Wonderboy!

2 Corinthians 10:1-6

(Use the link below to read the verses.)

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Corinthians%2010%3A1-6&version=NIV;NLT

 

In the 1984 movie The Natural, Robert Redford played the role of a baseball Phenom, Roy Hobbs, who had a supernatural bat called Wonderboy. As a young boy, Hobbs had made his bat from a tree that had been hit by lightning. He engraved both the name of the bat and a lightning bolt onto the barrel of the bat, memorializing its origin.

 

Years later, as a middle aged rookie in major league baseball, Wonderboy provided Roy Hobbs a spectacular comeback as he almost single handedly brought the fictitious New York Knights from last place to the World Series.

 

Hobbs most memorable home run was when he hit the cover completely off the baseball leaving the fielders and umpires a ball of unraveled string. Wonderboy was indeed a bat with mystical powers.

 

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul was defending himself against false teachers who were spreading lies about his authority as an apostle. His defense lead to these verses.

 

³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.        NIV

 

Paul was invoking the same divine power that raised Jesus from the dead. It is this divine power that changed his life and carried him through a life dedicated to serving Christ. A life that was full of controversy, conflict, hardship and persecution. Yet, through it all, he remained faithful to Christ.

 

Peter recognized this same divine power.

 

³ By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. 2 Peter 1:3 NLT

 

Do you ever wish that something supernatural would happen in your life; that God’s divine power would come down like a lightning bolt and do something? We don’t have to depend on a fictitious, mystical bat because something supernatural has already happened. However, we do need to pick up the bat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cubs Win it All!

 

1 John 2:15-17

 

For the first time in 108 years, the Chicago Cubs won the World Series! The hero of the final game for the Cubs was Ben Zobrist. In the top of the 10^th inning, he hit a double driving in the go ahead run. In fact, he was named the Most Valuable Player of the whole series. But winning the World Series and being named the MVP is not what is most important to him.

 

"I think that we are all placed wherever we are to share the Gospel and the good news. And the good news is that we can all be saved from our sins. I am grateful to be able to bring that to the game and to my teammates, and to anyone I come in contact with. God's given me a great platform to be able to share that and I will do that as long as God's given me the breath to do it." (Taken from an interview with Tom Rust on Face to Face at www.facetofaceradio.com)

 

Here’s a man who on the surface has everything that the world has to offer. Fame, fortune and power; anything he desires he can have. Most of us will never experience anything close to this, but we still feel the pull of the world. In fact, John’s words strike

a little too close to home for us.

 

^15-17 Never give your hearts to this world or to any of the things in it. A person cannot love the Father and love the world at the same time. For the whole world-system, based as it is on human primitive desires, their greedy ambitions and the glamour of all that they think splendid, is not derived from the Father at all, but from the world itself. The world and all its passionate desires will one day disappear. But the person who is following God’s will is part of the permanent and cannot die.               J.B. Phillips translation

 

For 108 years, the Cubs chased after another World Series. Isn’t that what the world-system is based on; “human primitive desires, greedy ambitions and the glamour of all that they think splendid”?

 

Don’t get me wrong. I love sports and cheer for my teams; and I strive after things of

this world, but that’s just the point. We struggle every day to give our hearts to our Father; to love Him and not the world; and to follow His will.

 

Every day we face decisions that will reflect our love for Him… or not. Every day we struggle with the temptations of the world. Every day we fight the good fight so that in the end God will say to us, “Well done my good and faithful servant”.

 

 

(If God has spoken to you through this devotional, please feel free to share it with others.)

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