Category: Uncategorized

Why I Gave Up Football

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I love football season.

I love watching football. I love talking football. I used to love playing football.

I particularly love football when my teams are kicking butt. The Pacific Northwest is a pretty good place for football. The Seahawks were really good for a time and are still competitive. The University of Washington Huskies are getting really good.

It’s fun to watch the Huskies and the Seahawks play…that is until they lose. Then it’s like doom and gloom. It literally takes me a few hours to get back to a semblance of normal. I just feel so terrible and frustrated when the Huskies or the Seahawks lose. But when both lose on a weekend, that’s a bad weekend.

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That’s exactly what happened last weekend. And when the Huskies and Seahawks lose, I feel terrible for hours!

And that’s when it occurred to me…this is stupid. It’s just a game. What difference did their loss mean in our world? What difference did the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl mean in our world? Did our world become a better place because of that? Did anything in the world improve because the Seahawks or the Huskies won? Did anything get worse because they lost?

And here I was getting upset, needing a couple of hours before I could start feeling normal again.

And to top it all off, I was spending about 7 hours watching the games itself. Hello? I happen to be pretty busy on weekends!

So, I made a decision. I would have never thought something like this possible before. In order to protect and honor the Lord’s Day, I choose not to watch the games and I choose not to let the games determine my mood and emotional condition. Until I can watch the games for the pure enjoyment of the game itself without getting emotionally involved, I refuse to have a football game impact my spiritual and emotional health.

So, I’ll catch a few minutes of the game. I will check the score. But I am no longer emotionally involved in the outcome of the game. I like it when the Huskies and the Seahawks win. But if they lose, it’s only a game. If I make it anymore than that, then shame on me.

It’s the day of worship. I am going to honor Sabbath worship.

Focus Requires Forgetting

Screenshot 2018-09-12 at 3.30.53 PMFocus requires Forgetting.

I want to focus.

But I find myself distracted.

There are thing that need my attention. There are things that need by best leadership and focus.

But I find myself distracted.

I want to focus on what God wants for me, what is best for my family, for the congregation I serve. I want to focus.

But I find myself distracted.

Other concerns keep intruding. Other desires keep interrupting.

So, in order to focus, I am choosing and willing myself to forget, forfeit, and let go of those things that are a distraction to God’s best for me.

Focus requires forgetting everything that isn’t the focus.

Focus

Do People Go to Hell Anymore?

Screenshot 2018-09-06 at 1.50.23 PMHeaven.

It’s great! It’s, in fact, heavenly!

Everyone loves heaven. And the way most people speak about loved ones who die, everyone goes to heaven. Going to heaven has nothing to do with God, with Jesus, with the cross. As long as we deem a person to be a good person, they’re going to heaven from which they smile down upon us.

Christian! You know this is not how it works.

Right?

Jesus made it crystal clear, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

The scriptures are crystal clear, “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

The reason Jesus came to take on human form was to die for our sins that those who believe in him will not perish in hell but be transferred into the kingdom of heaven.

Here’s news…People are going to hell.

That’s the Biblical truth.

Even the church is afraid to claim this. Perhaps this is why our passion for preaching and proclaiming Jesus is so weak and pathetic.

How can we not take the words of Jesus and the words of God seriously? Jesus is the only pathway to salvation and life. Without Jesus, people go to hell. There is no other explanation for the cross. If we take hell out of the equation, then there is no need for the church, the gospel, a Savior.

People are going to hell without Jesus. But this is not the end of the story!!!

The church gets to share in the incredible ministry of proclaiming and telling the world about what God has done for us in Jesus Christ! No one need to go to hell. Jesus has paved the way for every person to receive eternal life.

That is incredible news! That is good news! That is gospel.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16)