Author: Scott

With football being over, I can put all my attention towards my favorite sport. Basketball. This weekend is the NBA All-Star weekend. The high school and college seasons are winding down. March Madness is around the corner. It’s a great time to be a basketball fan. I love basketball. It’s no secret. I love everything about the game. Its founding and storied history. Its challenging skills and rewarding accomplishments. I love the pain it leaves behind. I love the pure joy it creates as well. If you can’t tell up to this point, let me say it again: I love basketball. I can remember the first time I picked up a ball. I can remember the first goal I shot at. Both were in Fort Leonard Wood. I was in the 5th grade. My first time playing on a team was there to. I fouled out of my very first game. When I got home, I told my mother I wasn’t going back. Stupid game! Of course she didn’t let that happen. I went back and it’s been a part of my life ever since. And what it has taught me. The lessons are limitless. For this devotion I’ll focus on the very basics: Offense and Defense. 

To be successful you need to be able to play both. To score points you need to put the ball into the goal. Offense. But in order to win you need to be able to stop your opponent from doing the same. Defense. There’s a saying, “Defense wins championships!” Lots of truth in that. And I think these both apply to our off the court lives. Our spiritual lives. I think the best offense and defense of our lives is Jesus. Having him in our hearts gives us both. 

When we have Jesus guiding us, we walk through our daily lives knowing that we can get through anything. Nothing can stop us. With him, there’s nothing in our way they can prevent us from eternity in heaven. There’s no greater “offense” than that. And with Jesus in our hearts, whenever we are attacked, we can fight it off. Whenever our demons come, they are powerless. Whenever the world tries to hold us down, we can stand our feet. This is the “defense” I’m talking about. Having him in our hearts doesn’t mean that we can do all things. Having him in our hearts means that we are able to GET THROUGH all things because of the strength that he gives us. So having him in our hearts is the best Offense and Defense that we can ever have. Because he loves us. He always has. He always will.

This morning I’m thinking back to years ago. Back to the time that I had habits that were both good and bad. During the time that I thought I was indestructible. Did you ever think that? Do you have any old habits that are catching up with you right now? Things you are having a hard time letting go of? Things that keep creeping up from your past? I’m sure you do. Fear not though. I don’t think you are alone. I believe all of us have things that tend to try to come back into our lives. As Christ-followers, we aren’t immune to this. Especially, if we are relatively new believers. 

Remember this, there’s a chance that a big portion of your life has included old habits. And it’s safe to say, that some of us have had habits in the past that were not so good. As I mentioned, I know that I did. Bad habits. Destructive habits. Habits that would lead us down the wrong paths. Or maybe, we picked up those habits on our own going down the wrong paths. I’m not justifying anything. I’m not saying they were ok. I’m just saying that be aware that a big portion of your life may have included habits like those. So it may take some time to develop a real strength and resistance to them.

Barbara and I were having this conversation the other day with someone. The temptations and the habits that I had in my younger years no longer bug me. They don’t tempt me. They’re in my past. I don’t even give them a second consideration. Actually, if the topic wasn’t brought up, I wouldn’t even think about them. But I must give credit where credit is due. Having Jesus in my heart, gives me the strength to battle issues like this. We all have demons. We all have things that we struggle with at one point or another. Jesus gives us the ability to resist. He is our weapon against those things. And he wants us to use him in this capacity. He wants us to turn to him, and to allow him to guide us. That is the God that we have. He knows our hearts. He knows our struggles. He knows our habits. And our demons. But he also knows that with him, we can overcome all of those things. Because he loves us. He always has. He always will.

Yesterday we talked about beginning a daily habit of praying to God. Prayers of concern. And prayers of celebration. It’s our way of talking to God. How should we do this? What should it look like? On our knees? Heads bowed? Hands locked? Eyes closed? What should prayer sound like? Quiet, intimate prayers? Loud, boisterous prayers? I don’t know the answer. I do all the above and more. I even pray when I’m driving. Talking to God as I go down the road. The disciples wanted to know how to pray as well. I think the situation might dictate how to pray. And here some guidelines you might want to follow.

First, recognize God for who He is. I like to thank him for his love and grace. And also for sending us Jesus. Second, I think we should ask him what his will for us is. We ask how we can serve him. Third, tell him our needs. He knows our needs. But I think he wants to hear them from us. Finally, if there’s something you need to be forgiven for, praying for that. And strength to fight temptations.

As I said, I’m not sure what the answer for everyone is. But I know God loves us. He wants to bless us. He wants to forgive us. He wants to guide us. So let’s work on praying consistently. Let’s pray daily. Pray for, and pray over, others. Take advantage of the fact that God has provided a way for us to communicate with him. And remember this one last thing, pray expecting God to hear you. He will. Because he loves you. He always has. And he always will.

I’ve had a number of different friendships throughout my life. Being an ARMY brat, we were constantly on the move during my youth. We counted one time. Believe it or not, I had 25 different addresses at one point. Wow! Back before social media existed. So those friendships pretty well ended when a move began. Then going into my early adulthood, my friendships were based on college and then my teaching career. Now later in life, my friendships are more centered around where we are in life. The common theme that I see that extends all the way from the constant moving until now, is that my friendships have all been built on similar interests. Nothing wrong with that. Well then the question stands, why did those relationships end?

I think communication might be the answer. When I stopped connecting with those people throughout the years, those relationships stopped as well. When we stopped talking, stopped seeing each other, we basically stopped being friends. As I stated earlier, social media didn’t exist. Cellular phones did not exist. It was almost as if the situation was… Out of sight means out of mind. I wish that was not the case. And I often find myself wondering how some of my childhood friends are doing now. I wonder where they are. I wonder what their lives are like. Especially some of the young men that I played sports with. You could see some amazing talent coming out even in those younger years.

Now…the point of this devotion is not about friendships coming and going. It’s about how we can lose sight of God and that relationship can come to an end. It’s about how we can stop communicating with God and that relationship can come to an end. And it’s also about how this will happen because of something that we decide. Not because of something that God will decide. He will not stop speaking to us. He will not stop trying to convict us. He’s not going away. It’ll be on our side if this happens. We will be the ones who will end our conversation with him. We will be the ones who stop praying to him. Stop asking him for guidance and wisdom. It rests on our shoulders. Not God’s. So my suggestion to you is this, make it a habit to pray daily to our God. Make it a daily habit to lift up your concerns and your celebrations. He wants to hear from you. He wants to hear from us all. Because he loves us. He always has. He always will.

At our events, we pass out Bibles to our guests. We believe that this is the ideal way to conclude each event we have. We believe this because, we believe that the answer to every question that someone has can be found in the Bible. We believe that the Bible is God‘s word. We believe that it is our instruction manual to life. We also try to write something personal in each one we pass out. And we highlight Joshua 1:9: “This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” This is not only the verse that motivated us to found the ministry. This verse has some strong words for us to live by.

The Bible can teach us many things. If we apply what we read into our lives, the Bible will help us stay out of sin. If we are struggling with our “old” selves, the Bible can help keep us from going back to that lifestyle. It can help keep us on the narrow path of life. The path that leads us to eternity with Jesus. Understanding the Bible requires practice. What I mean by that is, it requires us to read it. Just as we practice different skills for sports, we need to practice what we read as the skills of life. And I personally believe that we need to read it and practice what we read daily.

So let today be the day that you begin reading and practicing each day. Let today be the day that you pray to God to ask him for wisdom about what you read. For guidance about what you read. If you’re not already, let today be the day that you truly try to live by the words you are reading. Let today be the day that you try to find ways to show others what is in the Bible. That you try to be the light for those that don’t know Jesus. And finally, let today be the day that you pray a prayer of thankfulness. Being thankful for the words that God provides us. Being thankful for the instructions that he gives us. Being thankful for providing the narrow path for us to follow. Being thankful for his love for us.

As we grow, we should learn something new every day. Some of those things are ones that we can take with us to help us make better choices. And other times they are simply things for us to enjoy and embrace. We just need to keep our eyes and our minds open in order to find something to learn from. If we don’t, I believe we should look around and see what it is that we can change to make that happen. The same can be said about our Christian lives.

Our walk with Christ should include us continuing to learn on how to be stronger for him. Our walk with Christ should never stop. It should continue to grow. I’m sure if you think about it, you might know someone several years older than you that is a great example for you on living a good Christian life. And I bet if you look closely enough, you will find that they continue to grow. That they are daily looking for ways to strengthen their faith. This is exactly what we should be doing. Building and learning every day. Strengthening our foundation every day. It should never end.

Paul knew this. He knew that we should have goals. He knew that we should continuously move forward. In the Bible, Paul writes that we should continually work on building a greater knowledge of Jesus. His wisdom still holds true today. Some days we are going to learn more than we do other days. Some days we are going to feel closer to God than we do on other days. Some days we will have more excitement than we do on other days. And some days, we are going to feel more weary than we do on other days. Whatever our days hold, it’s up to us to press forward. To never quit. It’s up to us to allow God to teach us, and then ultimately use us. He wants to do this because he loves us. He always has. He always will.

I grew up in the ATARI to the Nintendo Entertainment System generation. Pong, Tank, Mario Brothers, or Contra were probably on our tv screens almost daily. Pac-Man on ATARI was awesome. I can probably still pull off the pattern which was almost unstoppable. And we can’t leave out NES Track and Field. I had the control with the automatic button where my character could run the 100 meters in 6 seconds. Then SEGA introduced us to Sonic the Hedgehog. Collecting those rings became our goal in life. Now there’s SONY PlayStation where your characters are almost lifelike. Video games have definitely came a long way. 

One of the greatest parts about the home systems is the “RESET” button. If your game isn’t going your way, you simply push the “RESET” button. You can start over. A fresh start. A clean start. Another chance to set the 100 meters record or to collect the rings you missed on the previous try. Just as we can try our games over with one push with our finger, we have a RESET for our lives. Jesus! Jesus is our button to start over. When we ask him into our hearts, we begin again. We start over. Isn’t that awesome!!!

In the Bible, we read about becoming a “new self” the moment we take Christ into our hearts. In God’s eyes, our past is in our past. He erased our worldly and sinful natures. With Jesus…we begin a-new. We shed our old habits and work on new ones. We cleanse our hearts so we can serve him appropriately. Now this doesn’t mean we might forget our past. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have wrongs that just go away. It means we are no longer “slaves” to those. It means we can move forward with a strength to heal from our sins. Guilt can become powerless. Anxiety can be overcome. Hate can be released. It means we now have hope. We have hope because God loves us. He always has. He always will.

Today might be hard to read. But we need to. Because we need to know this. So here we go. Barbara and I love getting into our car and just driving. No destination. Just drive. Ending up wherever. We wish we could do that more often. But when we do, we thoroughly enjoy it. We love that time together. And isn’t it interesting how life can be that way sometimes. Not sure where we are headed. Not sure where we are going. Does that scare you at times? It can cause anxiety for sure. But as scary as that can be, as believers we are comforted knowing where we are going. We know the final destination. 

Before knowing Christ, our paths were WIDE!!! Full of earthy options. Dangerous traps waiting to close in on us. But when we accept Jesus, the paths become narrow. Narrow…but secure.  No longer leading to destruction. No longer leading to hell. And here’s the warning for us all: People who refuse to accept Christ end up there after they die. Talk about scary. 

We learn in the Bible that it’s a place of pain and sadness. Those in hell are eternally separated from God. There is no hope. There is no peace. As tragic as that is, heaven is the exact opposite. Eternal peace. Eternal hope. Eternal joy. Eternal love. And best of all, eternal life. And all it takes to receive that is to make one decision. To ask Christ into your life. If you have not, maybe today is the day. Maybe today is the day for you to take him into your heart. And know that the final destination for you is eternity with him. And if you already know him, take time today to thank him for saving you. Thank him for paving the way. Thank him for providing eternal salvation with him.

My wife will tell you that I definitely hate funerals. They are hard for me. Especially open coffin. I don’t want to go anywhere near those. It’s not death that bothers me. And I’m not afraid of dying. Because…I know where I’m going. So I don’t know what it is about funerals. But they bug me. I’ve been honored and blessed to officiate a couple. And they were difficult. But I got through them because my focus was on the service and not on “being at” a funeral. If that makes sense. 

As I stated earlier, I am not afraid of dying because I know where I’m headed. I’m going to get to spend eternity with Jesus. And I’m going to be reunited with loved ones who have gone before. Nothing better than that. But something else also comes to mind when I think about death. It’s when Jesus came into my life. When I accepted him, a part of me died. He killed the sin in my life. He destroyed it. He took it away. So part of me died. My life began a-new. It was a new beginning. Sin had been in charge of my life before Jesus. I was a slave to it. But no more. 

Now, that doesn’t mean sin goes away. That doesn’t mean temptations go away. Nothing can be further from the truth. They’re not going anywhere. Sin is part of this world. Temptations are part of this world. We face them daily. They are going to try to creep back into our lives and drag us down. Every day from now on. There will be no end. But as powerful as the temptations are, always remember this, Jesus is more powerful. As strong as the sin used to be in our lives, they have no chance against the strength of Jesus. And with Jesus in our lives, there’s no need to fear death. Because when we die here on earth, we will then spend eternity with him. And that is not a punishment or condemnation. That is a blessing. And that is awesome.

What is it that happens when you become a believer? When you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior? What is it that takes place? What changes take place? Should I feel different?These are questions that I imagine several people have had. Probably still do now. I know these are questions that I had. I’m not sure that there is a all encompassing answer for everyone. After all, we still have to fight our human nature. And we all differ in that aspect. But I can say this with all confidence. I can say this about all of us. With Jesus in our lives, we become new creations. 100%. We become new creations.

The Bible tells us that we are made new. When Christ comes into our lives, we are made new. Our old lives have died. They are dead. When Christ comes into our lives, we come to know God. And that alone changes us. Our past is now in our past. The things that kept us from knowing God are now gone. We now have the tool, the weapon, to fight against our sinful natures. We can also fight against anxiety, anger, depression, etc. Knowing God has freed us from these things. Knowing God allows us to work on building a relationship with him. And guess what is even more incredible about knowing God. Others are going to want to know him too. They will see the change in your life. That will make them curious. And think of it this way, you just might be what leads them to know the light that comes from Christ. You just might be what leads them to being changed as well! Holy cow! That is incredible.

So today begin believing you have changed. Begin allowing yourself to be transformed. Today is a great day to let go of your sinful past. Put that behind you and build on your relationship with Christ. Today is also a great day to start working on your confidence and strength to show others who Jesus is. To let them see how your life has changed. To let them see the hope that your future has. I also want to challenge you to start each day praying for opportunities to serve God. Pray each morning asking him to show you how to serve him. Who it is that needs to know him. And I also challenge you to pray each morning a prayer of thanks. Being thankful for all the blessings he has given you and will give you. Pray these prayers, and watch how your daily lives change as well.