Beloveds,
Shalom shalom in Yeshua, the Wonderful Beloved of our soul, who rescued and saved us from eternal death unto eternal life. Hallelujah! Amen!
The Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, are like a short break in time to shift the world’s attention away from war, genocide and terrorism to something enjoyable, peaceable, albeit tremendously competitive.
I love ice-skating, and the first performance of the US single skater, Ilia Melinin, which won him his only medal was breath-taking. He landed successfully in a fully-rotated quadruple axle several times, skating every part to perfection. Unfortunately, during his next program, two falls after the quadruple axel (the Lord said his right ankle was weak and hurt), placed this awesomely gifted and hard working American skater 7th in the Olympics, while a first-timer Olympian from Kazakhstan, Mikhail Shaidorov, won the gold medal.
I also watched figure-skating. Two couples were particularly close. The French pair was very emotional with the man shedding tears after their successful performance which won France a gold medal.
I remember the earlier days of ice skating, especially two favorite olympic couples: the German Marika Kilius and Hans-Jürgen Bäumler, who skated in such synchronization never seen again. Their major rivals were the Russian Ludmila Belousova and Oleg Protopopov where at the 1964 Innsbruck Olympics the Soviet duo won gold while the Germans only silver. But today at the 2026 Olympics, those two couples of the1960’s would never have won even a bronze medal.
Now acrobatics, speed and death-defying throws and spirals have replaced classical figure-skating. Sport has become ever more inhuman, stretching it to the utmost limits. Sportsmen train daily for many hours, follow a prescribed diet to maintain their weight, especially female skaters who must be light as a feather. The extreme mental, emotional and physical stress is all-consuming, just to gain temporary glory for themselves but not unto God.
It makes me reflect on our walk with the Lord, on our aim and great goal we hope to reach –citizenship in His Kingdom of His glorious heavenly Jerusalem. For us, there is no competition. No! The Lord taught me early on not to compare myself with others but to focus on what He has given me to accomplish and be faithful in that.
Yeshua warned about the coming great deception where even the elect would be deceived. We ask: who are the elect? To know the elect, we must carefully study His teachings on who qualifies to be His disciples and the laws and principles of His Sermon on the Mount.
The conclusion of it all is this: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have to rank before and above all else in the believer’s life. We don’t need to make inhuman acrobatics to qualify. All that is required of us is unshakable faith, hope and trust in God, absolute obedience and loving Him even more [before] than parents, wife, husband, children, home or country.
Following the desires of our flesh or the plans and goals of our ego disqualifies us as the “elect.” Athletes train incessantly to win something perishable. We believers instead are in another training course; I call it “God’s Bootcamp,” where we train in the course of sanctification unto holiness and Christ-likeness.
Peter says (2 Peter 1:5-7 NIV) our goal is to become a partaker of the divine nature, and…“…for this very reason, we are to make every effort to add to our faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.”
A similar word is in Romans 5:3-5, AMP, where we learn that part of God’s “bootcamp” can be suffering (something I’m being trained in now for at least 3 years; not the suffering of persecution). “Suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces [Christ-like] character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.”
And James 1:3-4 exhorts us, “3 For you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
As we see, the believer’s walk of ‘daily training’ includes hardship and suffering BUT – we pursue an eternal, lasting glory, not merely a temporary one. And that not only for ourselves but above all to bring glory to God our beloved Father in heaven, and to His Son, our Savior, Lord and King Yeshua. We do not compete with each other to see who will be the greatest, but rather we are to pursue God’s high calling in unison, with oneness of heart, mind and soul. after the Holy Spirit.
We seek to qualify as God’s elect children, even as part of the Bride. And this is not obtained by turning the Gospel into a money-making entertainment business.
The manger in the stable stands in stark contrast to this, proving to what degree the King of heaven agreed to humble Himself; similarly, His constant pointing to His obeying the Father’s Will and not seeking after His own agenda.
Yes, we do endure the hardship of training and being perfected into the image and after the likeness of our Savior and King Yeshua, but we do all this with rejoicing, knowing the crown and the glory that awaits us.
I know this: the Father will not allow one to bear more than he is able because His purpose is not to destroy us but to perfect us as His children, sharing in His divine nature. We are destined to become citizens of His Kingdom, of His heavenly Jerusalem, to fellowship with Him forever and ever, in unspeakable joy, happiness, and never-ending, glorious love.
If those beautiful ice skaters are willing to endure torturous training and performances all for medals of gold, silver, or bronze, how much more should we be willing to endure our Father’s “bootcamp,” created out of love for us, even when our souls are downcast within us, when our prayers go unanswered and we can’t see the end of our suffering. How else shall endurance, perseverance and unshakable faith, hope and trust be produced?
Easy, luxurious living with every desire of the heart fulfilled does not prepare for the trials in this world. Champion skaters don’t win their medals by taking it easy; nor will we qualify if we follow after an easy Gospel.
Let us strive together for the crown of gold that will not fade, for the citizenship that is eternal, for sharing in Yeshua’s divine nature that we may enjoy fellowship with the Father, knowing and understanding Him, and seeing His Face that defies all description.
Galatians 5:22-23 AMP describes the fruit of it all: “22 But the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting] kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law.” Amen!
May you be blessed by this letter, as I pray every letter will be a blessing from the Lord for you.
Yours in Him forever,