Purpose Newsletter - October 2025

¹²Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

1 Timothy 6:12

The fight of faith

In spite of the rose garden religion presented by the contemporary jean clad motivational speaker behind the plexiglass podium, under the dim lights, being a Christian is more like the songwriter said long ago, No, no, it’s not an easy road.

Interesting to note is that the word fight in the Greek is agōnizomai. You may recognize the English word derived from that: agonize. I think we all know what agonize means.

Dictionary.com defines it as: to suffer extreme pain or anguish; be in agony. to put forth great effort of any kind.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon expands on its usage in the New Testament:

To enter a contest: contend in the gymnastic games

To contend with adversaries, fight

As a metaphor, to contend, struggle, with difficulties and dangers

To endeavour with strenuous zeal, strive: to obtain something

Wow! That’s hard just to read.

Doesn’t sound much like what the faith preacher spoke about either. There is good news though.

Victory is attainable

Perseverance is key in the good fight. It is not a good fight unless you win. Again Thayer expounds on the word good: it is expedient, profitable, wholesome. Staying in the fight and being declared the winner will pay off. I like the word expedient: tending to promote some proposed or desired object; fit or suitable for the purpose; proper under the circumstances. God’s purpose will play out in the good fight. Your fight is suited to you to produce an eternal weight of glory. Your struggle will result in you being thoroughly furnished for the work you are to accomplish. The kingdom will profit by you having stayed in the ring until you prevailed. Your victory will be motivational in your journey. On your way to your mission you will sense God’s approval for service. You will understand it was a good fight.

Let us not forget however that it was meant to be a good fight of faith. Through it you had to continue believing. Against the doubts you had to continue believing you were saved by the death of Christ on the cross. And justified. The fight did not come because of a loss of these. It came to prove these. Hell bound folk don’t enter into these kind of maturational processes. God furthers us in him and his purpose by the trial of our faith.

In this good fight we have to continue to believe we are on the path divinely chosen for us. We are tempted to think we have missed it. We are tempted to return to where we were. We are tempted to pursue no farther. We are ultimately tempted to believe we have gone as far as we could go. Surrendering to these temptations would make the devil happy. The plan of God would be thwarted and the work we would have accomplished would have been left undone. The souls were not saved, the ministry did not produce, our gifts did not profit anyone. An empty place would never have been filled. And we would be wallowing in defeat. But because we continued in faith none of those things are a reality. We find ourselves fulfilling God’s purpose and happy in it! Amen.

So then

In spite of failures keep on believing you are a conqueror.

In spite of setbacks keep pressing toward the mark.

In spite of pain keep believing for healing and health.

In temptations continue to believe for victory.

With bloodied face raise your fist and declare you are going to fight, fight, fight! Fight the good fight of faith.

The embarrassment of faith

The good fight of faith can cause us a little embarrassment. When the things we have spoken do not seem to be happening, when actually it seems we are in reverse mode rather than progressing in our declared vision and goals. People look at us and pity us for our grandiose ideas that are not panning out. Hey Abraham, father of nations, where is that son you’ve been talking about? Hey Noah, didn’t you forecast a heavy rain? Hey Joseph, when is it your brothers will bow before you? And, brother Moses, what did you say about a promised land?

We are in good company with those patriarchs whose faith for a season didn’t produce what they had spoken in faith. But go read Genesis and Exodus and then skip over to Hebrews chapter eleven. Ha!

The embarrassment of faith leads to greater things. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So, fight the good fight of faith. You have already been pegged as one of those faith people. You have professed a good profession before many witnesses. While we wait for fulfillment people may look at us with scorn. But just wait until God fulfills his promise and puts the scoffers to shame. We go on in our blessing and they remain in their stagnated miserable existence.

Fight the good fight of faith. Eventually it is eternal life. Amen. -PJF-

And now a word from Pastor Shirley…

A Summer to Remember

As children, we were told not to say certain words because they were “bad.” When I was in fifth grade, the kids in my class said “bad” words.

They never said them loud enough for an adult to hear them, but in conversations among peers those words flowed like a broken drink dispenser. It was then that I realized the secret to using those bad words. It was ok to say them…. as long as an adult didn’t hear you.

I always thought that lightning from heaven would strike children down if they uttered such words, but nothing happened to my classmates. They were foul-mouthed (yes even in fifth grade), and rude, and nasty… but they were still alive and as long as the teacher didn’t hear them, they kept on.

Eventually I decided to test the waters and say a bad word. I was with some girls at recess and they were talking about another girl who was really mean. I opened my mouth and said a bad word. My friends were shocked! They stopped and just stared at me for a few seconds (that seemed like eternity), shook it off, and kept talking. Nothing happened to me. I wasn’t struck down with lightning and I never got in trouble.

At the end of my eighth grade year I went to Junior Camp with my church youth group. Some of my friends from school were at camp with me and we just continued like we always did. Cursing and saying whatever we wanted as long as the adults weren’t around.

One day, on our way back to the cabins my friends and I were talking. We were just being silly, joking around and I said a bad word. All of a sudden someone in front of us stopped, turned quickly, and just stared at us. It was one of the youth pastor’s wives. She knew that I was the one that was talking, so she looked directly at me and said, “Sad. That’s just really sad. Such a shame… really sad.” She turned back around and walked away.

I had never felt that bad about cursing before. In my juvenile mind, I was ok because no one (no adult anyway) knew. That night, when I got caught I felt nothing but shame. I couldn’t shake it. Eventually my friends laughed it off, but I couldn’t. Something was happening to me.

I got saved at 8 or 9 years old. Other than not going to Hell, I didn’t fully comprehend what being saved meant. I started cursing when I was 10 years old. Four years later at that summer camp, I found out what guilt and shame was and I didn’t like it.

The next few days at camp were different for me. I repented for my foul mouth and I prayed that God would help me. I even found the youth pastor’s wife and apologized to her. After that I was careful with my words and I learned other ways to express myself instead of resorting to curse words.

When the school year began my friends noticed that I wasn’t cursing anymore. I told them that God did a work inside of me at summer camp and I didn't want to talk that way again. They were a little skeptical at first. They kept waiting for me to slip up and go back to cursing again but I never did. Months later my friends finally gave in to the fact that I had changed. God freed me from that and I no longer had the desire to express myself that way.

Maybe the first time you experienced guilt and shame was very different from mine and that’s ok. I pray that the end result is the same as mine: forgiven and set free. Whatever you are bogged down with, go to God. He is ready to forgive you and set you free. -SAF-