From a sermon under the theme of “Fix Our Eyes on Jesus”, dealing with things that hinder us from running the race.
Most of us who are serious about running the race of the Christian life are not impeded in our journey by dramatic and stirring and prolonged sinfulness. Most of us are actually
impeded by the toleration of allowable, innocent, and praise worthy things, which we have unwittingly allowed us to divert from the objective of being there at the finish. For example, family life…We go to churches and they say this is a family centered church. Then it is the wrong kind of church for the only kind of church is a God centered church. Oh, we cannot come and worship with God’s people because of our family. Oh no, I won’t be able to come and be involved with the opportunity outreach because of my family…But what did Jesus have to say? If anyone would like to follow me or be a committed disciple of mine and was not prepared to hate their father and mother and brother and sister and everyone else in that structure for sake of myself and the gospel, then they shouldn’t even begin the journey!
Other things he mentions:
- diligence in business
- preoccupation with knowledge of theology
- reading good literature
- your garden
Begg then quotes a Scottish commentator Brown
Every earthly pursuit, however innocent in itself, when it interferes with a cultivation of christian dispositions and the practice of Christian duties becomes a weight that must be laid aside.