Tuesday, December 13, 2016

How Will I Know When I Get There?

I recently read a news article that reported a terminally ill 5 year old boy died in a Santa Claus' arms. It was truly a tragic and heart wrenching story. Five year olds just should not die! As the story was told, the Santa was asked to visit this young boy and took a gift to him. When the boy received the gift he asked the Santa, "How will I know when I get where I am going when I die?" The Santa's answer to the boy was that it will be OK he was "Santa's Number One elf" and they would let him in. The boy passed into eternity.

The human being in me gushed and felt warm and fuzzy. The pastor in me bristled and felt terribly sad. Not for the boy, but for the rest of the people who actually believed his statement to hold some truth.

I am well versed in the biblical doctrine that speaks to the "age of accountability" and the idea that there are countless millions who are safe in the arms of a loving Savior that never really understood faith, repentance, atonement, propitiation, redemption, forgiveness, etc. At the age of five years old I am sure many children have not reached the ability to comprehend these doctrines and truths. I am not so much sad for the young boy as I am for the millions who may have read that story and been misled into believing that they too can be "OK" if they believe in some such mythical magical story.

One of the myths many people believe is that there are many roads that lead to heaven. Jesus clearly set the record straight when he said - 

"I am the way, the truth, the light. No man cometh to the Father but by me." John 14:6

The Bible also says - 

"There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus." - 1 Tim 2:5

"There is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." - Acts 4:12

The truth is very clearly taught in Scripture: There is only one way to know for sure you will be "OK" when its your time to die. Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Believe that he died for your sins and that he will grant you forgiveness and redemption. Knowing this is the greatest gift you can receive this Christmas.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Home Plate is Always 17" Wide

I don't often outright steal an entire article. I usually poach an idea here or there and develop it further or change it a bit to make a spiritual application. Today I must confess to breaking one of the commandments. I have given credit at the end of the article so read it to the end. Enjoy.

Worth the read… For everyone especially parents and coaches
In Nashville, Tennessee, during the first week of January, 1996, more than 4,000 baseball coaches descended upon the Opryland Hotel for the 52nd annual ABCA convention.
While I waited in line to register with the hotel staff, I heard other more veteran coaches rumbling about the lineup of speakers scheduled to present during the weekend. One name, in particular, kept resurfacing, always with the same sentiment — “John Scolinos is here? Oh man, worth every penny of my airfare.”
Who the heck is John Scolinos, I wondered. Well, in 1996 Coach Scolinos was 78 years old and five years retired from a college coaching career that began in 1948. No matter, I was just happy to be there.
He shuffled to the stage to an impressive standing ovation, wearing dark polyester pants, a light blue shirt, and a string around his neck from which home plate hung — a full-sized, stark-white home plate. Pointed side down.
Seriously, I wondered, who in the hell is this guy?
After speaking for twenty-five minutes, not once mentioning the prop hanging around his neck, Coach Scolinos appeared to notice the snickering among some of the coaches. Even those who knew Coach Scolinos had to wonder exactly where he was going with this, or if he had simply forgotten about home plate since he’d gotten on stage.
Then, finally …
“You’re probably all wondering why I’m wearing home plate around my neck. Or maybe you think I escaped from Camarillo State Hospital,” he said, his voice growing irascible. I laughed along with the others, acknowledging the possibility.
“No,” he continued, “I may be old, but I’m not crazy. The reason I stand before you today is to share with you baseball people what I’ve learned in my life, what I’ve learned about home plate in my 78 years.”
Several hands went up when Scolinos asked how many Little League coaches were in the room. “Do you know how wide home plate is in Little League?” After a pause, someone offered, “Seventeen inches,” more question than answer.
“That’s right,” he said. “How about in Babe Ruth? Any Babe Ruth coaches in the house?”
Another long pause.
“Seventeen inches?”came a guess from another reluctant coach.
“That’s right,” said Scolinos. “Now, how many high school coaches do we have in the room?” Hundreds of hands shot up, as the pattern began to appear. “How wide is home plate in high school baseball?”
“Seventeen inches,” they said, sounding more confident.
“You’re right!” Scolinos barked. “And you college coaches, how wide is home plate in college?”
“Seventeen inches!” we said, in unison.
“Any Minor League coaches here? How wide is home plate in pro ball?”
“Seventeen inches!”
“RIGHT! And in the Major Leagues, how wide home plate is in the Major Leagues?”
“Seventeen inches!”
“SEV-EN-TEEN INCHES!” he confirmed, his voice bellowing off the walls.
“And what do they do with a a Big League pitcher who can’t throw the ball over these seventeen inches?” Pause. “They send him to Pocatello!” he hollered, drawing raucous laughter.
“What they don’t do is this: they don’t say, ‘Ah, that’s okay, Bobby. You can’t hit a seventeen-inch target? We’ll make it eighteen inches, or nineteen inches. We’ll make it twenty inches so you have a better chance of throwing the ball over it. If you can’t hit that, let us know so we can make it wider still, say twenty-five inches.’”
Pause.
“Coaches …”
Pause.
” … what do we do when our best player shows up late to practice? What do we do if he violates curfew? What if he uses drugs? Do we hold him accountable? Or do we change the rules to fit him? Do we widen home plate?
The chuckles gradually faded as four thousand coaches grew quiet, the fog lifting as the old coach’s message began to unfold.
Then he turned the plate toward himself and, using a Sharpie, began to draw something. When he turned it toward the crowd, point up, a house was revealed, complete with a freshly drawn door and two windows. “This is the problem in our homes today. With our marriages, with the way we parent our kids. With our discipline. We don’t teach accountability to our kids, and there is no consequence for failing to meet standards. We widen the plate!”
Pause. Then, to the point at the top of the house he added a small American flag.
“This is the problem in our schools today. The quality of our education is going downhill fast and teachers have been stripped of the tools they need to be successful….to educate and discipline our young people. We are allowing others to widen home plate! Where is that getting us?”
“And this is the problem in the Church, where powerful people in positions of authority have taken advantage of young children, only to have such an atrocity swept under the rug for years. Our church leaders are widening home plate!”
I was amazed. At a baseball convention where I expected to learn something about curveballs and bunting and how to run better practices, I had learned something far more valuable. From an old man with home plate strung around his neck, I had learned something about life, about myself, about my own weaknesses and about my responsibilities as a leader. I had to hold myself and others accountable to that which I knew to be right, lest our families, our faith, and our society continue down an undesirable path.
“If I am lucky,” Coach Scolinos concluded, “you will remember one thing from this old coach today. It is this: if we fail to hold ourselves to a higher standard, a standard of what we know to be right; if we fail to hold our spouses and our children to the same standards, if we are unwilling or unable to provide a consequence when they do not meet the standard; and if our schools and churches and our government fail to hold themselves accountable to those they serve, there is but one thing to look forward to …”
With that, he held home plate in front of his chest, turned it around, and revealed its dark black backside.
“… dark days ahead.”
Coach Scolinos died in 2009 at the age of 91, but not before touching the lives of hundreds of players and coaches, including mine. Meeting him at my first ABCA convention kept me returning year after year, looking for similar wisdom and inspiration from other coaches. He is the best clinic speaker the ABCA has ever known because he was so much more than a baseball coach.
His message was clear: “Coaches, keep your players — no matter how good they are — your own children, and most of all, keep yourself at seventeen inches.
(Copied post) from Elijah Steiner’s Facebook Page
Shared By: Melanie A. Peters

Saturday, May 7, 2016

The Leader We Need or The Leader We Deserve

I don't know about you, but I am eagerly looking forward to this election cycle coming to an end. While I have no clue how it will all end up I am looking forward to not hearing all the ugly talk being spewed across the airwaves. I want to make a few comments from a biblically based perspective.

1. As Christians we are to live our lives with the absolute knowledge that God is Sovereign. To the unsaved that premise is laughable and outdated. To the believer it is an absolute platform from which we must address and base our comments and opinions concerning the political process. "IF" we believe that God has a plan and purpose that will not and cannot be thwarted by the world, the culture, and the "evil forces" at work, we must trust God for whatever happens in the political process. That does not mean we should not get active and vocal concerning the process. It simply means that God will have the ultimate say and we should accept that.

2. As Christians we are to submit and pray for our political leaders. 

1 Timothy 2:1-4 -I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

What this simply means is that regardless of how good or bad we believe our leadership is we should pray for them. The government under which the Apostle Paul wrote these words had some of the most despicable leaders of all time. The Bible teaches us that God ordains our leaders. That means we have a responsibility to accept them (for now) and pray for them. We should pray that they will come to a knowledge of the Savior (verse 4). We should pray that they will not rule harshly against the church (verse 2). We should pray that God’s will be done in their leadership.

Romans 13:1-7 - Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: For he is the minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For for this cause pay ye tribute also: for they are God's ministers, attending continually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour.

1 Peter 2:13-16 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
3. Regardless of how bad our country becomes, it is still our responsibility to live Christ-like in all our dealings with the lost of this world. We are to be an example of love and compassion. Though we may be diametrically opposed to their philosophies, opinions, and morals, we are to rise above that. We have a higher calling and purpose for being in this world.

Matthew 5:13-16 - Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8 - Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth


I have heard it said, the choice facing us this election is a choice between the lesser of two evils. While I may agree on some level with that statement, it does not give me license to conduct my life like the rest of the world. God is still in control bringing about His plan and purpose for the world. No candidate ascends to power without God granting it so. Therefore, HE EITHER GIVES US THE PRESIDENT WE NEED OR THE ONE WE DESERVE!