The Choice is Yours

Acts 13:44-52

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%2013%3A44-52&version=NIV;NLT

 

 

Last week, when all the buzz was about the upcoming Ohio State/Penn State football game, the host of a local sports radio talk show told how he and his wife had recently

celebrated their daughter’s first birthday. Of course, even at the age of one, she is a HUGE Buckeye fan!

 

 

The brother-in-law, who IS a huge University of Michigan fan, gave his niece a stuffed U of M teddy bear and U of M pajamas. The mom was incensed, and told her brother that he wasted his money; that no daughter of hers would ever use anything with U of M on it.

 

The question was posed: Was it more important to be polite, or to ream out her brother? All the callers agreed… she did the right thing. But here’s the question that came to my mind: What is most important - family or football; relationships or rivalry?

 

In the Acts 13 passage, the phrase “the word of the Lord”, is repeated multiple times

implying the importance of it.

 

The word of the Lord gave Paul strength and focus in his life and ministry. It helped him to weather the hard times and move forward with purpose and power. It enabled him to be used by God impacting the lives of both Jews and Gentiles. Without the word of the Lord, Paul would have continued down his path of persecution, rather the road of redemption. Paul was a force to be reckoned with because of the word of the Lord.

 

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.            John 1:14 NIV

 

Here’s how The Message interprets the first line of this verse: “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” That picture brings it home and makes it very personal. The point is that the word of the Lord can’t be ignored.

 

So, regardless of whether you are a Buckeye fan or not, you must ask yourself the question - what is most important to me; the word of the Lord, or something else?

 

The choice is yours, but keep in mind that your answer will be life-changing.

 

(If God has spoken to you through this blog, please feel free to share the link with others.)

http://lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

The god of Our Own Creation

Revelation 1:12-20

 

 

In Columbus, Ohio, and throughout the Buckeye nation, if you are an Ohio State football player, you are idolized; and on Saturdays, you are worshiped. When the Shoe is filled with over 106,000 rabid fans; when TBDBITL forms Script Ohio; when the Buckeyes score their first touchdown; the god of football is in its throne.

 

As humans, we tend to put many things ahead of God in our life; we tend to make idols; to make a god of our own creation. People have made idols since the beginning of time. Isaiah wrote this about carpenters who made idols:

 

¹⁶ Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” ¹⁷ From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!”         Isaiah 44:16-17 NIV

 

We may not make our idols out of wood or stone or gold or silver; but don’t ever doubt

that we still make idols. It could be football, work, family, church or addictions like drugs, alcohol, gambling and sex. The potential list is endless. The difference between these idols, or gods, and Jesus is that He is the Living One.

 

“Only God can do the impossible and bring life from nonlife. Just as He breathed human life into the dust of the ground in Genesis, so also He conceived life in a virgin’s womb”. (From Today in the Word devotional.)

 

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸ I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.            Revelation 1:17-18 NIV

 

What god of our own creation can do this? Only Jesus, the Living One, can reach out and touch our heart to draw us to him; to mold and shape us; to lead and guide us; to give us strength to face our daily challenges. Only Jesus can. Therefore, “Do not be afraid”.

 

 

 

 

 

Elite Athletes

Psalm 8

 

Two weeks ago a record number of Ohio State University football players were drafted by the National Football League. Each one is an elite athlete in his own right. Each one exceled at the top of the college level and those that know talent best, believe they will excel at the next level.

 

However, not everybody that plays football has that kind of talent. In fact, most people don’t. According to the NCAA website, of the total number of NCAA student athletes playing football, only 1.9% will play professionally. Basketball is even a smaller percentage.

 

These are not very good odds. In fact, for the majority of high school athletes, they could easily feel intimidated and overwhelmed. They could feel like a miniscule nobody in an eternal universe of stars.

 

^3 “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, ⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?”             NIV

 

One of the life lessons of being on a sports team is that every player contributes; from the starters to the last player on the bench. The same is true for us as believers in Christ. Every person has an important role to play. Every person has God given talents that they are to use to share and build the Kingdom of God.

 

^5 “You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. ⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet: ⁷ all flocks and herds, and the animals of the wild, ⁸ the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.”    NIV

 

Because God has created us in His image, we hold a position of great honor. He has

called us to serve Him with authority and responsibility.

 

In the Parable of the talents, Jesus tells the story about the master who gave talents to his three servants while he was away. To the two who invested their talents, the master responded by saying, ²³ “Well done, good and faithful servant!” But to the third servant who hid his talent he said, ²⁶ “You wicked, lazy servant.”        

 

In the world of following God, we are all elite athletes as long as we use the talents He has given us. Will you be a responsible steward of your time, talent and treasures? Will the Lord say to you on that day, “Well done, good and faithful servant”?

 

 

 

At Just the Right Time

Romans 5:6-8

 

 

If you Google “at just the right time” these images, amongst others, will appear.

 

The same Google brings up these verses:

 

“You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”            Romans 5:6 NIV

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”      Galatians 4:4-5 NIV

“For God says, “At just the right time, I heard you. On the day of salvation, I helped you.” Indeed, the “right time” is now. Today is the day of salvation.”      

2 Corinthians 6:2 NLT

 

You may have observed something similar in your own life; that is, sometimes things seem to happen “at just the right time”; like there is a plan. The fact is, the Bible is the story of God’s plan of Redemption where things happen “at just the right time”. The corollary to this fact is, that YOU and I are a part of this plan.

 

God has worked in your life and in mine to bring us into faith in Christ. He brought people and experiences into our lives that changed us. In turn, He continues to work by bringing you and me into the lives of others to use us in their life.

 

It might be when you are talking around the water cooler at work, having a cookout

with your neighbors, at a church dinner, sitting at a Buckeyes game or playing in a golf outing through work. We don’t live in a vacuum. God is always at work, and His work is “at just the right time”.

 

In today’s passage, Paul wrote, ^“Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

“While we were still sinners”… You have the best story ever to share with a dying

world. It’s your story of how God has been at work in your life. He did it “at just the right time”, and now He is ready for you to be there for somebody else.



How does it feel to be a part of God’s plan of redemption?