The Mt Kenya Times 
In Kenya, we are a country of Athletes, especially marathoners, and there is this one thing we’ve learned, NEVER TO LOOSE FOCUS! We are keenly aware of the famous moment as at the last stride before the home stretch the crowds roar. The two front runners can not hear each other footfall and never do the mistake of looking back — a fatal lapse of concentration. The one behind launches his attack and wins the “miracle lap ”. THOSE WHO LOOK AWAY FROM CHRIST — THE END AND GOAL OF OUR RACE — WILL NOT FINISH WELL. And this was exactly what was happening to some treading the stormy waters mounting around the early church. They had begun to take their eyes off Christ and to fix them instead on the hardships challenging them. Some had begun to look elsewhere for answers. Please, Focus on His Focus. Along with focusing on Jesus, we must focus on His focus — “who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame” (v. 2b, emphasis added).
Jesus’ focus on the coming joy of his resurrection, ascension, and enthronement at God’s right hand, plus the joys of redeeming a people for Himself, strengthened Him to do two things: First, to endure the terrible agony of the cross with an “intensity, and with a unity of perception, which none of us can possibly fathom . . . because His soul was so absolutely in His power . . . so utterly surrendered, so simply subjected to the suffering” (John Henry Newman). The agony that Jesus endured on the cross was worse for Him precisely because He was God. Second, He scorned the shame of the cross. That is, He thought nothing of the shame — He dismissed it with contempt as nothing. Jesus did all this because He fully knew the bounding, dancing, endless joy that awaited Him.
Now here’s the wonder: Jesus’ joy is our joy! His joy is the joy set before us! How can this be? The answer is that we are one with Him. Christ is in us, and we are in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17). Where Christ is, we are! God has already seated us in Christ in the heavenly places, so “that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). We are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory” (Romans 8:17). His boundless, dancing, endless joy will be ours! To doubt this is to doubt God’s holy Word. If we will focus on the joy that Christ has set before us, we will endure the sufferings of this world and will dismiss any shame incurred in His name as nothing. And we will run the race to His glory.
HALELUJAH! WHAT A WONDERFUL GOD WE SERVE. IT IS ALL WORTH IT, FOCUS ON HIM.SELAH!
Evangelist Eric Musa:
(My message continuously: If you are not saved: Believe, accept, receive and confess Christ Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and be filled with the Holy Spirit, as it is written; “NOW is the acceptable time, TODAY is the day of SALVATION.- 2 Cor 6:2”. For prayers, devotion, and to support the ministry contact Evangelist on +254722157300 (Email: EMEA.ericmusa@gmail.com). Remember, God Loves you and I unconditionally, perfectly and always: SHALOM
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