Play ball!

Posted on May 12, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

I have played tee-ball, baseball, and softball for almost my entire life. I missed a couple of summers when I was in my twenties but I am still swinging the bat and running the bases on my church softball team. See a previous post:

Again…and again…yet again.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of performing a wedding ceremony on a baseball field. We were in left field and not on the actual dirt part though. This post was inspired by the sermon I gave at that wedding.

In baseball, you need a glove, a bat, and a ball to play the game. These are essential.

These items represent different parts of the game.

The glove represents defense. The glove I use is over 20 years old. If it could speak, it might tell of the countless times that it saved me from certain disaster. =-)

The bat represents offense. Bats are as different and varied as the players who use them. The common denominator is that we all need a bat if we are going to hit the ball.

The ball represents the game. It is the game. Everything revolves around the ball. Without it, you cannot play baseball.

As a follower of Christ, the glove, bat, and ball can represent three aspects of following Jesus.

The glove represents defense. 2 Samuel 22 starts out with these verses, “David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: “The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior from violent people you save me.”

God is the ultimate defense when are faced with troubles and trials.

The bat represents offense. 2 Corinthians 10 explains the offense, “For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

God gives us what we need to be victorious as we follow Him.

And finally, the ball. The ball is everything. Nothing can or will happen without it. The ball represents Jesus.

Here is what Colossians 1 says, “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Jesus is everything. No point in living unless life is lived in Jesus.

So whether you are watching some Major League Baseball, playing co-ed softball on a church team, following Christ or living for yourself, let me remind you of one thing:

Keep your eye on the ball!

Wind in your face?

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

In the movie, What About Bob?, Bill Murray is hilarious! At one point, he is strapped to the mast of a sail boat.

And here is what he is saying…

Very funny!

Sailing. It is something that I have never tried. Someday perhaps.

But I do know something about sailing. Going from point A to point B is rarely, if ever, a straight line.

Even as I type these words, I recall all the twists and turns I have experienced. In the language of sailing, it is called tacking. Another picture to help with the idea.

There were many more photos from which you could choose to better understand tacking but this one worked for me.

Sailing a boat: There is a goal. There is a course that is plotted to get to the goal. But then the wind blows. Start tacking. Progress can be slowed but it is still progress.

Following Jesus: God plants goals, visions, passions, and dreams into our hearts. We set out to achieve all of these things for God. But then the wind blows. Start tacking. Our forward progress is slowed but we still move forward.

I am reminded of the words in James 4, “But he gives us more grace.”

Sure, I make mistakes. Life happens and I get wronged. Whether I did something or something was done to me, there is some readjusting to be done. Tacking.

So when rejection (this could mean your sin or someone else’s sin) occurs, will I regret or redirect?

We are all sailing through this life. And the wind is usually blowing.

Regret means to stop forward progress by not changing according to God’s standards.

Redirect means to move forward by adjusting to God’s will and changing directions.

One of my favorite bands is the Imperials. Here are some of the lyrics to one of their songs, “Sail On”:

“Cast up your sails
And let the wind blow
Jesus will never
Let your ship lose control
Just keep your compass set on the Son
And He’ll guide you safely
To His beautiful Home”

Heaven!

Posted on March 26, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

Heaven…streets of gold…no more crying or pain…living forever…no sin. Wow! Dwell on those things for a few minutes. Revelation 21 gives us quite a description of heaven. It sounds like an awesome place! With my parents passed on, they are in heaven right now. I John 5:13 gives me that assurance. It will be great to see them again. We will all have perfect bodies (whatever that means) and will get to spend eternity with God. Makes me smile. I can see that picture very clear in my mind of being in heaven some day…

BUT SIN MAKES THAT PICTURE UNCLEAR. Sin muddies the water. It makes a mess of thing.

Here is what we have so far:

It all starts with Jesus Christ. He is the Person of Hope that will never let us down.

There is also a Plan of Hope which is the fact the Jesus is Coming. He will come back for us!

But right now…Jesus is Constructing. He is in heaven right now, the Place of Hope!

We are not in heaven yet. Therefore, sin is still an issue. But wait, didn’t Jesus break the power of sin? Did not the cross of Christ take the penalty of sin? YES! The power and penalty of sin have been broken! Praise God!!!

It is the presence of sin that still invades this world. It is this author’s opinion that the best part of heaven will be the absence of sin. We have been delivered from the penalty of sin. Forgiveness (I John 1:9) is there for us. The power of sin has also been cancelled. See Colossians 2:13-15. It is the presence of sin that remains.

Go back to chapter 21 in Revelation. Verse 27a says,

“Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,”

There will be no sin in heaven. We won’t have to fight our fallen nature. The struggle for freedom is done. The war is complete. And that is the Place of Hope.

Why should we see Jesus as the Person of Hope? Why is there a Plan of Hope? Why can heaven be the Place of Hope?

Rest assured, there is the Purpose of Hope.

May God go with you this week.

More Hope

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

What do you hope for? That is the question I posed to my coworkers this past week. The answers were not surprising to me. They said things like financial stability, kids making good decisions, happiness etc. Those are all good things for which one can hope.

But like I posted last week, the one thing that does not disappoint is Jesus. Jesus Christ, the Person of Hope will always come through!

If we have the Person of Hope, Jesus Christ, then we can know that there is a Plan of Hope as well. It all starts with Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5:16-21 (click on the link to get the chapter), God has a plan. We are separated from God because of sin. But the Plan of Hope is that through Jesus, we can be reconciled back to God. Eventually, that leads us to heaven. We have a place in heaven because of being reconciled back to God! More on heaven next week!

The Person of Hope, Jesus Christ

The Plan of Hope, Jesus Coming

The bible gives us a definition of hope in Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” Faith and hope are closely related. In April, I will be posting about faith so please come back next month. =-)

Hope means that there is something out there that we don’t have but we know it is there. Faith gives us the action to keep us moving in that direction. Hope shows us the goal.

Here is an example that seems to make sense to me. You know those coin-push machines you see in gas stations? They are really a great way to exploit peoples’ hope in having a lot of money. Hope tells me that if I put a quarter in the machine, there will be some return. One quarter, or maybe even more, will fall into the hole and I will win! To be honest, I have spent $3 or $4 in the past year on these things. Faith means actually putting the quarter in the machine. Hope only tells us that there could possibly be a return. But this kind of hope is not good. Don’t waste your money. =-)

The culmination of this post is that my hope in Jesus is well-founded. Part of the Plan of Hope is that he will come back for me. He won’t leave me hanging. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 tells me about his return, the rapture.

Friends, Jesus is coming back. Are you ready? Do have your hope set on Him? He is the Person of Hope that will never disappoint us. His return is part of the Plan of Hope. That is really encouraging to me because some days, life sucks. It can be difficult to get through a day. I have issues and so do you.

But let’s put our hope in Jesus. That way, all will end well. So be lifted up today. Hold your head up proud because Jesus is pretty much to most awesome person you have ever met. Spend time with Him today. He wants to hang with you. Don’t let your day slip by and not see Jesus.

Next week we will discover the Place of Hope.

Chemistry, Christ, and Colossians

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Tim Sorbo

Today is the first day of Lent so I thought I would post my wonderings about it. To do this, I want to make a comparison from the realm of chemistry. Please keep reading even if you hate science! This will worth two minutes of your time. =-)

The Law of the Conservation of Mass states that mass cannot be created or destroyed; it is merely rearranged.

Here is a chemical equation with chemical symbols: CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O

Same equation in word form: methane gas + oxygen = carbon dioxide + water

Again but in picture form:

If you look at all the atoms, they are the same on both sides of the equation. There are four different substances but the amount of matter is the same.

Now let’s take a look at the idea of giving up chocolate for Lent. Fred is pretend. I am using Fred as an example so anybody named Fred is not to be directly associated with this post. =-)

Fred has 100 units of energy to spend each day of his life. These 100 units can be divided up however he wants to divide them. Fred really likes chocolate. He devotes 10 units of energy to chocolate. Thinking, buying, making and the eating of chocolate takes up 10 units of the 100 units that Fred has each day. The other 90 units are spent on everything else. Fred is disciplined so he only devotes 10 units for chocolate. Never more and never less. For Lent, Fred decides that he will give up chocolate. It will be difficult be he thinks he can do it. Now, he has all 100 units of energy to delegate to whatever he wants. Just because he always gave 10 units for chocolate does not mean that he loses those 10 units when he gives up chocolate. He has 100 units and will always have 100 units to spend. This is the law of the conservation of mass working in his life.

Let’s see if we can put this all together.

I can pursue God however I would like. Reading my Bible, praying, going to church, worshipping, or having coffee with another believer are all ways I can do this. I have the same amount of time that everyone else has. There may be a myriad of ways to spend it but it is there everyday. For Lent, the idea is that I am supposed to give up something. Great! But now what do I do with the extra time I have? Fred has 10 units of energy (that he used to spend on chocolate) that he gets to spend on some other thing. Maybe he will read or write or play a board game.

If I give up something, what will I do in place of that thing?

Whatever you are doing this Lenten season, I hope it helps you to draw closer to God. If you need to fast or give something up for these weeks leading to Easter, than do it. Make an effort to find God in a new way. I think Lent is about clearing the clutter and listening for our Lord. Whatever actions that means for you, awesome.

Remember the law of the conservation of mass. You will spend your effort on something so you might as well make it something great.

Colossians 3:17 says “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

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