Podcast appearances and mentions of florence chadwick

GDP Script/ Top Stories for April 19th Publish Date: April 19th PRE-ROLL: From the BG AD Group Studio Welcome to the Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. Today is Saturday, April 19th and Happy Birthday to Florence Chadwick ***04.19.25 - BIRTHDAY – FLORENCE CHADWICK*** I’m Peyton Spurlock and here are your top stories presented by Gwinnett KIA Mall of Georgia. Altona Burger & Beer Garden Opens in Norcross Peachtree Corners town hall will kick off months-long conversation on policing Efstration says state legislators had a 'productive' session this year Plus, the Stripers report with Eddie Alvarez All of this and more is coming up on the Gwinnett Daily Post podcast, and if you are looking for community news, we encourage you to listen daily and subscribe! Break 1: 07.14.22 KIA MOG STORY 1: Altona Burger & Beer Garden Opens in Norcross The award-winning cheeseburger from North Carolina’s Barcelona Burger & Beer Garden is now in Gwinnett County at Altona Burger & Beer Garden in Norcross. Open daily from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Altona offers seven burger options, including 100% Angus beef classics, a veggie burger, and gluten-free choices. The menu also features inventive sides, a Mediterranean Salmon Plate, and a variety of beers, wines, and desserts. For details, visit altonaburger.com. STORY 2: Peachtree Corners town hall will kick off months-long conversation on policing Peachtree Corners will host a town hall on May 8 at City Hall to present findings from a feasibility study on creating a city police department. City Manager Brian Johnson emphasized this is the start of a community discussion, with no decisions expected until late fall or early winter. The meeting will include a presentation, Q&A, and live streaming for residents. A community survey and further discussions will follow over the summer. Key topics include potential costs, tax implications, and the transition from Gwinnett County police services. Residents are encouraged to provide feedback throughout the process. STORY 3: Efstration says state legislators had a 'productive' session this year Georgia House Majority Leader Chuck Efstration called the 2025 legislative session "incredibly productive," highlighting statewide achievements like school safety improvements, tax cuts, and the Riley Gaines Act. A key school safety bill mandates communication between districts about students with troubled histories, inspired by a Barrow County tragedy. Gwinnett-specific wins included property tax relief measures, annexation legislation for Lawrenceville and Mulberry, and homestead exemption bills for Norcross and Lilburn. Looking ahead, Efstration plans to advocate for adding a 12th Superior Court judge for Gwinnett in the 2026 session. We have opportunities for sponsors to get great engagement on these shows. Call 770.874.3200 for more info. We’ll be right back Break 2: STRIPERS INTERVIEW Break 3: STORY 6: Gwinnett school board tentatively adopts $3.43B budget Gwinnett County Public Schools proposed a $3.43 billion budget for fiscal year 2026, focusing on school safety, staff compensation, and facility improvements. Highlights include a $1,000 teacher pay raise, cost-of-living adjustments, retention supplements, and funding for weapons detection systems in middle and high schools. The budget also supports hiring more school resource officers, special education staff, and literacy specialists, as well as funding construction projects like Mary K. Murphy Middle School. Public hearings will be held on May 8 and May 15, with final adoption expected in July. Residents are encouraged to provide feedback. STORY 7: Georgia 400/I-285 interchange moving down bottleneck rankings The Georgia 400/I-285 interchange overhaul has significantly improved traffic flow, dropping from the 9th to the 29th worst freight bottleneck in the U.S., with peak-hour speeds increasing by 12 mph. Georgia DOT Commissioner Russell McMurry highlighted ongoing efforts to improve major highway corridors, including work on I-20/I-285 interchanges and converting I-75 toll lanes. These projects aim to ease freight movement statewide, though McMurry emphasized the time required for such large-scale solutions. We’ll have closing comments after this Break 4: Ingles Markets 6 Signoff – Thanks again for hanging out with us on today’s Gwinnett Daily Post Podcast. If you enjoy these shows, we encourage you to check out our other offerings, like the Cherokee Tribune Ledger podcast, the Marietta Daily Journal, or the Community Podcast for Rockdale Newton and Morgan Counties. Read more about all our stories and get other great content at www.gwinnettdailypost.com Did you know over 50% of Americans listen to podcasts weekly? Giving you important news about our community and telling great stories are what we do. Make sure you join us for our next episode and be sure to share this podcast on social media with your friends and family. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home Briefing and be sure to like, follow, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. 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En 1952, Florence Chadwick intentó nadar 42 kilómetros desde la costa de California hasta la isla Catalina. Sin embargo, una espesa niebla la rodeó y, sin poder ver la meta, se rindió. Cuando la subieron a la barca, descubrió que estaba a menos de un kilómetro de la costa.Días después, lo intentó de nuevo. Esta vez, aunque la niebla era igual de densa, nadó con confianza. ¿La diferencia? Sabía que la meta estaba allí, aunque no la podía ver.Esta historia es un reflejo de nuestra vida de fe. Muchas veces, no vemos la respuesta a nuestras oraciones y nos rendimos demasiado pronto. Pensamos que Dios no está obrando porque no podemos verlo. Pero la fe no se basa en lo que nuestros ojos ven, sino en la certeza de lo que Dios ha prometido.Cuando Abraham recibió la promesa de ser padre, tuvo que esperar años sin ver evidencia. Cuando los israelitas marcharon alrededor de Jericó, nada sucedió hasta el séptimo día. La clave es confiar en que Dios está obrando, aun cuando la niebla de la incertidumbre nos rodee. La biblia dice en Hebreos 11:1: “Es, pues, la fe la certeza de lo que se espera, la convicción de lo que no se ve”. (RV1960)

En 1952, Florence Chadwick intentó nadar 42 kilómetros desde la costa de California hasta la isla Catalina. Sin embargo, una espesa niebla la rodeó y, sin poder ver la meta, se rindió. Cuando la subieron a la barca, descubrió que estaba a menos de un kilómetro de la costa. Días después, lo intentó de nuevo. Esta vez, aunque la niebla era igual de densa, nadó con confianza. ¿La diferencia? Sabía que la meta estaba allí, aunque no la podía ver. Esta historia es un reflejo de nuestra vida de fe. Muchas veces, no vemos la respuesta a nuestras oraciones y nos rendimos demasiado pronto. Pensamos que Dios no está obrando porque no podemos verlo. Pero la fe no se basa en lo que nuestros ojos ven, sino en la certeza de lo que Dios ha prometido. Cuando Abraham recibió la promesa de ser padre, tuvo que esperar años sin ver evidencia. Cuando los israelitas marcharon alrededor de Jericó, nada sucedió hasta el séptimo día. La clave es confiar en que Dios está obrando, aun cuando la niebla de la incertidumbre nos rodee. La biblia dice en Hebreos 11:1: “Es, pues, la fe la certeza de lo que se espera, la convicción de lo que no se ve”. (RV1960)

Don't give up! In 1952 Florence Chadwick attempted to swim the ocean waters between Catalina Island and the California shore,...

Florence Chadwick fue la primera mujer en nadar el Canal de la Mancha en ambas direcciones. En un intento fallido, la niebla le impidió ver la costa y se rindió, a pesar de estar a solo unos metros de la meta. Después, al enterarse de lo cerca que estuvo, se preparó y lo logró en un segundo intento.De igual forma, en nuestra vida, muchas veces nos rendimos porque no vemos la respuesta de Dios. Sin embargo, Él nunca llega tarde ni abandona a Sus hijos. Aun cuando no entiendas el proceso, Dios sigue obrando a tu favor. Mantén tu confianza en Su fidelidad. Las respuestas pueden no llegar en el tiempo o la forma que esperas, pero el Señor nunca falla. Persevera, y verás Su gloria manifestarse en tu vida. La Biblia dice en Hebreos 10:35-36: “No perdáis, pues, vuestra confianza, que tiene grande galardón; porque os es necesaria la paciencia, para que habiendo hecho la voluntad de Dios, obtengáis la promesa” (RV1960).

Florence Chadwick fue la primera mujer en nadar el Canal de la Mancha en ambas direcciones. En un intento fallido, la niebla le impidió ver la costa y se rindió, a pesar de estar a solo unos metros de la meta. Después, al enterarse de lo cerca que estuvo, se preparó y lo logró en un segundo intento. De igual forma, en nuestra vida, muchas veces nos rendimos porque no vemos la respuesta de Dios. Sin embargo, Él nunca llega tarde ni abandona a Sus hijos. Aun cuando no entiendas el proceso, Dios sigue obrando a tu favor. Mantén tu confianza en Su fidelidad. Las respuestas pueden no llegar en el tiempo o la forma que esperas, pero el Señor nunca falla. Persevera, y verás Su gloria manifestarse en tu vida. La Biblia dice en Hebreos 10:35-36: “No perdáis, pues, vuestra confianza, que tiene grande galardón; porque os es necesaria la paciencia, para que habiendo hecho la voluntad de Dios, obtengáis la promesa” (RV1960).

Message Pastor JasonWhat does it mean to remain faithful when life feels like an uphill battle? In this episode, we continue our series on the Second Coming of Jesus by diving into Mark 13:9-13, where Jesus prepares His followers to endure hardship with courage and trust.Through the inspiring story of Florence Chadwick's perseverance and real-life examples of God's faithfulness, we'll explore how adversity can become an opportunity to glorify God. We'll discuss how the Holy Spirit equips us to press on when the way forward seems unclear and how the Church is called to stand together as a community of hope and encouragement.Whether you're walking through challenges or looking for ways to support those who are, this episode reminds us that faithfulness in adversity reveals the depth of our trust in Jesus.Enjoy this message? Consider visiting Ravenna Church of the Nazarene where Pastor Jason is the Senior Pastor. Have a prayer need? Want to share something with Pastor Jason? Help spread the gospel through this podcast by subscribing, leaving a review, and sharing this episode.

Pastor Matt shares an inspiring story of Florence Chadwick, an accomplished long-distance swimmer, who faced challenges and setbacks but eventually achieved her goal with perseverance and determination.

9/11 anniversary, Braves Lopez injury, the letter 'Y' is indeed a vowel, Clemson O-lineman delusional about UGA, Auburn QB takes on gamblers, mocking the Falcons, my rant on the Falcons, deep dive on Kirk Cousins stats, ManningCast flopping and why, Dolphins liar Tyreek Hill just can't shut up, Ravens mad at Chiefs doc, Reggie Bush screams at burglar, Shannon Sharpe sex tape leaked, crazy deadly snake owner gets bit, how to injure yourself taking off a shirt, Florence Chadwick swims the Channel, Pistorius murders his gf, Bear Bryant bday, Tom Landry, Franz Beckenbauer, Don Slaught, Ed Reed, Johnny Unitas, Chris Schenkel, Mick Tingelhoff, Braves no-hitter, Ty Cobb vs Babe Ruth, Pete Rose vs Eric Show, a bunch of Malarkey, Eddie Collins, Eddie Plank, Denny Lemaster and son, Nolan Ryan, Pat "Bulldog" Jarvis, Tom Seaver, Brian McCann gets his hackles up, Ed Kranepool obit, Hugh Freeze joke, plus Pete's Tweets and baseball quotes from Ralph Kiner and Jay Leno!

When long-distance swimmer Florence Chadwick finds herself miles from shore and stalked by a great white shark, she has to decide where to put her focus: on her fears or her goal. Her decision is the difference between success and failure.  Blueprint for Men is a ministry that empowers husbands, fathers, and leaders to live like Jesus.  Sign up for our weekly newsletter at Join Blueprint's virtual purity group by reaching out to Tom Pyke at:  tom.pyke@blueprintformen.org Want to be a mentor? Go to Amazon and get : Empower Men to Win by being a Life Coach. Want to pray with other men? Join us daily at 7 AM ET on zoom. Want to be in a small group? Go to Amazon and get : Men's Small Group Book to Build Strong Morning Habits. Want to understand the last message for God's people? Go to Amazon and get .

Ko je pogledala pred sabo, je Florence Chadwick lahko videla le meglo. Njeno telo je bilo otrplo. Plavala je že skoraj 16 ur. Bila je prva ženska, ki je preplavala Rokavski preliv v obeh smereh in to v rekordnem času. Tokrat, stara 34 let, je poskušala postati prva ženska, ki bo preplavala od otoka Catalina do Palos Verda na kalifornijski obali. Četrtega julija 1952 je bilo morje kot ledena kopel in megla tako gosta, da je komajda videla spremljevalne čolne. Morski psi so krožili v bližini in le streli iz puške so jih držali na varni razdalji. Poleg Florence sta v enem od čolnov bila njena mati in trener, ki sta jo spodbujala. Govorila sta ji, da ni več daleč. A vse, kar je Florence videla, je bila le megla. Spodbujala sta jo, naj ne odneha. In ni. Vse do takrat, ko je približno 800 metrov pred obalo zahtevala, naj jo potegnejo iz vode. Vsa premražena je nekaj ur potem v intervjuju izjavila: “Ne izgovarjam se. Toda če bi lahko videla kopno, bi mi morda uspelo.” Ni je premagala ne izčrpanost ne mrzla voda. Premagala jo je megla, zaradi katere ni mogla videti svojega cilja. Dva meseca pozneje je znova poskušala. Tokrat je kljub megli z jasno sliko cilja v svojih mislih vztrajala do konca in uspela. Florence Chadwick je bila prva ženska, ki je preplavala to razdaljo in to dve uri hitreje, kot je bil takratni moški rekord. Ničesar, kar je v življenju resnično vredno, ne moremo doseči brez vztrajnosti. In pri oblikovanju te nam lahko pomagata dve stvari. Howard Newton je rekel: “Ljudje pozabijo, kako hitro kaj naredite, toda za vedno si zapomnijo, kako dobro ste to naredili.” Le malo stvari spodbudi vztrajnost tako kot prizadevanje za odličnost. Želja po odličnosti je gnala naprej vse velike umetnike in izumtielje, Michelangela, da je kljub izjemnim bolečinam in težavnosti končal Sikstinsko kapelo. Edisona, da je poskušal tako dolgo, dokler žarnica ni delovala. Florence Chadwick, da je ure dolgo plavala v ledeni vodi. Odločitev za to, da naredite najboljše vse, kar delate, vas bo popeljala tja, kamor nezavzeti ljudje ne bodo nikoli prišli. Drugo, kar bo spodbudilo vztrajnost, pa je osredotočanje na izbire in ne na okoliščine. Nekateri pričakujejo, da bodo okoliščine odločale o tem, ali bodo vztrajali ali ne. Toda ker so okoliščine spremenljive, se kot veter spreminja tudi njihova vztrajnost. Na drugi strani pa so tisti, ki svojo vztrajnost utemeljujejo s svojimi dejanji; ti se osredotočajo na svoje izbire. Pravzaprav so naše odločitve in izbire edino, kar lahko nadzorujemo. Okoliščin ne moremo nadzorovati, prav tako kot tudi ne moremo nadzorovati drugih ljudi. Ko se osredotočimo na svoje odločitve in jih z integriteto uresničimo, nadzorujemo svojo vztrajnost. In to velikokrat pomeni ločnico med uspehom in neuspehom. Apostol Pavel zato svojemu sodelavcu Timoteju svetuje: “Vztrajaj v ugodnih in neugodnih okoliščinah.” (2 Tim 4,2) Ne dovolite okoliščinam in z njimi poveznim izgovorom, ne glede na to, kako dobro zvenijo ali kako dobro se boste v nekem trenutku počutili zaradi njih, da vas ustavijo na poti in vam preprečijo doseči cilje, ki si jih želite.

Stay focused on Jesus.Philippians 3:13-14One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

In this episode, we talk about how we are often tempted give up when we are so close to our goal. We learn this lesson from Florence Chadwick and her attempt to swim 26 miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline. Tune in and don't give up!

In this episode, we delve into the remarkable story of Florence Chadwick, an unsung hero whose determination and resilience continue to inspire us today. Join us as we explore her historic attempt to swim the Catalina Channel, the challenges she faced, and the lessons we can learn from her experience. On this Independence Day, let's declare our own independence and overcome the fog that hinders our path to success. Read more about Florence Chadwick's inspiring journey: https://frankbuck.org/florence-chadwick Tags:#Inspiration #OvercomingChallenges #Motivation #IndependenceDay #SuccessStory

Perseverance Through the Fog #Nightlight #RTTBROS Perseverance Through the Fog Verse: Hebrews 12:1 (KJV) - "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us," In 1952, Florence Chadwick was a world-renowned swimmer who had already accomplished many feats in her career. She had swum the English Channel twice and had set multiple world records. Her next challenge was to swim from the California coast to Catalina Island, a distance of over 20 miles. On the day of the swim, Chadwick set out with a team of supporters and a boat to guide her. The first few hours of the swim went smoothly, but as she got closer to Catalina Island, a thick fog rolled in. Chadwick couldn't see anything beyond a few feet in front of her. Despite the fog, Chadwick kept swimming. She knew she was close to the island, but she couldn't see it. Her team urged her to keep going, but after hours of swimming, Chadwick became exhausted and started to doubt herself. She couldn't see the end in sight, and she began to wonder if she would ever make it to Catalina Island. Finally, after more than 15 hours of swimming, Chadwick gave up. She climbed back onto the boat, defeated and disappointed. As the boat made its way back to shore, the fog lifted, and Chadwick realized that she had been just a few miles from the island when she gave up. She had been so close, but she couldn't see it because of the fog. Chadwick was devastated, but she didn't give up. She knew that she had to try again. A year later, she attempted the swim and completed it. Hebrews 12:1 encourages us to run the race of life with patience, laying aside any burdens or sins that may hinder our progress. Like Chadwick, we may face moments of doubt and uncertainty, when the fog of life's challenges makes it difficult to see our destination. However, we must remember that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, those who have gone before us and successfully completed their own races. Chadwick's story teaches us that even when we feel defeated, we must not give up. Instead, we should draw strength from our faith and the examples of those who have persevered before us. When we face our own "foggy" moments, let us remember Chadwick's determination and resilience, and let it inspire us to keep moving forward, trusting that God will guide us through the fog and bring us to our destination. In times of doubt and uncertainty, let us pray for the strength and perseverance to continue our journey, knowing that God is with us every step of the way. And when the fog finally lifts, we will see that we were closer to our goal than we ever realized. Our Podcast, Blog and YouTube Links https://linktr.ee/rttbros

词汇提示1.conquering 征服2.veteran 老水兵3.feat 壮举4.currents 水流5.lamprey eels 七鳃鳗6.corn syrup 玉米糖浆7.liniment 搽剂原文Conquering Lake OntarioIn 490 B. C. the Greek runner Phidippides ran the 24 miles from Marathon to Athens to announce an Athenian victory.His endurance was so much admired that runners ever since have attempted to run similar long "Marathon" distances.In the twentieth century, however, long distance swimming has also attracted attention and admiration.To swim the English Channel or Juan de Fuca Strait between Vancouver Island and the mainland have become challenges for both male and female swimmers.In September 1954, some Canadian businessman from Toronto offered veteran Californian champion Florence Chadwick $10,000 if she could swim Lake Ontario.They felt sure that such a feat would attract large crowds.Chadwick had swum the English Channel in both directions.However, no one - neither man nor woman - had crossed Lake Ontario.It was a 32-mile swim through cold water and difficult currents.Two other women also decided to take up the challenge.One, Winnie Roach Leuszler, had also swum the English Channel.The other was a 16 year old girl named Marilyn Bell.The swimmers traveled to the mouth of the Niagara River on the south side of Lake Ontario.They would swim from Youngs town, in the U.S.A., and back to Toronto.Bad weather delayed the swim for several days.During the night of September 8th the weather cleared, and the swimmers entered the water before midnight.Guided by her coach's flashlight, Marilyn swam through the dark water and soon passed Chadwick, who was lifted from the water after swimming 12 miles.Leuszler made it further, but she too eventually had to give up.Marilyn not only had to overcome her fears of the dark, but she was attacked during the night by blood-sucking lamprey eels.She was able to knock these off with her fist.As dawn approached, the winds and waves increased, and Marilyn's weariness mounted.Her coach, Gus Ryder, passed her some corn syrup on a stick, and later gave her liniment for her tired legs.He wrote messages on a blackboard to encourage her to keep going.Sometimes, he tricked her into thinking that she was nearer to the shore than she was.Marilyn fell asleep in the water twice and had to be awakened.The second time, a friend of hers jumped into the water beside her, and swam with her for a distance.Because Marilyn's strength was declining, she was being pushed off course by the currents.Although the direct route was 32 miles, Marilyn swam a total of 45 miles.The last few miles were extremely difficult.Marilyn's family and the lifeguards felt that she should be taken out of the water.But her coach threatened to quit as her coach if the swimmer gave up.It was getting dark again, and the swimmer was barely conscious as she approached the shore.Thousands of people lined the shore hoping to touch her or get a picture of her.Marilyn's supporters had to push the crowds back so they wouldn't stop her from touching the shore.Finally, after 21 hours in the water, Marilyn reached land.The exhausted girl was rushed to an ambulance.She had lost about 20 pounds of her 120 pounds weight in the crossing.Finally she was able to sleep.Huge crowds came out to see her the next day,and two days later there was a parade in her honor through the streets of Toronto.Everyone admired the courage and endurance of the 16 year-old girl,who became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario.翻译征服安大略湖公元前490年，希腊选手菲迪皮德斯从马拉松到雅典跑了24英里，宣布雅典获胜。他的耐力是如此令人钦佩，以至于从那以后，跑步者们都尝试跑类似的“马拉松”长跑。然而，在二十世纪，长距离游泳也引起了人们的关注和钦佩。在温哥华岛和大陆之间的英吉利海峡或胡安·德富卡海峡游泳对男女游泳运动员来说都是挑战。1954年9月，一位来自多伦多的加拿大商人向加州老牌冠军弗洛伦斯·查德威克（Florence Chadwick）提供了10000美元，如果她能游安大略湖的话。他们确信这样的壮举会吸引大批观众。查德威克在英吉利海峡上游了两个方向。然而，没有人——无论男女——穿过安大略湖。这是一次32英里的游泳，穿过冰冷的海水和湍急的水流。另外两名女性也决定接受挑战。其中一位，温妮·罗奇·卢斯勒（Winnie Roach Leuszler）也曾游过英吉利海峡。另一个是一个名叫玛丽莲·贝尔的16岁女孩。游泳者游到了安大略湖南侧的尼亚加拉河口。他们将从美国的扬斯镇游回多伦多。恶劣的天气使游泳推迟了好几天。9月8日夜间，天气转晴，游泳运动员在午夜前下水。在教练手电筒的指引下，玛丽莲在黑暗的水中游泳，很快就经过了查德威克，查德威克在游了12英里后被从水中抬了出来。卢斯勒做得更进一步，但她最终也不得不放弃。玛丽莲不仅要克服对黑暗的恐惧，而且在晚上还被吸血的七鳃鳗袭击。她能用拳头把这些打下来。随着黎明的临近，风浪越来越大，玛丽莲的疲惫感也越来越重。她的教练古斯·莱德（Gus Ryder）在一根棍子上递给她一些玉米糖浆，后来给她涂了搽剂，以治疗她疲惫的腿。他在黑板上留言鼓励她坚持下去。有时，他欺骗她，使她认为自己比实际离海岸更近。玛丽莲在水中睡着了两次，不得不被唤醒。第二次，她的一个朋友跳到她身边的水里，和她一起游了一段距离。因为玛丽莲的力量在下降，她被水流推离了航道。虽然直接路线是32英里，但玛丽莲总共游了45英里。最后几英里非常艰难。玛丽莲的家人和救生员认为她应该被带出水面。但她的教练威胁说，如果这位游泳运动员放弃，她将辞去教练的职务。天又黑了，游泳运动员接近岸边时几乎没有知觉。成千上万的人在岸边排队，希望能触摸她或拍到她的照片。玛丽莲的支持者不得不把人群往后推，以免阻止她上岸。最后，在水中21个小时后，玛丽莲到达了陆地。筋疲力尽的女孩被紧急送往救护车。她在穿越中减掉了120磅体重中的20磅。她终于可以睡觉了。第二天，大批群众出来看她，两天后，在多伦多街头举行了一场为她举行的游行。每个人都钦佩这位16岁女孩的勇气和耐力，她成为第一个横渡安大略湖的人。

TEXT: HEBREWS 13:14 | YOU AREN'T HOME YET INTRO ILLUSTRATION : In 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to become the first woman to swim the 26 miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline. As she began, she was flanked by small boats that watched for sharks and were prepared to help her if…

TEXT: HEBREWS 13:14 | YOU AREN'T HOME YET INTRO ILLUSTRATION : In 1952, Florence Chadwick attempted to become the first woman to swim the 26 miles between Catalina Island and the California coastline. As she began, she was flanked by small boats that watched for sharks and were prepared to help her if…

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 644, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Fabrics And Textiles 1: Gauze is named for this Palestinian city where it's thought to have originated. Gaza. 2: In 552 Emperor Justinian sent 2 monks to China to discover the secret of this fabric. Silk. 3: The chief hair fiber used in textiles today comes from this kind of animal. Sheep. 4: A true Donegal type of this fabric will have flecks of many colors in the weave. Tweed. 5: Count Hilaire de Chardonnet is considered the father of this regenerated cellulose fiber. Rayon. Round 2. Category: Mountains 1: Air Force photos from 1949 show what some believe are the ruins of Noah's Ark on this Turkish mountain. Mount Ararat. 2: Though only 3 degrees south of the equator, this African mt.'s Kibu Peak is permanently covered in snow. Mount Kilamanjaro. 3: This Sicilian volcano has over 200 subsidiary cones. Etna. 4: This country's highest peak, Mount Elbrus, lies in the Caucasus Mountains on the Georgian border. Russia. 5: An Austrian and Italian portion of this system is called the Tyrol. the Alps. Round 3. Category: October Fest 1: This U.S. university was founded October 28, 1636. Harvard. 2: In late October 1922, he became premier of Italy. Benito Mussolini. 3: Martin Sheen played Bobby Kennedy in this 1974 TV movie about a crisis in Cuba. The Missiles of October. 4: This Middle Eastern president was assassinated while reviewing a military parade October 6, 1981. Anwar Sadat. 5: On October 21, 1520 this sailor entered the Chilean strait that today bears his name. Ferdinand Magellan. Round 4. Category: I Did It! 1: Florence Chadwick was the first woman to swim this in both directions; Gertrude Ederle swam it one way. the English Channel. 2: 13-year-old Rebecca Sealfon won it in 1997 by knowing euonym,E-U-O-N-Y-M. the National Spelling Bee. 3: Check it out! In 1972 he became the first American chess player to win the world championship. Bobby Fischer. 4: In 1957 this future astronaut set a speed record flying from L.A. to NYC in 3 hrs., 23 min., 8.4 sec.. John Glenn. 5: In 1884, the year of his death, he published the memoir "30 Years a Detective". (Allan) Pinkerton. Round 5. Category: The Computer Age 1: According to Moore's Law, named for a founder of Intel, these double in power roughly every 18 months. computer chips. 2: Dan Bricklin developed VISICALC, the first of these programs, similar to an accounting ledger. spreadsheet. 3: Coherent and Xenix are 2 of these, part of the abbreviation in the better-known MS-DOS. operating systems. 4: This programming language was named for calculating-machine inventor Blaise. PASCAL. 5: Among Internet users, the World Wide Web has surpassed the system named for this burrowing rodent. gopher. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

 “All I could see was the fog. I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”Florence ChadwickWe don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!I Corinthians 13:12 MSGPrologueThe revelation from Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant JohnRevelation 1:1“Regardless of what view you have of the end times, you want to make certain that when the apocalyptic dust settles you are standing with Jesus.”A Wise PersonRevelation 1-3The Alpha and Omega Revelation 4-5The Lamb of God Revelation 6-18 The Righteous Judge Revelation 19-20The King of Kings and Lord of Lords Revelation 21-22The Bridegroom 1. You will live in a new heaven and new earth. Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.Revelation 21:1-22. You will live with God forever.And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God."Revelation 21:33. You will never suffer again‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”Revelation 21:4Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.Revelation 22:1-2No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.Revelation 22:3They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign forever and ever.Revelation 22:4-5“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.Revelation 22:16-17

Florence Chadwick ficou conhecida por nadar em mar aberto. Foi a primeira mulher a cruzar o Estreito de Gibraltar, o Canal da Mancha em ambas direções, o Bósforo e o Estreito de Dardanelos, tendo quebrado recordes de velocidade em muitas destas travessias. Nasceu em 1918 em San Diego, na Ca.. Venceu sua primeira competição aos 10 anos de idade. Aos 10 anos, se tornou a pessoa mais jovem a atravessar a entrada da baía de San Francisco a nado. Durante a adolescência e início da vida adulta, FC venceu dezenas de competições de natação em águas naturais. Em 1950, ela tentou ingressar em uma competição de nado no Canal da Mancha, mas não foi aceita por não ser muito conhecida no esporte. Foi por conta própria. Não foi bem-sucedida, e desistiu após 14 horas na água; um mês depois, conseguiu cruzar o Canal da Mancha, partindo da França em direção à Inglaterra, em 13 horas e 23 minutos, quebrando o recorde feminino estabelecido por Gertrude Ederle (#mulherdefibra). No ano seguinte, Chadwick cruzou o Canal mais uma vez, no sentido contrario, tornando-se a primeira mulher a atravessar o canal a nado em ambas as direções. Ainda faria a travessia mais duas vezes, quebrando seus próprios recordes. Em '53, se consagrou como a primeira mulher a cruzar o Estreito de Gibraltar, quebrando o recorde de tempo estabelecido por um homem. No mesmo ano, ela também nadou através do o Bósforo e o Estreito de Dardanelos, primeira mulher a fazer tais travessias. Em 1960, ela abandonou as competições de longa distância em mar aberto. Florence Chadwick também contribuiu com a indústria cinematográfica, ajudando a coreografar cenas de natação em diversos filmes de Hollywood. Em 1970, ela foi inserida no Hall da Fama da Natação. FC morreu de leucemia em 1995, aos 76 anos, e teve suas cinzas jogadas no mar.

A story about champion swimmer Florence Chadwick, who first tried to swim from California to Catalina Island and failed, but tried again a month later and succeeded. What made the difference? Tune in to find out! This episode is also available as a blog post: http://the-end-time.org/2022/08/20/keep-persevering-with-keeping-the-prophetic-finish-line-in-sight/

In this episode Brian shares the epic story of swimmer Florence Chadwick and how persistence always wins. Mental Performance Daily is brought to you by FitBod. Link: https://fitbod.me/MPD25/ Brian Cain, MPM, the World's leader in Mental Performance Coaching brings you practical tips, techniques, stories, strategies, meditations and motivations every day that you can use to close the gap from where you are to where you want to be with The Mental Performance Daily Podcast.   You can follow along with Brian's 2022 reading schedule by clicking here. Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qZ_3jqFJmt0bOP8ot08e-1SZIUJ-LJgGy-RJXmKkUT8/edit?usp=sharing Join Brian Cain and his friends at Optimize/Heroic by getting their great 20 minute audio book summaries so you can follow along with Brian's reading list and be a proud member of The Book Battalion. FREE when you join here as a member of the Mental Performance Daily Community Link: http://optimize.me/cain Have a question you'd like Brian to answer? Submit it here to have it answer on a future Mental Performance Daily Podcast episode. https://forms.gle/hViRDgCHEBMZPrwR8 Be sure to subscribe to our podcast and leave us a review for a chance to win a FREE 1-1 coaching session with Brian each month and engage with Brian on social media @BrianCainPeak  Be sure to join Brian's email list at BrianCain.com/join so that you can stay updated and in the know when it comes to mental performance training and opportunities to work with Brian. If you are a coach looking to master mental performance coaching, the missing link in your clients and athletes performance, join Brian's MPM Coaches Insiders List and receive his best strategies for coaching mental performance and save $200 off his MPM Certification Course when it opens in May and November. Link: https://briancain.com/certification Want to take your coaching to the next level? Join Brian and The Coaching Matters Foundation every other monday night for a FREE one hour group coaching session. Join today at BrianCain.com/coaching-matters Are you a coach? Join Brian's FREE 3 Day Mini Course on Coaching Mental Performance Link: https://briancain.com/coach-offer Are you an athlete? Join Brian's  FREE 3 Day Mini Course on Mental Performance for Athletes Link: https://briancain.com/athlete-offer Are you a golfer or golf coach? Join Brian's  FREE Golf Masterclass Link: https://briancain.com/golf-masterclass-registration Are you a baseball player or coach join Brian's FREE Baseball Masterclass Link: https://briancain.com/baseball-mpm-masterclass

Is there an area of your life where you feel out of control? An area where you feel shame or defeat for your struggles? In this message, Pastor Scott Savage dives into an area we all have experience and probably difficulty - self-control. This message - which concludes our Summer 2022 series on the Fruit of the Spirit - explores how God brings self-control to life within us and what we can do to cooperate with God's work in really practical ways.

Hear the story of Florence Chadwick and the importance of controlling who you listen to? Five Ways to Keep Building Your Competitor Mindset After Today's EpisodeJoin the new Competitor Nation at Community.CompeteEveryDay.comText PODCAST to 972-945-9113 to join our Morning Motivation ClubHire Jake to speak at your company or event. Click here to learn more.Read the book, “Compete Every Day,” here.Save 15% on empowering gear at CompeteEveryDay.com

Hear the story of Florence Chadwick and the importance of controlling who you listen to? Five Ways to Keep Building Your Competitor Mindset After Today's Episode Join the new Competitor Nation at Community.CompeteEveryDay.com Text PODCAST to 972-945-9113 to join our Morning Motivation Club Hire Jake to speak at your company or event. Click here to learn more. Read the book, “Compete Every Day,” here. Save 15% on empowering gear at CompeteEveryDay.com

https://www.keyministries.net/podcast/episode/f3342f92/could-not-see-land Mental fog can often keep us from achieving our goals because we cannot see a way out: there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel; Our situation seems hopeless. Listen to how fog affected Florence Chadwick as she attempted to swim the channel from Catalina Island to the California coast. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/todayskey/message

October 26, 1952 - Louella Parsons is back to write a gossip article on Jack Benny. This is a recycled script from April 2, 1944. References include Johnny Ray singer of "The Little White Cloud That Cried", Florence Chadwick who swam the English Channel, movies like "Francis Goes to West Point", exiled King Farouck of Egypt, and the presidential campaign with Ike Eisenhower and Richard Nixon vs Adlai Stevenson.

California native Florence Chadwick prevailed against dense fog, heavy winds, and frigid water to become the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

No podía ver nada más en la distancia que una densa niebla. Tenía el cuerpo entumecido. Había estado nadando ya casi dieciséis horas seguidas. A la edad de treinta y cuatro años, Florence Chadwick, hija de un agente de policía de San Diego, California,1 ya había alcanzado un buen número de metas envidiables. Había aprendido a nadar a los seis años de edad, y cuando tenía sólo diez años fue la primera menor de edad en cruzar a nado el Canal de la Bahía de San Diego. A los treinta y dos años de edad batió el récord de mujeres establecido por Gertrude Ederle al nadar los treinta y dos kilómetros del Canal de la Mancha desde Francia hasta Inglaterra en trece horas y veinte minutos. Un año más tarde llegó a ser la primera mujer que lograra atravesar a nado ese canal en ambas direcciones, esta vez desde la costa británica hasta la francesa. Ahora a los treinta y cuatro años de edad, sólo ocho meses después, se había puesto la meta de ser la primera mujer en nadar desde la isla de Santa Catalina hasta la costa de California al sur de Los Ángeles.2 Esa mañana del 4 de julio de 1952 el mar era como un baño helado y la niebla tan densa que Florence difícilmente podía ver las naves de apoyo que la acompañaban. También la rondaban tiburones, espantados sólo por disparos de escopeta. Hora tras hora luchó contra las gélidas aguas entumecedoras mientras millones de norteamericanos miraban el espectáculo por televisión. En una de las naves acompañantes su madre y su entrenador no dejaban de animarla. «Falta poco para que llegues a la meta; ¡no te des por vencida!», le gritaban. Pero Florence sólo podía ver la niebla, y decidió, por primera vez en la vida, abandonar la travesía. Pidió que la sacaran del agua, pues no tenía modo de saber que le faltaba menos de un kilómetro para llegar al otro lado. Algunas horas después, mientras su cuerpo aún se descongelaba, Florence le explicó a un reportero: «Mire, no es por disculparme ni nada, pero si hubiera podido ver la orilla, podría haber llegado.» Lo que la derrotó no fue la fatiga ni el agua helada sino la niebla, pues ésta le impidió ver la meta final. A los dos meses volvió a intentarlo. Esta vez, a pesar de la misma densa niebla, nadó con la meta fijada en su mente, y no sólo nadó los treinta y cuatro kilómetros completos del Canal de Santa Catalina, siendo la primera mujer en lograr esa hazaña, sino que batió todos los récords anteriores de velocidad al hacerlo en trece horas y cuarenta y siete minutos, ¡ganándole por dos horas al hombre más veloz hasta ese entonces!3 Así como a Florence Chadwick la animaron su madre y su entrenador, también a nosotros nos anima San Pablo a que sigamos avanzando hacia la meta.4 Pero la meta nuestra, a diferencia de la de Florence, no consiste en ser los primeros en llegar al otro lado ni en batir el récord de quienes ya hayan llegado, sino sólo en perseverar hasta el fin. Fijemos, pues, la mirada en Jesucristo, el autor y consumador de nuestra fe,5 para así poder decir algún día, al igual que el sufrido apóstol: «He terminado la carrera, me he mantenido en la fe.»6 Carlos ReyUn Mensaje a la Concienciawww.conciencia.net 1 «San Diego’s Golden Age of Sports: Looking Back... San Diego 1948‑1952», p. 4 . 2 «Chadwick, Florence May», The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6a ed, Columbia University Press, 2000 . 3 Jack Canfield y Mark Victor Hansen, eds., A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul, 1995, citado en «Keep Your Goals in Sight» . 4 Fil 3:14 5 Heb 12:2 6 2Ti 4:7

We all get discouraged or are unclear about our goals or destination, and, as a result, we live in the murky middle. This week, McKay shares the powerful and instructive stories of some amazing women, explores the path to any worthwhile goal, and explains what the murky middle is, what leads to it, and how to stay out of it. He concludes by revealing the one characteristic that he knows will make all the difference in your efforts.   Today, then, is your opportunity to learn with McKay how to let go of procrastination, get clear about your biggest emotional pull, and stop pretending. Following his experience, wisdom, and guidance, you will learn one clear practice that will bring clarity to, and immediately change, your life and business.   The Finer Details of This Episode:   ·   The stories of Tammy van Wisse, Florence Chadwick, and Sarah Thomas ·   The path to any worthwhile goal ·   The murky middle ·   Procrastination and ‘present bias' ·   Overcoming the procrastination trap ·   J.K. Rowling's story ·   The characteristic that will make all the difference to you in your efforts   Quotes:   “Knowing your destination is half the journey.”   “Too often we're stuck in the murky middle, unable to really decide, because we haven't been clear.”   “Nothing in life that's worth doing is ever done without immense course corrections.”   “There is power in you to do what you may not think is possible, but you've got to get out of the murky middle.”   “It's not a time management problem, it's an emotion regulation problem.”                                                                                                            “The way to overcome procrastination is not a matter of finding more self-will, but rather learning to deal with our immediate negative mood.”   “Every breakthrough requires a ‘break with'.”   “When you give into that feeling of doing something you love, that you see is valuable or important, the voices of procrastination in your head are silenced.”   “Exercise integrity in the moment of choice.”   “God has given us a space between stimulus and response and in that space, in that moment, is where life's battles are won.”   “Begin today to choose in that space to exercise integrity, and watch the strength, and power, and peace that will come to you in your life.”   Show Links:   https://store.faithgateway.com/products/open-your-eyes-10-uncommon-lessons-to-discover-a-happier-life?utm_campaign=faithgateway20131230&utm_medium=blog&utm_source=faithgateway (Open Your Eyes: 10 Uncommon Lessons to Discover a Happier Life)

Are you struggling to find meaning in your life? Are you in the middle of a difficult season? Get some encouragement from https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/staff/keith-simon/ (Pastor Keith Simon) as he continues our series My Favorite Verses with https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12.1-3&version=ESV (Hebrews 12.1-3). Interested in more content like this? Check out https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/how-to-deal-with-the-storms-of-life/ (How to Deal With the Storms of Life). Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/ (website) and follow us on https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (Facebook), https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (Instagram), and https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (Twitter) @TheCrossingCOMO and @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Outline 0:30 - Our lives are bigger than us 1:25 - Donald Miller's advice to worried father 3:35 - The story of Christianity: Collin Cowherd vs Malcolm Muggeridge 6:30 - What story are you a part of?: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12.1-3&version=ESV (Hebrews 12.1-3) 10:40 - Don't compare your race with others' 11:50 - How to endure the race of life 12:25 - Florence Chadwick's swim in 1952 14:40 - Subscribe. Rate. Share. Social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks (https://www.facebook.com/TenMinuteBibleTalks) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/ (https://www.instagram.com/thecrossingcomo/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast (https://twitter.com/tmbtpodcast) Passages Hebrews 12.1-3: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12.1-3&version=ESV (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+12.1-3&version=ESV) Related How to Deal with the Storms of Life: https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/how-to-deal-with-the-storms-of-life/ (https://www.thecrossingchurch.com/podcasts/how-to-deal-with-the-storms-of-life/) Support this podcast

Randy Alcorn tells the following story: “In 1952, a young woman names Florence Chadwick stepped off Catalina Island, into the Pacific Ocean. Her goal was to swim to the shore of mainland California, 21 miles away. It was foggy and chilly. She could barely see the boats alongside her. Florence swam for fifteen hours. She begged to be taken out of the water. Her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she The post The Goal Of The Gospel appeared first on Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA).

 Randy Alcorn tells the following story: “In 1952, a young woman names Florence Chadwick stepped off Catalina Island, into the Pacific Ocean. Her goal was to swim to the shore of mainland California, 21 miles away. It was foggy and chilly. She could barely see the boats alongside her. Florence swam for fifteen hours. She begged to be taken out of the water. Her mother, in a boat alongside, told her she could make it. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she gave up and stopped swimming. They pulled her out.  Then, when Florence Chadwick was on the boat she discovered the truth: the shore was less than half a mile away. She was 98% of the way home. At a news conference the next day she said this: ‘All I could see was the fog…I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.'” In the first half of chapter three Paul talks about how he built up his resume to prove his worth. In verses 5 and 6, he speaks of his Jewish credentials. But he explains that those things no longer drive him. He counts all of it rubbish compared to gaining Christ (vv.7-8).  In this morning's passage, Paul continues his thought. Those things that defined our identity in the past should be forgotten in light of the future. The gospel compels us to press on toward the prize of heaven. Paul calls his readers to make heaven their aim. He longed to see their joy derive from a heavenly perspective. Read https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Php3.12-4.1 (Philippians 3:12-4:1). I.  Forget  the Past (12-16) Paul's not trying to fool anyone (12-13a). He realizes that the goal of perfection will only be achieved in glory. Nevertheless, it is a goal worth pursuing. Maturity does not mean you have arrived! And the pursuit of godliness doesn't mean you are trusting in your works for salvation (cf https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Php3.9 (Phil 3:9)).  Paul acknowledges that the Christian life is about continually pressing forward. Paul presses on toward righteousness, because Christ marked him as his own. In other words, he's grateful for the work of redemption. Because he has been adopted, he now lives like a child of God. Paul forgets what lies behind (13b). What does “forgetting” have to do with pressing on? Paul doesn't mean that the Philippians should abandon what they have already started. He doesn't mean they should forget their family and friends. When he tells them to forget the past he could mean several things... 1. Forget the things they used to live for. No longer find your value in worldly successes. He could simply be reminding them of what he just said in the previous section. The mature have an entirely new set of values. 2. Forget the sin and the shame of the past. Some of us—when we look upon our past—are filled with shame. To look back not only fills us with a desperate sense of helplessness, it also fills us with a sense of shame and unworthiness. Instead of a grateful heart, there is a sense of condemnation. If that is your tendency, hear the Apostle Paul's words from https://ref.ly/logosref/Bible.Ro8.1 (Romans 8:1), “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” 3. Forget the temporary ground that has been gained. Paul maintained a healthy sense of discontentment with is level of maturity. The sprinter has a rule. He is never to look back. If he does, he can lose his stride. He could lose his direction and cross lanes. It is simply too dangerous to look back during a short race. But the Christian life is more like a marathon. Why would Paul use logic that generally applies for a short period of time? He is “straining forward to what lies ahead” (13c). “Straining” means to stretch out to the uppermost. How do sprinters cross the finish line? They extend their necks and push their shoulders forward. They stretch out as far as they can, to the point that many of them fall down in desperation trying to beat their...

As a child, Florence Chadwick wanted more than anything else to become a great swimmer. At the age of six she persuaded her parents to enter her in a 50-yard race. They did, and she came in last.  She practiced every day for a year and then entered the same contest. Again she lost, but this time by not so great a margin.  At the age of 11 she entered an endurance competition and completed a 6-mile course—a remarkable feat for her age.  As a teenager she competed for a spot on the Olympic team and failed to make the team. 

Ko je pogledala pred sebe, je Florence Chadwick lahko videla le meglo. Njeno telo je bilo otrplo. Plavala je že skoraj 16 ur. Bila je prva ženska, ki je preplavala Rokavski preliv v obeh smereh, in to v rekordnem času. Tokrat, stara 34 let, je poskušala postati prva ženska, ki bo preplavala od otoka Catalina do Palos Verda na kalifornijski obali. 4. julija 1952 je bilo morje kot ledena kopel in megla tako gosta, da je komajda videla spremljevalne čolne. Morski psi so krožili v bližini in le streli iz puške, so jih držali na varni razdalji. Poleg Florence sta v enem od čolnov bila njena mati in trener, ki sta jo spodbujala. Govorila sta ji, da ni več daleč. A vse, kar je Florence videla, je bila le megla. Spodbujala sta jo,naj ne odneha. In ni. Vse do takrat, ko je približno 800 metrov pred obalo zahtevala, da jo potegnejo iz vode. Vsa premražena je nekaj ur potem v intervjuju izjavila: “Ne izgovarjam se. Toda če bi lahko videla kopno, bi mi morda uspelo.” Ni je premagala izčrpanost, niti mrzla voda. Premagala jo je megla, zaradi katere ni mogla videti svojega cilja. Dva meseca pozneje je znova poskušala. Tokrat je kljub megli, z jasno sliko cilja v svojih mislih, vztrajala do konca in uspela. Florence Chadwick je bila prva ženska, ki je preplavala to razdaljo, in to dve uri hitreje, kot je bil takratni moški rekord. Ničesar, kar je v življenju resnično vredno, ne moremo doseči brez vztrajnosti. In pri oblikovanju te nam lahko pomagata dve stvari. Howard Newton je rekel: “Ljudje pozabijo kako hitro kaj naredite - toda za zmeraj si zapomnijo, kako dobro ste to naredili.” Le malo stvari spodbudi vztrajnost tako kot prizadevanje za odličnost. Želja po odličnosti je gnala naprej vse velike umetnike in izumitelje - Michelangela, da je kljub izjemnim bolečinam in težavnosti končal Sikstinsko kapelo. Edisona, da je poskušal tako dolgo dokler žarnica ni delovala. Florence Chadwick, da je ure dolgo plavala v ledeni vodi. Odločitev narediti najboljše v vsem, kar delate, vas bo popeljala tja, kamor nezavzeti ljudje ne bodo nikoli prišli. Drugo, kar bo spodbudilo vztrajnost, pa je osredotočanje na izbire in ne na okoliščine. Nekateri pričakujejo, da bodo okoliščine odločale o tem, ali bodo vztrajali ali ne. Toda, ker so okoliščine spremenljive, se kot veter spreminja tudi njihova vztrajnost. Na drugi strani pa so tisti, ki svojo vztrajnost temeljijo na svojih dejanjih; ti se osredotočajo na svoje izbire. Pravzaprav so naše odločitve in izbire edino, kar lahko nadzorujemo. Okoliščin ne moremo nadzorovati prav tako kot tudi ne moremo nadzorovati drugih ljudi. Ko se osredotočimo na svoje odločitve in jih z integriteto uresničimo, nadzorujemo svojo vztrajnost. In to velikokrat pomeni ločnico med uspehom in neuspehom. Apostol Pavel zato svojemu sodelavcu Timoteju svetuje: “Vztrajaj v ugodnih in neugodnih okoliščinah.” (2 Tim 4,2) Ne dovolite okoliščinam in z njimi poveznim izgovorom - ne glede na to, kako dobro zvenijo ali kako dobro se boste v nekem trenutku počitili zaradi njih - da vas ustavijo na vaši poti in vam preprečijo doseči cilje, ki si jih želite.

In the episode I mentioned that it was Elizabeth Chidwick... it was actually Florence Chidwick. I got her name wrong for the whole episode. Oops.In any case I think there is tons to learn from her story.1. Trust in your work and the efforts that got you here.So often we have put in the work necessary we just need to bounce off of that solid foundation that we have created.2. Have a team to help you out with doing great things.They don't even need to be running alongside you. Just that they are able to support you in some way helps a lot.3. Having a mental image can help you keep goingMake it clear and something you enjoy, perhaps like what Harry does to produce a Patronus in the Harry Potter series.More info on Florence Chidwick - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Chadwick

Florence Chadwick gave up because the fog rolled in. Many times in life, we give up as well, fall just short, because we get discouraged and anxious when the fog rolls into our lives.  Is there a way through the fog?  When uncertainties and difficulties come, is there a way to overcome our anxiousness and...

She never would have quit if she could have just seen past the fog.... This is a motivational story of rising above your challenges, doubt, and fears-- "the fog". Florence Chadwick, a famous American Swimmer set many records and tore down perceived human limitations. Perhaps her biggest success came from her most famous failure. Please share this for those that you know are struggling and faced with so many challenges in these hard times. We all need encouragement and someone to help us refocus from time to time. Don't forget to check us out at www.5stoneusa.com You can also tune in to our podcasts on all the major podcast hosting sights such as Spotify, Apple, Google, Stitcher, YouTube,RadioCity, and more. Help spread 5 Stone to your community so we can help you PREPARE, RESPOND, AND SERVE!Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/5stone/donations

Today we read about the first woman to swim across the English Channel in both directions.

We all encounter moments of fog – times when we can't see the final destination to where we're heading to in business or in life. There are a number of reasons as to why this happens. But when it does, doubt can set in and you wonder if you'll ever get there. So how do you stay the course? In this episode, Paul shares the story of Florence Chadwick and what we can learn to help us have the endurance to stick with our convictions when we encounter challenges. Connect with Paul:Find your life purpose and your unique Genius Drivers with Paul – https://paulwilliamdavis.com/find-your-life-purpose/ Purpose To Profits Course - https://paulwilliamdavis.com/discover-your-life-purpose-course/ Join our Free Community for more insights - https://www.theexecutivecode.com/View this episode on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/davisconsultantsPublished Book - EVOLVE – Look Within Yourself For Business SuccessWebsite – https://PaulWilliamDavis.com/LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/pauldavisdublin/Link Tree - https://linktr.ee/paulwilliamdavisBlog - https://paulwilliamdavis.com/blog/A graphical representation of The Executive Code - Genius Pendulum

Šioje serijoje dalinuosi labai pamokančia ir įkvėpiančia Florence Chadwick plaukimo istorija, kuri ir tau gali padėti pasiekti tavo tikslus.

THIS IS WAR---GO ON, NOT GO BACK----. . . let us run with endurance the race that is set before us . . . -HEBREWS 12-1e--INTRODUCTION--The attempt of Florence Chadwick ---1- GO ON, NOT GO BACK . . . DESPITE THE OVERWHELMING CHALLENGES----a- External Sufferings--HEBREWS 10-32-34 - But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings- partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated- for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.---b- Internal Tendencies--HEBREWS 3-12-13 - Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God- but exhort one another daily, while it is called -Today,- lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.--HEBREWS 2-1 - Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away.--HEBREWS 10-39 - But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.-- -2- GO ON, NOT GO BACK . . . BECAUSE THE ALTERNATE ENDING IS UNIMAGINABLE----a- The Unimaginable Alternate Ending seen in Israel's example--For who, having heard, rebelled---Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses---Now with whom was He angry forty years---Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness---And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest,- but to those who did not obey-

sermon transcript Introduction For a year or two, I have arisen early in the morning with Calvin and Daphne to read Courtney Anderson’s biography of Adoniram Judson, a missionary to Burma. The biography is called To the Golden Shore. The golden shore refers to Burma, which had a golden king. Everything there seemed to be made of gold, including the emperor’s palace. Those who went to the emperor to ask him for something fell at his golden feet. Imagery of gold permeated everything. So To the Golden Shore was an image that Courtney Anderson chose for the entire mission to Burma, but at the end of this biography, it had a different, higher meaning. At the end, Anderson writes, “At 15 minutes after 4:00, on Friday afternoon, April 12th, 1850, Adoniram Judson reached his golden shore through more suffering than I can put into words. Very few people died as hard as he did, suffered physically as long as he did.” The golden shore was a symbol of how difficult it was for Judson to live his life to bring people to Christ. In a spiritual sense, he died at sea and finally reached his golden shore in his death. Randy Alcorn, in his book, Heaven, opens with a powerful story, an illustration from 1952, of a long distance swimmer named Florence Chadwick, who did stunning things, including swimming the English Channel four times, twice each direction, setting the record for that long distance swim. She had a goal to swim from the Catalina Island off of the coast of California to the mainland. On the day of the swim, the weather was foggy and chilly, and she could hardly see the boats accompanying her. She swam and swam and swam for 15 hours. She begged, finally, to be taken out of the water along the way. Her mother, in one of the boats alongside, told her she was very close and not to give up. Finally, physically and emotionally exhausted, she stopped swimming and was pulled out. When she got onto the boat, she discovered that the shore was less than half a mile away, covered with fog. At a news conference the next day, she said, “All I could see was the fog. I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.” Two months later, she succeeded. It was just as foggy, but she said, “I kept the mental image of the shoreline in my mind as I swam, and it enabled me to finish.” Randy Alcorn, picking up on this, says, “Perhaps you’ve come to this book burdened, discouraged, depressed, or even traumatized. Perhaps your dreams—your marriage, career, or ambitions—have crumbled. Perhaps you’ve become cynical or have lost hope. A biblical understanding of the truth about Heaven can change all that. I pray this book will help you see the shore.” I am praying that the sermon series will help you see the shore. I yearn to give you a fuller scriptural view of the eternally glorious world that awaits all of us in Christ. In contrast to Adoniram Judson, Stephen Hawking died this week at the age of 76. He was a brilliant physicist, cosmologist, atheist. He suffered all his adult life with Lou Gehrig’s disease, or ALS, confined to a wheelchair, and became a picture of a secular hope, of what the human spirit can overcome. He was a thoroughly secular man. His work was seeking a unified theory that would explain everything: Origins, destinations, and everything in between. That is what he sought with physics and with mathematics. His most famous statement about religion was: “I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers. That is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.” In that spirit, he died. It is an amazing insight in the way he looked at human life, that we are nothing more than biochemical machines with certain biochemical reactions in our brains, and when all that stops, then life ends. As brilliant as Stephen Hawking was, I have the joy and privilege this morning to contradict him based on Scripture — the word of God; based on faith in what the Lord has told us of the shore to which we are sailing. What Will Heaven Be Like? Meditate on Truths about Heaven For two weeks, we have been unfolding Revelation 21 and 22, the best, most careful description in the Bible of the world to which we are going. Revelation 21:1-3 says, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.’” What a magnificent vision of our future blessedness, of our future happiness; not a fairy tale for those afraid of the dark, but a reality to which we are moving. It is beneficial to take the Scriptures as they are given, and extensively meditate on them. The Westminster theologians said, “The Word of God is not only what is printed on the page, but what can be logically deduced from the scripture.” In this way, we build a theology. I want us to have a theology of Heaven, but I do not want to go too far afield from the text. Amen. I do not want to be like the astronaut hundreds and hundreds of feet away from the Space Shuttle with a jet pack but no tether. I want to tether to the text, but I will do everything the text allows me to do. Heaven will be far greater than anything we can imagine. Ephesians 3 says, concerning God, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or think.” The NIV, says “More than we can ask or imagine.” That works there, because Paul is talking about things that push the limits of what we can think; that is what imagination is about. We are thinking about what can be scarcely imagined. Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” No Death, Mourning, Crying, Pain No More Death — The Resurrection Body This morning, we will focus on Revelation 21:4: “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” We are commanded to meditate on heaven. Colossians 3 makes that plain. Revelation 1:3, regarding the whole book of Revelation, says, “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.” Read these words and take them to heart. Ponder them. Cherish them. The great Puritan preacher and theologian, Jonathan Edwards, focused on Heaven every day of his life. He said, “It becomes [or benefits] us to spend this life only as a journey toward heaven... to which we should subordinate all other concerns of life. Why should we labor for or set our hearts on anything else, but that which is our proper end and true happiness.” Every moment of your life should be seen as a journey toward Heaven, and everything should be subordinated to that. After an extended detailed theological teaching and meditation on the resurrection body, Paul applies that to our practical Christian lives of service to God and to Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:58 says, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” That includes everything that God has equipped us to do in the body of Christ: specific spiritual gift ministry and all of the general duties that are part of the Christian life —intercessory prayer, evangelism and missions, holiness and all of those things. Stand firm, do not be moved by anything that happens to you, and give yourself fully to your labor in the Lord. Meditation on Heaven will do that. False aberrant views of Heaven are rampant. Every false religion has a view of Heaven. Roman mythology has Elysium, a lush shaded meadow, like an outdoor park, with luscious fruits growing and athletic contests occurring. In Norse mythology, it is Valhalla, a feasting, banqueting hall, a place to drink and eat meat and celebrate valiant military victories with their god Odin. Radical Islam teaches a heavenly paradise for warriors who die in jihad, including 70 to 100 beautiful virgins with wide dark eyes. The blessed will recline on couches in a beautiful garden, like Eden, and enjoy sensual pleasures forever, including rivers of pure water, fresh milk and rivers of wine. Buddhism speaks of seven circles of heaven that are part of this present physical world, which are themselves temporary. The ultimate goal is Nirvana, which is nothingness, a drop in an endless sea — one loses his identity and ceases to exist. Native American tribes like the Lakota in North and South Dakota conceived of happy hunting grounds where one would continue life as a hunter and do very well. All these conceptions of Heaven illustrate the truth of Ecclesiastes 3:11: “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” All people have eternity in their hearts. We have a conception of the afterlife, the world that is coming. But Scripture reveals that we cannot rightly think about Heaven on our own. If left to our own unaided imaginations, we will think wrong thoughts. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, a well-known verse, says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him… [people stop there and miss context] but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.” Those who stop at verse 9 assume we cannot know what Heaven will be like, because we do not know what God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed some of it to us by the Spirit. Yes, we see through a glass darkly, but we ought to take what the Spirit reveals in Scripture, and by the Spirit’s leading, through exegesis and good interpretation, try to understand. This magnificent verse, Revelation 21:4, says, “‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” We are in the first world, the “old order of things”, now, but there is a second world coming. That is a more literal translation. The first things will have passed away. This old order of things, this present world, is filled with incalculable suffering and pain and misery — a river of sin and death. Adam sinned in the garden, and as Romans 5 says, in Adam we all sinned. Through Adam, we received the death penalty and a corrupt sin nature. But the text says that He will wipe every tear from our eyes. That is a powerful image to me of God’s intimate, relational comforting. With His own hand, He will wipe away our tears. Think of all the tragic funerals throughout history. Think of infant mortality. Almost a million infants die every year. How do we measure the grief and tears that has brought to mothers and fathers for centuries? How much more the death of toddlers, when the child has wrapped his parents around his little finger and then they have to bury him? Few things would be more difficult and tragic in this life than burying a child. There are also countless tears connected with suffering —tears cried by people in intense pain, like burn victims, or cancer victims, people in their final stages, with nothing to relieve their agony. Or tears connected with material loss, like when a house burns down. In Lexington, Massachusetts, at my first church after I came to Christ, there was a fire caused by electric lights on a tree. It was very tragic — a grandmother died of smoke inhalation, and they lost everything. We were there to try to help, but it was heartbreaking. Think about farmers who lose all their earthly wealth when hail or an early freeze comes and destroys their harvest, and they have to start over again, if it is even possible. Think about tears cried by lonely people, such as single people who desire a spouse, tempted to think that no one will ever love them, feeling so lonely in this world. Even what we might consider trivial tears are noted by God. My tears as a 6-year-old learning to ride a bike were significant to me. I started the process by riding down a hill. It was great until I crashed into a teenager’s car. He was waxing it and buffing it; that was his baby, and he chased me through the woods. I cried tears of fear that day. There are also tears of bitter remorse over sin. Think about people who have ruined their marriages through sin, men or women, and they want to but cannot save it. They lament and weep, and there is nothing that can be done for it. There are tears cried by old people in nursing homes as they look at a photo album or something that brings back memories — the people in it are gone; that time is gone. They grieve the loss of an era. Perhaps the most poignant in the sequence of redemptive history are tears that we will all likely cry on Judgment Day. This is hard for us to imagine, but when we give Christ an account of everything done in the body, good or bad, we who believe will not be condemned. We will not hear the words, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Though not condemned, we are not free from accountability. We will look Christ in the face and explain our lives, as it says that we will do in 2 Corinthians 5:10: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” When we see the portion of our lives that produced wood, hay and straw go up in flames, we will suffer loss and will feel emotions of regret and will weep. How sweet then will it be for Christ’s own hand to wipe away our tears and say, “No more. We are done. You will never weep over those things again.” Closely connected with that is this next idea that there will be no more death. John Owen, the Puritan theologian, wrote a great work on the atoning work of Christ called The Death of Death in the Death of Christ. What a great title that is. When Jesus died and rose again, those two actions together destroyed death. But the victory that God the Father willed that Jesus would win over death was to be a long unfolding victory, not an instantaneous destruction of death. The Father said to the Son, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” [Psalm 110:1; Luke 20:42-43] And He says in 1 Corinthians 15:25-26 “Christ must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” He will destroy death. He will win. Death will be swallowed up in victory! For you basketball people, that is a 50-point win in the championship game. Christ will win a resounding victory over death, but not yet. That is why he wept at Lazarus’ tomb, out of compassion, because of the sorrow that death has caused over centuries of redemptive history, Revelation 20:14 talks about the final end of death: “Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.” That is the death of death — no more death. The key to this is the resurrection body, as we have previously discussed. 1 Corinthians 15:50-52 says, “I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. [We cannot go to Heaven just as we are. We must leave behind this body of death and sin, praise be to God for that. Romans 7 says we will be delivered from this body of death.] Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” Earlier in that chapter, in four couplets, Paul compared the body of death and the resurrection body — sown in weakness, raised in power; sown a perishable body, raised imperishable; sown in dishonor, raised in glory; sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body. Cling to those four adjectives. It will be an imperishable body. It will be a glorious body. We will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father, radiating with the glory of God. It will be a powerful body. Isaiah 40 says, “You will run and not grow weary; you will walk and not be faint.” Amen. Limitless power coursing through our resurrection bodies. And It will be a spiritual body. We do not fully know what that means, but we have some indication with the resurrection body of Jesus, which was doing different things than natural bodies — escaping wrapped grave clothes covered with sticky resinous substance; coming through the walls of the cave, or the heavy stone door, long before the women arrived when the angel moved the stone for them. Later, the disciples were in the upper room with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came and stood among them. Isn't that great? He told them, as he needed to, “Peace be with you.” They were overwhelmed with feelings of joy when they saw their Lord. He took food and ate it and said to Thomas, “Touch my hands and see” because Thomas had said, “Unless I put my fingers in the nail marks, I will not believe.” Jesus is physical and yet somehow spiritual, and our bodies will be the same. “Hard” Memories Purged from Pain No More Pain All of us understand pain. Some of the worst pain in this life is mental and emotional, such as the anguish of depression and sorrow and grief and regret. Parents who have endured the pain of teenage suicide would choose physical pain rather than the emotional anguish they feel every time they remember their son or daughter, every time they see a photo, every time they walk into their room or see a stuffed animal that was in his or her crib. There is a kind of a therapeutic forgetfulness in this life so that we can move on. But what will we remember in Heaven about our lives here on earth? That is a question that has occupied me for over a decade — no pain, no grief, no mourning, no regret in Heaven. No psychological trauma, no anguish, no guilt. All those things are painful. Whether or not we will have memory of the painful events in our lives, though, is a question on which some men that I respect are divided. John McArthur says to some degree, provisionally, there will not be memory of these things. He cites Isaiah 65:17-18: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy.” That is the New Jerusalem, New Heaven, New Earth. I understand Isaiah is saying the former things will not come to mind or be remembered. But it does not mean we forget. Many verses use that kind of language. We still remember the Red Sea crossing even though something greater has come. We treasure both the Red Sea crossing and the greater exodus that Jesus won. If we do not remember, we will not get to do that. This seems to be saying instead that the New Heaven, New Earth will be so great that any memories of the past life will be as nothing compared to it. McArthur is saying that he cannot imagine how we could remember the grief and misery and suffering of this life and not feel pain. His provision is partial amnesia or some kind of cleansing of the memory. On the other end of the spectrum is John Piper. He says there will be both memories and sweet heavenly regrets. He wrote, “I want to live my short life on earth with as few regrets as possible. … When I think on these things, it makes me tremble at the prospect of living a trivial, self-serving, comfortable, middle-class, ordinary, untroubled American life. I can’t keep eternity out of my mind. Life is short and eternity is long. Very long. It is a long time to regret a wasted life. … Which raises the question: Is there regret in heaven? Can regret be part of the ever-increasing, unspeakable joy of the age to come, purchased by Jesus Christ? My answer is yes. I am aware of promises like Revelation 21:4, ‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’ But I don't think this rules out ‘tears of joy,’ and it may not rule out ‘regretful joy’.” I respect both John Piper and John McArthur, but I disagree with both of them. Instead, I suggest that there will be perfect memory in heaven with no associated pain, mourning, or crying. Mourning is the inner psychological mental state, and crying is the action that comes out of that. Both are gone. How is that even possible? I would answer, how could it be any other way? How could we celebrate the grace of God in Christ to a multitude greater than anyone could count if we do not remember anything about their lives, if we are not able to celebrate in detail God’s grace to specific sinners, how he worked to bring that person through many troubled waters to repentance and conversion, and then through sanctification to Heaven? I want that story in Heaven so that we can celebrate the beautiful diversity of the redeemed. The thing we all likely worry about most on this topic is whether we will I remember our sins in Heaven. On a gut level, we all would hope the answer is “Of course not! Heaven is a happy place!” My response is, how will we celebrate the amazing grace of God without it? Think of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus on the day he woke up breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. Before that, he carried out those murderous threats by dragging off men and women to prison. When the Sanhedrin met, he cast his lot against those Christians, condemning them to death, consenting and delighting in their executions, including Stephen. On that particular day, he was traveling on the road to Damascus when Christ appeared to him and said, “‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ ‘Who are you, Lord?’ ‘I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. Now, get up and go into the city and you'll be told what you must do.’” On the road to Damascus, he saw a part of the glory of the resurrected Christ and was transformed. Did he forget what man he had been before that? Not at all. He writes in 1 Timothy 1:13-17: “Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.” [Will that display, which works to convert people like us, not also do very well in heaven? He ends with this beautiful doxology:] “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.” I do not see heavenly amnesia being a part of that. I think it is heavenly celebration of God’s grace to Saul of Tarsus. Will David remember what happened with Uriah the Hittite? Yes. In Daniel 4, we can argue that Nebuchadnezzar was transformed and saved eternally. Will he remember that he was a megalomaniac pagan tyrant who used his authority to oppress the people he had conquered, even to the point of condemning all of his counselors to death if they could not tell him what his dream was? Will he remember throwing Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into a fiery furnace, because they would not bow down to his golden idol? Will he remember in Heaven, when Daniel told him to renounce his wickedness, what that wickedness was? Yes. And all, in those memories, will give God the glory for their salvation. Mary Magdalene will remember that she was inhabited with seven demons. The woman whom the Pharisees thought of as “sinful” wept over Jesus’ feet and washed his feet in her tears and dried them with her hair. Because Jesus forgave her abundantly, she poured out her love for him abundantly. There is a link between the two. That will work so beautifully in Heaven. The Samaritan woman whom Jesus met and saved at the well said, “I have no husband.” He responded, “You are right in saying you have no husband. In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. What you said is quite true.” Do you think she will remember that whole story? I think she will. I think the centurion who oversaw the crucifixion of Jesus is in Heaven. The centurions seem to do well in the New Testament — they are typically good guys. This centurion testified after Jesus died, when the earthquake and eerie darkness occurred, “Truly, this man was the Son of God.” That is the fruit of Jesus’ prayer before he died, “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” That was not a universalistic prayer of a high priest praying and hoping that some people would be forgiven. That was a specific high priestly prayer for one of his sheep who was about to cross over from death to life. “Father, forgive him. He does not know what he is doing.” Do you think in Heaven that centurion will know that he was the one who killed Jesus? I think so. And he will celebrate God’s grace to him for bringing him, a pagan Roman, to salvation. Tertullian said, “The blood of martyrs is seed for the church.” Will the martyrs remember their suffering, their blood that was shed, and those who persecuted them? If some of the persecutors became brothers and sisters in Christ, then the blood of martyrs was a seed. Out of their bloody seed came new Christians who had persecuted them perhaps a day or a month or a year prior. Will those remember that they were persecutors? In Heaven, will John Newton remember his former profligate life, his wicked life, and all the people he enslaved as a slave trader? Corrie ten Boom tells a story about an SS guard in one of the death camps she was in, where some of her family died. She met him later, and he was so filled with joy because he had come to faith in Christ. He wanted to shake her hand, but she could not reach out her hand because of the difficulty of memory. Is it possible that they will have full memory in Heaven, along with full, rich deep fellowship in Heaven? Will Jim Elliot be able to spend eternity worshiping side by side with the Huaorani who killed him and his friends, and who were later led to Christ by his courageous wife, Elizabeth Elliot? I think they are already doing so, but it will be even better in the New Heaven, New Earth. The tapestry of grace that God has ordained through His providence is woven through with various colors of thread, some dark, some light. The pattern does not make much sense to us now, as though we are looking at the backside with the jumble of knots when we consider the painful trials of life. But when we see the front side of the tapestry when we are in Heaven, in the presence of the beauty and the radiance of that place, we will rejoice. Ephesians Chapter 2:6-7 is the best verse to prove and illustrate what I am saying. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages, he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” In the coming ages, He will show us how gracious He has been. Heavenly amnesia does not allow for that to happen. Forever, we will put on display just how gracious God was to us, and we will celebrate that with no mourning, no crying, no pain, but absolute joy and delight. While we live in this world, we need to feel all kinds of pain, physical and emotional and spiritual. We need to feel pain physically so that we will stop doing whatever we are doing. If you are burning your hand, you do not want to wait until you smell smoke. It is a grace and a gift from God to feel instantaneous pain to get you to move your hand away from that to avoid significant damage to your hand. In Heaven, we will not need any of that. If injury is even possible, we will experience instantaneous healing. The speculations are limitless. But in this world, we need spiritual, emotional, psychological pain connected with our own sin. Pain enables us to “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.” [James 4:9] We need to feel pain for your sin, because we are not finished being led astray by the world, the flesh and the devil. We are still in danger, and the pain keeps us from future sin. It enables us to genuinely repent and turn away from damaging patterns of life, so we will stop doing them. In Heaven, we will not need it. There will not be any world or flesh or devil, not the way we define the world as an alluring, enticing whore of Babylon. That is gone. The devil will be in the Lake of Fire. Our current flesh will be gone. We will have a resurrected nature, so we do not need grief or mourning or pain over our sin in Heaven. But if you do not feel it now, you are in great danger. It may be that you are not a Christian. There is a place for grief and sorrow over our sin now, but not in Heaven. How can there be memory of our sins without any mourning? Think of it as having the stinger removed. 1 Corinthians 15:55 says, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” Death has been defanged by Jesus. The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. The law gets defanged for us. In Heaven, there will not be any law for us, only the moral beauty behind the law. We will not need to be commanded to love God with all of our hearts, because we will do so easily. We will not need to be commanded to love our neighbors as ourself. We will do so. We will not need the law, and there will not be any stinger embedded in the memories. Psalm 30:5, 11-12 says, “Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. … You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing your praises and not be silent.” We remember so we can celebrate what He has done to comfort us. We will remember all of our sorrow and sadness and the circumstances of how we came to Christ. I read recently about how John Wesley, before his conversion, was on a ship in a terrible hurricane. The sea was heaving, the waves were crashing over the deck, and the sails were being shredded. He was certain it was his last day on earth. A group of German Moravian Christians on the ship were singing and praising God. He knew, watching them, that he was not converted. Later, at a Moravian prayer meeting at Aldersgate, he found Christ. He pursued the Moravians because they had something he did not have. In later years, when he looked back at that storm, did he look on it as horrible and awful or as the instrument of God to bring him to salvation? Do you think in Heaven Joni Eareckson Tada will remember that fateful day in 1967 when she dove off the bridge into the shallow Chesapeake Bay and snapped her spinal column? She will be in her resurrection body, and she will celebrate God’s grace. How could we understand her life apart from her circumstances, from which her ministry flowed in large part. It would not make any sense. As a trustee of the International Mission Board, I get to interview missionaries. When we meet these folks, we find out how they came to Christ. With married couples, we get to find out how they met. About two months ago, we met a couple who met in college at a Christian ministry party. She said, “I met him, I didn't like him at all. Then I left the party and backed into his car, crushed it, so we met again and we got to know each other.” They were both laughing at that story. I can tell you it was not funny the night it happened, but they can laugh about it now. Take that and multiply it by infinity. That is what heavenly memories will be like — no sorrow at all, just joy of what God did, how He used our weakness and our sorrow and our sin and our smallness and our pettiness and overwhelmed it with grace and built this incredible church. We will celebrate all of it. Applications Come to Christ! First and foremost, I yearn for everyone listening to my voice today to be there in that world where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain. Hell is the exact opposite. The inhabitants of Hell swim in death forever — an eternal death. “The worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” We cannot put into words what the pain and the mourning and the regret will be like; it will be far worse than we can imagine. I sometimes get a foretaste as I am sharing the gospel with people. I wish they could understand how much they will re-live that moment, if they do end up in Hell. They will go back to the moments they heard the gospel turned their back on it. Adoniram Judson went to ask the emperor of Burma for religious tolerance in his nation. He somehow gained an audience with the golden ear, and he fell at the golden feet. He and his co-workers made their pitch, including sharing the Gospel. The emperor listened for a while and then stopped, dropped the tract on the ground, stepped on it and walked out of the room. Judson never saw the emperor again. I asked my kids, as I was reading that to my them, “Do you understand how that moment was exactly the opposite of what it appeared?” It appeared that this American missionary was groveling on the ground begging for a favor from the mighty emperor, but what was actually happening was that an emissary of the true Emperor of the universe was there offering this sinner a chance at amnesty from all of his sins so that he would spend eternity on the true golden shore. Satan is so deceptive to obscure what is really happening. I am begging all of you who know that you are on the outside looking in. Now, today is the day of forgiveness, the day of salvation. I, an emissary of the King, am begging you, be reconciled to God. Christians If you are already reconciled and you are a Christian, how shall you now live? Pursue the two journeys. Internally, grow in holiness. Put sin to death, because some day you will be pure and holy. Externally, spread the Gospel. Talk to people this week, invite them to church, invite them to faith in Christ, invite them into a conversation about this eternal world to which we are going. How many people surround us every day with Stephen Hawking’s atheistic mentality? Tell them the truth while there is still time. Closing Prayer Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the time that we have had today to celebrate your grace and your goodness, thank you for my friend Rob Hatcher, for the way I have been able to watch his family love on him and care for him, and for the grace you have shown him, and for the privilege of being part of that in a small way. He represents a multitude greater than anyone could count, and we will be celebrating your incredible working, so diverse, so detailed in bringing people to Christ. I cannot wait. Lord, give us joy, give us energy, give us the ability to stand firm and let nothing move us and be abounding in the work and the labor of the Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Keep Your Goals in Sight When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog. Her body was numb. She had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours. Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. 佛罗伦斯·查德威克向前方望去，除了绵延无尽的大雾，她什么也看不到。她一直在游泳，已经游了几乎16个小时，身体都麻木了。在那之前，她已经是第一位从两个方向游过英吉利海峡的女子。现在，她已34岁，她的目标是要成为第一个从卡达琳纳岛游到加利福尼亚海岸的女子。 On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea, she struggled on—hour after hour— while millions watch...

The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm SPOILERS BELOW Notes * Much of what I read about Florence was pulled from old newspaper articles. * The biography in Notable American Women: Volume 5 does a nice, thorough job with Florence story. * I first stumbled on Florence Chadwick in a photo in a restaurant in Santa Barbara and was struck by, as the photo suggested, she went on a world tour, swimming local channels. Music * First up is Solitude, from (delightfully named) Janis Crunch. * Then we’ve got Like a Bell to a Southerly Wind, by Chequerboard. * Modular Body #7 by Machinefabriek. * After Catalunya by Ephemetry and Richard J. Birkin. * Finishing up on The Old Favourite by The Gloaming.

The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, from PRX, a curated network of extraordinary, story-driven shows. Learn more at radiotopia.fm SPOILERS BELOW Notes * Much of what I read about Florence was pulled from old newspaper articles. * The biography in Notable American Women: Volume 5 does a nice, thorough job with Florence story. * I first stumbled on Florence Chadwick in a photo in a restaurant in Santa Barbara and was struck by, as the photo suggested, she went on a world tour, swimming local channels. Music * First up is Solitude, from (delightfully named) Janis Crunch. * Then we’ve got Like a Bell to a Southerly Wind, by Chequerboard. * Modular Body #7 by Machinefabriek. * After Catalunya by Ephemetry and Richard J. Birkin. * Finishing up on The Old Favourite by The Gloaming.

On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick, the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions, attempted to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast. It was her greatest challenge, not only because of the distance, but because of a dense fog and very cold water. After swimming to within a half of a mile of the California coast, she gave up. When asked why she quit, she responded, “I swam for 15 hours, and yet because of […]

Last week we saw what to do when tempted to quite and how important it is for us to "see" ourselves achieving something. Today, on Part 2 with examples from Florence Chadwick's story, we look at 7 helpful tips on how to deal with the foggy situations in life so we came through without giving up. Tune in and discover Where quitting starts and How to prevent it Why faith is so important What to do when others don´t believe What I did with a personal foggy situation in November A sneak scoop of great things planned for 2015 and more. We take a break till January. Merry Christmas and thank you for tuning in. Hear you in 2015. God Bless! Visit www.LBSuccess.com for your free CD download. 5 Steps To Designing The Life Of Your Dreams

Lets open our Bibles up to the Book of Hebrews 12. As we go through the story of Peter walking on the water, were talking about faith principles that we encounter along the way. Theres a storm at sea, Jesus comes by the boat, and theyre afraid-they think Hes a ghost. Peter says, If thats You, Lord, command me to come. Jesus says, Come. So Peter steped out of the boat and began to walk on the water. Then he seen the wind and the waves, heard the wind, and he became afraid and sank. He cried out to the Lord, Lord, save me. The Lord grabbed him and pulled him out of the water. They came back into the boat, and then Jesus said to Peter, Oh, you have little faith. Why did you doubt? This is going to be a teaching moment for Peter. Why did he give up? Why did he lose hope? Why did he sink? We all do, you know. In our spiritual journey, theres always a time when we see the wind, when we become discouraged, when we feel hopeless, when we despair, when we give up. Lets talk about that. The Book of Hebrews is written at a time when the church is in great conflict due to persecution. The chapter starts off saying in Hebrews 12:1, Therefore. Whenever you see the word therefore, find out what its there for. So you have to go back one chapter. Hes talking about the hall of faith and all the great patriarchs, all the great saints, and their examples of faith. Then he comes down to the very present day, and the executions that he talks about there at the end of Chapter 11 are those similar to what happened under the reign of terror of Emperor Nero. So we know that the dating of this book is about 65 AD. The church is encountering great hardship and persecution. The words of the author of the Book of Hebrews are very timely, very pertinent because of what they are enduring and what they are engaged in. He tells them to do three things. Number 1, he talks about the importance of inspiration. Secondly, he talks about the need for fixation. Thirdly, he talks about the importance of observation. Were going to talk about what each of those are today and why theyre important to prevent us from becoming weary and losing heart. Lets begin reading with Verse 1 of Chapter 12 (page 1193 of pew Bibles), Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… By this he means the people that hes already spoken of, the believers that have gone on before us and lived lives of faith. …let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Why does he say so that you will not grow weary and lose heart? because we, what? We sometimes grow weary and lose heart. The first thing he says that we are to do is to find inspiration in others; thats number one. Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses… those whove gone on before-consider their example, be inspired by their lives. Be inspired by their sacrifices, by their acts of faith, by their faithfulness. The first thing we need to do, if we are going to persevere and not lose hope, is have people in our lives and know of people who inspire us, people who have done what we want to do and who have done it successfully. We need people who are facing what we have faced before and have overcome. Rather than just trying to bear it ourselves or figure out how to invent the wheel ourselves, become a student of people who have done it, people who are alive and people who have already passed away. We can learn from them and be inspired-people that we know and people that we will never meet. There are all kinds of examples out there that will inspire you. I dont care what it is youre facing, whatever the challenge. Some of you want to lose weight today. Im not asking for a raise of hands because if some of you skinny people try to raise your hands, somebody is going to punch you, so we wont do that one. Some of you want to get in shape. You can be skinny and not be in shape. Some of you want to start a ministry. Its a challenge. Who has done it before? When I wanted to start a church, I thought, Who has done it? How did they do it? When I wanted to become a pastor, I interviewed pastors. Whats it like? How do you become one? I sought them out. Some of you want to change vocations, start a business. Whats that like? Some want to get married: talk to people who have successful marriages. And some want children: learn from those who are good parents. Raise a teenager: Ive got nothing here for you (congregation laughing). Youre on your own on that one. Overcome an addiction? Plenty of positive examples. Grieve a loss, face cancer or some other illness? Somebody has faced what you are facing. Go back to school at an old age: Somebody has done that. Feel like youre ready to give up and quit; other people have felt the same way. The list could go on and on. Somebody has faced the challenges that you have faced. Find them. Find them from history. Find them in your life. Learn from them. Be inspired by their examples. Become a student of what they did, their philosophies, their ideas, their examples, and their faith. Emulate them. So the writer is saying, Think about other people. Its important. Have you ever been by somebody that just drains you? A negative person that just drains you? Thats hard, isnt it? You hang around a person that is just negative and just drains you long enough. You leave their presence, and you feel like, Oh, man! Youre just kind of beat up! You know, like after one of my messages. You walk out of here, Oh, man! How does anybody put up with that? Oh, man! It just kind of drains you. Its important not only to have inspiration from people that have done what we want to do or have been successful at what we are facing, but its also important to find inspiration from people who are in our lives that we know, who are people we can turn to strategically when we need encouragement. Do you have people like that in your life-people who believe in you? Thats important. Its important to have people in your life who believe in what youre doing and can encourage you in that. Thats so important. If you dont have those kinds of people in your life, pray that you will have. How many of you have those kinds of people in your life? Thats wonderful. When my mom passed away, she was my biggest fan. She would come up to our church, and if you sat within a 10-foot radius of my mom, you would know I was her son. We would go into restaurants with my two sisters, who are older than I am. Wed go into the restaurants, and my mom would come up to total strangers and say, This is my son, Jeff, and hes a pastor. Shed go on and on and on. Sandy and Judy would be like, Hey, were here too, Mom. They thought it was sort of humorous. So many times, she inspired me. I would want to keep going because I knew she believed in me. I still take out the card she wrote me for my ordination back in 1982. Ill still read that from time to time and draw inspiration from it. Its important to have those kinds of people in our lives. Thats why these testimonies are important. I talked to you about the fact that were videotaping testimonies, things that have happened in your lives that other people can benefit from. If youve gone through a divorce, depression, whatever it might be, tell your story to the camera. We can say, Cut. We can edit. If you make a mistake, well start over. The first thing people think of when they hear that is oh, I could never do that! Its not about you. We learned about that in the 40 Days. Its not about you. Get out of your boat. Make that phone call, and say, You know, I have a story to tell that could help somebody My wife is a nurse, has been for 50-60 years (congregation laughing). I dont know how long, a long time anyway. This happened when she was a nurse in Rockford. Shes now an intensive care nurse at Beloit Memorial, but she was a coronary care nurse in Rockford when we lived there. Dealing with critical issues, she faces a lot of life and death situations. One time she was working on resuscitating a patient who had coded. His name was John. John was gone. He was not breathing; there was no breathing. They were working on John feverishly, and one of the nurses made a statement to this effect, Its no use. Lets give up on him. Hes not going to make it. Were wasting our time. She made that statement. Well, he surprised them. He came back. When he came back, he said to Brenda, I dont want that nurse in my room because she gave up on me. Nobody had told him that. There was no way for him to know that. He was clinically gone. When asked how he knew that, he mentioned that during this whole scene, when he was clinically dead, he was over his body watching this stuff, and not only did he hear, but he saw who it was and heard the statement that she made. He said, I dont want her in my room anymore because she gave up on me. Brendas right there, so you can ask her. Thats the way it happened, isnt it? Thats the way it happened. She gave up on me he said. That story is kind of icky, goose-bumpy, I admit that, but it illustrates the point that its important to have people in our lives who believe in us and can cheer us on. Its equally defeating to have people who dont believe in us. Try not to fill your life with those kinds of people. When possible, try not to spend great deals of time with people [who can bring you down]. Maybe you work with one or live with one, I dont know, but its a defeating thing. The second thing he talks about not only is inspiration, but he talks about the principle of fixation in verse 2. He says, Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith. Fix our eyes, fixation. It means not just a casual glance, but an intense focus on something or someone. Thats what this word means in the Greek. We had our first child 22, almost 23, years ago now. Can you believe Brendas that old? Wow! We had to go through this class called Lamaze. Lamaze means breathing techniques, so you learn how to breathe, and I am the coach. Im going to give her ice cubes, but more than that, Im to help her with the breathing techniques, which Ive long forgotten. Were all nervous. The first time we practiced. With each step of labor, as it gets more intense, there are different breathing techniques. So I have to remind her about that. And I have to help her remember her focal point. Thats where you find something in the room and focus on it. Many people like to bring things in the room that are going to be pleasant to look at. Maybe it will be a picture of other children that they have. That could remind you that, Hey, theres a reward coming. Or maybe an outfit could remind you, maybe a cute outfit or cute booties to remind you that this pain is going to produce a child. Maybe a poem inspired you or a cross, some religious symbol, and you focus on that instead of your pain. Some women even use their husbands eyes, which I do not recommend. Later on in the delivery process, that can get pretty scary, You … Dont do that one. But you find a focal point, and you focus in on that. That helps you to concentrate. When the pain comes, youve got something that is drawing your attention. So I ask you the question: who or what is your focal point in life? When you encounter opposition, which you will; when you encounter hardship, which you will; who or what is your focal point? He says, Focus on Jesus. If you have the wrong focal point, youre going to get off track. I remember one time coming up from a dive and heading for the wrong dive boat. I had a focal point, all right, but it was the wrong one, and I got way off course. Oh, it was that boat. Oh, okay. If you lose sight of your focal point, its very easy to quit, isnt it? Anyone ever heard of a woman named Florence Chadwick? In 1952, she went out to sail from Catalina Island to the Coast of California. It was a foggy day, a cold day, and the water was just freezing. She got into the water; it was so foggy, she couldnt even see the boats that were in her party. It was a dangerous day. They had to use a rifle to shoot into the water to scare away the sharks. I always hate it when that happens when Im swimming. She swam 15 straight miles that day in that cold water, 15 miles! She was going to quit. Every time she looked up, she could never see the land. She said, I have to quit! I have to quit! The boatmen said, Keep going Florence! Weve got to be getting close! They couldnt see the land either. Keep going Florence! Fifteen miles! Were almost there! She couldnt see the land, and she quit! When she got into the boat, and they kept paddling, land was only a half mile away, only a half mile away! It wasnt fatigue, fear, sharks or anything else that stopped Florence. It was the fact that she couldnt see the land. She said, Im not trying to excuse myself, but I know if I could have seen it, I would have made it. If I would have seen it in sight… By the way, two months later, on a clear day, she did it. She completed the swim, and she did it in a record setting time. Thats why its so important to have a focal point. Do you have a focal point? You know, sadly, sometimes, the focal point we have is our own self. Do you realize that? When youre going through a hardship, sometimes the only person you focus on is yourself. How can I get out of this? What can I do? What am I going to do now? You start focusing on your abilities and your strengths, and theres a good chance youre the one that got yourself in that mess in the first place. Sometimes we dont want to focus on Jesus because what in the world is He going to ask me to do? Whats He going to ask me to give up or sacrifice? What demand is He going to make on me? Pastor Sean gives me feedback and tells me whats going on in our small groups as we get together and discuss this. He tells me whats going on in his own heart in life through this series. He said, You know, this series is challenging people in our church. Its challenging us. We talk about faith and stepping out of the boat. Its a little scary. He said, Its going to be 2 ½ months by the time were through. Maybe we need a break. Hes being facetious now. He says, Ive got a new idea for an upcoming series. Heres Pastor Seans idea of what well talk about If You Want to Walk on Water, You Have to Get Out of the Boat: Dont Rock the Boat: Living a Safe Life in Comfortable Mediocrity. Does that sound good to you? Just a little break from all this fake stuff. Courage, endurance, and lets just take a break. Some of the songs we might be able to sing are I Surrender Some, I know those hymns; Take My Life and Let Me Be; Have Mine Own Way, Lord, and Oh, How I Like Jesus, not How I Love Jesus. LCD song possibility might be Please Dont Send Me to Africa. Were afraid of what Hes going to do and expect, but the author says focus on Jesus. Observe Him; thats his next point. Observation: Verse 3, Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Consider Him. When he asks us to consider Jesus, he is speaking of considering His earthly ministry here. Thats the context. Because hes been talking in Verse 2 about the cross and for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame. What does scorning its shame mean? Scorning its shame was a comparison. What thats saying is Jesus looked at the cross, and He endured the cross because of the joy that was set before Him. His focal point was Heaven. His focal point was the union of bringing a fallen man back into a right relationship with a Holy God. His focal point was the joy of being reunited with His Father. That was His focal point. Jesus focal point was not the cross, but He looked beyond the cross. Its just like a woman in labor who looks beyond the labor to the joy that is set before when she holds that newborn in her arms. So Jesus looked beyond the cross and said, Compared to the glory that is to come, and the reward that is to come, its nothing compared to the suffering I must endure now. In 2 Corinthians 4, Paul talks about his persecution, Theres nothing compared to the glory that is to be revealed. So when were going through those difficult times, make a comparison. You should be saying, You know what? This is hard, but is not what Im going to focus on. Im not going to focus on the storm. Im not going to focus on the wind. Im not going to focus on the waves. Im going to focus on Jesus. Im going to focus on His promise. Im going to focus on His example. How did he consider Jesus? How did he act? What did he do? When Jesus was here on Earth, His overriding passion was to accomplish the Mission, wasnt it? It was to do the will of the Father. If I take care of the Fathers business, Hell take care of Me. Remember Jesus, at age 12, in the Temple: they cant find Him anywhere. They go back and find Him in the Temple and they rebuke Him. They say, Weve been looking all over for You. Know ye not, I must be about My Fathers Business. Jesus knew if He took care of Gods business, the Father would take care of Him. The same thing is true with us. When we encounter storms, our focus has to stay on Jesus. As we take care of the Lords work, and the Lords business, Hes going to take care of us, seeking first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things shall be unto you. Sometimes as we go through these crises, we become self-absorbed. We should become Christ-absorbed. Observe Him. Observe the fact that He willingly laid His life down; no miracle that Jesus ever performed was for His benefit-it was always for the benefit of others. It was always for the benefit of others. Turn in your Bibles to John 16:33 (page 1070 of pew Bibles), if you would please. In Hebrews 12, what did Jesus do when He encountered opposition? Number 1 is He expected it. Expect it. Expect opposition. Ive heard Christians say many times, Im a Christian, and God is supposed to love me. How in the world could I go through this trial, this storm? Im so discouraged, so weary. Im losing hope. Who in the world told you that the Christian life was going to be easy? Where in the world does it say in here that the Christian life is without pain and suffering and hardship? Show me an example of somebody who trusted God and did not encounter hardship. Show me one. Nobody suffered more hardship than God Himself when He took on flesh. So, lets have a realistic viewpoint of what this life is and what we might face and encounter. Jesus does. He says that in Verse 33. He says, I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. Notice, He says in Me. Jesus does not say in the world. Someone defined peace in this way: We define peace as when everything is calm. Waters are calm. There is no wind. There is no rain. There is no opposition. Really, that never happens, does it? Sometimes it seems like we go from one to the next to the next to the next. It says, Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of Christ. I thought that was a good definition for peace. Jesus goes on to say, In this world you will have trouble. Thats a promise. Thats not an exciting promise. Thats not one we pull out of our daily bread and say, Oh boy! Im going to have trouble! Yeah! But its a fact. He says very forthright, You will have trouble, but it doesnt end there. It continues, But take… courage or take …heart! I have overcome the world. The Greek language is rich and full and alive, especially the Greek verbs. Sometimes, Ill try to study the verbs and their significance because its just loaded with good stuff. This particular verb here where He talks about have overcome is whats called the perfect indicative active, the perfect tense. The perfect tense is important because it means its something in the past, something that was completed in the past, has bearing on the future, or has results in the present. Ill use an illustration from football since were kind of a football town here, a football church. Im going to give a hypothetical example to you to try to explain when Jesus says, Take courage, Ive overcome the world, what that means. Imagine with me next season that Brett Favre returns to the Packers, that not only do they have a better season, but he leads them to the Super Bowl. Again now, this is extremely hypothetical (congregation laughing loudly). Its the Super Bowl game, and you guys are all watching the Super Bowl together. Im home crying by myself. Its 4th and 1. The Packers are down by 5 points. Theres one second on the clock. They call a time out. So theyre either going to score a touch-down and win the game, or theyre going to be stopped, and its over. So they call a time-out, and everybodys trying to guess, What are they going to run? Are they going to hand it to Green to jump over the offensive line? Is Brett Favre going to do a quarterback-keeper? Is it going to be a play action? Whats going to happen? So they snap the ball, and the offensive line surges forward, and Brett Favre, again hypothetical situation, jumps over the pile and scores a touchdown. Its not even close. The booth doesnt need to review it. No penalties, no flag, its six points. The Packers are the Super Bowl Champions. The clock expires. Yippie Yah Whoo! Did you enjoy that? That was fun for most of you? Yeah! Tell us another story! So he jumps over and everybodys celebrating. You could say, The Packers have overcome and won the Super Bowl. Something that happened in the past has barring now in the present and cannot be changed. Its reality and its done. He uses what is called the indicative mood. The indicative mood for this verse means the subject is stating a fact. Thats what it means. Indicative means youre stating a fact. Youre stating reality. Jesus is not saying in this passage, But, be hopeful because theres a good chance Im going to win this thing. Hes not saying, You know what? Get your chin up. Keep praying because maybe, just maybe, Im going to concur sin and the grave. Im not saying Im gonna, but I might. Theres hope. Thats not what Hes saying. Do you see any kind of doubt or question or wonder in the statement Jesus makes? He says, Take courage. Ive overcome the world. Brett Favre jumps over that end zone line and scores a touchdown. If youre wearing a Green Bay Packer uniform, you win because of what he did. You win because of what the offensive line did. If you are on that team, you win. All the Packer fans out there in Packerland win because of what he did. When Jesus went to the cross and conquered sin and conquered death, and you are on His team, by faith, you said, Im a Christian. I want to follow You. Youve got J.C. on your back. Because of what He did, you win. Get it? You win. The outcome is certain. Its a statement of fact. Because Ive overcome, youre going to overcome. There may be some tough waters. There may be some periods of doubt and fear and so forth, but if youre on My team, youve got Christian on your jersey, youre going to prevail. Its a promise. Its reality. Thats what Jesus speaks of here. He says, Dont be hopeless. Dont lose heart. Take courage. Youre going to have problems. Youre going to have troubles. Theyre going to come, but theyre not greater than Me. Because youre with Me, because youre on My team, you are in Me, and I am in you. Youre going to overcome. Youre going to win. Nothing can change what Jesus did. Nothing can ever change the fact that in Jerusalem today, the tomb is empty. Nothing can or ever will change that reality. Its a done deal. Its a statement, a fact. Draw hope in that. The author of Hebrews says, Draw hope from inspiration. Look at the examples of those who have gone before you. Seek them out. Learn about them. Become a student of them. Put people in your life who will inspire you, who believe in you. Secondly, fixation: Make sure you have the right focal point. When youre going through pain, dont just look at the pain, look beyond the pain to see the reward. Thirdly, observation: We look at Jesus. We learn from His example. We encounter opposition; we expect it. Not only do we expect it, but we know we will be victorious through it. Thats the promise of Gods word today. Would you stand together as we close in prayer? Next week, were going to talk about patience, and I know no one can use that, right? Were going to talk about learning to wait, one of the hardest things that you and I do. Were at a stoplight for 30 seconds, and, Come on! Were in the grocery store line for a couple minutes, Come on! We just have a hard time waiting. So well be talking about learning to wait together. Then the following week, were going to wrap it up and talk about How Big is Your God? So its been an enjoyable series. Weve learned a lot. Weve been challenged. God has been faithful. You can join small groups at any time; remember that. Small groups are running through May, and you can jump on board anytime you want to. How many of you today are not going to lose heart, not going to grow weary but are going to have hope because Hes overcome today? Amen.