Bible Ballistics: BBs #486 Who Dropped The Ball???

 

It’s almost football season—in fact many schools have already started, and the pre-season has begun—and no matter how you feel about sports, we’ve all heard of players dropping the ball, or missing a catch, or even running the wrong way. Those mistakes can have a high price tag—often the loss of the game. Well, my friends, we are in a much greater struggle than a sports competition, we are in a war for the hearts, minds and souls of men, women, boys and girls—the spiritual destiny of a world, a nation, a city—and even more of a root issue—the hearts and lives of families. Have we dropped the ball as a culture in the ideology of family? I believe we have, but we must strive to recover from our folly and restore the important core of our culture, of any culture—the family, the home, marriage and the valuing of life, all life!

When we abandon the moorings that God has given us we will see our ships drift into dangerous waters, storms and even destruction from the winds of life. We must recognize our true state, ask God’s forgiveness, and seek HIS wisdom and courage to make/be a change as we “stand fast in the evil day”! We can find some biblical insight into a ‘changing of the guard’ in scripture, which seems to parallel our state.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD,

choose you this day

whom ye will serve;

whether the gods

which your fathers served

that were on the other side of the flood,

or the gods of the Amorites,

in whose land ye dwell:

but as for me and my house,

we will serve the LORD.

16 And the people answered and said,

God forbid

that we should forsake the LORD,

to serve other gods;”   Joshua 24:15-16

Joshua had led the children of Israel into the Promised Land and given each tribe their inheritance to possess and to complete the conquest of the remaining enemies. We find Joshua near the end of his life calling the people together to remind them of what God had done for them, and to call them to confront their tendency to wander from God and choose poorly. It is here that we find the great call that still stands the test of time, the call that we all face at one time or another, “choose you this day…….but as for me and my house we will serve the LORD.” We all must choose, and we do choose every day! But what are we choosing?

Like Israel, we often choose poorly, and the consequences of our choices always become manifest, and I believe our choices here in the US have sadly become clearly manifest.

“And Joshua the son of Nun,

the servant of the LORD,

died,

being an hundred and ten years old.

9 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.

10 And also all that generation

were gathered unto their fathers:

and there arose another generation

after them,

which knew not the LORD,

nor yet the works

which he had done for Israel.”   Judges 2:8-10

I saw an example of this principle a long time ago, it was a an empty chair—and the speaker reminded us that when we fail to pass on the truths to those who are following us when we are in “the chair”, then the next “chair” will be empty and our heritage will fail. The generation which followed Joshua and his contemporaries, “knew not the LORD”, and we are finding ourselves in the same boat today. But how did this happen? Let’s see what the word tells us.

“And thou shalt love the LORD

thy God

with all thine heart,

and with all thy soul,

and with all thy might.

6 And these words,

which I command thee this day,

shall be in thine heart:”   Deuteronomy 6:5-6

God makes it clear in this wonderful passage that we can never pass on that which we don’t possess—the first thing that we must each do is have a relationship with GOD, through His Son Jesus, and in that relationship “I” come to love The LORD “my” God! And when I am in a relationship with Him then I can love Him with “all my” heart, soul and might/mind—for He and His Word are in “my heart”! If I don’t have Jesus, then I have nothing to pass on, but when we do know HIM, God lays out the plan for passing the baton to the next generation. I wish we had time to go over this entire passage, but for time’s sake we will look at only a few verses today (I encourage you to spend some time today in this entire chapter, it will bless your soul, and it may transform your relationships!).

“7 And thou shalt teach them diligently

unto thy children,

and shalt talk of them

when thou sittest in thine house,

and when thou walkest by the way,

and when thou liest down,

and when thou risest up…..

18 And thou shalt do

that which is right

and good

in the sight of the LORD:

that it may be well with thee,

and that thou mayest go in

and possess the good land

which the LORD sware

unto thy fathers……

20 And when thy son asketh thee

in time to come,

saying,

What mean the testimonies,

and the statutes,

and the judgments,

which the LORD

our God

hath commanded you?

21 Then thou shalt say

unto thy son,

We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt

with a mighty hand…..

24 And the LORD commanded us

to do all these statutes,

to fear the LORD our God,

for our good always,

that he might preserve us alive,

as it is at this day.”    Portions of Deuteronomy 6:7-24

God’s plan was that we who know Him, would share our love of Him by our conversations with our children-morning, noon and night, and that we would do what was pleasing to GOD not man! And the thing that is so amazingly simple, is that God tells us that if we would do these things, and make sharing HIM a priority in our lives, and live a life that backs up what we profess, that one day our child would “ask” us why, and then we would have an opportunity to share with them the truth of what God has done for “me/you”! WOW! I love the beauty and simplicity of this passage—not easy but simply put and irrefutable!

If we will do things God’s way, we will see amazing results. I pray that you and I will take this to heart and regardless of our past failures and shortcomings before God, that we will commit to faithfully pursue God, follow His will and His Word, and be a reflection of His glory to those around us. That we will teach those in our charge at every opportunity—to see and avail ourselves of every teachable moment God places before us. Oh that God would grant us mercy and grace to see our culture experience a great awakening and move of God—and I believe it can start in our homes, spread to our churches and then to our towns, cities, states and even to the cultural sewer that we call our capital. May God have mercy on us, and may we pursue Him tirelessly.

“If my people,

which are called by my name,

shall humble

themselves,

and pray,

and seek

my face,

and turn

from their wicked ways;

then will I hear from heaven,

and will forgive their sin,

and will heal their land.”   2 Chronicles 7:14

Amen and Amen—even so Lord Jesus!