I love March Madness. All the excitement of seeing which college basketball team will end up being the best in the nation. John wrote, “There is a sin that leads to death” (1 John 5:16). And to this day I can’t say for certain that pulling for Duke is not that sin! But the real reason I like March madness isn’t because of any college basketball team; it is because I know that when March Madness comes baseball season is just around the corner. And, what better place for a little Theology than the baseball diamond?
Curt Simmons said, “Trying to throw a fastball by Hank Aaron is like trying to sneak a sunrise past a rooster.” You know there are people, Christians mind you, that believe they can sneak their sin past God. That somehow they can sin in secret and God won’t know. You may sin and the person next to you in church have no idea, but I can promise you that God knows. In discussing prayer Jesus said this of the Father, “your Father, who sees what is done in secret” (Matthew 6:6). Whatever you do the Father sees. If you are fast enough, and I mean really fast, you might sneak a fast ball past Hammerin’ Hank. Or you might cover a rooster’s eyes and a sneak a sunrise in. But, you cannot sneak sin past God.
“No matter how good you are, you’re going to lose one-third of your games. No matter how bad you are you’re going to win one-third of your games. It’s the other third that makes the difference,” said Tommy Lasorda. Our spiritual lives are no different. We know there are going to be some spiritual battles that we are going to win: Praise God! But, there are some that we will lose. There will be times when we fall to the temptation of sin. And it is in those times that we have to know that we have a savior waiting to help us. We have to call on our spiritual bullpen. John wrote, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). But, what about the third of the equation? John wrote in 1 John 5:16 that there is sin that leads to death. When we live in habitual sin we are going down a baseline that will not lead us to score. These habitual sins are not repented of. We are not forgiven nor cleansed form the unrighteousness. And it most cases it is these habitual sins that we are trying to sneak past God!
Casey Stengel said of former Yankee Catcher Yogi Berra, “He’d fall in a sewer and come up with a gold watch.” That is exactly what we do with Christ. Apart from Christ our lives are down in the sewer. Sin has made us as filthy as anything that you find in a sewer: it has separated us from God. But when we come to Christ and we repent of our sin we become new creatures. Paul wrote, “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). We go down in that water like something that was in a sewer and come up like a gold watch! Paul wrote to the church in Corinth, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Nothing could be better than a day at the ball park: Baseball; Hot dogs; and God! Tommy Lasorda said, “”There are three types of baseball players: those who make it happen, those who watch it happen, and those who wonder what happens.” Which type of spiritual player are you?
Please continue praying for the Mid Atlantic Christian University family.
If you are in the area come see me at the ROANOKE ACRES CHURCH OF CHRIST
Until next time May The Good Lord Bless And Keep You: All Y’all!
Bobby Cohoon
North Carolina, USA
bobby@bobbycohoon.com
