I host a radio show on
Sunday mornings here in my hometown on the local affiliate of ESPN, called, “Ground-Rules from THE Playbook
with Rick Godley”. The show airs from
7a-8a. The station manager asked me if I
knew of any ‘Christian’ sports shows that he could put on the station to ‘reach’ the lost. I told him, I didn't know of one, but I would
be happy to do one, (since I have nothing to do on Sunday mornings now that The
True Holy Spirit opened my eyes ‘to want to’ obey the 4th
commandment). My first show was the 1st
Sunday in 2012, January 8th.
Growing up in the New
York metropolitan area, where there were 2 professional baseball teams, (Go
Mets 1969!), football teams, basketball teams, 2 hockey teams, I grew up a fan
of sports. I would classify myself as an
active fan, not rabid fan. Today, I consider sports for what it is: passive amusement. Many ‘die-hard’ sports fans forget what the ‘E’
in ESPN stands for: Entertainment!
The premise of ‘The Ground-rules’
show is to help the audience understand that there truly is a book that
literally contains ‘Ground-Rules’, that literally pertain to this ground we
walk on! That if we obey the
instructions, the rules, and then ‘The Owner’ of the Team will bless us, not
with a multimillion dollar contract, but with a ‘Life’-time covenant! Guaranteed by His Word! Sealed in the Red Ink of Him sending His Son
down to ‘The Field’, to teach us how to ‘play’ (live), and NOT throw the Rule
Book out! But, literally show us that ‘The
Ground-rules’ from the left-side of The Book (Scriptures), are NOT done away
with, they are the printed words of The Way, The Truth and The Life!
‘The Owners Son’ wasn't sent to start a ‘new team’, christianity!
I can’t find that in The Playbook, can you? He didn’t come to make a way for us to be
taken off ‘the field’ in the 4th quarter at the 2 minute warning
with the game on the line to be ‘raptured’ up to The Owners Skybox for a post
game banquet.
There was a team in a
town called Berea who even had the guts to verify what ‘Paul’ and Silas were
instructing from the same rule book you and I have! (The Left-side of the Book!). They opened their ‘pla-book’ DAILY to ‘see if
it were so’. Proving once again, that
Paul used the same playbook that ‘Jesus’ did!
Neither came up with anything new! After all, if ‘The Owner’ changes
not, then why should His Son, or His team?
The uniqueness of the
show has developed over the years to include guests who share their experience when
coming to grips with the fact that we all have been lied to (Jeremiah 16), when
someone says, we are a ‘New Team’ with a ‘New Coach’ because a ‘New League’
began in Acts 2! When in fact in the
rulebook in Jeremiah 6:16, we are instructed to ‘Walk in the ancient paths’ to
find rest for our souls. Not a new one!
As you can see, Our Father
(The Owner) has opened up an opportunity to share His message in a very fun and
creative way. There are so many
applications that can, have and will be made for future shows; I am excited to
be part of this.
I write this
introduction as a way to frame up this month’s article, as you can see the
title, “Wow”, because I couldn’t come up with another. Here’s why, Sunday’s show 8/31/14 (https://soundcloud.com/redpeachmedia/groundrules-from-the-73/sets
podcast link here if you want to hear) my guest was Coach Dave Daubenmire, who
makes a great guest, because he played the game of football and was a
successful Coach of various High School football teams in Ohio. Over the years I have established a
relationship with him ‘from the corn-fields of Ohio to the cotton-fields of
Louisiana’.
Currently I live in
North Central Louisiana, where we have 3 relatively prominent universities,
Louisiana Tech, University of Louisiana @ Monroe and Grambling State
University. Each one either has at one
time had some success on the football field.
Each one, trying to adapt with the times and either ‘keep up with the
big boys’ while accepting organized mediocrity as the new standard of excellence, where a losing
season can get you into a Bowl Game!
Have you noticed how
the sports world is now our moral barometer?
Have you also noticed how we have d-evolved to creating a ‘game day experience’
rather than focusing on putting on a great game? After all it’s about the size of the stadium,
Field houses and facilities, the interaction of the digital ear piercing scoreboard,
fun and exciting promotions, contests, tailgating etc. Let’s not forget the ‘Athletic Budget’,
cha-ching!
The Dallas Cowboys recently
were valued to have a net worth of over 3 billion dollars! They haven’t won a Super Bowl in almost 20
years, and only 2 playoff games. What’s their
incentive to put a winner on the field?
Who cares, but have you seen their 60 yard Digital video screen inside their
new stadium? Die-hard fans will still
pony up and but the tickets, the gear, talk the talk, be the authority cause
they got an opinion and play in fantasy leagues!
Wow?
I am going to give you
the results of a recent study and how it measures success, would you be able to
tell me what ‘team’ they are describing?
When these ‘Coaches’ were asked if their organization was successful or
not, here is their criteria they cited?
1)
Attendance
2)
Budgets (increase)
3)
Number of Programs
4)
Size of Staff
5)
Size of Facilities
Sadly the results for these measurements for ‘success’ didn’t come from NFL Owners or Division 1 Universities, no, they came from a 2 year research project conducted by George Barna, research expert an founder of The Barna Group, on why modern-day American pastors and churches are so silent regarding political issues!
Wow!
This is their criteria
for success?
What’s even more
revealing in the study is the following, “90 % of the modern Pastors said, Yes,
they knew that the Bible speaks to every one of the key issues of today, yet
less than 10% say they will actually speak to those issues”
Wow?
Did you get that? 90%
of America’s pastors say they KNOW that the Bible speaks to all of these
issues, but they are deliberately determined NOT to teach these Biblical
principles!
Caveat: Ultimate responsibility of Scriptural
knowledge and understanding rests with me and you the reader. Study to show YOURSELF…Do your utmost to
present yourself approved to Elohim, a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly handling the Word of Truth.”
That being said, my
question would be, why keep feeding this system with your time and money? Seems like we don’t have much of either anymore. Just asking….
So many verses flare up
in my soul on this, suffice it, just this one, Luk_16:15 “And he said unto them, Ye are they which
justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts: for that which is
highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.”
What’s more important
to you? Attendance, giving, the number
of programs, staff or facilities; does size matter? As
Barna goes on to say, ‘Jesus’ didn’t die for any of them. Wow!
So it comes down to
this, modern American pastors read ‘successful church’ books and publications;
they attend the “successful church” conferences’ they watch “successful church”
videos, etc.
As I close, remember
the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and
expecting different results.
Get out of the rut of
unrighteousness and begin to walk in the ancient paths! Your obedience could be the 1 in ten that
will prevent Sodom and Gomorrah going up in smoke. I’m open to question and comments, Rick@Godleyworks.com
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