Radio Football Expectations

This past week we were down in Alabama and had to drive back on Saturday during the Alabama
football game.  Reflecting back I've never had to listen to a game on the radio because I've always watched it on television.  Listening to the game is a totally different experience.  Here's what I heard: "Henry gets the handoff, spins away from a tackle, jukes left past a defender, runs through another tackle, LUNGES FORWARD!"  At that point I was getting excited.  My expectation from all that running was a gain of at least 10.  Then the announcer said, "gain of about a yard".  What!  After all that talking and excitement the running back only went forward for about 3 feet.  That wasn't anywhere close to my expectation.

We can have wrong expectations about God and who He is too.  We can get caught in the trap to think we can buy God off by our goodness.  Maybe we think God is a slot-machine where when we do some good works we get to put a "good token" in the slot machine and pull the lever hoping something good will come out or we think of God as our cosmic mac-daddy who if we behave good enough will fulfill all of our greatest desires.  Maybe some of us even think we're not good enough for God to love us.

All of us are on the same boat.  Isaiah 64:6 basically says that the best we can offer God is with our good works is "filthy rags".  Now I don't want to down play exactly what that means.  In the original language written in the Bible the directly translation is a feminine/menstrual cloth.  Many may read that passage and may think the rags are a little dirty or dusty, maybe they're good for dusting.  But no, these rags are good for nothing, they're unclean, they are tainted, even disgusting.  These rags are good for nothing except to be thrown in the trash...they are worthless.

Now you may be offended by what I've written, however, I want you to really think about why you're offended maybe even let that feeling of being offended sink in.  Now I want you to really think about this.  How offended is God, who laid His life down and paid the price with His death, when we offer our good works, our filthy rags, as payment instead of accepting what has already been offered.

We follow God's commands and do good things because we love Him.  Because when Jesus paid the price for us we gave up our rights to ourselves.  We become slaves to Jesus Christ who is the best master anyone could ever serve!  Christ did that through his death.  He took all of our filthiness and made us clean to reconcile us to God with no strings attached.  Let's reflect and celebrate this this month.