The Faith Race is a discipleship and memorization challenge. The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, likened the Christian life to running a race in the olympic games. He instructs all Christians to "run in a manner that you may receive the prize." We embrace that philosophy here at CBC as we study and learn from the Scriptures and as we train and disciple others as Jesus taught. The Faith Race is for anyone interested in knowing more about Christ. Will you take the challenge? Will you run the race God has set before you?
We believe that there are four fundamental elements to living the Christian life. These fundamentals can be used in teaching, in discipling, and in mentoring others about Christ. If Christians do not resolve to live for Christ then as they acquire their tools to have a succesful Christian life, they will not take the training seriously and they will have little endurance when struggles come. If we instead take the path that God has set for us and determine to follow it wherever God may lead us, we will have a successful and joy filled life. We consider these four elements to help us in this journey:
Resolve: We have to resolve, or make up our minds, to live a godly life. We cannot take up our cross and follow Christ without first deciding with all of our might that we will do so. In the Faith Race, we resolve to run our race. We set aside whatever is holding us back and commit to moving forward for Christ (1 Corinthians 2:2; Matthew 16:24-26).
Acquire: We have to acquire the right tools to help us live a godly life. We can resolve to run the race but if we are not making the right preparations and gaining the knowledge on how to run correctly, it will not do us any good. We must gain the right tools in order to run a successful race (Psalm 119:11; Proverbs 7:3).
Condition: We have to train ourselves to live a godly life. We are not going to wake up godly one day simply because we are aging or because we want it. Once we have decided that we are going to live godly and we are acquiring our tools, we have to condition our minds, hearts, wills, and bodies to live in godliness. We have to put that knowledge that we acquire to the test and start gaining wisdom. When you train for a race, you must condition your body with training so that you do not give up after a short distance but you are prepared for the long haul (1 Timothy 4:7).
Endure: Once we have resolved to live a godly life, and we have acquired the tools to live godly, and we have trained ourselves to not give up and to continue going, we must learn to endure. Endurance is something that we grow into, not something that we receive right away. Just as conditioning our bodies takes time, endurance takes patience and steadfastness under burdens and trials. Each time we successfully endure a small track, God gifts us the opportunity to build endurance with a greater section of track. We need all four parts to win our race (James 1:12-28; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Hebrews 10:36).
We would love to take you through our discipleship series and help you better understand the fundamentals of the Christian life. Through our discipleship series, we teach you how to have a stronger foundation using the Bible as our primary text. The Bible gives us the tools that we need in order to understand how to daily live a successful Christian life.
Anyone can take the yearly memorization challenge. Each year we commit to memorizing God's Word so that we can hide it in our hearts (Psalm 119:11) and use it in our lives. Consider taking the challenge!