Fight!

It's football time here in Wisconsin! I know it's still summer outside but the Green Bay Packers are already half way through their preseason schedule! And they havent won a game yet!! Players are battling for positions with the team, and for some, these positional battles mean the difference between having a high-paying job in the NFL or tending bar in some small town back home. Making the team is serious business!

Things get so desperate sometimes that there are actual fights at practise . . . between members of the same team!! Watch this short video and you will see what I mean.

Fight at Packers training camp

These are grown men vying for key roles on MAJOR NFL teams, but in the heat of battle we can ALL lose our cool. When the going gets tough we ALL will take a stand for the things that are really important to us. No matter what our skill level is, we ALL will fight if we are pushed hard enough.

What if you or I really wanted to play for the Green Bay Packers? Good luck with that!! But what if we REALLY wanted to play for them? Or how about this scenario . . . what if we HAD to play for the Green Bay Packers or we simply would die? What would we do? How would we approach our daily lives if every decision we made determined whether or not we would make the team?

Well, first we might analyze the team and figure out where we had our best chance. Quarterback is not an option. Aaron Rodgers has pretty good at that job. Most of us are probably too small to be linemen. I guess I could gain a couple hundred pounds and become "an immovable object." That might work.

Of course I'd need to have a try-out with the team. Hey, I spoke with the chaplain of the Packers once for a few minutes. Maybe he could get me in. Or maybe I could find out where the head coach lives and mow has lawn or walk his dog or something like that. Maybe that would help?

Let's face it. There is absolutely NO WAY on God's green earth that most of us could EVER be good enough to make the roster from the Green Bay Packers, or any other team for that matter, and for me that includes Pop Warner League football for grade school kids! So, what about my "make the team or die" scenario? Well, I guess I should be making funeral arrangements instead of writing this blog because I don't have a snowball's chance in hell. (How about THAT for a major league segue?)

There is another team out there though that is more powerful than the Green Bay Packers. This team offers a tremedous benefit package and retirement plan. And making the team does not depend on how well we throw a football or how many times we can kick a football trough then uprights. It doesn't involve and "skills" at all!! Just a simple belief in the coach & general manager, Jesus.

Even though we don't really have to DO anything to make the team, there are many would-be players on God's Team that act as if they are still trying out. They try to DO things to show God and others that "they have what it takes." It's like they are screaming, "Pick me! Pick me! Look how far I can throw a football!" Those are not the kind of players God is looking for.

God's team is made up of losers. We are the lowly, rejected sinners of the world, not worthy to be chosen by ANY team, let alone God's. Yet we HAVE been chosen! We've been drafted!!

"No one comes to the Father (God) except through me (Jesus)." - John 14:6

If we are looking to "make the team," God's team, we must do so through Jesus Christ. We must acknowledge who He is - The Son of the Living God (Matthew 16:16), repent of our sins (Acts 2:18) and then we must give up everything we have (Matthew 19:21) and be willing to follow Him wherever He may go.

"Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." - Matthew 16:24

There are several believers in Christ scattered throughout the NFL. Aaron Rodgers is one. Tim Masthay, the Packer's punter, is another. Tim Tebow (New England), Ray Lewis (Baltimore, recently retired) but I fear that many more are NOT followers of Christ, but followers of The World. We need to pray for them and for all who have not made a decision for Christ. Because, quite honestly, although they might be "stars" in THIS world, they don't have what it takes to make it on God's team - faith. But there IS a way, THEE Way, Yahweh. Do YOU have a roster spot (in The Book of Life). I pray that you do, because it is nearly game time!

"Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." - Acts 2:18