The Game Plan

On January 1, 1929, University of California was facing off against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at the Rose Bowl in California. Midway through the second quarter, California with the ball hands off to Stumpy Thompson, who fumbles the ball entrusted into his care only to be recovered by his teammate, center Roy Reigels.  Finally after managing to break from the chaotic mad scramble for the loose ball, Reigels marched 69 yards before being tackled on the 1 yard line, in the wrong direction.  Instead of facing 1 yard to the goal, California faced 99 yards.  California decided to punt to take away the risk of a safety only to see the punt block and Georgia Tech scored a safety.  The exchange between coach and player was anything but dismal and negative.      

“Coach, I can't do it. I've ruined you, I've ruined myself, I've ruined the University of California. I couldn't face that crowd to save my life."

"Roy, get up and go back out there — the game is only half over."

Though Georgia Tech went on to win the game, Roy Reigels played a stellar second half which including excellent blocking to allow his quarterback to throw for a touchdown and also blocked a punt. 

The game is only half over.  What an outlook.  What a game plan.  Paul shares a game plan as well. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)  Our past should stay that way, the past.  If want to move forward in life, then we need to quit looking back.  Paul’s past was certainly not a shining light for the Christian community.  He had persecuted the New Testament Church and even oversaw the death of Christians, namely the preacher Stephen in Acts 7:58.  But yet, he reveals to us his cancellation.  “Forgetting those things that are behind” is not a bad idea to consider in life.  If we tend to focus on the mistakes and errors of our pass, then we are heading to an emotional disappointment and our hope and our spirit of joy will be dampened by the spirit of guilt and sadness.  Genuine repentance ensures that our sins and our pasts are blotted out.  This past year whether good or bad, is just that, a past year.  Now we look ahead.  Each year and each day requires a new and fresh prayer.  Do not let the mistakes of the past bog you down.  We do not have to allow what happened affect the outcome of the year ahead, the day ahead, or even the life ahead.  We can’t rely on the blessings of yesterday to sustain us today.  We can’t rely on the blessings of yesteryear to sustain us this year.  Each day and each year requires a new blessing and new prayer.  There is a reason we must rise up daily in prayer and lie down at night in prayer.  Each new day that dawn, needs it.  We can’t allow what happened yesterday, last month, or last year determines what comes ahead.   Isn’t that amazing.  Each day we awake is a threshold.  When you stand at the threshold you can either determine to go back where you came from or go forward.

So, if we are to forget what is ahead, what is the next step for us at the threshold?  In following along Paul’s game plan we find His concentration.  He is reaching for what is ahead?  What is ahead?  Every one of us has a different purpose in life that God has designed us for.  What that is determined between you and God.  Whatever lies ahead, look ahead and strive ahead with hope.  Focusing on the past actually deprives us of that hope.  Paul was reaching forth with hope.  He believed the best was ahead of him and not behind him.  The great news is the same is true of us in life.  Our best is ahead and not behind us.  If we do not see that, then we have deprived ourselves of hope.  Without hope, then we will enter each day, month or year with a negative outlook.  Paul’s them of his letter to Philippians was joy.  A part of his joy was in the fact that what is ahead is much better than what was behind.  Concentrate not on what is behind you, but what is ahead of you. 

Now Paul had his game plan.  His cancellation (forget what was behind) and his concentration (reaching for what is ahead), yet there was still one more additional aspect to Paul’s game plan.  Commitment.  Paul was committed to what God planned for His life.  As long as we keep our focus on what God wants and desires for us, then we can concentrate on what is ahead and have the sure hope that the outlook of the future is brighter than our past.  He was striving to better himself by committing himself to what God intended for him.  As the new day or the new year approaches what is your game plan?  Forget the past, you do not have to let it affect the outcome of what is ahead.  Focus on the future with hope and reasonable confidence and expectancy.  Commit yourself to God’s plan, purpose, and intentions for your life.  That will help to make the days ahead a little bit brighter for you.  Sounds like a plan!

Heritage and Home

I took my son to my father’s grave today.  As I clutched my son tightly to my chest, the depth of my soul was being overwhelmed by emotions.  I glanced at the tombstone and my eyes traced the engraved lettering that spelled out my father’s name.  I laughed as I shared with my young son the happy memories of my childhood with my father.  As I stood basking in the warm sunlight of that brisk late December afternoon, I began to think of my heritage and my home.  It dawned upon me for the first time in my life how my heritage shaped me and prepared me to be the man I am today.  Often, there are many who will deny or flee from their heritage instead of embracing it and allowing God to use that heritage to shape you for His glory.  I thought of my church heritage.  I had the privilege of growing up in church.  I have seen the thick and the thin of life in the church.  People have come and gone, but throughout time there were those who remained faithful even to this day.  I have seen young people leave the church only to follow after the leading of God and have spread the ministry of His word.  I am one of those.  So many of those dear members of that church have continued to provide to me encouragement, prayers, and support and have helped me to stay true to God’s leading in my life.  There is the community heritage.  The town where I fondly grew up is known as “The Family Town”.  It was a close community.  It is said that “It takes a village”.  Within that village are people who have helped shaped me to be the person I am today.  Whether negative or positive, God used them to make me stronger.  I still embrace that community and understand the importance of community in the life of a person, but not only the person, but the church.  Then there is my cultural heritage.  My family.  We ate with some members of that family today.  I saw a man that I have sat under his tutelage for many years on Sundays and Wednesdays.  I thought of the advices he gave and the opportunities he offered to help polish me.  Today, he continues to take young men and women under his wings and prepare them to answer God’s call for their lives, just like he did 20 years ago to man and many other young men before and after.  I am thankful for my family.  They are not perfect, but they sure can back you up when you need it.  Church, community, and culture together are my heritage.  Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (I Corinthians 15:10)  Everything Paul went through in His life prior to this point God used it to prepare him for this point in His life.  No matter what influences you have had in your past, God can use those influences that you have and prepare you and mold you to be stronger now and to help you pass along those experiences in the likelihood of ministering to others.  This is my longest stay away from our Illinois home to visit with my North Carolina roots, but I am even more thankful today that I have the heritage of my church, my community, and my culture (family) that helped to shape me to be the man, wife, and father that I am today.  Don’t flee from your heritage.  But allow God to use it to shape and mold you today.  There is an old bumper sticker I remember that says “American by birth, southern by the grace of God”.  The grace of God allowed me to have the heritage that I have to be the man I can be for His purpose.  Every one of us has a heritage and a home, by the grace of God, He can use it, no matter what it is.

The Nativity Scene

 A local church in the country had set up a live nativity scene.  One night I made it my purpose to see this beautiful scene of a young couple surrounding a manger filled with hay.  Everything they used that night was live.  Camels, sheep, horses and even a mangy stray dog.  From a distance I could see the spotlight as it shone directly into the air.  As I parked my car, I walked to the scene and wanted to sit and reflect on that special night over two thousand years ago.  It was a night that changed the world.  As I approached the old rustic stable, I joined the throng of people who were already there.  They had broke into a chorus of “Come, All Ye Faithful”.  As I listened to the words that were being sung, the spirit of Christmas was being freshly renewed within me.  There were the shepherds kneeling by their bleating sheep , the ones who first heard the heralded announcement of the birth of the Son of God, in a praying pose, their camels were behind them.  There was Mary, God’s chosen vessel in which Jesus was to come into this world, with a gentle smile on her face as she held her hands together looking into the manger.  There was Joseph, the patient and obedient servant of God who remained committed to Mary and to the commandment of God.  I was amazed at the scene unfolding before me and took note that their pose seemed as though they were in a silent worship mode.  Then, there was the manger.  It was empty?  In the background I saw a babe wrapped in white cloth being calmly silenced by its mother, the one who was to play the role of Baby Jesus.  My eyes returned its focus on the empty manger in front of me.  There was nothing but handfuls of hay to serve as some type of comfort to the newborn babe.  Then I asked…what if?

                What if there had been no Son of God to come into this world?  Would we still be offering up the sacrifice of sheep for our sins?  Can you imagine the various ceremonies that we would have to participate in just to ensure that we were in right standing with God?  Would there be enough sheep to go around for everyone?  What if there had been no cross?  Without the cross, there would have been no resurrection.  Without the resurrection there would have been no hope for victory over death.  On and on, my mind began to ask, “what if?”  But then the reality of the empty manger set in. 

In the lives of many people, the manger is empty.  Working in a retail environment, I could not help but read in disgust an important bulletin from the main offices of the company.  It topic was in regards to saying “Merry Christmas”.  It was recommended that we use the term “Happy Holidays” since we would be including all the holidays that are recognized at this time of the year.  My heart sunk.  The manger was empty.  Without Christ, there would be nothing to celebrate.  Hope is lost.  Salvation would still be that hard to attain goal.  Even the images of Christmas have some representation to things that are Scriptural.  The shepherds remind me of Christmas carolers.  The star on top of the tree reminds me of that special star that lead the wise men from the east to visit Baby Jesus at the tender age of two years old.  The many lights on the Christmas tree remind me of the starry night that blanketed the shepherds.  Even the tree itself serves as a reminder to me, that the Son of God was crucified upon an old rugged cross, hewn from a rustic tree.  The gifts?  Of course no explanation is needed.  It serves as a reminder that God so loved us, even if we did not deserve that He gave his only Son, that if we simply believe on Him, we shall have everlasting life.  What if there was no Christ? 

The hearts of many people are much like that manger in that live nativity scene.  Empty and void.  Many people simply have not accepted Christ and know Him as their personal Savior.  Their attitudes are much like the innkeepers at that time.  There is no room.  They will gladly make room for many of the worldly and secular activities in their life, but not for Christ.  To them, there is no Christ.  So they seek to fill their mangers with things that satisfy on a temporary and limited basis.  In time, it will only lead them to find something else to satisfy them.  If only they knew that true joy to the world came upon that midnight clear one silent night as shepherds watched their flock by night.  He left His glorious throne and came to this world.  He did not choose a way that would be fit for an earthly king, but it was fit enough for Him.  He gave up His life, to give His life for our sins.  What if there had been no Jesus?

The mother of the baby quietly walked to the manger and laid down her now quietly sleeping child.  “Away in the manger, no crib for a bed”, someone began to softly sing.  Quietly, we all began to join in the chorus.  I looked at the baby wrapped in her blanket sleeping soundly.  I gazed into the chilly starry night and picked out the brightest star I could find.  With a smile on my face, I offered up a word of prayer and said “Thank you Lord for being in my heart.  This manger is yours.”

The Significance of the Insignificant

“The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight” are the words sung every Christmas in that cherished anthem of Christmas “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.  At first glance, Bethlehem did not have the pomp and circumstance of Jerusalem five miles north.  One of the common complaints that I hear from many people who live in country towns is “Well there is just nothing to do”.  Jerusalem was where all the happenings where.  If you wanted to do something exciting, go to Jerusalem.  In my mind, that is the attitude people had Jerusalem in the Biblical times.  It was more or less a stopping point or a resting place from all the hoopla surrounding Jerusalem.  Bethlehem in comparison to Jerusalem was “insignificant”.  But yet from this little town just beyond the reaches of Jerusalem, the prophet Micah prophesies that an event that will forever change the world and history will occur.  But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2.)  From this insignificant town came on of the most significant figure in world and Christian history.  The birth of Jesus.  God chose a little town as a place to be born.  He left the richest throne to be born in a humble town.  He left elegance and chose plain.  Isn’t that the way God operates?  He does not always chose the best and brightest to further His plans.  He chose simple fisherman who were viewed by society as “uneducated and untrained men” (Acts 4:13) that set the stage of the New Testament church era.  He chose a young boy unskilled in warfare but trained as a Shepherd to defeat a seasoned veteran of war.  He chose a donkey.  Yes a donkey, to teach a lesson to a prophet.  He has chosen the faith of children as a lasting picture to the “much wiser” adults of what faith really is and the type of faith we should have.  For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. (I Corinthians 1:26-29)  What makes Bethlehem significant?  The answer to that question is to see what occurred within its boundaries.  Jesus.  It is that same Jesus who comes into our heart and enables us to become significant to carry out the purpose of God.  Moses was able to convince Pharaoh to let the Israelites go but not because of what he spoke.  By his own admission, Moses said that he was not eloquent.  The impact of Moses was not Moses himself but that God was with Him.  In that same light, the power of the Holy Spirit enables and empowers us to perform great tasks for the glory of the kingdom of God.  Never say what you can’t do, because God will show you what He can.  Never let others tell you what you can’t accomplish for God, because God will show them.  He wants to use you.  There is no excuse to have when we call into question the purpose God has for us.  Do you want to know why God chose you to accomplish that seemingly impossible task?  The answer is found in I Corinthians 1:29.  He does not want you to take all the credit.  The ability to fulfill is not because of you, but because of God in you and through you.  That is the foundation of Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  We have failed or we will fail when we remove “through Christ”.  The second significance of Bethlehem was the event could not be contained.  The shepherds spread the news far and wide.  They were filled with praise and rejoicing for what they had just witnessed.  God in the flesh.  When Christ comes into our heart, He must not be contained.  With gladness and joy, we must make known the glorious news and testimony of what God has done within us, through us, and for us.  In a nutshell, that is witnessing.  You are serving as a witness to God, His power, His glory, His grace, His mercy, His provision, His presence, and the list goes on.  That is a purpose God has for all of us.  The element of witnessing is significant in the kingdom of God.  What has God done for you?  Share it.  Let others know, but not just know, but see.  O Little town of Bethlehem.  Small.  Quaint.  Plain.  Yet so significant in HIS story (history).  The next time you sing that song, think about how significant you are as well in carrying out His plan.  God takes the ordinary and works the extraordinary.  Instead of saying I can’t, ask God what must I do.  To others you may be insignificant, but to God you are significant.

The Spirit of Christmas

They say the spirit of Christmas should go beyond Christmas day.  Unfortunately, some people Christmas does go beyond that day, just not the spirit of it.  Long after the gifts have been unwrapped, the tree taken down, the stockings once hung now folded neatly and stored away for next year, people are still paying for Christmas.  They are thinking of Christmas, but just not for the right reasons.  The spirit of Christmas is Jesus.  The gift of Christmas is Jesus.  The wonder of Christmas is Jesus.  He is the reason for the season.  He is the source of joy, hope, comfort, and peace.  Giving gifts is nice, but the best gift was not wrapped in the fanciest of colorful, decorative paper but a swaddling cloth.  The best gift was not found in a box but a feeding trough.  The best gift is not found under a tree, but should be found in your heart.  When you think of Christmas, what is the first thing you think of?  If it is gifts, parties, decorations, then your priorities are skewed.  It must be and should be Jesus.  When we wake up on Christmas day, we are more concerned about the gifts of "Santa" than the gifts of God.  Why is Christmas, a celebration of joy and peace and miracles the most stressful time of the year for many Christians?  The answer is because we have lost our focus.  The disciples knew all too well this danger.  They had become so focus on their work that they lost their most important focus.  And He said to them, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” For there were many coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. (Mark 6:31)  Jesus tells them to slow down.  They became so involved that what they were doing was affecting them and their relationship with Christ.  It reached the point that they did not know Jesus like they use to.  And when they saw Him walking on the sea, they supposed it was a ghost, and cried out.  (Mark 6:49)  Oh how we get so carried away amid all the hoopla of the Christmas season that we too do not know Jesus like we use to.  Sure we see Him as the reason for Christmas, but now it is no longer personal to us anymore.  That is all He is…a symbol.  When we lose our focus on what is really important, it not only affects our relationship with Christ, but it also affects our attitude.  For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened.  (Mark 10:52).  What a grave consequence that occurred in the life of their disciples.  They lost their joy.  Oh sure you can be happy, but we allow ourselves to be robbed of happiness.  There is a difference.  Anyone can put on a happy face, but not everyone has happiness.  Even Martha lost her focus and we saw an attitude change.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” (Luke 10:40)  See how critical she became?  When we lose the focus of Christmas, then we allow ourselves to become unpleasant, critical, and stressed.  We let our wants and desires and society dictate our Christmas.  We ignore the good news of the angels to certain shepherds watching over their flock by night.  “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:14)  We do not heed the words of Jesus who reminded Martha what was good and needed.  And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41,42)  How is this Christmas affecting you?  When we scurry from store to store and look for the best deals and the hottest toys and we consider it a failure if we do not get the best for our kids, then we have allowed the hoopla of Christmas control us.  Sit.  Listen.  Hear the praises of the angels.  Jesus is born.  Jesus, He is the spirit of Christmas.  Allow the spirit of Christmas control us and really experience the joy, the wonder, and the gift of Christmas.  Merry Christmas!