Monthly Archives: November 2017

A Change of Pace

In this post, for a change of pace, I thought it might be fun to play a name recognition game.  From the following list of nick names, how many famous athletes can you name.  Some became famous because of baseball, basketball, hockey or car racing.  See how many you can correctly identify.

The Big Unit, the Admiral, the Great One, the Dream, the Bus, Sweetness, the Big O, Hondo, Gunslinger, the Fridge, the Intimidator, the King, the Beast, the Deacon, the Minister of Defense, the Cheeseheads, the Steel Curtain…

How did you do?  If there was one nick name that you didn’t recognize, simply Google the famous nick name and the real name of the athlete will come up.

Now, for the next round of name recognition–one of greater importance:  see how many of these twelve names of God you recognize.  I’ll give the Hebrew name in English.  See how many of the twelve you can correctly identify and translate.  Here goes…

Elohim

Jehovah

El Shaddai

Adonai

Jehovah Jireh

Jehovah Nissi

Jehovah Mikkadesh

Jehovah Tsidkenu

Jehovah Rohi

Jehovah Shalom

Jehovah Shammah

O.k.  Work on it and I’ll give the answers in an upcoming blog.

Advent blessings to all as you seek the Lord in order to worship Him  like the Wise Men described in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 2 did.

 

Which one would you want?

I’ve been following, at least with moderate interest, an unscientific survey of sport’s commentators as they speculate as to the most sought after movie props or sports memorabilia.  Collectible because of their general popularity, these items could fetch six figures at auction.  Among those listed is an autographed Arnold Palmer golf club putter, a Wayne Gretzky signed hockey stick and a Pete Sampras autographed  tennis racket.  One item, though, piqued my interest more than the others, but for a different reason.

One of the commentators mentioned a desire to own the sweat shirt worn by Jim Belushi in the popular movie ‘Animal House’ that had the word ‘College’ written across the front.  The commentator never revealed what he’d be willing to pay for it, but simply said that he’d win the auction.

Later that day, I sat and thought about what I’d be most willing to own.  I didn’t need to think long.  Remembering the third chapter of Zechariah in the Old Testament, I decided that I’d most like to own a ‘robe of righteousness’ given me by my Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.  In that chapter, Joshua stood guilty before the Lord dressed in the filthy rags of self-effort, self-centeredness  and sin.  As he stood condemned, the Lord commanded the attending angel to ‘take off his filthy rags’ and put on new, clean, ‘pure vestments’.

That is what I’d like to own more than anything.  The pure vestments of Christ’s righteousness.  We are learning a new song in worship that repeats: ‘His robes for mine, oh wondrous exchange’.   What a joyous possession…a precious gift from God.

At the cross of Calvary, Jesus wore my robe of punishment because of what I did wrong.  By Grace through faith, He gives me His robe of righteousness to wear as a gift for what He did right.

A MARVELOUS EXCHANGE, INDEED!

 

We’ve All Done It

It happens countless times every day.

Someone decides to look at a new or different car.  After work one day, they swing by their local dealer having already decided the make and model of their next vehicle.  Arriving at the car lot, they notice three vehicles that match their new preferences–right color, year, trim package, etc.  Like any of us would, they walk up to the car, look at the price tag, check out the ‘sticker’ that details the specs and give the exterior a quick ‘once over’ glance.

At this point, we all do it.  To look inside, we cup our hands on the sides of our eyes and press our face close to the car’s window.  Shielding out the light seems to help us see more clearly what might be in the car’s interior.

But what is true when looking at a car is NOT true when creating a more civil, healthy or godly culture.  There, shutting out the light creates an increasing darkness that results in cultural arrogance, hostility, unkindness and murderous self-centeredness, to which the rash of recent shootings attest.

Arguments and blame begin within hours of these crippling events.  One person blames firearms.  Another blames legislation or the lack thereof.  Still another blames poor efforts to help the mentally unstable or chronically aggressive.  But all of these fall short of providing a good description of the REAL source of our  problems.

Simply stated, we do not have a GUN problem.  We have a GOD problem.

For far too long, we have culturally bonded together to close out true light from our public conscience and create a ‘darkness’ in our souls that has just begun to bear fruit.  I don’t believe we are going to benefit from reaching the goal to which we are heading.  Just in my lifetime, we have culturally adopted sinister thoughts that can only harm us.  We’ve said…

  • You can’t pray in public whether at school, athletic events or other sanctioned functions.  Oh, we can have ‘student initiated prayers’ as long as they’re not at graduation ceremonies.  We’ll be forced to censor those.
  • You can use God or Jesus’ names as long as they are curse words, but don’t include them in a speech where their dignity and worth are extolled and praised.
  • We tell our children that they arrived on planet earth by evolving from ‘goo’ to ‘you’ by way of the ‘zoo’.
  • We tell our students that it’s fine to kill a pre-born baby because, after all, it’s not human.  BTW, some stem cell companies will gladly ‘purchase’ your aborted baby so that ‘human genetic research’ can be conducted on him/her.  What heartless irony, that.
  • We teach that whatever you think is truth to you and no one has the right to contradict your ascertains. And if they do, well, that’s hostility toward you.
  • We teach that the Bible is ‘passe at best and hateful speech at worst’.
  • We applaud ‘putting yourself publicly forward as priority #1, even if it’s at another persons’ expense.
  • As for violent video games/movies–that’s ok.  That’s good entertainment.

Why do we wonder at the crass paucity of our increasingly uncivil, violent society when we have dedicated the last 60+ years of our lives to BLOCKING OUT THE LIGHT?   Let’s all realize that if you take G-O-D out of g-o-o-d, you end up with ‘0’.