Pressing On, Finishing Well: Learning from Seven Biblical Characters
Overview
Our lives are finite. There is a date and time when they will come to an end. But with people living longer, many of us will have a number of years where our professional work is done, our children are grown, and our schedules are more flexible. Will we spend these last days pressing on towards the finishing line, keeping our eyes on the prize, like Caleb and Paul? Or will our hearts be distracted by the pleasures of this world like Solomon and Lot? Read on, and discover how those who lived long ago encourage us to finish well today.
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- Examines the lives of Caleb, Solomon, Lot, Paul, Demas, Joshua, and Jesus
- Explores the issue of finishing well from a Christian and biblical viewpoint
- Contrasts secular and Christian perspectives
- Introduction
- Caleb and the Secret to Finishing Well
- Solomon and Handling Our Treasure at the End
- Thinking Rightly About Ourselves Just As Jesus Did
- Conformed or Transformed? Learning from Lot
- Paul, Burroughs and Christian Contentment in Spite of Our Prosperity
- Finishing Well, the Demas Caution
- Paul and Resisting Factions in the Church and the World
- Joshua and How Memorials Help Us Finish Well
- Hearts in Heaven
- Conclusion
Top Highlights
“He was born into slavery, grew up a slave as a young man and labored as a slave as a man. Forty years. Imagine such a life. What were his days like? What were his fears and sufferings? What did he dream about?” (Page 24)
“The secret to finishing as a Christian isn’t about the successes. It isn’t about greatness. It isn’t about the accumulation of great wealth. A poor Christian can finish well. And a rich Christian (or non-Christian), whose love is misplaced, can finish badly. It is how you make your life choices relative to your relationship with Jesus Christ. For the Christian, a life lived well should reflect a gospel-centered focus on living a life of love for the Lord to the glory of the Lord.” (Page 19)
“The Bible has a very different answer than modern Western culture. The Scriptures tell us how to fill that cart. Here are seven ways that the Bible describes Christians in terms of their identity. There are more, of course, but these are of particular note relative to Jesus. And all are critical to finishing well.” (Page 77)
“Caleb is forty years old. He has gone from being a slave in a land of slavery to having seen a new land, and touched and tasted its fruit. He had lived in slavery for forty years. It is likely he knew of the wealth and luxury of Egypt. But he had never tasted it. He knew it wasn’t going to be his. However, now … now he had walked a land that was full of promise. He tasted its fruit. Literally. Something happened to Caleb in those forty days. It wasn’t just that he had shed his slave life; suddenly, he had seen and tasted the life of a free man in a land of milk and honey. Now he had something to live for that was in his grasp; the promise of such a life that gripped him like nothing else and he would not rest until he returned there.” (Page 26)
- Title: Pressing on, Finishing Well: Learning from Seven Biblical Characters
- Author: Michael Black
- Publisher: Christian Focus
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Pages: 219
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subjects: Retirement › Religious aspects--Christianity; Aging › Religious aspects--Christianity; Christian life
- ISBNs: 9781527103375, 9781527104044, 9781527104051, 1527103374, 1527104044, 1527104052
- Resource ID: LLS:PRSSNGFNSHNGWLL
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:26:44Z