Who’s Holding Your Football?

A series on the story of redemption – Part II
The story of Abraham – #2
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 22 

[Everybody has a story. Even God has one. His is a story about love and redemption and faithfulness. In this series we are going to take a closer look at God’s story through the lives of the people that He touched. How their story became His story of redemption. And how your story is also a part of it.] 

 

There’s a famous Charlie Brown cartoon strip where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown while he kicks it. However, every time that he approaches the ball, she pulls it away. The result is that Charlie Brown falls flat on his back.

 

Sometimes life feels just like that. We put our trust in someone and just when we need them the most, they pull the ball away so that we fall flat on our back. It especially hurts when we keep trusting the person and they keep betraying our trust.

 

Abraham may have felt like that. The Lord called him to leave his home and go to a land where he had never been. He had no idea what would happen once he arrived. But he uprooted his wife, family, servants and livestock by faith in the Lord’s promise.

 

¹ The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.

² “I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.        Genesis 12    NIV

 

However, after they arrived there was a famine in the land. Because of this Abraham moved again, this time to Egypt. There were plenty of fields for his livestock to graze, but there was one problem. Sarah was beautiful and Abraham feared for his life. So, he told her to lie and say that she was his sister.

 

Abraham faced many other trials during his journey to the new land. Not the least of which was when he got impatient with the Lord to fulfill His promise to give him a child. Unwilling to wait any longer, Abraham took Sarah’s Egyptian servant as his wife. Did Abraham feel the football being pulled away again?

 

Twenty-five years after Abraham initially moved to Canaan, Sarah finally became pregnant. Their son was a child of the promise. Sarah was thrilled and named him Isaac, which means “he laughs”. But once again the football was pulled away.

 

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”                  NIV

 

It took Abraham three days of walking to reach the location where he was to sacrifice his son. Just as he raised the knife, the Lord provided a ram to take the place of Isaac.

 

¹³ Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So, he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. ¹⁴ Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”         NLT

 

Finally, the football wasn’t pulled away. The Lord was faithful and provided a substitution for the sacrifice. In the same way, he has provided a substitution of his only son whom he loved as a sacrifice to take our place.

 

⁹ God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. ¹⁰ This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.           1 John 4                  NLT

 

Who’s holding your football – Lucy or Yahweh-Yireh?

 

Copyright 2024 Joseph B Williams

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

 

A Mighty Warrior

 

Continuing a Series on Living by Faith
 (Use the link below to read the verses.)
Judges 6:1-16; Hebrews 11:32

 [Hebrews 11 is a recounting of the Heroes of the Faith. Even though they never saw what they had been promised, each person is commended for living “by faith”. At the end of these commendations, Hebrews 12 tells us, “Therefore, because you are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… throw off sin; run with perseverance; fix your eyes on Jesus”. In other words, live “by faith”.]

  

In the comic strip Peanuts, there is a famous sequence where Lucy holds a football for Charlie Brown to kick. 

She promises to not pull it back at the last minute. But invariably, she does exactly that. As a result, Charlie Brown completely misses the ball, falling flat on the ground. This comic strip story is repeated over and over again with the same results every time.

 

Life is like that sometimes isn’t it? You and I are Charlie Brown and Lucy is “life”. She represents all the negative things of the year 2020; the virus, the economic upheaval, the social, racial and political unrest.

 

She also represents life outside of 2020 with its unexpected disappointments, losses, pain and broken relationships. The uncertainty of life. And just when we think we can trust the Lord, I mean Lucy, she pulls the football out and we fail again; we cause pain to ourselves and to others; we lose hope.

 

I wonder if the Jews might have felt that same way about the Lord in regards to the Midianites. Year after year, for seven years, the Midianites invaded the Jews in Canaan. Always with the same results. Where was the Lord? Why was He letting this happen to His chosen people?

 

The Jews remembered that the Lord had brought them out of slavery in Egypt with mighty miracles. He had brought them into the Promised Land. And yet, here they were hiding in caves, and in Gideon’s case, a winepress.

 

So what did they do? They cried out to the Lord to save them. But instead of taking military action, the Lord sent a prophet who reminded them of all that the Lord had done in the past, and that they were in this situation because of their own actions; their own sin.

 

Thankfully, the Lord didn’t stop there. He never does. He sent an angel to speak into the life of Gideon. Even though Gideon doesn’t appear to be someone capable of leading the Jews to fight against the marauding Midianites, a violent group of nomads, the Lord speaks into Gideon’s heart by calling him a Mighty Warrior, and promises him this.

 

¹⁴ Then the Lord turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!”

¹⁵ “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” ¹⁶ The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” NLT

 

Gideon is one of my favorite characters in the Bible because he is so relatable. His faith is weak; he’s not a risk taker or a courageous leader. He’s very polite on the outside, but faithless on the inside. He doesn’t stand up to the Midianites like David did to Goliath, and yet in Hebrews, he is considered a Hero of the Faith.

 

So what does Charlie Brown do, what should we do, when life happens? Get back up and try again! But after seven years, or a lifetime, it gets more and more difficult to keep getting back up. However, we must keep trying; keep trusting in the Lord; and remember that the promises given to Gideon are true for you and me.

 

“You are a “Mighty Warrior”, and the Lord will be with you.”

 

 

 

Security Blanket

1 John 5:18-20

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20John%205%3A18-20&version=NIV;NLT

 

 

In the comic strip Peanuts, the character of Linus is always shown carrying his security blanket and sucking his thumb. If a cartoon strip character could have feelings, Linus would have felt protected. We all have insecurities and turn to different things to deal with them; to feel protected.

 

Many people turn to their spouse or significant other. Children naturally look to their parents. Students to their teachers. Addicts to their drug. The haves to their possessions. Many put up an emotional wall to protect themselves from being hurt. Anger, intimidation, abuse – all can be tools of protection.

 

Here’s what John wrote about being protected; about feeling secure.

 

¹⁸ We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. ¹⁹ We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.          NLT

 

We live in a world “under the control of the evil one”. There are dangers everywhere. Yet, as a child of God, we can rest in the assurance, in the security, that our Heavenly Father will protect us.

 

In verses 18-20, there are three “we know” statements in the New Living Translation. The first two are in the above quote. Here’s the third.

 

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.            NLT

 

When you combine these three “we know” statements, here’s what you get: Because we know that God’s Son holds his children securely; because we know that we are God’s child; therefore, we know the true God and live in fellowship with Him.

 

That’s enough knowledge for even Linus to give up his security blanket.