August 31, 2020 - Examine Your Game

What a series from Luka Doncic! I wrote about him a little bit last week as he was putting up huge numbers in their playoff series, which he continued to do in spite of the Dallas Mavericks eventually losing the series. But even in loss, there is huge praise following those hug numbers… even the coach and players from the other team are talking about how tough and good he is.

As a 21-yr-old young man, it would be very easy for Luka to go into the off-season feeling really good about himself and basking in the praise. Yet, the bottom lie for him is that he is in the off-season and not in round 2! I don’t know Doncic, and I am sure he probably has a bit of an ego… what young man wouldn’t get a bit of a swollen head with the basketball world singing his praises; BUT I do love the response he gave immediately after the series ended:

“There’s a lot of things to improve on. You can’t work on just one thing, you’ve got to work on everything. But I’ll especially work on my shooting. That’s my key.”

That response reminded me of a passage I in Galatians… one that is extremely fitting for a quarantine, when there is time to think (like the off-season.)

Galatians 6:3 For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.

Translation: in spite of a good performance, losing in round 1 was not the goal…

Galatians 6:4 But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

Translation: you are responsible for you… take an honest look at your “game”!

We each need to regularly take inventory of where we can improve!

Disclaimer: the difference is we are not “performing to win” but out of gratitude for the “performance” of Christ for our victory… we should be motivated to share that truth with a lost world!

August 24, 2020 - Luka and Playoff P

Being in the midst of the NBA playoffs, there is a lot of chatter about the guys that are lighting it up… and the guys that are stinking it up…

From the positive side I just saw an article on Luka Doncic talking about how he is built to handle the pressure… thrives in it; on the negative, and in the same series, I am seeing many writing/commenting about Paul George who has not played well at all on the offensive end.

Paul George is an NBA superstar and is typically referred to as PG13… yet in past years, at playoff time, has been labeled “Playoff P” for his great play… now this year I am seeing headlines like “Playoff P is Missing in Action!”

The reality is that Paul George may simply be in a shooting slump, and he does typically affect the game positively in many other ways; or maybe there is some different type of pressure now? You see this year, beyond any other in his career, he is with a team with the highest expectations. They have been predicted by many to win it all, yet currently are in a really tight battle just to get through the first round.

I’m not writing this to write off Paul George; he may bounce backs with huge games to carry his team through… BUT so far his play has reminded me of a verse found in Proverbs 24:

10 If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.

The Message says it this way: 10 If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.

Times are difficult right now… we are facing many crises in our culture, and they may have led to personal crises of health or finances or… I know I am personally facing a lot of struggles. So how do we keep from fainting or falling to pieces?

The logical spiritual answer is to trust God; yet in our humanity it is easy to allow our brains to swim around in the negative circumstances… trying to figure things out… and face “paralysis by analysis.” But the Biblical formula I see for fighting through and showing strength is to focus on meeting the needs of others…

I have written in the past about how the Apostle Paul found joy in the midst of struggles by serving and praying for others needs instead of focusing on his personal needs. And as I was prepping for this devotion the next verse in Proverbs 24 jumped out:

11 Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to slaughter.

The Message starts the verse this way: 11-12 Rescue the perishing; don’t hesitate to step in and help. If you say, “Hey, that’s none of my business,” will that get you off the hook? Someone is watching you closely, you know--- someone not impressed with weak excuses.

I’m not Paul George’s shooting coach, but I know when a player is slumping, it is often hard to come out of it because doubts (hesitation) set in… thus messing up the shooting rhythm.

I don’t know what you are facing today, and I am speaking heavily to myself, but we can’t hesitate to serve others because of our personal adversity. Let’s Go MAD (Make A Difference) in someone else’s life today… in turn it will Make A Difference in our personal lives!

August 17, 2020 - Getting Even!

Have a very basic truth this week that I want to share…

Growing up I would often hear, and I am sure stated many times, “I don’t get mad… I get even!” First of all, that was not true… I would get mad, really mad… so mad that when I was really young my older brother and his friends thought it was fun to get me going and then see who could stay up the longest as I tried to plow them over. As I got a bit older, and potentially could do some harm, my brother would simply lock himself in a room until I calmed down, so he didn’t have to beat me up to stop me. Point was, I had no desire to get even, I wanted to get ahead (a head)!

Same is true in hoops… I never played for a tie (getting even); when down, the goal was to not just catch up, but to get ahead!

Yesterday in church, my friend Nick taught on the problems we face with anger… he had some great points about how it can control us and lead us down the wrong path. He quoted a friend that had told him, “if you can’t say it in love, you can’t say it!”  Nick shared the following verses from James 1:

19-20 …everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.

Nick then made the following statement: “When you act out in anger, it is never right.” And to be perfectly honest, I initially bristled at the statement as I thought about all the times growing up I heard preachers talk about “righteous anger” and using the example of Jesus overturning tables in the temple… Therefore, I started looking up verses, word meanings, etc; what Nick was saying sounded wrong but also sounded right… and the verses from James seem very clear.

Then I got to thinking about a theme I have shared many times through my ministry… one that filters all Biblical mandates (law) through Jesus’ words that it all has to be subject to loving God and loving others (the Great Commandment)…

I then read the verses in James through that lens and it popped out that the “anger OF MAN” does not seek or show the heart of God… it seeks to get even or get ahead! It is selfishly motivated and causes us to fight for vindication instead of restoration. We end up more concerned with making ourselves right instead of making God right…

Ephesians 4:26 tells us to “Be angry, and yet do not sin…”

What is interesting is that the word for “angry” in this verse is a different form of the word for “anger” in James… this one actually means that we can be provoked to anger (a legitimate feeling) and yet not sin… it is based in the new mindset that is talked about a few verses earlier…

Ephesians 4:23-24 …and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

I love that… the “likeness of God”… a God that loves in spite of opposition… I think of Philippians 2 where we are told to have a mind like Christ… one that gives in spite of…

The theme at our church right now is “Love is Why”; and I remind us all of the way services are typically closed, “we love you and there’s nothing you can do about!”

Today, don’t worry about shining the light on yourself… your rightness… but instead on Jesus and His rightness! Don’t strive to get even or ahead, but to share the love of Christ in every circumstance!

Side note: you will seldom win an argument (especially on social media); BUT God's word/truth does transform lives!

August 10 2020 - The Foundation of a TEAM (Fellowship)

I’ve been working on some ideas for a new ministry project and my studies have been looking at what a fellowship (being a team) looks like… and in the process regularly see news about off the court/field issues between teammates. 

Building a true team concept involves some key things… being on the same page philosophically… being committed the good days and the bad… picking one another up when needed… etc.

As I study the idea of fellowship, it is rooted in these same concepts. We see in Scripture that it involves “considering one another”, “stirring up love and good works”, and “exhorting one another” (Hebrews 10:24-25); we see that it involves “restoring” and “bearing one another’s burdens” (Galatians 6:1-2)… yet we also find a very foundational truth to fellowship (being a true team):

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

In order to truly have fellowship it is required that we “walk in the light.” This is a mandate that we must have the same philosophy… be on the same page… we must be trusting the direction the Coach is giving! “Light” has the idea of truth and its knowledge… of mind and reason. In other words, we cannot truly function as a “team” without an agreement to our foundational truths…

Our “game plan” must be established in God’s truths/philosophies for life! Let’s win in life together…

Proverbs 10:25 When the storm is over, there’s nothing left of the wicked: good people, firm on their rock foundation, aren’t even fazed. (The Message)

August 3, 2020 - Play Loose

With the re-start of the NBA games in the Orlando-bubble there have already been some disappointing performances and also have been some incredible breakout games as well… (shoutout to TJ Warren dropping 53 and 34 in his first couple bubble-games!)

But one player that stood out to me for this week’s devo is Michael Porter Jr.  Apparently, he had a lackluster outing a couple days ago, one that had his coach frustrated; and I’m sure Michael as well. He is a very talented young man that battled injury in his lone college season (playing in barely over a game’s worth of minutes and scoring just 30 collegiate points total; yet he was chosen high in the draft and then was held out due to the injury his first year after being drafted… so this year is considered his rookie season. He has been given a chance to start with some of his teammates out and apparently the 1^st game back left him frustrated and worried on how his coach would respond…

An article I read on ESPN stated: "Michael Porter Jr. texted Michael Malone three times over the past few days, telling him he can do better and pleading with the Denver Nuggets coach to stick with the talented rookie."

I didn’t watch the game, but reading what transpired afterwards, it is clear that he was a bit lethargic and maybe playing tight… which happens often when a player is pushing too hard to impress the coach… maybe not sure where he stands with the coach. And I LOVE the response he got from his coach…

"I said, 'Michael, I'm not going anywhere,'" Malone texted back. "I'm gonna stay with you."

In today’s game Porter Jr responded by playing a much more complete game… dropping 37 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Quite a performance for the young man! So what was the difference?

As a coach I realized that my players were much “looser” when they knew I was on their side… knew they had some freedom to just play without worrying about being “yanked” for every mistake. Coach Malone empowered his player by giving him some security and freedom…

All of that to point out a really cool word study I did for a message a couple of weeks ago. As I prepared to teach about why we can trust God (that He is on our side and has given us security and freedom), I shared a very familiar passage from Proverbs 3:5, which tells us to “TRUST in he Lord…”

When we listen to God, we can do so with a TRUST… that word literally has the idea of “with confidence… being secure… feeling safe… being carefree…

Just “get in the game and play”… do what He has said, and realize that even though we may blow it sometimes, we are safe and can “play with confidence”… which in turn allows us to “play to our potential.”

God is literally saying to you, “I’m not going anywhere… I’m gonna stay with you!”