Rose, the Rulebook, & Reinstatement (replayed)

On the anniversary of Pete’s banishment from baseball this “repost” might be of interest to some.

August 4, 2009

Rose, the Rulebook, & Reinstatement

Filed under: Uncategorized — five8evangelism @ 8:44 am Edit This
Tags: God’s family, Hall of Fame, hell, Jesus, Pete Rose

Pete Rose is in the news again. Rose has more hits than anyone else in major league history.  Most believe that statistic alone should qualify him as a Hall of Famer.  He would have already been, but he broke the rules.

Rose’s transgression against baseball superceded even the illegal use of banned substances.  He bet on baseball.  Not once but on a routine basis.  For that, then commissioner Bart Giamatti, brokered a deal that banned the perenial all-star from baseball for life.  A decision with which I am in total agreement.

Lately it has been rumored that several superstars have “stepped up to the plate” on behalf of the former Big Red Machine third baseman.  Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, and Joe Morgan are players from the past with no taint of scandal connected to their names.  These men have supposedly petitoned the current commissioner, Bud Selig, to lift the lifetime ban against Rose and reinstate him as a candidate for his certain entrance to the Hall of Fame.  A decision with which I totally agree.

Wait a minute.  How can a person be in total agreement to Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball and its removal at  the same time.  For me it’s not difficult at all.  I’ve been in the very same situation, not as a baseball player, but as a human being.

According to the Bible I broke the rules.  I willfully sinned against God.  His “rulebook” states that the one who sins has to pay the penalty by death, not just physical death, but more tragically, spiritual death.  I received an “eternal” lifetime ban for my transgressions.

But a greater Superstar than those mentioned above stepped up to the plate for me.  Jesus Christ not only petitioned the Father on my behalf but He also willingly took the punishment for my sins.

Because Jesus was willing to die for my sins, reinstatement into God’s family became a reality.   “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”  (Romans 6:23).

I hope Pete is reinstated to the game of baseball.  Twenty years banishment is a tough penalty to have to endure.  An eternity in hell is even tougher.

The Boy’s Birthday Box

The GrandBoy (my grandson) celebrated his third birthday last week.  At his party he received an abundance of gifts.

A few days later as he and his Gran surveyed the “loot” she asked, “where did your clock come from”, noticing a present that had heretofore slipped past her super-observant Grandmotherly eye.

The Boy answered, “the Post Office giv’d it to me.  Daddy took me to the Post Office and they giv’d him a box and it was in it”.

Keep in mind this is the same youngster that deduced, on his own, that chocolate milk comes from brown cows.  Not bad for a three year old.

The Bible says that, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights”  (James 1:17).

Children don’t always comprehend that.  Adults, however, should.  Tragically, all to often we behave as though we don’t.

There used to be an old country saying concerning people who were both unconcerned and unappreciative.  These were described as “hogs eatin’ under an ‘acorn’ tree, never looking up to see where their meal was comin’ from”.

Americans are also the recipients of gifts too numerous to count.  Not from the post office but from above.

“Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!”  (2 Corinthians 9:15)

Who are you following?

On this day in history in 1782, the Battle of Blue Licks, the last battle of the Revolutionary War, was fought on a hillside overlooking the Licking River in Robertson County, Kentucky.

One hundred eighty two Kentucky Militia were ambushed by 50 British Rangers and 300 American Indians.  Seventy two of them were killed.  The British and Indian forces suffered 7 casualties resulting in death.

Most notable among the dead Kentuckians was Israel Boone, son of the legendary pioneer, Daniel Boone.

Tragically the battle took place after the Revolutionary War had ended.  General Cornwallis had surrendered ten months earlier, on October 19, 1781, at Yorktown, Virginia.

To make matters worse, the command to engage the enemy seems to have been prompted by Major Hugh McGary’s reaction to Colonel John Todd’s accusation that he had acted timidly at the siege of Bryan’s Station, Kentucky just a few days earlier.

Bad leadership fueled by egotism caused Daniel Boone to bury his boy on that bloodstained hillside.

In an attempt to cover his alleged cowardice, McGary, against the advice of Boone, who feared an ambush, ordered the ill-fated attack on the enemy.  McGary is said to have said, “them that ain’t cowards, follow me”.  In response Boone is reported to have said, “we are all slaughtered men”.

Obviously we need to be careful who we follow.  There is, thankfully, another who says, “follow me”, not to the slaughter but to take our places there.  Isaiah 53:7 says that for our sakes,”He was led as a lamb to the slaughter”.

We all face battles.  Just as the enemy “laid wait” on that hot August day, our enemy, Satan, is ready to ambush, and if possible, kill us.  That mandates good leadership.  The kind only Jesus can provide.

One day Jesus passed by Matthew, a wealthy tax collector, and said to him, “follow me” (Matthew 9:9).  The Bible says that Matthew got up from where he was sitting and followed Jesus.  All the way to heaven.

Who are you following?

Between A Rock and A Hard Place

Wednesday morning we learned that former University of Kentucky and current University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino confessed to twice having consensual sex with a woman named Karen Cunagin Sypher.

This admission comes after Sypher accused Pitino of raping her during these encounters.  Sypher is also under indictment for extortion in this matter.

It seems that Mr. Pitino is caught between the proverbial “rock and hard place” with what he refers to as an “indiscretion”.  The coach is owning up to an adulterous affair as a defense against the alleged rape charges.

This whole sordid affair is a reminder of the Biblical warning found in Numbers 32:23:  “be sure your sin will find you out”.

We “can run but we cannot hide”.  Just ask Adam and Eve.  Sooner or later God comes looking for us.  Our transgressions are exposed, no matter what our status in society.

He “finds” us because He loves us.  Just as our first parents endured the consequences of their sin, so must we.  Those consequences, however, are primarily redemptive not punitive.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” but “if we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:9-10).

Might as well get honest and get it over with.  He already knows.  And thankfully He already cares.

Maybe, Maybe Not

During a discussion early this morning of the proposed heath care plan and how it would effect senior Americans, a news anchor affirmed that, “we’ll all be 75 someday.”

Well maybe we will and maybe we won’t.  There’s no guarantee that we will see tomorrow.  My local newspaper listed 14 names in its obituary column today.  Only four of the people listed were 75 or older.

Death isn’t a pleasant subject.  Nevertheless, it’s one we can’t avoid.  No matter what kind or amount of health care we have can’t stop the inevitable.  The Bible says in Hebrews 9:27 that, “it is appointed for men to die”.

We’re all going to die physically.  But we don’t have to die spiritually. That is, if our faith is in Jesus Christ and Him alone.  Jesus said, “I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore.  Amen.  And I have the keys of Hades and of Death”  (Revelation 1:18).

Spiritual death is to be separated from the love and presence of God forever in a place called hell.  Jesus, however, is the anti-venom for the bite the serpent inflicted in the Garden.

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”

We might not make it to 75.  But if your faith is in Jesus you can make it to Heaven.

“The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”  (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

Crossing the Line

On Tuesday former President Bill Clinton secured the release of Euna Lee and Laura Ling from a 12 year sentence at hard labor in a North Korean prison.

Politics aside, thank the Lord that Clinton could be used to influence Kim Jong Il, North Korea’s dictator, to allow these two young Americans to return safely to their families.

However, just days before Lee and Ling’s release we learned that three other Americans, Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, and Sarah Shourd have been arrested and detained in Iran. The charge against these three are similar to the first two:  essentially, being spies for America.  Certainly we hope and pray for the safe return of Bauer, Fattal, and Shourd just as we did for Lee and Ling.

In both cases the Americans claimed that they had inadvertently crossed the respective borders of North Korea and Iran from South Korea and Iraq.  They had “crossed the line”.

Tragically Americans “cross the line” every day.  Not into a hostile nation, and not inadvertently.  It seems we willfully and purposely cross every moral and ethical boundary established, not by the decree of some earthly monarch, but by the Soverign God of the Universe.

We’re about to get ourselves in real trouble.  Not with the North Koreans or the Iranians.  Not with some temporal tyrant who’s too big for his britches.  Continuing to wander into spiritual wastelands devoid of Biblical values will only result in our falling “into the hands of the living God” which the writer of Hebrews describes as “a fearful thing” (10:31).

If we don’t step back from the borders of ungodliness we risk the loss of the freedoms we so deeply cherish.  Laura Ling tearfully said yesterday after returning from 100+ days of detention in North Korea, “Now we stand here home and free.”

“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (2 Corinthians 3:17).

Enjoy being at home.

Rose, the Rulebook, & Reinstatement

Pete Rose is in the news again. Rose has more hits than anyone else in major league history.  Most believe that statistic alone should qualify him as a Hall of Famer.  He would have already been, but he broke the rules.

Rose’s transgression against baseball superceded even the illegal use of banned substances.  He bet on baseball.  Not once but on a routine basis.  For that, then commissioner Bart Giamatti, brokered a deal that banned the perenial all-star from baseball for life.  A decision with which I am in total agreement.

Lately it has been rumored that several superstars have “stepped up to the plate” on behalf of the former Big Red Machine third baseman.  Hank Aaron, Frank Robinson, Mike Schmidt, and Joe Morgan are players from the past with no taint of scandal connected to their names.  These men have supposedly petitoned the current commissioner, Bud Selig, to lift the lifetime ban against Rose and reinstate him as a candidate for his certain entrance to the Hall of Fame.  A decision with which I totally agree.

Wait a minute.  How can a person be in total agreement to Rose’s lifetime ban from baseball and its removal at  the same time.  For me it’s not difficult at all.  I’ve been in the very same situation, not as a baseball player, but as a human being.

According to the Bible I broke the rules.  I willfully sinned against God.  His “rulebook” states that the one who sins has to pay the penalty by death, not just physical death, but more tragically, spiritual death.  I received an “eternal” lifetime ban for my transgressions.

But a greater Superstar than those mentioned above stepped up to the plate for me.  Jesus Christ not only petitioned the Father on my behalf but He also willingly took the punishment for my sins.

Because Jesus was willing to die for my sins, reinstatement into God’s family became a reality.   “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord”  (Romans 6:23).

I hope Pete is reinstated to the game of baseball.  Twenty years banishment is a tough penalty to have to endure.  An eternity in hell is even tougher.

Sunday Morning Coming Down

Sunday Morning Comin’ Down reached number one on the country music charts in 1970.   This melancholy tune was written by Kris Kristofferson and sung by Johnny Cash.  Together, they masterfully describe the emptiness and loneliness of a wasted life brought to woeful fruition on a Sunday morning.

One line in the song says, “I stopped beside a Sunday School and listened to the songs they were singin”.  You get the idea that compared to waking up “with no way to hold my head that didn’t hurt”, being in church isn’t such a bad idea.

As a matter of fact going to church is a good idea, a very good idea.  This, according to research recently conducted by Thom Ranier, of Lifeway Christian Resources, concerning people who have been Christians less than a year.

The research revealed that these people, before they became Christians, had a major hang-up with those who claimed Christianity but rarely attended church.  The point is obvious.  If we don’t want to be a negative influence on those without Christ then we ought to be faithful in worship.

The Bible says that we shouldn’t be “forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).   Regular church attendance is a positive influence that builds up the faith of others.

According to this passage, the closer the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus becomes, the more  faithful we should be in church attendance.  After all, someone may just stop outside to listen to the songs we are singing.