March 5, 2015

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me." John 15:4

One of the big differences between baseball and the Home Run life analogy comes in this area of making the connection at home plate. 

In Major League baseball a batter who connects for a hit 3 times out of ten at bats will be and all-star. And if he does it over the span of his career he will be a candidate for the Hall-of-Fame!

But in the Home Run life, connecting with God three days out of ten will make you a weak Christian!

God doesn't call you to be a hit and miss follower. Jesus made that clear in His teaching expressed in John 15. When you made a faith connection with Christ He expected you and expects you to remain connected to Him.

A branch that disconnects from the vine is unproductive and worthless according to Jesus. Anyone who is familiar with a grape vine knows that is true.

What would happen to a Major League hitter if he went a whole season swinging the bat but never connecting with the ball? How long would he remain in the big leagues?

In the same way, how can you remain unconnected from Christ and still consider yourself a Christian? Claiming you are a Christian doesn't make you one. Being connected to Christ through faith and maintaining that connection through obedience to His Word is what makes you a Christian.

Baseball is a game. Being a Christian is serious business! You might even say it is life or death serious. Not to be overly dramatic you could say it is a matter of eternal life and death.

Many people choose not to play baseball and still have a very productive and meaningful life. But the same is not true with faith. You need a relationship with God through Christ. And the relationship with Christ needs spiritual connection with God and a commitment to remain connected with Him.

As in hitting a baseball so it is in your faith, the more you commit to practicing the more you will connect at home plate.

Are you connected to Christ this morning?

Will you remain in Him?

What will that require of you today?

March 4, 2015

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

When I swung and connected with the baseball, I knew it and everyone in the ballpark knew it. And when I swung at the ball and missed it, everyone knew that as well.

In baseball hitting the ball is clearly and literally a matter of hit or miss!

Back when I played baseball I hated not connecting with the ball. I couldn’t stand it when I struck out. So, I figured out the best way to help me make contact with the ball on a regular basis. I widened by stance to shorten my stride. That kept my head level as I swung at the ball. I also shortened my swing so I could wait longer on the pitch and get the bat into the hitting zone quickly.

That worked so well that I rarely struck out. In fact, my first two seasons of college ball I didn’t strike out at all. But neither did I hit many long balls. Catchers are supposed to be power hitters and I was hitting line drive base hits.

Being a contact hitter wasn’t a ticket to the big leagues but it felt better than striking out.

But in the spiritual sense, I am happy to be a contact hitter. The more I connect with God the better I like it! And as long as I remain connected to Him I will never strike out!

Spiritually speaking, I know when I have connected with God and when I haven’t.

You can know that, too!

The reason you swing and miss is because you try to strike out on your own instead of connecting with Him and continuing in Him.

You too, can develop a way to be a “contact hitter” spiritually.

Hitters are happiest when they are hitting. They are most unhappy when they are swinging and missing.

Believers are happiest when they live connected with God through Jesus who promises, If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Connect with God today. Call on His Name. Submit to Him. Not only will you have the thrill of contact but you can also take it deep!

March 3, 2015

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing."  John 15:4-5

You don't have to be a baseball player as I was to know that the main reason people play baseball is because they love to hit the ball.

Unless you are a pitcher or a catcher and involved in every play, being on defense can be boring. It is possible to play a position in the field and not have a ball hit to you during the entire game! But everyone in the lineup gets to bat three or four times.

Most Major League ballparks hold 40,000 to 50,000 fans who come to the park not to see position players field balls or pitchers throw balls they come to see hitters hit. Excitement swells and the crowd rises at the sound of bat connecting with baseball!

Connecting with the ball IS a great feeling! It is also a sweet sound to hear the crack of the bat when it connects with the ball! And to get a chance to hit the ball you must get up to home plate. 

In the game of baseball connecting with the ball is an acquired skill. It takes hours of batting practice and proper instruction to learn to make consistent contact at the plate. Some are never learn to hit. But in the Home Run life, anyone who wants to step up to the plate can connect with God!

Everything in baseball begins and ends at home plate! 

So it is in the Home Run life! Everything in your spiritual life begins and ends when you connect with God. That connecting point of faith represents home plate!

A couple of thousand years before Abner Doubleday invented baseball, Jesus illustrated the necessity of connecting with God referring to a vine and its branches. Just as a branch depends on its connection with the vine to draw its life, so you depend on your faith connection with God to give you spiritual life.

The branch is dead without a connection to the vine and the game doesn't start until there is a connection at the plate.

Whether you use the baseball analogy or the vine, Jesus is clear "apart from me you can do nothing".

March 2, 2015

"Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith."  Galatians 6:7-10

I remember as a kid how much fun it was to sled down the hill in the Winter snow! There aren't a lot of hills in Indiana but we happened to live atop the highest hill in our little town. All the kids from the neighborhood would come and slide down our hill. When there were a lot of kids sledding the snow would get packed down and become a sheet of solid ice. Wow! How we would fly down that hill! With a running start we could slide down the hill and for another block or two before we would come to a stop.

But then we would have to walk all the way back UP the slippery hill carrying our sleds. Not so easy and not so fun!

To enjoy the easy part and the fun part we had to endure the hard uphill part.

Now that I am older and no longer enjoy sledding, or snow or carrying a sled up a slippery hill in the snow, I have come to understand that life is similar to my boyhood sledding experience. There a few easy downhill times and there are some hard uphill climbs. When you are a Christian who is trying to live a life that pleases God and impacts others, it is mostly an uphill climb.

As we discovered in our study of Romans 12, we are called to overcome evil with good. Evil is easy and natural like sliding down the hill. Goodness goes against our nature, so it can feel like climbing up a slippery hill.

In the case of the sledding, that maybe happened a few times a year so trekking up the hill was bearable. But the call to goodness is a daily challenge to overcome the sinful nature and obey God. You climb the hill one day and then get up the next morning and do it all over again. It can get tiring, especially as you watch all those who are sliding down the hill and seemingly having fun.

You understand the admonition to "be not weary in well doing". You are aware that doing good all day every day can take its toll. Obviously, if doing good was as easy as doing bad, we would live in a good world instead of an evil one. But we don't.

Have you grown weary from doing the right thing? Have you been tempted to just slide down the hill with everyone else? Perhaps you have been climbing the hill every day and wearing yourself out to always do the right thing and you don't see much of a payoff for all the investment. Maybe that is where you are today.

You have always heard that it pays to do the right thing. You read in your Bible that things that are pleasing to God - and you want to please Him. You know that sinful living, while easier to do, doesn't end well. But resisting evil and doing right is JUST HARD! SOME DAYS IT IS EXHAUSTING. How do you you keep from growing weary while you do the right things?

Paul wrote this portion of Scripture to encourage these believers because he knew they were growing weary. He, of all people, knew what it was to become weary in serving God. So, he encouraged them with the same encouragement he had found for himself. Live in the power of His Spirit. Saturate you brain with the promises of God and let them soak into your spirit. Walk by faith not by feelings. And finally, rejoice in Him that He has given you the desire to please Him, because that alone is a gift! God has taken away your bondage to sin and set you free to live for God.

So, as you prepare to climb the hill again today - remember to thank Him for the hill He climbed for you!

March 1, 2015

"But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:57

I never went into a baseball game thinking we wouldn't win but imagine knowing that you have already won!

How would you play the game if the victory had already been secured?

I would play to have fun! 

I would play for the love of the game!

I would play to improve my skills and increase my confidence!

I would play to enjoy the fellowship with my team mates!

In other words, I would play the game for all the right reasons!

Isn't that how we should live our lives as Christians since God's Word guarantees us that He has given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ?

Just as we forget baseball is a game and games are meant to be fun, we tend to forget that the Christian life is meant to be lived with joy!

Can you imagine how much impact our Christian faith would have in our weary world if Christians lived in the joy of the victory God has given us through Christ?

What could happen if we had faith like winners?

What could happen if we prayed like winners?

What could happen if we fellowshipped like winners?

What could happen if we worshipped like winners?

What could happen if we witnessed like winners?

Don't you think our faith might be more winning?

You are a winner you know!

Why not play like it today?

Why not enjoy your faith?

February 28, 2015

This is the fourth of four great goals for those who submit to God’s pattern in the Home Run life.

#1 – God loves you more than you will ever know!

“I pray that our of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

#2 – There is more to God than you will ever know!

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

#3 – God has put more into you than you will ever know!

“and know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

#4 – God has more for you than you will ever know

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

Let me ask you this, “Do you think you will get more out of life if you submit to the pattern of God’s Home Run life?”

I know I have!

I’m sure you would as well.

Looking back at my years of playing baseball I believe I got everything out of my experience given the talent I had and the background I came out of. I have no regrets and many memories. I’m thankful I was given the opportunity to play at the college level.

At the end of my ministry a I pray that I will be able to say the same! If I am to have any chance of that happening it will be because I have chosen to submit to the Home Run life!

What about you?

But even if I were to execute the Home Run life perfectly by connecting with God every time I came to the plate and by touching each of the bases exactly right allowing me to experience the fullness of His love and power, even then I would only know a portion of His greatness!

My God is too great to fully know in one lifetime! That is why He has given me eternity!

One thousand years into eternity, there will still be more to be revealed to me by my God. One million years or a billion years will not be enough to fully grasp the glory of my God!

So, while it is true that God has more for me than I will ever know I will get a chance to know it because I submitted to His pattern for living as illustrated by the Home Run life!

Are you in the game?

Are you playing according to His pattern?

If not, you have no idea what you’re missing!

February 27, 2015

This morning is the third of four great goals for those who submit to God’s pattern in the Home Run life.

#1 – God loves you more than you will ever know!

“I pray that our of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”

#2 – There is more to God than you will ever know!

“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”

#3 – God has put more into you than you will ever know!

“and know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

How do you know when you are filled with the measure of the fullness of God’s love that He has put within your spirit by His Spirit?

In baseball, the measure of the ability a player has is this, “can he hit the curve ball?”

If you can’t hit a curve ball your potential in baseball is limited to the lower levels of play.

One of the first times I faced a curve ball was in middle school when I went against Stan Frantz. Stan played for South Whitley and was one of those kids who had matured faster than most. He stood on the mound a head taller than the rest of us with well-formed muscles and the shadow of a beard. His fastball had enough speed that he really didn’t need to throw the curve ball. But he did. He tied me in knots.

Stan Frantz forced me to learn how to hit a curve ball, even though I had little success with his. He exposed a weakness and challenged to get better. Through that process he led me to discover that I had what it took to hit a curve ball.

Fast forward nine years. I was a senior in college playing baseball for Indiana Wesleyan against our rival, Taylor University. It was the bottom of the seventh. The score was tied. We had a runner on first when I came to the plate for what I knew would be my last at bat in my college career.

Guess who was on the mound? Yep, Stan Frantz! He looked exactly the same as he did in eighth grade! I knew he didn’t recognize me because I was much bigger and stronger than when I last faced him. Besides, he had no reason to remember me since I had never caused him any concern.

I worked the count to a full count, three balls and two strikes. Having two strikes on me with a man on base I knew what he would throw – the vaunted curve. And this time I was ready for it because I had learned how to keep my hands back and wait on it. I went with it off the outside of the plate, caught it on the fat part of the bat and ripped a slicing line drive down the right field line. As I rounded second base I saw my team mate cross the plate with the winning run and I looked over my left shoulder to see the right fielder just getting to the ball. Those were two very thrilling sights! But the image that is burned on my mind to this day is Stan Frantz walking dejectedly toward his dugout!

I realized at that moment that I had gotten much better and he hadn’t! But I also knew that he was the one who had forced me to improve.

Applying that story to the truth of this Scripture, God will allow life to throw you some curve balls at you to help you understand two things: where you need to get better and to discover the grace He has put in you to get stronger.

In the Home Run life, you will face curve balls at every base, not just at home plate. That is because God wants you to grow in your character, in community and in competence.

You may never know all that God has put into you, but if you submit to His pattern in the Home Run life you will know that it is more than enough!