P.S. Per the past two posts, while this year’s NBA Playoffs were wonderful to watch, what was whacky was how often many of the players – grown men, mind you, and among the most athletic in the world to boot – would fake being fouled! And they’d take the act to the max by arguing vehemently to the refs, who were (almost always) onto their antics and would just stare at them, literally looking right through them.
I haven’t seen so much flopping since the last time I went fishing!
I have the PERFECT theme song for them! And me and all of us who feel like we frequently find ourselves falling down from time to time, be that physically and phonily on a basketball court or spiritually on the battlefield of life.
Praise the Lord for always being able, willing, ready and eager to pick us right back up when we stumble or slip in our walk with Him, if we simply ask.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” [i.e., to pick us back up!] (1 John 1:9)
The second sort of player that has impressed me these playoffs in particular has been some phenomenal role players.
For those not familiar with basketball, most teams’ “starting five” is comprised of at least three and often four role players, not “stars”. In other words, most starting squads only have one or at most two true “stars”, phenoms, basketball beasts. The only exception I can recall of three or more superstars on the same team would be the Boston Celtics and L.A. Lakers of yesteryear, especially the 1980’s: Robert Parrish and Dennis Johnson (combined)? Check. Kevin McHale? Check. Larry Bird? Ten check-marks. James Worthy? Yep. Kareem? Definitely. Magic Johnson? Ten check-marks, like Larry. But teams usually have just one or, if they’re blessed beyond belief, two. Like Jordan and Pippen (then just throw ANY other three players for the starting squad and any half-dozen for the bench like the Chicago Bulls of the 1990’s did and you’re sure to bag not one but two “threepeats” – and it no doubt would’ve been “eight straight” had MJ not retired for the two seasons in between). Or Shaq and Penny (Orlando) or Shaq and Kobe (Los Angeles). Or, most recently of course, Tatum and Brown for the storied Celtics.
Yes, it’s nice to have TWO superstars… but even then a team won’t be able to pull off a string of superlative seasons if they don’t surround them (or him, in the case of Nikola Jokic when the Denver Nuggets won it all last year [since Jamal Murray was out with an injury that season] or Dirk Nowitzki when the Dallas Mavericks won it all in 2011) with great ROLE players!
These are the players who aren’t nearly so celebrated and famous (and well-paid) as the superstars, but are absolutely imperative to team triumph.
Unsung heroes.
Helpers who show up game after game after game and fulfill one or more purposes for the team. Perhaps passing for a point guard, or defense and rebounding and blocking for a big man, or a wing who can shoot the lights out from three-point range. (Or ALL OF THE ABOVE in the case of the Celtic’s Derrick White… or, except for the 3’s, Jrue Holiday, a born-again brother in Christ I’m pretty sure.)
And this year’s Playoffs in particular pressed upon my mind how crucial, how vital it is for us as the Church, the Christian community, to have great ROLE PLAYERS! Yes, the “superstars” named MacArthur or Graham or Jeffress or Swindoll or Solomon or several others in the past half-century, or Spurgeon or Calvin or Luther, Edwards, Wesley or Whitfield before that, it’s definitely fantastic to have them on the team, great “floor generals” on the spiritual “playing field” for sure. But where would they be and far more importantly, where would the Church be without the countless – and mostly nameless – “role players” of the past two thousand years, since God used Paul and Peter and James and John to start then expand the body of Christ on earth, the Church?
When you go to church each week or as you’re representing Christ to unsaved co-workers or neighbors each day, please never forget or DISCOUNT the utter importance of role players, plentiful in pews across the country and globe, perhaps deprived of “glory” but it’s even exponentially better to get that in the life to come, in eternity, in heaven, rather than here on earth.
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them[i.e., motive]; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. [I.e., God] … And when you pray, you are not to be as the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners, in order to be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees in secret will repay you. … And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance in order to be seen fasting by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But you, when you fast, anoint your head, and wash your face so that you may not be seen fasting by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.” (Just a few of the verses from Matthew 6:1-21, a potently powerful passage)
And ending by bringing us back to the previous (“Part One”) post, while memorizing the entire Bible for the first time in human history might thrust me into the ranks of a “superstar” in the minds of many, I have and will continue to view myself as a ROLE player… and one who comes off the BENCH at that! But that truth of the matter is this:
I’m overjoyed and thrilled and honored and humbled just to be on the team. The team who’s currently being led by MacArthur and company just quoted, and whose Coach is Christ.
The ultimate Substitute per the prior post, and the ultimate Superstar of all time and every aspect of life, even when He was setting aside the voluntary use of His inherent Diety and living as a human like you and me, minus the sin.
The 2024 NBA (pro basketball) Championship Series (“Finals”) has just begun, and one of the most impressive things I’ve seen in this year’s playoffs has been how crucially so-called “bench players” have contributed to the winning team’s success in each series so far.
For those who don’t play or watch basketball, NBA bench players are the handful of fellows who free up the first-string “starters” for foul-trouble or breath-catching breaks throughout a game, which is why they’re also commonly called “substitutes” or “subs” or “substitute players”.
And as I’ve watched them do their thing for these past four or five weeks of the season-finishing playoffs, my mind keeps coming back to how Jesus – the very essence of holiness and perfection – became a substitute for US by willingly and lovingly volunteering to vault over that humanly-unclearable bar (sinless perfection) so one day we will join Him in heaven for all eternity, thus escaping humanity’s truly due and deserved destiny of hell.
“He [i.e., God the Father] made Him [i.e., God the Son, Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on OUR behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Corinthians 5:21, emphasis added)
“… while we were yet sinners, Christ died for US.” (Romans 5:8b)
Jesus Christ is the ULTIMATE Substitute…
“… we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself IS the PROPITIATION[i.e., substitute!]for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1c-2)
… who offered and freely gave His own human life and body and blood in our stead…
“… having made peace through the blood of His cross… He has now reconciled you in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Him holy and blameless and beyond reproach” (Colossians 1:20b,22)
“For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who GAVE HIMSELF as a RANSOM[i.e., substitute!]for all…” (1 Timothy 2:5-6a)
… so our souls could be saved and spared the certain “wages” (result) of sin, which is death – physical and spiritual.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Christ made this ultimate substitution – the Blameless for the blameworthy, the Sinless for the sinners, He “who knew no sin” for those who knew nothing BUT sin – on the Cross, atop a haltingly haunting-turned-thrill-inducing hill called Calvary.
[If that song seemed “sleepy”, this one will wake you up…]
[…and please don’t miss the big blessing of THIS third and final song, I think it just might melt or mend your heart… (it definitely melted mine!)]
Like I said, the ultimate Substitute!
Our all-in-all, our Everything,
Jesus is our God and King.
For Him – and Him alone – we sing,
Because He crushed death’s pow’r and sting;
To Him our hearts we humbly bring –
Yes, Jesus is our God and King.
And bringing this post full circle by ending where we began (basketball), there’s a similar-but-distinct second sort of player who has impressed me throughout these Playoffs, which I’ll write about in the next post so stay tuned (as they say in the TV biz 🙂 ) …
Now more than ever in my lifetime, plenty of people presume that talking more is okay, that it’s good, that it’s better – but the Bible has a blistering boatload of bad news for them; you see, not only is talking more NOT better, NOT good, and not even just OKAY… it’s WORSE! Much, much worse…
… because it’s G-U-A-R-A-N-T-E-E-D to lead to SIN!
“When there are many words, transgression (!!!) is U-N-A-V-O-I-D-A-B-L-E.” (Proverbs 10:19a, emphasis added)
But wait, there’s more!
“And about these also Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, ‘Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.'” (Jude 14-15)
And the Lord Jesus Himself went even further, broadening it to not just words spoken against Him but “every careless word” a person speaks!
“And I say to you, that every careless word that men shall speak, they shall render account for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)
But the Bible goes EVEN FURTHER to say something so stark and significant that it’s super-startling:
“Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is counted prudent.” (Proverbs 17:28)
Even with just a cursory scan through Proverbs, one will quickly come to a crystal clear conclusion: nothing in life is so dire and dooming and destructive and deadly as folly. Yet this verse provides the antidote! This verse says that there’s something which can trump and topple even folly: the tongue. Specifically, NOT USING IT!
And that those who DO are DOOMED to suffer the horrific consequences.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21)
Not only in the life to come (as we saw in the passage above, from Matthew) but also in this life.
I think that the utterly dangerous, destructive, disastrous, and downright deadly potential of the tongue is probably most poignantly put forth in these verses (fittingly, from another earthly brother of Jesus, like just-quoted Jude):
“Now if we put the bits into the horses’ mouths so that they may obey us, we direct their entire body as well. Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, are still directed by a very small rudder, wherever the inclination of the pilot desires. So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison.” (James 3:3-8, emphasis added)
Yikes! Clearly, we would be wise to heed the pure and powerful words of warning in a certain Sunday school song from yesteryear and “be careful little tongues what you say.”
http://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.png00Bible Memoryhttp://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.pngBible Memory2024-05-22 16:57:262024-06-03 17:37:22The (Mind-Popping, Pervasive, Palpable, Pitfall-Prone) Power of the Tongue
A lot of people live life as though their faith is a very nice perk.
But a perk nonetheless.
They seem to view it as “free” in the sense of not costing them anything. But the Lord Jesus rejected that common conception with crystal clarity, confirming that Christianity comes with a cost: not in terms of what we do (it definitely can’t be bought or earned in any way or extent) but rather it terms of what we don’t.
Here are four things which a Christian must (must!) reject, between which we must choose, these four things or God, i.e., we can’t serve, love, or primarily focus on both… yep, it’s a binary choice as discussed in the previous post, A or B.
Each and every believer must choose between:
God or money/mammon/wealth (i.e., that isn’t used for His purposes and will and work, not wealth that is – as has been beautifully and properly proven through the years, from Abraham to Joseph of Arimathea to Joe Gibbs of NFL and racing fame, Norm Miller of Interstate Battery [and now his son Scott seems to solidly be carrying on that tradition] and Steve Green [of Hobby Lobby and Museum of the Bible fame]).
“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24, emphasis added)
God or sinful pleasure
“lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God” (2 Timothy 3:4b)
“in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.” (2 Thessalonians 2:12)
God or the world (i.e., the worldly system or possessions…)
“Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” (1 John 2:15)
…and James puts it just as clearly and using even stronger language in his Epistle:
“You adulteresses [i.e., people who pray with wrong/worldly/selfish motives], do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
God or our friends or family or even our own lifein terms of the “pole position”, of who or what takes precedence in our life, which is why the Lord Jesus made the two following statements, really wise words of warning: Christ comes FIRST, and Count the cost FIRST (before becoming a Christian, before consummating that commitment… see, I told ya there’s a cost! But infinitely more importantly, the Lord told us!)
“If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life [i.e., compared to how much one loves the Lord, i.e., one’s love for even family and even one’s own life should be so much less by comparison that one’s love for those other things seems like hatred], he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower [or house], does not first sit down and calculate the cost, to see if he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ Or what king, when he sets out to meet another king in battle, will not first sit down and take counsel whether he is strong enough with ten thousand men to encounter the one coming against him with twenty thousand? Or else [i.e., if the answer is no], while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks terms of peace. So therefore, no one of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions. [i.e., for the sake and purposes of the Kingdom and will and work of God]” (Luke 14:26-33)
I don’t know how often or deeply the powers-that-be at Mercedes-Benz browse the Bible, but one of their most famous taglines could’ve come straight from this passage, that we must give the Lord our ALL, or nothing at all (in effect); that we must give the Lord our BEST or nothing.
True Christians:
1. Count the (considerable) cost
2. Commit (completely) to Christ
Here’s a phrase which many of you who follow politics have no doubt already begun to hear quite a bit and of which the rest of the citizenry is about to get a big, double-dog-dare-ya-to-disregard dose during this election year: “binary choice”.
“Not enthused with either presidential (or congressional or local) candidate and therefore don’t plan to vote for Trump? Then you’re in essence voting for Biden!” Or, “Not going to vote for Biden? Then you’re in effect voting for Trump!”
In other words, because we (U.S.) only have two major political parties, it ends up being a binary choice virtually every time.
Regardless of how good or bad either or both candidates on the ballot might be… if you don’t vote for the one, then in practical terms you’re helping elect the other, and vice versa.
But far, far, far more important and weighty than any political battle is the fact that this concept also holds true on the spiritual battlefield.
The Bible comes to a crystal clear conclusion: each person faces several binary choices in life which will largely determine how they fare not just emotionally or relationally or physically but also spiritually… here are four of them.
Pray – or be prey.
“Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation … Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour[i.e., to PREY upon] … Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil … With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit…” (Matthew 26:41a; 1 Peter 5:8b; Ephesians 6:11,18a)
Be humble – or be humbled.
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.” (Matthew 23:12)
“And He [Jesus] began speaking a parable to the invited guests when He noticed how they had been picking out the places of honor at the table; saying to them, When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invited by him, and he who invited you both shall come and say to you, “Give [that/your] place to this man,” and then in disgrace you proceed to occupy the last [i.e., worst, lowliest] place. But when you are invited, go and recline at the last place, so that when the one who has invited you comes, he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher”; then you will have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you. For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted.'” (Luke 14:7-11)
Be forgiving – or be unforgiven.
“Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me. Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. o shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not FORGIVE his brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:32-35)
“For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.” (James 2:13)
“The merciful man does HIMSELF good, but the cruel man does himself harm.” (Proverbs 11:17)
Meditation – or medication.
“For they [the “my words” of verse 20, i.e., God’s words and Word, the Bible] are life to those who find them, and health to all their wholebody.” (Proverbs 4:22)
“Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” (Psalm 119:11)
“O how I love Thy law!” [i.e., the Bible] It is my meditation all the day.(Psalm 119:97)
“But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. And he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:2-3)
“This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it; for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.” (Joshua 1:8)
If we want to fulfill the following verse and “finish strong” and receive a waiting reward, a literal crown…
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.” (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
… then it’s absolutely crucial that we choose correctly when it comes to binary choices, in which inaction is tantamount to losing.
In other words, we will wisely want to “finish the course” – all 18 holes, as it were – and thus put in a GREAT FINISH in this life, in light of the one (and the One) to come.
We don’t want to be like this year’s (yesterday’s) Masters pro golf tournament which looked certain to be headed for a fantastic finish when, with around just nine holes left to play, not one, not two, not even three but an unheard-of FOUR players were all tied for the lead (at -6).
“Four co-leaders with just the BACK NINE to play? It’s going to be one whale of a finish!”
Then three of them watched their golf game fall apart. Despite how excellent it had been for each of them the previous 3.5 rounds.
And, sadly, that’s exactly how it is for far too many Christians: strong (and, often, very strong) start, weak finish.
To paraphrase the verse above, “No good.”
Not good enough.
Not good at all.
Because, you see, it’s not how one starts that really counts, it’s how one finishes.
The silver lining yesterday was that, while three of the four down-the-stretch co-leaders fell apart, the other one – a brother in Christ no less, named Scottie Scheffler, the #1-ranked golfer in the world even before yesterday’s major win – “finished strong” after making great choice (wood or iron?) after great choice (go for the pin or lay up?) after great choice (wedge or putter from just off the green?).
May we too heed the advice of a fictional yet fully factual phrase from a (very) old knight and “choose wisely” when it comes to the binary choices we face week in and week out.
Yes, exactly! We must choose. May we choose wisely. Per the precious passages cited above, so that we will “finish strong” in this life in light of the one to come and thus receive the crown of righteousness.
(That’s even far greater than golf’s “green jacket”!)
http://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.png00Bible Memoryhttp://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.pngBible Memory2024-04-15 18:07:562024-04-26 18:35:48"A orB": Four Binary Choices (and one Great Finish?)
I don’t usually watch golf on TV with two exceptions: the U.S. Open and The Masters, two of the sport’s four “major” tournaments.
I enjoy both but the latter is a slight favorite since it occurs right around Resurrection Sunday (Easter) each Spring, and occurs first of the four, a fitting “kick-off” to the serious golf season.
After a couple-hour rain delay, this year’s Masters finally got going and it has been a great first round so far and while watching (wistfully… I could never play like those pros) my mind immediately meditated on this tournament’s title and it got me thinking of four main matters or motives or aspects of life which may become more important than they should, which may become “masters” of far too many minds and lives:
Pride
“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before stumbling. It is better to be of a humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.” (Proverbs 16:18-19)
“Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled” (Matthew 23:12a)
Power
“ALL authority has been given to Me” [i.e., NOT thee!] (Matthew 28:18b)
“For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.” [i.e., power is Thine, NOT mine!] ()
“He who is the blessed and ONLY Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15b)
Profit
“For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36)
“No one can serve two masters[i.e., ding ding ding]; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon [i.e., money, wealth].” (Matthew 6:24)
“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)
Pleasure
“For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to [i.e., mastered by] various lusts and ” (Titus 3:3a)
But did you know that roughly two thousand years ago the Bible PREDICTED that people would fall prey to these “4 P’s”? And all four in the very same passage:
“But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self [i.e., power!], lovers of money [i.e., profit!], boastful [i.e., pride!], arrogant [i.e., pride!], revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited [i.e., pride!], lovers of pleasure [pleasure!] rather than lovers of God…” (2 Timothy 3:1-4)
So for those of you who, like me, will be watching much of The Masters golf major over these next few days, may we wisely examine ourselves, our minds, our lives, to ensure that these four masters – or any others! – haven’t and don’t get a grip over us… or as the precious Apostle Paul poignantly put it:
“I will not be mastered by anything.” (1 Corinthians 6:12d)
To those of you who will be glued to golf these next few days I say…
Per plenty of published projections predicting a pretty plump path, people from Maine to Texas (local cloud cover-contingent) are set to see quite a sight: just two hours from now, day will literally become night. In a tad over “the blink of an eye” (but close!) daylight will turn to darkness.
For a few fast minutes anyway.
That’s right, it’s Solar Eclipse Day as mass media outlets have been breathlessly blaring with tremendous anticipation all weekend in particular; the event is about to arrive with full scientific force but here’s what’s filling my mind this monumental moment:
how in the world can any rational, brain-possessing person actually believe that there is no God, that nature – on any day but perhaps particularly and most poignantly an eye-popping planetary event like the imminent Solar Eclipse – is a product of mere coincidence! Preposterous. Impossible.
the utter, sheer, peerless power of Omnipotent God.
just as a solar eclipse can block our planet from the Sun, so also sin can block our life from the Son.
I view this as just the latest (and so far “greatest”?) “small mercy” being given by God to humanity, worldwide, as planetary, astronomical events like this tend to turn the attention and focus of the masses upward, to the skies, literally to heaven and thus the throne therein and the Lord who sits thereon. I view the terror attacks of 9/11 in 2001 and the (very unexpected, “totally unlikely”) massive box office success of The Passion of the Christ in 2004 and of course the Covid pandemic in 2020 in particular in a similar way, i.e., God’s gracious attempts to “smack humanity in the face” not to punish or discipline but to wake it out of its decades-long spiritual slumber. To “shake” it out of its spiritual stupor as if to say, “I’m coming soon! Behold, I’m standing at the doorstep, knocking, giving anyone and everyone the opportunity to freely let me into the home of their heart, to single-handedly helm your soul and spirit from this moment for all eternity.”
Which nicely brings us to the meat, the main point of this post: may we use this stellar solar event with worldwide watching to “examine ourselves” to see if we are indeed redeemed, to pinpoint where we stand on the spiritual spectrum – such a solemn subject and by far the most important of this entire life – or at least come quite close to confirming which kind of person we are of the four types among mankind, as follows, and to act accordingly:
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a fool, shun him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a child, teach him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows is asleep, awaken him.
He who knows and knows that he knows is a wise man, follow him.
… in other words, to heed the Holy Spirit’s and Paul’s pointed words of warning to wisely…
“Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Corinthians 13:5a)
Paul uses an exclamation point.
God uses solar eclipses and other such events to get our attention, to “shake us and wake us” to a few fine facts…
How small and puny people are in the grand scheme of things, how truly little our lives are by comparison.
How helpless we are without Him, especially spiritually.
How much we need Him in every aspect and facet of life – this one and the (much, much, much, much, much longer) one to come.
How mighty and matchless and masterful and all-powerful He is.
Or as countless singers (like the Statler Brothers) have sung to the Lord for 75 years now: How great Thou art, Lord! How. Great. Thou. Art.
http://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.png00Bible Memoryhttp://biblememory.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/IMAGE-LOGO-BMO-PNG-3701x4004-IMPROVED-with-extended-y-underlines-Human-Head-with-Bible-on-multi-colored-Brain-Lobes-all-atop-Domain-Name-277x300.pngBible Memory2024-04-08 13:43:552024-04-08 16:47:58Four Types (and one Solar Eclipse)
As everyone learned while watching the first Iraq war in 1991, there are four factors in life, in strategizing, in planning:
known knowns
known unknowns
unknown knowns
unknown unknowns
Those first two are pretty easy for obvious reasons.
That third one can be more challenging but still isn’t at all scary since study and analysis can provide the answers and solution.
That fourth one is what wearies people in their planning efforts throughout life. The “unknown unknowns”. But thankfully, we Christians needn’t lose even one wink of sleep over even those since, while “we may not know what the future holds, we know who holds the future.”
Thank You, Lord, for Your loving, infinite, endless sovereignty! Which makes navigating life “easy as pie”, a proverbial “piece of cake” as they say. That’s so true. Thank You for the countless ways Your sovereignty is demonstrated day by day but especially in Your plan for the salvation of man: from our Lord’s very specifically and long-prophesied birth to your sinless life to your substitutionary death to Your true and literal resurrection from the dead on the third day, You were in total and complete control, Heavenly Father, fully sovereign, and I can’t thank You profusely or often enough that such continues even to this very day, even in our far smaller lives and situations. Just like You demonstrated it on that first Resurrection Sunday.
