God and Gold Medals

 

But now the Lord declares: "Far be it from me! Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained." 1 Samuel 2:30 NIV

Before this year, the Summer Olympics were last held in France 100 years ago in 1924. One of the stars of the 1924 Olympic Games was a runner named Eric Liddell. Known as the "Flying Scotsman," Liddell went to Paris as the favorite to win gold in the 100 meter, However when the races were scheduled, the 100 meter was to be on Sunday. A devout Christian, raised by missionary parents in China, Liddell refused to participate. He claimed Sunday was the Lord's Day, a day of rest not competition. Teammates, friends and even politicians pressured and begged him to change his mind, but he refused. It was determined that he would run the 400 meter that would be on a different day. 

No one expected Liddell to do very well in the 400 since he had not really trained for it. Some people even criticized him for his religious faith. One reporter wrote that Liddell "...should look down the track rather than look up to the sky.” Just before he headed to the stadium to compete in the 400m finals a trainer gave him a note that read, “ In the Old Book it says, “He that honors Me, him I will honor”1Samuel 2:30. To everyone's surprise, he not only won the gold medal, Liddell also broke the Olympic and world records for the 400 meter at the time. He would also win bronze in the 200 meter. 

Soon after the Paris Olympics, Liddell married his fiancée and began to serve as a missionary with the London Missionary Society's mission in China, where his parents had been worked and where he had been born. When the Japanese invaded China at the start of WW2 Liddell decided to stay and minister to others. Eventually, Liddell was captured and imprisoned in a Japanese internment camp. When he had an opportunity to be freed, he declined a prisoner swap so an expectant mother could go home. He ministered daily to those around him. Even in prison, not a day passed that Eric did not spend time reading Scripture and praying. He surrendered himself to be used of God in a prison camp.

In 1945 Liddell developed an an inoperable brain tumor. As he lay dying, he reminded those attending him to surrender everything to the will of God. While slipping into a coma, he was heard trying to say the word that typified his life – “surrender.” He died in a Japanese prison camp, but fellow prisoners said, “Jesus Christ was among us because we saw Him in Eric Liddell."

Eric Liddell received a gold medal in the 1924 Olympics for his efforts in a competition, but he received something greater than a gold medal from the Lord for his surrender to Christ. Friends, don't waste your life living for the wrong things, live the the eternal. 

(The film "Chariots of Fire" (1981) told the story of Eric Liddell and the Olympic Games.)

Parade of Nations

PyeongChang 2018

And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come. Matthew 24:14 (NLT)

After this I saw a vast crowd, too great to count, from every nation and tribe and people and language, standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb. They were clothed in white robes and held palm branches in their hands. And they were shouting with a great roar, “Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne and from the Lamb!” Revelation 7:9-10

Watching the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChange, South Korea and can't help but be moved by the pageantry of the ceremony. South Koreans have been preparing for the Olympics for over 2 1/2 years, and the opening ceremony sets the tone for the rest of the games. 

For me, the highlight of the opening ceremony is the Parade of Nations where the Olympic athletes from every nation and territory march into the Olympic stadium under their country's flag. Nearly 3,000 athletes from 92 nations will march in the Parade of Nations. The United States will have the largest contingent with 242 athletes, while several nations will be represented by only one athlete. This year's winter Olympics will be the largest in history in terms of the number of athletes. 

Watching the Parade of Nations, my mind went to the passage in Revelation where John writes about seeing a crowd too large to count, standing before the throne of God, praising the Lord. In that crowd are people from every nation tribe and tongue. It will be something glorious to behold, but a question that bothers me is, how many from each nation tribe and tongue? Surely there will be many North Americans, as we have been saturated with the gospel. But what about those nations and people groups that have little-to-no access to the gospel? According to the Joshua Project, out of the 7.48 billion people in the world, 3.14 billion are considered unreached, meaning there is little or no access to the gospel. Of the 16,956 known people groups, 7,035 are unreached. 

Jesus promises in Matthew 24:14, that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all nations, but there is a long way to go. In America, 268 million people identify as Christian; it's unrealistic, but what if every American who identified as a Christian, led one lost person to the Lord and discipled that person over a year, so that the new Christian could then lead another person to Christ, and disciple them? If that happened, the gospel would reach every person in the world in less than six years. 

Again, that is an unrealistic expectation, but what if we gave it a try in our church? What if the 50-60 adults and youth that attend Grace Point each week, led one person to Christ and discipled them for this year? Next year there would be 100-120 disciples of Christ, and the following year, 200-240. And as the number of disciples grow, we send them out to plant churches, or help revitalize dying churches by making disciples who make disciples. We may not be able to reach every nation, tribe and tongue ourselves, but we might be part of a great movement of God that would see the gospel preached throughout the world... and then the end would come, and we would be part of that great Parade of Nations worshiping before the throne of the God... and what a glorious day it will be!!!