489 -- The Beautiful Fight of Faith
June 12 (6/12) in Godsfield -- 1 Timothy 6:12
(For Better or Verse: Each day in 2025 I will begin this Godsfield e-mail with a Bible verse that corresponds with the month (chapter 1-12) and day (verse 1-31) it is sent. This month features a lot of sixth chapters! Those with eyes and ears, let them see and hear.)
1 Timothy 6:12-- Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Another favorite verse of mine -- It's good to have lots of favorite verses, by the way -- this verse defined who my New Testament professor was; Dr. Bruce Schein, who was at my seminary only four years, my four years, and died near the end of my senior year, but not before giving me all four gospels and the language of the New Testament, and at the same time, teaching me how to die, by demonstrating how to have hodgkins' lymphoma as a teen-ager, being in remission at age 21, then educated at prestigious institutions, then serving Palestinian Lutherans in Jerusalem, as well as every Sunday School curriculum writer that was blessed to be under his teaching about the geography of the Gospels, and then teaching in the most fervent way I have ever seen, right up to planning the most precise funeral imaginable, of which I was a pall bearer for the most basic casket I have ever seen.
Anyway, his take on the verse was to look at the Greek word for "good" -- Kalon -- and lifting up another meaning of the word: Beautiful. My whole time in ministry has heard my heart say, "Fight the Beautiful Fight of Faith."
No difference, well, you are permitted to think that. I choose to claim that while faith is fought in this life, it is a beautiful fight, an opportunity that we are allowed to admire even as we struggle and fight and bring effort to this life, as a journey to eternal life, which is our calling. Look ahead, not as a distraction from the present time, but as an incentive.
Fight the beautiful fight of faith. Grab on to the eternal life that is our because we have claimed it, we believe it, and we journey together with many through the gift that is ours in Jesus.
Love ya,
Paul