May 2011 Editorial

Title - On Your Marks...

As the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic games draw ever nearer, serious training is well advanced. Athletes, swimmers, yachtsmen and women, boxers, wrestlers (the list could go on and on) know that they can’t leave their preparation until the last minute. All over the world, men and women are training for what most regard as the premier sporting event. So far this century Sydney, Athens and Beijing have all given us Olympics to remember and London will surely add to that illustrious list. After all, they’ve been preparing for years as well. However, the Olympics will come whether the competitors or organisers are ready or not!

Yet when it comes to preparing for God’s Kingdom, many people don’t bother. They are neither excited nor awed by the prospect of the second coming of Jesus Christ and him reigning over God’s Kingdom. It’s not like it comes around every 4 years – this is a truly amazing and life changing prospect that God has talked about in His word the Bible.

In Bible times, the apostle Paul (~40-60AD) would be familiar with athletic games; he referred to them in his letter to the church at Corinth. He said if an athlete was prepared to train hard for a short-lived prize, how much more should we all prepare for the ‘race of life’, where the prize is not just a sporting crown, but an everlasting reward?

So, if you’d like to find out more about this and other exciting Bible topics, why not come along and join us at 10 o’clock on Sunday mornings. You’ll be made very welcome; what’s more, you don’t have to be able to run the 100 metres in under 10 seconds! The only preparation you need is to be willing to listen to God’s wonderful message and make up your own mind about what it is saying to you. It really is as simple (and painless!) as that.

Useful passages to look up: Acts 17 vs 30-31, 1st Corinthians 9 vs 24-25