Well here we are at another Thanksgiving week… (yet, technically we are told to have Thanksgiving Day… daily… 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in EVERYTHING give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you…)
So this week I am going to share a very familiar thought from over the years, and hopefully stick to the original plan of the devotions being a quick “timeout” to help adjust our time “on the court” during the week…
So, my Thanksgiving declaration is that I am thankful for the Gospel being clear and simple! Let me explain…
Yesterday I was doing some follow-up research on basketball shooting techniques as I prepared for some of our Total Player Academy training sessions. Growing up playing and coaching in Indiana was basically being a basketball fundamentalist… we (I) hung our hats on the strict adherence to certain rules of shooting on the methods to obtain success. Yet, if we put side-by-side video of the greatest shooters in the game, we will find variances (options) in the placement of their feet… in their load or set point… in their shot pocket… in their hand placement… etc. In fact, I looked at comparisons between Steph Curry and Klay Thompson… to find many variances in their methodology… (This is a “fundamentalist” nightmare… realizing there is not one set method of shooting…) But what was consistent was at the finish, with the shooting hand finding its way behind the ball and following through. The one thing that has to happen, in order to be a good shooter, is the ball must go straight!
It was amazing as I did a short experiment and typed into a search: Basketball Shooting Technique Video… in 0.35 seconds there were almost 70,000,000 hits… how many folks think they are experts on teaching shooting??? Bottom line is that is a challenge to get players lined up straight in their shooting.
All of that intro to remind us that there are over 4000 known religions of people trying to be experts on what God (or in some folks’ mindset… gods) expects to get right or straight for being on the “team.” Religion is simply man trying to get lined up (or to shoot straight) in pleasing God.
Now to my basic Thanksgiving declaration… God has spoken clearly and simply within His Word. (And yes, I write under the belief that the Bible is God’s inspired “playbook”!) In the Scripture we get to good news via the path of bad news…
The bad news is that God says we are not good enough to be on His team… none of us always shoot straight… we miss… we sin. Therefore, God sent Jesus to be our Substitute via His perfect life and sacrificial death… then resurrecting to offer us a place on the team… new life found only in Him!
The reason I want us to celebrate the clarity and simplicity of the Gospel is that it truly requires no methodology on our part to get it right… but instead the (methodology) is the execution of Jesus on the cross… Jesus executed a perfect game plan on earth, thus qualifying Him to be executed in our place… in essence God executed the plan of execution…
Let’s not only state that we are thankful that salvation is based upon the work Christ for us… (we simply receive the Gift…) but let’s also show our gratitude by sharing this gift with others and honoring God with our lives!
God didn’t require us to maneuver through a lot things to get it right… HE MADE IT RIGHT! He gave us only one option! I’m so thankful I don’t have to wade through 70,000,000 videos… or through 4000 religious opinions/options… but have a clear path outlined to God through the cross!
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him! 2 Corinthians 5:21
Jesus said to him, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” John 6:47
There is only one set way (option) of salvation!
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