American Football Is Your Life

I really like American football. My wife can certainly attest to that fact. During the season, she becomes a football widow, where I will watch multiple games and such, especially when it comes to college ball. But yesterday I read a story where one man takes it to the most extreme lever I have ever seen.

If you follow football then I am sure you know of the downfall, or utter collapse of the Dallas Cowboys. Now, I am a big fan of the Cowboys, and for once, I had to turn the TV off in sheer disbelief and utter disgust. But I also know that it's a game, played by professional athletes who are paid a heck of a lot more money than I will ever see and the outcome of the game doesn't effect me at all. I may not like it, but I have a life to lead.

Enter Alan Low, of Richland Hills, Texas.




Mr. Low decided to protest the Cowboys and their season, and wore a sign around his neck saying that the Cowboys did not play their last game with any heart or emotions. During his time of "protest", he was confronted by linebacker Bradie James who was leaving the Cowboy's facility to go home.

Now, I don't know about you, but Mr. James had probably one of the worst days of his professional life the day before, was probably not in the mood to see somebody calling him out on his playing ability, and from the looks of the picture of Mr. Low, someone who probably never played the game in his life, and Mr. James confronted Mr. Low.

Mr. Low's version:

"Mr. Bradie James comes out and first drives by, flips me off," he said. "He comes by five minutes later and starts ripping the signs off my neck."

Mr. James' version:

"I'm getting ready to either hit you with the car, you're in the way," he said. "He was like, 'Why didn't you guys have that fire last night?' Next thing, I ripped that sign off of him."

Now during this Mr. Low's sunglasses were broken, the police were called and in the end, Mr. Low's sunglasses were replaced with a name brand pair by Mr. James and nothing happened with the police being called out.

This is one of those stories that just make you shake your head and wonder "Why?".

For now though, I think that when my wife gets upset about my watching football, I will remind her of other people out there who take football much more seriously than I do.

You can read the entire story and see the video of it here.

Full Armor of God Series - Shoes of Peace

Part three of this series. Enjoy and may it bless you as it has me.

THE SHOES OF PEACE

Ephesians 6:15
Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace

The next piece of armor is the shoes of peace . When you receive Christ, you are united with the Prince of Peace. You have peace with God right now (Romans 5:1), but the peace of Christ must also rule in your heart if you are going to live victoriously, and that is possible only when you let the Word of Christ richly dwell in you (Colossians 3:15, 16).

The shoes of peace become protection against the divisive schemes of the devil when you act as a peacemaker among believers (Romans 14:19). Peacemakers bring people together by promoting fellowship and reconciliation. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9). Anyone can divide a fellowship, but it takes the grace of God to unite us in Him.

Too many Christians insist on common doctrine as the basis for fellowship. They reason that if we don't think the same and believe the same, there is no basis for peace. But common doctrine isn't the basis for fellowship; common heritage is. We're all children of God. If you wait to fellowship with someone until you agree perfectly on every point of doctrine, you'll be the loneliest Christian on earth. Instead of insisting on the unity of the mind, preserve the unity of the Spirit by taking the initiative to be the peacemaker in your relationships (Ephesians 4:3).

Some people like to play the devil's advocate in their relationships and churches. I ask, Why? He doesn't need any help! In His high priestly prayer, Jesus prayed, "I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that Thou didst send Me" (John 17:23). We have the promise that "the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet" (Romans 16:20). Ask God to use you to bring unity to your relationships by making you a peacemaker.

Merry Christmas!

I will not be back to blogging until after Christmas, so I wanted to take this time to wish you and yours a very blessed and merry Christmas.

Take time out to say thank you for all the things that have blessed you this year, be it family and friends, or whatever.

See you after Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Eric

Full Armor of God Series - The Breastplate of Righteousness

I wanted to continue this series. It has been a while since I have posted about it, so here is the next part from Neil Anderson.

THE BREASTPLATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

Ephesians 6:14
Having put on the breastplate of righteousness . . .

The second piece of armor God has provided for us is the breastplate of righteousness . When you put on Christ at salvation, you are justified before our holy God. It's not your righteousness but Christ's (1 Corinthians 1:30; Philippians 3:8, 9). So when Satan aims an arrow at you by saying, "You're not good enough to be a Christian," you can respond with Paul, "Who will bring a charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies" (Romans 8:33). Your righteousness in Christ is your protection against Satan's accusations.

Even though we rejoice in our position of righteousness in Christ, we are well aware of our deeds of unrighteousness when we think, say, or do something apart from God. Standing firm in our righteousness requires us to live in continuous agreement with God according to 1 John 1:9: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Confession is different from saying "I'm sorry" or asking forgiveness. To confess ( homologeo ) means to acknowledge or to agree. You confess your sin when you say what God says about it: "I entertained a lustful thought and that's a sin"; "I treated my spouse unkindly this morning and that was wrong"; "Pride motivated me to seek that board position and pride doesn't belong in my life."

Satan will make confession as difficult for you as he can. He will try to convince you that it's too late for confession, that God has already erased your name out of the book of life. That's another one of his lies. You're in Christ; you're already forgiven. You are the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21), and He will never leave you. Your confession of sin clears the way for the fruitful expression of righteousness in your daily life. We should be like Paul, who said, "I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men" (Acts 24:16).

A Hot Time In The Kitchen Last Night

Last night was a fun evening. My wife turned on the back burner of our cooktop and left a full bag of sugar not right next to it, but close to it, then came to talk to me. Next thing you know, the smoke detector is going off, the kids are yelling "FIRE!" and I run in to see a four pound bag of sugar on fire, about 5 inches below our wood cabinets.

Needless to say, the bag went into the sink, sugar on the floor, the sugar that was not burning that is, and baking soda went onto the fire.

Now, my wife happened to have had a camera in her pocket and snapped this picture right after the bag had went into the sink, but before the fire went out.



So now we are out of sugar, and salt apparently because I was looking for that to put the fire out, but couldn't find any.

All in all, no real damage to anything, two very good girls who yelled what they were supposed to have yelled, and my wife will now make sure we have salt on hand.
It could have been a lot worse. Thank God it wasn't.

My wife also blogged about this on her blog here.

Persecution in Vietnam

I read an article a short time ago about persecution happening in Vietnam even though Christianity is recognized in that country. One of the issues is that churches must be legally recognized by the state.

One of the legally recognized churches is the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), which held a very large outdoor Christmas gathering on Dec. 12-13 of this year. Contrast that with the fact that the government of Vietnam destroyed a church that had been built to house a small congregation of Hmong Christians in Cu Hat village which is in the norther province of Dak Lak.

The government accused the congregation of building the church without the proper permits, even though the vast majority of the buildings there are built in this manner. The local authorities accused the Christians of “illegal construction” and ordered the congregation to “voluntarily” tear it down. On Dec. 2, Krong Bong district officials made a formal decision to demolish the church within two weeks if the Christians would not do so themselves.

Government officials arrived early in the morning to raze the building and brought with them police wielding electric cattle prods who beat back hundreds of distraught Christians who rushed to the site to protect the building being torn down. Five people were seriously injured, including a child with a broken arm, and a pregnant woman who had a cattle prod used against her abdomen.

The good news is that Christianity is allowed in this communist nation but only under the watchful eyes of the government. Most churches, especially the smaller congregations do not register for fear of having to report to the authorities of who are members, what they say and so forth. But the people of Vietnam are hearing the Good News. I would ask that you would pray for those who aren't recognized, and are persecuted for that, as in the example above.

You can read more about this story here.

Can You Live On $169,300 A Year?

Can you live on $169,300 a year? I know I could. However, it appears that those in Congress can't.

After telling CEO's of various companies that they should only earn one dollar a year, and with over 2 million people newly out of work, Congress has "earned" itself another pay raise.

Granted, the pay raise is just 2.8 percent, but still. With the average congressional pay at $169,300 a year, and the average family income as reported by the Census Bureau at $50,233.00 a year, there seems to be somewhat of a discrepancy here in pay.

I will give credit to at least one incoming representative. Representative. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, sponsored legislation earlier this year that would have prevented the automatic pay adjustments from kicking in for members next year. But the bill, which attracted 34 cosponsors, failed to make it out of committee.

Imagine that. Didn't even make it out of committee to the floor for a vote.

In the beginning days of 1789, Congress was paid only $6 a day, which would be about $75 daily by modern standards. I say we pay them that, and then let's see what happens to our government.

So, can you live on $169,300 a year?