{"id":40526,"date":"2026-05-28T23:29:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=40526"},"modified":"2026-05-28T23:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T06:38:10","slug":"26-0529","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/26-0529\/","title":{"rendered":"Finish the Race"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Max Lucado<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Christian race is demanding, grueling, and sometimes agonizing.\u00a0 It takes a massive effort to finish strong. But many don\u2019t. They may come to church and warm a pew, but their hearts aren\u2019t in the race.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the classic example of one who endured, in spite of temptation, accusations, and shame. The devil tempted Jesus nonstop for forty days. Jesus\u2019 own family called him a lunatic. And, on the cross, he bore the collective shame of all humanity. How did he endure?\u00a0 By focusing on \u201cthe joy that God put before him\u201d\u2014that was the prize of heaven. And what he saw gave him strength to finish\u2014and finish strong.<\/p>\n

Someday we will be seated, and Christ will christen the meal with these words: \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant.\u201d And in that moment, the race will have been worth it.<\/p>\n

\"\"Read more\u00a0Just Like Jesus<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Christian race is demanding, grueling, and sometimes agonizing. It takes a massive effort to finish strong. But many don\u2019t. They may come to church and warm a pew, but their hearts aren\u2019t in the race.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the classic example of one who endured, in spite of temptation, accusations, and shame. The devil tempted Jesus nonstop for forty days. Jesus\u2019 own family called him a lunatic. And, on the cross, he bore the collective shame of all humanity. How did he endure? By focusing on \u201cthe joy that God put before him\u201d\u2014that was the prize of heaven. And what he saw gave him strength to finish\u2014and finish strong.<\/p>\n

Someday we will be seated, and Christ will christen the meal with these words: \u201cWell done, good and faithful servant.\u201d And in that moment, the race will have been worth it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-upwords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40528,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40526\/revisions\/40528"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}