Are You Ready for Some Football?

Isaiah 40:3-5

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah%2040%3A3-5&version=NIV;NLT

 

Football is in the air. High school, college and NFL teams are all preparing for the beginning of their fall season. But preparations began much earlier. The same is true for the Big Ten Network (BTN). They began preparing for the first game of the fall a long time ago.

 

For example, during the month of April each school’s spring game is televised. Then in late July, the two-day Big Ten Media Days are on the air for hours at a time. Once the Media Days are over, programming is peppered with previous years’ regular season games, bowl games and special programs. Finally, for three weeks in August, BTN airs their Bus Tour of fall practices for every school.

 

All of this is to prepare us, the fans, for the season to begin; to get us hyped up! Are you ready for some football?

 

³ Listen! It’s the voice of someone shouting, “Clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland
    for our God! ⁴ Fill in the valleys, and level the mountains and hills. Straighten

the curves, and smooth out the rough places.          NLT

 

In ancient times, when eastern monarchs would set out on an expedition, they deployed advanced workers who would prepare the way for the monarch. Like Isaiah describes, they would build a road that was worthy of their king.

 

When he wrote this, Isaiah likely had in mind the return of the exiles from Babylon to Jerusalem. For us, we normally think of it as a reference to John the Baptist preparing people for the Messiah to arrive.

 

The bigger picture is that God is always at work in our lives. He is always “clearing the way through the wilderness for the Lord”.  He is constantly at work preparing our hearts, our circumstances, our relationships and our experiences to bring us closer to Him and to serve Him with a devoted heart.

 

When I say “always”… I mean “ALWAYS”! You think BTN spends a lot of time and money to prepare you for football season? God does eternally more to prepare you for Him!

 

 

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

http://lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Defining Moment

2 Timothy 4:1-8

 

 

Frank Gifford died this past week. He was 84 years old. He played in the NFL for 12 years and later was one of the original announcers on ABC when Monday Night Football debuted. One of the current ABC news announcers said that “he was a good man and a good person”. That was his eulogy; his defining moment.

 

According to my NIV Study Bible, Paul wrote 2 Timothy after his fourth missionary trip. At the time he was in prison. This was nothing like the rented house he lived in the first time he was a prisoner. This was a cold hard dungeon where Paul was chained like a common criminal.

 

He seemed to believe that he was near the end of his life, and with that in mind gave his own eulogy when he wrote, “⁶For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

 

You get the sense that Paul is looking back on his life and remembering his friends at all the churches where he ministered: Ephesus, Corinth, Galatia, Philippi, and others. He is remembering how God has used him in the lives of so many people for his Lord and Savior.

 

With that in mind, he gave Timothy some final instructions. “I give you this charge: ² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.”

 

Previous to this in chapter 3 he also wrote, ^“16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

 

Paul seems to be preparing Timothy so that when he reaches the end of his life, he too can say like Paul, “I have fought the good fight”. Indirectly, Paul is preparing you and me for the same defining moment.

 

If we follow Paul’s instructions, then we too can say with him, “⁸ Now there is in store 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 longed for his appearing.”

 

In the meantime, let us live life, one day at a time, with faith in Christ so when we arrive at that defining moment, we too can stand and say like Paul, “I fought the good fight”.