Unstoppable Sample
Unstoppable Sample
Unstoppable Sample
Unstoppable
Copyright 2014 by Christine Caine
This title is also available as a Zondervan ebook.
Visit www.zondervan.com/ebooks.
ISBN 978-0-310-34118-5 (ebook)
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Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Caine, Christine.
Unstoppable : running the race you were born to win / Christine Caine.
1st [edition].
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-310-34117-8 (socover)
1. Christian life. I. Title.
BV4501.3.C3355 2014
248.4dc23
2014008438
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New
International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by
permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from The Message, copyright 1993, 1994,
1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress
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Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the New American Standard Bible,
copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission.
Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
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First printing May 2014 / Printed in the United States of America
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CONTENTS
1. The Divine Relay
23
37
47
63
73
7. Throw It Off
87
99
9. Fueled by Passion
115
129
147
163
Acknowledgments
177
Notes
179
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CHAPTER 1
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UNSTOPPABLE
every Olympic athlete and every spectator since the first Olympic
Games in ancient Greece.
Though Im Australian by birth, Greek blood runs through
my veins. I am Greek through and through. The image of the five
interlocking Olympic rings fluttering on the Olympic flags above
us and plastered all over Sydney in fact, all over the world
made my heart swell and my chin lift at the thought of the ancient
Greek tradition that had inspired all these nations to join together
in promoting a peaceful and better world through sportsmanship,
friendship, solidarity, and fair play. You got it I was bedazzled,
sold out, and on fire with Olympic spirit!
I love all things sport and always have. I competed as a runner
in high school, and running is still my favorite workout. As a spectator, Ive always been partial to the 4x100-meter relay, and the
womens relay in particular. It seemed too good to believe that my
husband, Nick, and I were about to watch this very race in person.
Eight countries were competing in the final race for gold. I was
cheering for the USA team to take the medal.
THE LEGACY
Before the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the USA womens 4x100meter relay team had won the gold medal nine times out of sixteen
Olympics. Coming into this race, they were the reigning Olympic champions, having won the gold in 1996. As they prepared to
carry on that legacy, I was ready to cheer them on to victory.
Nick and I watched the runners moving onto the track, four
per team. The energy of the crowd surged as the teams were
announced and cameras zoomed in on the runners faces, magnifying them on the massive screen that seemed to float in the
evening sky. White lines marked the three exchange zones, each
20 meters in length, in every lane. The first runner, the starter,
would cover about 100 meters and enter the first exchange zone
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UNSTOPPABLE
moment, and the gold was gone. One sloppy exchange and the
USA championship was relinquished.
At least they medaled, Nick said, trying to comfort me.
They won the bronze.
I scowled back at him. Those women hadnt come for the
bronze. Theyd come for the gold. They were running to win.
Now theyd need to wait four years to win back the gold.
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UNSTOPPABLE
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Having the most experienced or the most dedicated runners doesnt necessarily win the race.
Having the reigning champions or the contenders determined to reclaim their championship doesnt necessarily
win the race.
None of these things will win the race unless the baton is safely
passed in each and every exchange zone and carried first across the
finish line. If it isnt, the entire team loses.
In a relay, everything hinges on what happens in the exchange
zone.
And thats when it hit me this lesson from God twelve years
in the making.
I wasnt just watching an Olympic race. I was seeing a crystalclear representation of how the church must work and what
happens when it doesnt. As those athletes moved into position in
London in 2012, I was seeing the church lined up in lanes all over
the globe, batons in hand, running the race that matters most in
this world the divine relay!
This divine relay is filled with exchange zones. If the baton
of faith passes fluidly from person to person, from generation to
generation, we speed unstoppable toward the finish line. But if the
exchange is fumbled, the whole team, the whole church, suffers.
By this time in my life, Id been traveling across the globe
for years doing ministry. Nick and I had been serving the local
church and leaders through Equip & Empower Ministries and
then through The A21 Campaign an organization we founded
in 2008 dedicated to abolishing injustice in the twenty-first century, focused on stopping human trafficking. Through Equip &
Empower, as well as The A21 Campaign, I was learning just how
important it is to get the exchange zone right to ensure that no
runners stop running and walk off the field, but that every runner
becomes unstoppable in their dedication to carry their baton of
faith to the next runner.
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The stadium exploded in uproarious celebration. I was jumping so high my daughters thought I would hit the ceiling.
Wed not only seen four amazing individual runners set the
worlds fastest speed for this race, but wed also seen a unified team
pass the baton with perfect precision and carry it first across the
finish line faster than any team in history! And here is a shocking
statistic: That unified team of four completed their 400 meters a
full 6.78 seconds faster than the individual womens world record
for the 400-meter dash. That record is held by Marita Koch of
East Germany at 47.60 seconds.4 Yes, four champion runners collaborating in the relay are faster than a lone champion runner.
Thats the power of a team.
Perfect collaboration, each runner doing her personal best,
running in sync, reaching, receiving, releasing, and pressing on
with every ounce of strength she had to give. And when the
anchor runner crossed the finish line, she carried not only
the baton she carried her entire team, her entire nation, to
the gold.
I love the quote from Tianna Madison, the USA starter that
day. I knew that the Olympic record was coming down, she said.
I just knew that if we had clean baton passes that we would challenge the world record. Smash it like we did? I had no idea. But I
knew it was in us.
Wow. Did you catch her phrase if we had clean baton passes?
It shows exactly what weve been discussing. Everything hinges on
what happens in the exchange zone. There we receive the baton,
and there we release what is no longer ours to carry so the next
runners can play their part. Miss, drop, or fumble the exchange,
and the whole team suffers. But if we receive and release the right
baton at the right time, victory at the finish line awaits.
Tianna was confident that if her team got the exchange right,
theyd win the race and beat the world record. I knew it was in
us, she declared.
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Our great God has not left us on our own to muddle through
our spiritual lives our spiritual exchange zones untrained.
His Word and his story, written into you and me and into the lives
of all believers the world over, are filled with the wisdom to train
us to successfully master our exchange zones and win the race.
The race marked out for us.
The race marked out for you.
YOUR RACE
Uh-oh. It just got personal, didnt it?
God works that way.
Maybe you are just like me. I settled in to watch a great Olympic race, and the next thing I knew, WHAM. All the lights and
cameras and eyeballs seemed to swivel from the track to focus
squarely on me on my race, my baton, my exchange zones. And
now, in the pages of this book, they focus on you. Your race. Your
baton. Your exchange zones.
If you are tempted to question your role in this race out of fear,
a sense of inadequacy, or the impression that youve already put in
your time and its someone elses race now, think again.
Are you not an athlete? It doesnt matter.
Are you still warming up? Get moving! The race has already
begun.
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finish line with every ounce of strength in you and with your eyes
fixed on Jesus, so that you too can one day say:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept
the faith.
2Timothy 4:7
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CHAPTER 2
IMPOSSIBLE IS GODS
STARTING POINT
The musical tones of Kallis ringing cell phone startled her awake
at 3:00 a.m.
Hello. A21. This is Kalli.
I have escaped from the house! I ran away! the frantic voice
of a young woman cried into the phone. I am hiding. Please come
and get me!
The young womans broken Greek told Kalli that this victim,
like most of the trafficked girls Kalli worked with through The
A21 Campaign, had been brought to Kallis town of Thessaloniki, Greece, from another country. From the sound of her accent,
Kalli thought the young woman was likely from Eastern Europe.
We will help you, Kalli assured her in soothing tones. What
is your name? Where are you?
Katja. I am Katja. Come get me fast, please. They must know
by now that I am gone and if they find me, they will kill me. They
will kill me! The panic in Katjas voice had Kallis heart racing.
23
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What horrors has this girl been through? God, help me help her,
Kalli silently prayed as she thought through how to calm the girl.
I remember you, Katja, Kalli said, willing her voice to be calm.
We met just two days ago, right? I am so glad you kept my number.
I will call my team and get someone to you right away. We will keep
you safe. Take a deep breath and tell me where you are.
Katja described her location. It sounded as if she was well hidden at the moment, and she saw no evidence that the traffickers
were nearby.
Lord, hide Katja in the shelter of your wings until we arrive,
Kalli prayed aloud, hoping the prayer might calm both of them.
This wasnt the first time Kalli had received a panicked call from a
young woman whose life was in danger; her emotions always spun
wildly at the realization that a human life was at stake and that
she, Kalli, had a part to play in saving it.
Katja, my team will come right away. But first I must hang up
to call them. Can I do that? I will call you back within minutes. Is
it okay to call you back at this number? Will you be able to safely
answer it?
There was a pause.
Kalli knew from experience that Katja would fear she was
being deceived. Each of the rescued girls found it hard to trust.
Who could blame them? Trust had brought most of them to
Greece, and that trust had been betrayed. Many of the girls had
been promised jobs or education by people they trusted, people
they believed to be friends or legitimate recruiters. Most had been
told that if they left their homes, paid their money, and traveled
with these recruiters to Greece, jobs and other opportunities
awaited them. Yet on their arrival, their papers had been taken
from them and theyd been brutally beaten and repeatedly raped,
threatened with death or the deaths of their families back home,
and imprisoned by well-organized traffickers who forced them
into prostitution.
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How do I know, Katjas now suspicious voice asked the question Kalli anticipated, that you will come and take me to safety?
How do I know you will not sell me?
Katja, you can trust me. I am part of A21. This is what we
do. We help girls like you. You met me. You must have trusted me
enough to call. Trust me now. Let me hang up and send someone
to get you, and I will call you back and help bring you to safety. I
promise.
Yes. But please hurry. Katja hung up.
Kalli felt the weight of the responsibility she now carried.
Lord, youve brought Katja this far. Help us reach her in time! Kalli
prayed, as her trembling fingers dialed the team member who
would work with the authorities and make this dangerous drive.
Kalli was running her race, passionately doing her part on the
front lines of a brutal war waged by organized crime.
Shed been running it for over three years. This day, God had
awakened her at 3:00 a.m. to hand her a new baton the responsibility to do her part to save Katjas life. Kalli was on point. She
was in the exchange zone, already running, reaching with hand
outstretched, when that baton landed in her hand. Now she had
to run with it.
Kalli was ready. But she remembered well when she hadnt felt
ready at all. Three years earlier, Kalli thought it was impossible for
her to make a difference in the daunting evil of human trafficking.
But this day, knowing that helping Katja meant endangering her
own life and the lives of her teammates, Kalli was ready to run this
leg of the race marked out for her.
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Did Moses feel ready to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let
his people go? No. It seemed an impossible mission. Did Gideon
feel ready to go strike down the Midianites and save Israel? No.
Did Jeremiah feel ready to be a prophet to the nations? No. Did
young Mary, a virgin teenager, feel ready to carry the Son of God
in her womb? No. Gods Word records the accounts of their questions, protests, reservations, and pleas demonstrating that they
didnt feel ready.5
In fact, we can go through the Bible page by page and find
person after person who didnt feel ready to do what God called
them to do. But God didnt ask them whether they felt ready. He
decided they were ready. Then he called them and told them what
to do. Those we now call heroes of the faith are the ones who
obeyed Gods call even when they did not feel ready.
God knew he had prepared them. He knew he would provide
whatever they needed. He knew what he was going to accomplish
through them even though his plans seemed impossible by human
standards. So he called them and sent them. We can be certain of
this: when God calls us and sends us, we are ready, whether we feel
we are or not.
How ready are you to join the race and live in the exchange
zone, arm outstretched in anticipation of the next baton God has
for you?
Dont misunderstand. Im not asking whether youre ready to
fight human trafficking. Thats Kallis lane and mine. Your lane,
your baton, may be entirely different. You may be called to care for
an aging parent, or to steer a troubled teen through a tumultuous
time, or to lead your family through a financial crisis. You may
see the need to organize a local food pantry. Perhaps a neighbor is
caught in an abusive relationship and needs your help, or a spouse
is suffering from depression, or the local elementary school has
appealed for after-school mentors for children who have no one at
home to read to them or help them with their homework. Maybe
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God knew Kalli was ready to run her part in the divine relay.
How do I know? Because while I was running my race, God
placed Kalli in the exchange zone in my lane, in A21, and I knew
that I was to pass the baton responsibilities to be carried out at
our Thessaloniki safe house to her.
Of course, Kalli wasnt running alone in this work. Was she
the driver who would pick Katja up? No. Was she the police officer who would arrest Katjas traffickers? No. Was she the lawyer
who would put Katja on the stand to convict those traffickers,
thereby protecting other girls from being stolen, beaten, raped,
imprisoned, and enslaved? No. All of those people were further
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UNSTOPPABLE
Are you 100 percent satisfied that you are engaged in the relay,
in the right lane, grasping your baton, running full-out, holding
nothing back?
Here is why I ask. I travel the globe talking with Christians
in every walk of life and every phase of Christian maturity, and
Ive discovered that our churches are filled with brothers and sisters who, for a host of reasons, feel dissatisfied with their spiritual
condition.
Some are new believers just beginning to understand the
nature, character, and purposes of God. They are eager to
run but not sure how to get started.
Others attend church but are weary or burned out from
living a busy or self-focused Christian life without seeing
the life change or the world change they long for.
Some have lost interest in attending church and feel
the established church has lost its relevance, but they
themselves long to be relevant in the world, to make a
difference.
Most long for a taste of Gods power and presence unlike
anything theyve ever known.
Many believe they are not qualified or gifted enough to be
used by God in big ways.
Did you find yourself in this list? If I missed your description,
but you too feel that something is missing in your spiritual life,
take a few minutes to articulate the problem. Do it now. Write it
in! Because until you can identify your current condition, how can
you move forward?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
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UNSTOPPABLE
than ever. The surprise of this divine relay is that just when you
think youve finished your leg of the race, you discover that the
best part is still ahead, that God had so much more in mind for you
than you ever imagined. The ride is so wild and thrilling that the
more I run, the more my passion grows to run even more.
If you dont have a spiritual passion burning inside you today,
challenging you, leaving you wowed and honored to be doing your
work for the Lord, youre missing the thrill of running your part
in the race. If thats the case, then please work through this book
with a seeking, open heart and an outstretched, open hand.
Dont even wait for the end of the book. Pray now!
Oh Lord, sign me up for my part in the divine relay. Start with my
impossible. Place me in my lane, in my position, in my exchange
zone. Lord, I reach out, palm open, to receive the baton you have
for me. Fuel me with your passion, Lord, and I will run!
Amen?
Amen!
DECISION TIME
If you just prayed that prayer with me and are awaiting your first
baton or if youve been running for a while and have a baton in
hand or are waiting for the next one here are a few questions to
help you become unstoppable while living in the exchange zone.
Why do I hold back from running my race with 100 percent commitment?
Why do I sometimes fail to receive the baton that God
holds out to me?
What do I do with my reluctance to release the baton
given that, when I depend on others, they sometimes let
me down or fail me?
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Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you
know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
1Corinthi ans 15:58
Do you want to find your place? Do you want to know your part
in bringing light and hope and healing into this fractured world?
Do something.
Do anything.
But dont just stand there.
Run!
Pray. Fast. Find a need that needs filling and fill it. Find others
who are running and run with them. Ask God to move your heart
and open your eyes to those other runners who might hand off
batons to you. Just find one thing to do and get started.
God Almighty, who calls you by name, wants to make you a
partner in his eternal work. He invites us to be world-changers by
sharing the good news of eternal life and caring for the needs of a
broken, hurting world. Thats what running the race marked out
for you is all about.
Youve heard Kallis passion and mine. Doing Gods work
leaves us wanting to do more. As we see lives changing through
our efforts, as we see God start with the impossible and go on to
change the world with the baton we are carrying, our passion to
play our part in his divine relay grows even stronger.
Today, when Kalli looks at Katja and sees a young woman who
has learned that God loves her and who has experienced deep healing, Kalli sees how God is using her to change the world. When
she sees that Katja has forgiven the traffickers who deceived, brutalized, and enslaved her, Kalli stands amazed. Because of Kallis
willingness to run her race, something seemingly impossible is
now unfolding in Katjas heart.
The same will be true for you. When you run your race, you
will see the impossible melt away as Gods power is unleashed in
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you and through you to a broken world. Gods plans for your eternal impact on this world are beyond your wildest imagination.
Sound impossible? Of course it is!
But impossible is Gods starting point.
Jesus looked at them and said, With man this is impossible, but
with God all things are possible.
Matthew 19:26
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CHAPTER 3
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broken family, starving for affection, and feeling used and worthless, Kalli sought to escape her pain through drug abuse.
This is the woman who, in chapter 2, answered the desperate
call from Katja. Do you believe this? I couldnt make this stuff up!
Something changed that drastically altered the course of Kallis life. Her father a drug-dealing human trafficker accepted
Christ. He had a total God encounter, and with it came a dramatic
life change. Gods call to Kallis father, and his acceptance of that
call, led him to carry the baton of faith into Kallis life, where it
multiplied. After witnessing the radical change in her fathers life,
Kalli surrendered her own life to Jesus and became a Christian at
the age of twenty-three.
Kalli joined a church, and, thanks to the influence of church
leaders and teachers who were doing their part in the divine
relay, she began to run her race. This brought her to the point of
stepping into the spiritual exchange zone of wanting to be used
by God to help others. One exchange zone led to the next, one
baton to the next, and so she was running in the exchange zone
when, at the age of forty-one, she reached out and grasped the
A21 baton.
Now lets step back and consider the one who brought the gospel to Kallis father. We dont know his name, but God does. And
of course there was someone who carried the gospel to that person,
and the person before. While we dont know their stories, their
qualifications, their sins, their flaws and obstacles and struggles,
we do know that one after another, they each stepped into their
own exchange zone, received the baton of faith, and passed it forward until it landed in Kallis outstretched hand. Do you see how
the divine relay stretches back?
And now Katja a once broken and abused sex slave
having received the baton from Kalli, is running her own race,
carrying on the baton. To whom will she carry it? We can only
imagine, but God knows. Katja is one of many girls whove been
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helped through Kallis work at A21. They have all moved forward,
many of them coming to faith and carrying their batons as well.
Some are carrying their batons in Greece. Others are in Bulgaria,
Nigeria, the US, Australia, South Africa, the UK, Norway, the
Ukraine, and Asia.
Do you see how the divine relay stretches forward? Are you
beginning to get the picture of how big, how huge, how interconnected and unstoppable it is? Each runners efforts are multiplied many times over. Each handoff opens limitless possibilities
for future handoffs that spin off in multiple directions, carrying
Gods work across the globe in ways we could never imagine. Gods
Word describes the unstoppable, ongoing nature of the divine
relay, touching generation after generation with these words:
One generation commends your works to another; they tell of
your mighty acts. . . . All your works praise you, Lord; your faithful people extol you. They tell of the glory of your kingdom and
speak of your might, so that all people may know of your mighty
acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. Your kingdom is
an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all
generations.
Psalm 145:4, 10 13
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He makes sure that the disciples recognize the limitations they are
facing. Often it is when we come face-to-face with our limitations
that we give up, thinking all is lost. But when we recognize our
limitations, then we also recognize when God demonstrates his
limitless power. Until we hit our limit, we often assume we can
provide, we can deliver, and we can produce.
What are you facing today that brings you face-to-face with
your limitations, leaving you questioning how qualified you are
to make a difference in this broken world? Is it a broken past? A
dream that has died? A lack of time, money, education, leadership
skills, influence, or confidence? We must never assess a difficulty
in light of our own resources but in light of Gods resources. You
can step boldly into the exchange zone not because you have no
limits (we all have plenty!) but because Gods resources are limitless.
Jesus accepted the five loaves and two fishes, small though they
were. One packed lunch. A meager amount of food. It was all the
boy had, but he offered it all. If the boy had kept his little lunch, it
would have remained little. If you keep your little, it will remain
little as well. But if you step into the exchange zone ready to offer
what little you have to be used by God in moving the baton forward, your little will be multiplied as you run.
When the boy gave his little to Jesus, Jesus blessed it, and it
became much in his hands. It is never about how little we have. It
is about what our little has the potential to become in the hands of
a miracle-working God. Dont focus on what you dont have, what
you cant do, what isnt enough. Just offer your not enough to
God, and he will multiply it into more than enough. Thats what
happens when you are living in the exchange zone, offering yourself to be used by God.
I love this next part! Do you know the first thing Jesus did with
that meager offering? He looked up to heaven and gave thanks to
God for the little he was given by the boy. I wonder what it was
like for that boy to see his meager meal held up to the heavens by
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were leftovers! Listen to what Jesus said when everyone had been
filled and satisfied:
He said to his disciples, Gather the pieces that are left over. Let
nothing be wasted.
John 6:12
Did you hear Jesus words? Let nothing be wasted. So precious to the Lord are our offerings, our broken pieces, that even
when hes multiplied them into an overabundance, he puts every
bit of it to good use. The next time you are tempted to withhold your contribution to the kingdom, believing it to be too
small or too broken to make a difference, dont forget that not
only will God celebrate, bless, and multiply your contribution,
he will also value every little bit of it. God never wastes what we
offer to him.
All four of the disciples who wrote the Gospels Matthew,
Mark, Luke, and John record this miraculous hillside feeding,
and all report the number of people fed as five thousand men,
which did not include the women and children. Matthew 14:21
makes that very clear: The number of those who ate was about
five thousand men, besides women and children.
Have you ever noticed that part of the verse? I used to think,
Why didnt they count everybody? Why only the men? Until a powerful realization occurred to me.
Whose lunch was it that Jesus multiplied? It was a child who
gave his meager lunch an uncounted boy! The disciples did not
count the very one whom God had moved into position to release
his miracle.
Isnt that just like God to use people whom other people do
not count?
You may think you are too insignificant to count when it comes
to God handing off batons. But God counts you. He more than
counts you. God counts on you. The uncounted count. You matter.
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Theres no reason to hold back, lingering on the sidelines rather
than expectantly taking your position in the exchange zone. Be
confident that God will take your little and make it much.
Are your resources too limited to change the world? Great. His
resources are limitless. Do you not have enough to offer him? No
problem. God multiplies your not enough into more than enough.
Do you doubt the value of your contribution, wondering what
you could possibly do to help in Gods kingdom work? Offer yourself joyfully, knowing that God celebrates your gifts to him and
blesses them, no matter how meager.
Are you broken, thinking you are too wounded to be qualified
to serve? The miracle is in the breaking. What has been broken,
God is able to multiply for his purposes.
Do you feel so used up and worn down that all you have left to
offer are your leftovers? Marvelous. God values your leftovers and
never wastes one morsel of what you have to offer.
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UNSTOPPABLE
RUNNING THE RACE YOU WERE BORN TO WIN
By Christine Caine
Each of us has a race to run in life. But this is a different
kind of race. Its more than a competition, greater than
a sporting event. Its a race with eternal implications
a sprint to destiny.
But many times in our race, were burdened and
intimidated by lifes challenges along the way. The task
seems too tough, the path too perilous, the race too
rigorous.
What if you knew the outcome of the race before it
began? What if victory was promised before the starting
gun ever sounded? This truth would change the way you
live your life revolutionize the way you run your race.
No matter what you face, refuse to give up, because
youre running a race you were destined to win.
In Unstoppable, bestselling author, global evangelist,
and human-trafficking activist, Christine Caine, enthralls
us with true stories and eternal principles that inspire us
to run the race of our lives, receiving the baton of faith
in sync with our team, the body of Christ.
Your race is now. This is your moment. When you run
with God in His divine relay, you cant lose. Youre
running the race you were born to win. Its time to run a
new way. Its time to realize . . . you are unstoppable.
Learn More