Conditioned in God’s Gym
September 4, 2006
Bible Reading: ”We should be decent and true in everything we do, so that everyone can approve of our behavior.” ~Romans 13:13
Bonus Reading: Romans 14:20-21
In 1996, just prior to his Heisman Trophy-winning senior season at Florida, quarterback Danny Wuerffel declined an invitation to be named a member of Playboy magazine’s all-America College preseason football team and their National Scholar Athlete of the Year. His decision cost him an all-expense-paid trip to a posh Phoenix resort for a photo-shoot with the other 23 college players selected.
“It didn’t take any thought at all,” explained Wuerffel at the time. “That’s not the type of person I’d want to portray myself as.”
Wuerffel speaks frequently at churches and schools, and believes appearing in such a magazine would “confuse” those who look to him as a role model.
In college, Wuerffel led Florida to three straight SEC championships, passing for more than 10,000 yards and 114 touchdowns - second all-time - and compiling a 163.6 passing efficiency rating, an NCAA career mark. Then it was on to the NFL, where he continues to model character. “My commitment,” he says, “is to represent God in all I do.”
Steve Riach in Heart of a Champion
Adapted from Heart of a Champion (Broadman & Holman, 2001)
What are our reflexes like? Are they Godly and right by His standards - or do we still have the reflexes of our old nature. The easy test is to listen to ourselves when we are frustrated or under pressure. What comes out of our mouths? Blessings or thanksgivings to God our Father - or curses and ill speaking? Scripture tells us from the “abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” That is a good measure of our transformation by the Holy Ghost - or our insistence on doing things our own way.
The Good News in all this: if we want to change to God’s paradigm for our lives, we can do it - if we give Him primacy in all that we are and do. He’s promised us a new heart and new behaviors, if we simply make Him our Lord. Once we do, we, too, can have reflexes conditioned in God’s spiritual gym.
By Grace,
Chip+
Doggone
September 1, 2006
“Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh.” — Romans 13:14
I’ve been a hunter nearly all my life and have hunted just about anything you can imagine. I remember as a youngster, how frustrating it was to hunt birds in the south Texas brush country, down a particularly tough shot, only to lose it in the scrub. It was not until many years later, I learned just how valuable a good dog was - you could almost always up your chances of success! Almost always, that is.
Later, when on active duty, I was stationed in Nebraska and ran into a guy who had purchased a dog to help him hunt pheasants (a truly challenging bird). But he discovered that the dog would willfully range off on his own, paying no attention to my friend, who even used a remote-controlled electronic obedience collar on the hard-headed animal. So instead of hunting pheasants, this fella spent his time in the field chasing after his dog, who refused to heed His master. Finally the hunter decided he had better leave the dog at home. Dog gone.
What a great picture of St. Paul’s words in Romans 7. Under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, he wrote, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do” (v.15). St. Paul was talking about the conflict between his old sinful tendencies and the new creature Christ made him when he was born again. And we have a big lesson here. If we don’t take our spiritual life - especially temptation - seriously, we’ll be like the hunter. We’ll find ourselves doing what we don’t want to do and failing in our real purpose for the Kingdom.
Certainly, our hunter solved his problem by taking decisive action. He equipped himself for pheasant hunting and went out without his expensive, but distracting dog. That’s what we must do in our spiritual life. As we prepare for and live each day, we can choose to obey the injunction, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” (Romans 13:14). And the thing is, beloved, this is a moment-by-moment decision, regardless of what comes our way. The choice is ours - continually. What will we do?
The answer is simple enough; we make Jesus Lord, rely on His strength, and put Him first in everything, then we’ll be able to reject the evil impulses that arise within us. That’s how we “leave the dog at home.”
Grace and peace,
Chip+
