{"id":22610,"date":"2018-03-13T00:05:15","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T07:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=22610"},"modified":"2018-03-09T12:29:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-09T20:29:59","slug":"march-13-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2018\/03\/13\/march-13-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"March 13, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/p>\n

“I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.”<\/em> Acts\u00a020:24<\/p>\n

Finish Well<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I imagine that some of you have followed, like I have, the events of the passing of Billy Graham. I have known of his ministry all my life.\u00a0As a young girl I listened to him on the radio. I watched some of his crusades on TV through the years, and attended one in person.\u00a0I don’t know if any other one person has impacted so many people in our lifetime for the Lord.<\/p>\n

His was a life well lived.\u00a0He was faithful to the calling on his life. And he “finished well.” In our early years in ministry when we were in YWAM (Youth With A Mission), we heard teachings about the importance of “it’s how you finish that counts.” I’ll never forget those teachings.\u00a0They have stuck with me all my life. I often pray, “Lord help me to finish well for You.”\u00a0As I watched Billy Graham’s funeral, that was what came through loud and clear\u2014he finished well.\u00a0And now He’s with Jesus!<\/p>\n

At the funeral, all five of his children spoke.\u00a0It was so moving.\u00a0Each one shared from their family life\u2014all different perspectives, but all warm and personal.\u00a0For being such a large event, the tone of the funeral was warm, personal, and family-oriented.\u00a0His son, Ned, said that his dad was FAT: faithful, available, teachable.\u00a0What an awesome tribute!<\/p>\n

One of the songs sung at the funeral was Because He Lives<\/em>.\u00a0I love that song\u2014I’ve actually sung it in my quiet times during this long unexpected journey we’re on.\u00a0“Because He lives, I can face\u00a0tomorrow!\u00a0Because He lives, all fear is gone… and I know He holds the future… life is worth the living just because He lives.” When I was a teenager, I sang with a girls\u2019 trio in my church. We sang that song.\u00a0It meant a lot to me then too.\u00a0I’m so grateful He lives!!<\/p>\n

I have no idea what is ahead in our lives.\u00a0I long ago gave up trying to figure out what this unexpected journey is about.\u00a0I’m just trying to faithfully walk it through.\u00a0And, whatever is ahead, I pray continually that I may “finish well.” I guess that’s the longing of all our hearts.<\/p>\n

“I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”\u00a0<\/em>(Philippians\u00a03:14).<\/p>\n

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit”\u00a0<\/em>(Ecclesiastes 7:8).<\/p>\n

My prayer for each of us is that we will finish well!\u00a0Someday we’ll bow before Him in heaven.\u00a0I hope He can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!”<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cFather, by Your Spirit and grace, we will finish well. Strengthen us, Lord. Amen.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5SG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22611,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22610\/revisions\/22611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}