Run With Endurance

Now, I pretty much always refer back to Hebrews 11 with regard to “the great cloud of witnesses surrounding us,” since “therefore” generally is a reference back to what was said previously. But this morning I am looking at this through a different lens. For, as we live the Christian life, we do have a whole lot of people watching us, all around us, wherever we go, who are witnesses to our words, our actions, and our behaviors, good or bad.

And then there are cameras just about everywhere now, and we have AI listening in on our conversations which we have privately in our own homes, so there really is not much of a thing as privacy anymore, unless for those who may be totally disconnected from the digital world and who are able to escape all the cameras everywhere. But if we have smartphones and computers, and if we are on the internet, we are being watched, most likely.

But, as a side note here: Because AI does exist, and because certain people in positions of power and influence have the capability to fake videos and to alter recordings, they are able to make recordings and videos to appear legitimate, and so they also have the capability of framing the innocent, too, by making false recordings and videos in order to charge the innocent with what they did not do, sometimes to cover up what the guilty are doing.

So, just because you hear it or you see it in a recording or in a video, it doesn’t necessarily mean that what you are hearing and seeing is the absolute truth. For these alterations can end up being false witnesses, giving false testimony to what some people are charged with doing, but did not do, in truth. And sometimes they quote people out of context and make it appear they are saying one thing while the context proves differently.

But the point here is that we are being watched, and we do have people who are watching us and who are listening to us, who may be those who will give witness to what they see and hear, even though some of those witnesses may be breathing out lies, like Jesus’ enemies did to him. But we should be aware that how we live and what we say have the potential to influence other people for good or for evil. And this should encourage us to live right.

But this should not be the main reason that we lay aside all hindrances to our walks of faith in obedience to our Lord, and that we renounce ungodliness and worldly passions so that we can live upright, godly, morally pure and self-controlled lives for the glory of God. Our primary motivation in dying to sin and in obeying God with our lives is because we love Jesus/God and we want to obey him, and we want to live pure lives for His glory.

And our eyes should be fixed on Jesus, not on other humans, concerned about what others think about us, and thus patterning our lives after what is socially acceptable, even if it is contrary to God’s will and purpose for our lives. We should stay focused on Jesus and on obeying him in doing what he has called us to do, as his servants. And we should do that regardless of what other people think of us or say about us, or how they treat us.

But there is another motivation for obeying our Lord, as well, and that is the end result of our lives. For if we die with Christ to sin, by faith, and we walk in obedience to his commands, then we have the hope of eternal life with God, provided we stay the course to the very end. But if we profess him as Lord, but then we do not obey his commands, and so we continue in deliberate and habitual sin, we will not inherit eternal life with God. We will face his wrath, instead. But still we should obey God because we love him.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:5-10; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.


Run With Endurance
An Original Work / July 27, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love