The Super Bowl left people like me an enormous amount of fodder to comment on - not the least of which is Clint Eastwood's little speech for Chrysler and America. "Both teams are in their locker room discussing what they can do to win this game in the second half. It's halftime in America too. People are out of work and their hurting and they're all wondering what they're going to do to make a comeback." The speech goes on, and despite some of the political fallout of the speech (halftime for Obama?), the ad has to be considered an enormous success for Chrysler. People can relate to it. We are down, and we need a word of hope.
However, a pessimist (and perhaps someone who likes a little humor) would agree with Jay Leno's recent comment on Clint's words. So to quote Mr. Leno, "The bad news: China has the ball and we're down 15 trillion." It wouldn't be so funny if there wasn't the sting of truth to it. Perhaps we don't need another half. Perhaps we need an entirely new game.
I don't bring this up for political comment (hmm . . . maybe I already made one). You can draw your own conclusions. Rather, I bring this up today because Leno's words struck me as the perfect illustration for many of our own personal lives as Christians. Many of us "got in the game" years ago when we received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We wanted to be on the winning team - and yes, Jesus wins! However, we didn't play well in the "first half." We didn't follow the rules of the game, or we dropped the ball, or that big defensive tackle we call "SIN" ran us over. The problem? We ran into the tackle ourselves - he didn't run into us. But now that we are in sin's grip, we find ourselves unable to get out and we feel like sin has the ball and we're down 15 trillion.
There's hope friends. We have the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) and Sin has no offense. People forget this, but Sin only has a defense (it wants to keep us captive), and it cannot win unless we keep carrying the ball on Sin's side of the ball. Didn't Jesus say something about the "gates of hell" rather than the "sword of hell?" Last time I checked, gates were for defense - not offense.
Matthew 16
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Paul
However, a pessimist (and perhaps someone who likes a little humor) would agree with Jay Leno's recent comment on Clint's words. So to quote Mr. Leno, "The bad news: China has the ball and we're down 15 trillion." It wouldn't be so funny if there wasn't the sting of truth to it. Perhaps we don't need another half. Perhaps we need an entirely new game.
I don't bring this up for political comment (hmm . . . maybe I already made one). You can draw your own conclusions. Rather, I bring this up today because Leno's words struck me as the perfect illustration for many of our own personal lives as Christians. Many of us "got in the game" years ago when we received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. We wanted to be on the winning team - and yes, Jesus wins! However, we didn't play well in the "first half." We didn't follow the rules of the game, or we dropped the ball, or that big defensive tackle we call "SIN" ran us over. The problem? We ran into the tackle ourselves - he didn't run into us. But now that we are in sin's grip, we find ourselves unable to get out and we feel like sin has the ball and we're down 15 trillion.
There's hope friends. We have the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17) and Sin has no offense. People forget this, but Sin only has a defense (it wants to keep us captive), and it cannot win unless we keep carrying the ball on Sin's side of the ball. Didn't Jesus say something about the "gates of hell" rather than the "sword of hell?" Last time I checked, gates were for defense - not offense.
Matthew 16
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Paul
RSS Feed