If you truly want to succeed, you can’t allow anything to stop you from pressing ahead toward the fulfillment of God’s revealed will for your life.
The apostle Paul expressed this sentiment in Philippians 3:13,14 when he said, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
The word “apprehended” is from the compound Greek word katalambano. The word kata carries the idea of something that is subjugating or dominating. The word means to take something or to forcibly seize a thing. But when you compound these words into the new word, katalambano literally means to wrap your arms around something and then pull it down, hold it tight, throw it to the ground, tackle it, and conquer it. In other words, katalambano means a dogged, determined fight until you have completely mastered the thing you are trying to conquer.
You and I have never faced difficulties as great as the apostle Paul. But we’ve all faced difficulties. And, just like Paul, regardless of our station in life, we have all been chosen by God to fill a unique place and fulfill a unique purpose in God’s plans for these last days.
Whatever your God-given assignment may be, God has empowered you to complete the task by His grace. If, however, you want to fulfill the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, you must press forward with determination. You must assertively and aggressively work out the plan of God for your life — never losing sight of the fact that determination is the key to your success!
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Rick and Denise met while they were each on an individual quest to wholeheartedly follow God's plan for their lives. Rick was a college student, growing in his teaching ministry. Denise was a talented vocalist. She chose not to pursue a course that held the prospect of performing with the Metropolitan Opera so that she could instead pursue a relationship with Rick and fulfill her heart's desire to enter full-time ministry.
Rick and Denise's friendship has led to lifelong love and a powerful partnership in building the Kingdom of God. After a decade of ministry, first as pastor and then as itinerant ministers, Rick and Denise Renner embarked on an adventure of a lifetime. In January 1991, the Renners and their sons Paul, Philip, and Joel left behind all they knew to relocate their family to serve the region that only weeks earlier had become the former Soviet Union.
Rick and Denise remember kneeling together as a family and kissing the ground when they arrived at the airport in Latvia on that cold January day. At that moment, they all committed their lives to the will of God and to the people of their new homeland. The following year, Rick moved forward to launch and establish the first of its kind, and eventually the largest, a Christian television network in that region of the world.
Over the years, Rick and Denise pioneered three churches, a Bible school, and a ministerial association that serves thousands of Russian-speaking pastors throughout the former USSR as well as parts of the Middle East. As Rick began training and mentoring leaders in the early days, Denise also developed a women's ministry that is actively involved in changing the lives of women and their families today. Specifically, they minister to the needs of orphans, women prisoners, the homeless, and drug-and-alcohol addicts.
Rick, Denise, and their children began as a small circle of five, willing to go beyond their comfort zone to reach the uttermost parts of the world. Today that circle includes their sons' wives, six grandchildren, and a large ministry staff that helps the Renners extend their reach as they exalt Jesus Christ as the Hope of all nations.
