A Pivotal Play

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Pivotal
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 8:27-35 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

  

Sometimes during a football game, you can point to one moment, or one play, that shifted the outcome of the whole game. Sometimes, one play can even be pivotal for the remainder of the season. Such was the case on October 17, 2015.

Michigan State was playing their instate rival, the University of Michigan. With ten seconds left in the game Michigan was leading 23-21. However, they had to punt. 

“There’s trouble with the snap” yelled the TV announcer. Then a Michigan State player picked up the fumble and ran for the winning touchdown!

 

Jesus had taken his disciples on an unexpected route outside of Galilee into the pagan city of Caesarea Philippi. The city was well known for its worship of Greek gods as well as a temple devoted to Baal. Noticing this, it may have prompted Jesus to ask his disciples “Who do people say I am”.

 

He didn’t ask out of idol curiosity or a need for his ego to be stroked. Instead, he used the opportunity to gauge if it was time to make a pivotal shift in his ministry. Most likely his second question was what he really wanted to ask them.

 

²⁹ Then he asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”    NLT

 

Peter’s confession was pivotal in Jesus’ ministry. For one thing, it changed the course of where they would go. From that point forward, Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem and the cross. But also, now Jesus would teach his disciples what to expect once they arrived in Jerusalem.

 

³¹ He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.  NIV

 

Although Peter was correct to say that Jesus was the Messiah, he had the wrong understanding of the word. At that time, Messiah had come to describe the king who was expected to rescue Israel from its enemies and establish his kingdom.

 

Therefore, when Jesus spoke about suffering and being rejected and killed, it didn’t compute for Peter. In fact, he confronted Jesus. However, Jesus rebuked Peter with this stunning statement: “Get behind me Satan”.

 

Then Jesus called the crowd over, along with his disciples, and told them, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me”. The paraphrase of this in The Message is insightful.

 

³⁴ Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how.             MSG

 

This was a pivotal lesson for Peter to learn. Truth be known, it’s a pivotal lesson for all of us to learn. Jesus accepted Peter for who he was and where he was at in his understanding. He does the same with us.

 

A pivotal play can change a moment of our life; a day, a season, or even the rest of our life. But it boils down to one thing. That is, how do WE answer Jesus’ question… It’s pivotal!

 

¹⁵ “But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”      NIV    Matthew 16

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Small Beginnings

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Seminal
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Genesis 11:27-12:9 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

 

The Emmy Award winning TV miniseries Roots was released in 1977. In many ways it was a seminal event that changed people’s attitudes about African Americans and slavery. Millions were confronted with its realities and brutality.

 

I can still remember the dramatic scene where Kunta Kinte takes his infant daughter Kizzy and holds her up, like an offering, to the star filled sky. The contrast between the tiny, insignificant baby, and the enormity of the universe was striking.

 

The story of Abraham is also a seminal event. Born in Mesopotamia in Ur of the Chaldeans, where they worshiped the moon god, the Lord had called Abraham to go to Canaan.

 

¹ The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.      NLT

 

Abraham’s call included this promise.

 

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.       NIV

 

However, the promise may have seemed hollow to Abraham as his wife Sarah was childless and unable to conceive. In addition, at seventy-five years old he wasn’t a young man. It would also mean uprooting his family to go to a land that he knew nothing about. Despite all of this, he went.

 

That didn’t make life easy though. Over ten years later, Sarah was still childless and Abraham was very discouraged. But the word of the Lord came to him in a vision and reassured him of his promise.

 

⁵ The Lord took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” ⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.            NIV    Genesis 15

 

The Lord had promised Abraham that he would be a blessing to “all the peoples on earth”. And because of his faithfulness, he became the father of many nations.

 

¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.            NIV    Hebrews 11

 

Not only that, but Abaraham is an ancestor of Jesus. And like Abraham’s story, the birth of Jesus was a seminal event… a small beginning with big results.

 

³¹ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. ³² Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”            NIV    Matthew 13

 

The Lord uses small beginnings with impossible circumstances to accomplish his will; to build the kingdom of heaven; to bring the Good News; to be a blessing. What seminal event(s) have you experienced?

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Dirty Diapers

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Epochal
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Mark 1:1-15 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

 

Children… change… your… life! That’s a fact. When you start a family, nothing is the same. Your life is not your own. You’re rudely awakened at all hours of the night. You clean, or change, poopy diapers at the most inconvenient times.

 

As a new dad, I remember coming home from work one day really needing to use the only bathroom that we had in our house. But when I ran upstairs and lifted the toilet lid, to my dismay, there was a dirty diaper in it. So first, I had to clean the diaper which meant picking it up out of the “water”.

 

Having a baby is epochal. It’s the beginning of a new era of life. The Gospel of Mark is also epochal. The first verse of the first chapter makes a bold proclamation!

 

¹ The beginning of the good news about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.       NIV

 

Jesus was, and is, the King of Kings. His kingdom is not a physical one, but one of the Spirit. It can’t be seen. And John the Baptist, as prophesied in Isaiah and quoted by Mark in his Gospel, announced that the king would soon be arriving to claim his kingdom. 

 

^2b “Look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
    and he will prepare your way.
³ He is a voice shouting in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord’s coming!
    Clear the road for him!’”           NLT

 

In order to “prepare the way for the Lord”, John called people to repent of their sins and be baptized. In fact, Jesus himself was baptized by John. And when he did, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus and a voice came from heaven saying, “You are my Son, whom I love.” This wasn’t just a baptism. It was the anointing of the king.

 

Following this, the Spirit sent Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for forty days. Jesus was being prepared to begin his kingdom under the crucible of severe temptation. And when he returned, he began by making a profound statement – a declaration really – worthy of a king.

 

¹⁵ “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”     NIV

 

Jesus’ declaration that “the kingdom of God has come”, was an epochal shift. From that time forward, redemption changed from the daily animal sacrifices of the Law of Moses to the human sacrifice of the Son of God – once and for all.

 

The Lord’s prayer that we still pray 2000 years after Jesus walked this earth, recognizes and embraces his kingdom.

 

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

 

That kingdom is ours to continue. Let us do so purposefully as we pray his prayer and do his will to share the good news.

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

 

Staying in Touch

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Catalytic
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Acts 1:1-14; Acts 8:1-4 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

During the summer before my freshman year of college, my parents helped me to get ready. They gave me two hard shell Samsonite suitcases. My mom taught me how to iron my shirts and gave me an iron. Dad set up a checking account for me. But the last instructions that he gave me were to write them a letter every week.

 

Just before Jesus was taken up into heaven, he gave the apostles these instructions.

 

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”         NLT      Acts 1

 

Now, one might think that the apostles would have returned to Jerusalem and begun to strategize how to accomplish the mission that Jesus had given them. They could have worked on a mission and vision statement; or brainstormed goals and objectives. Instead, they returned to the upper room where all they did was pray.

 

However, God must have had a plan in mind because he brought the world to them. Ten days after Jesus ascended into heaven, Jerusalem was jammed with devout Jews from all over the world celebrating Pentecost. Most of them would not have spoken either Hebrew or Aramaic.

 

At the same time, the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in different languages – languages that the visiting Jews would have understood. Also, fire appeared over the apostle’s heads. A crowd came to see what was happening. So, Peter stood and spoke to them about Jesus.

 

That day about 3000 people believed and were baptized. Following this, the apostles spoke in the Temple every day, and even went house to house, sharing that “Jesus is the Messiah”. The result was that “the number of believers greatly increased”.

 

About this time, there were some men from a synagogue who created trouble for the disciple Stephen. False accusations were made. Because of this, Stephen was arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin – the leading religious and political Jews. He concluded his defense by accusing them of killing Jesus, the Messiah.

 

With blind rage, they dragged Stephen outside the city limits, as the law required, where they brutally stoned him to death. This opened the floodgates of persecution for those who already hated the church. But it also led to the spread of the Gospel.

 

¹ A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria. ⁴ But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.       NLT      Acts 8

 

When I went to college, there were no cell phones, no texting, no emails. Even long-distance phone calls were rare. So, what was the main method of communication? It was writing a letter. Staying in touch with my parents was important.

 

Two catalytic moments – the apostles being filled with the Holy Spirit and Stephen’s stoning – directly led to the fulfillment of Jesus’ previous instructions to spread the word. But before that… the apostles had prayed. Staying in touch with their Father was important.

 

^12a Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem… ^13a When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. ¹⁴ They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.     NIV     Acts 1

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

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www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com

 

A Damascus Road Experience

A Series on Spiritual Turning Points
Moments in Time: Transformative
(Click on the link below to read the verses.)
Acts 9:1-31 

[God is always at work in our life – drawing us to him, helping us to become the person he created us to be and leading us to opportunities to serve him. In this series we will look at spiritual turning points in the lives of real people and the moments in time that it happened. Applying this to our own life, sometimes this happens suddenly, sometimes gradually, but always with purpose.]

  

During the spring term of my sophomore year at Michigan Tech, my fiancé broke up with me for another guy. It turned my life upside down. 

Feeling depressed one night, I remember leaving my dorm room and going for a walk. Eventually, I laid down in the snow, looked up at the stars and cried out… “Why God”!

 

He didn’t answer me right then. But the following summer he brought Ken Baker into my life who shared with me about a personal relationship with Jesus. It’s not an overstatement to say that, as a result, my life took a whole new direction.

 

Saul, who later became Paul, was a Pharisee who meticulously obeyed the law. For Christians, he was a force to be reckoned with. In fact, following Stephen’s stoning, “a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem”. Saul was at the forefront.

 

³ But Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off both men and women and put them in prison.         NIV    Acts 8

 

However, Saul was obsessed in his hatred for Christians.

 

Damascus was the nearest important city to Jerusalem with a large Jewish population. It was a commercial center with caravans transporting merchandise from around the world traveling through it. Saul reasoned that if Christianity caught hold there, it would spread throughout the world. He had to stop it.

 

Therefore, he asked the high priest for letters to the synagogues in Damascus. These letters requested their cooperation, as well as gave Saul the authority to arrest any followers of Jesus that he discovered. Then he would take them as prisoners back to Jerusalem to be tried. This included both men and women.

 

But, as he approached the city, a “bright light from heaven flashed around him”. Then a voice spoke, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me”? It was Jesus. When Saul stood up, he was blind. Jesus told him to wait in Damascus.

 

In Damascus there was a believer named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision telling him to find Saul and lay his hands on him to restore his sight. But Saul’s reputation and the purpose of his trip had preceded him. Ananias protested.

 

¹⁵ But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  NIV

 

It’s ironic that the Lord chose the man who was trying to destroy his church, to instead use him to grow it. Saul stayed in Damascus for several days where “he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God”.

 

Saul’s life was transformed on the road to Damascus. In a way, I had my own Damascus Road experience in college. For God is always at work in our life, in big and small ways, to transform us into the person he created us to be.

 

² Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.   NLT   Romans 12

 

Copyright 2026 Joseph B Williams

Feel free to share this blog with others.

www.lifelinebasketball.blogspot.com