through what we are going through now and we are privileged enough to have their records laid down for us. The whole of Heb. 11 talks about many of them. So in Heb. 12:1, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

Then back to 1 Cor. 9:25 we read that “every man that striveth for mastery is temperate in all things”, etc. and Prov. 21:17 “He that loveth pleasure shall be a poor man: he that loveth wine and oil shall not be rich.” See also Gal. 5:23 which refers to “meekness , temperance: against such there is no law.”

There is a saying that, “The art of life is to learn how to enjoy little and endure much, because there is much more to life than eating and drinking.” The Bible tells us that one day our body (apart from the Return of Chrisr) is for the ground, but we know that it does not end there because we are responsible, see Acts 24:25, “And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance and judgement to come, Felix (the governor) trembled.” We read in Proverbs about loving pleasure and being poor, not just natural poverty but spiritual, what should be done? See 1 Cor. 9:26-27 where Paul says, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”

So for us to win in this race we need some weapons; first to fight the inward battle, see Rom.7:23 – self control and also 2 Cor.10:4. Then finally the rewards for overcomers see:

Rev. 2:7 Spiritual food to be received

Rev. 2:17 New name

Rev. 2:26 Authority

Rev. 3:5 Robes of righteousness, life eternal

Rev. 3:21 Enthronement

Rev. 21:7 An eternal inheritance.

And so all the promises in the gospel will be fulfilled.

Bro. John Eke Adwe