February 2019 - SteveHerl Faith and Sports

Jesus was talking about the work of the Holy Spirit when He said, “And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”” (John 16:8-12)

In this passage Jesus gives us a definition of sin which may be different than the one many people have been taught. Most people think of sin as something we do that we call wrong or evil, or something that we fail to do that we call right or good. Jesus tells us that the Holy Spirit will convict us of sin because we don’t believe in Jesus.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense that sin is unbelief. The Bible establishes in the Old Testament that Abraham was reckoned to be righteous because he believed God. Righteousness has always been a matter of belief. We are not made righteous by our actions. We are made righteous by our faith, that is our belief that God is God and we are not and the only way to approach God is through His plan and not by our performance or efforts. And our faith is grounded in our belief – Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

I like to use the example of each of us having two clouds hanging over us, one a cloud of unbelief and another a cloud of belief. Whichever cloud we focus on grows and when one grows the other shrinks. We focus on our cloud of unbelief whenever we live as if there is no God or as if we are God. An example of this would be living as if there are no absolute truths, morals or ethics. Living as if we are God includes living in our own strength and trusting in ourselves for our righteousness, worth, success, safety or satisfaction.

When we focus on ourselves instead of God our cloud of unbelief grows. Our cloud of unbelief grows not because we are actively trying to rebel against God, but because whenever we focus on ourselves, our environment, our enemies, our happiness, or whatever else other than who we are in God, our cloud of belief shrinks from lack of attention and our cloud of unbelief grows to fill in the void. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives hang down from our cloud of belief and the things we think of as sins (anger, lust, stealing, selfishness, pride, etc.) hang down from our cloud of unbelief. The bigger the cloud the more stuff hanging down – fruit or “sins.”

Now here is the secret to the battle. This is the primary truth that Satan does not want you to know. If you are not yet a believer of course you have a very small cloud of belief based on whatever you have gleaned about God from His revelation about Himself through creation and conscience. Your small cloud has very little room for love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (the fruit of the Spirit). Your cloud of unbelief of course has lots of room for “good” things but ultimately they will be revealed as self focused attempts at trying to earn favor, reputation, status, respect, or even heaven. In the end pride will show its face.

Once you have become a believer, the struggle is even more difficult and subtle. Since as an unbeliever you had become comfortable with a large cloud of unbelief and a small cloud of belief, Satan will whisper in your ear that you need to clip off the “sins” hanging down from your cloud of unbelief and staple on some artificial fruit to your tiny cloud of belief so everyone knows that your are a Christian. This is Satan’s greatest weapon to keep Christians, and therefore the church, from being effective and overflowing with hope and joy. You see if Satan can keep you focused on getting rid of your “sins”, he can keep your eyes off of who you are in God because of Jesus’ finished work on the cross and your cloud of belief continues to either shrink or remain small and your cloud of unbelief grows. And as your cloud of unbelief continues to grow, your “sins” increase in coverage and your work of clipping them off becomes never ending. And the viscous cycle perpetuates itself. Unless you can break out of the cycle of unbelief you will never be effective and joyful.

Now here’s the secret. Stop focusing on your cloud of unbelief. Start focusing on your cloud of belief. How so you say? Stop focusing on what you are doing and stop focusing on your circumstances, needs, desires, and efforts. Start focusing on who God is, what He has done for you through the Gospel and His Son, and on who you are “in Him.” Just like Noah was safe from the flood because he was in the Ark, you as a believer are safe because you are in Christ. You are not just safe but you are His child. And as His child you are complete “in Him” and loved by God unconditionally and forever. You are complete and secure. You don’t have to prove anything to anyone, you just need to believe in God and in His faithfulness, mercy and love.

As you focus on who you are in God, your cloud of belief will grow and your cloud of unbelief will shrink. As your cloud of belief grows, more real fruit will hang down and you will be more filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control naturally and not by your own efforts or desires. Reciprocally, your cloud of unbelief will shrink and your “sins” will fall away because there is no room for their roots – not because you are constantly clipping them off above the root. You will be less tempted to take credit for your improvement because it will not be by your own efforts, instead it will be the result of God’s mercy.

So you see that we each have two clouds. As Jesus said, when He sends the Holy Spirit, He will convict each of us of sin, because we do not believe in Him. Sin is unbelief. Righteousness is a matter of belief. The cloud you choose to focus on will grow. If you focus on yourself, your cloud of unbelief will grow and so will your discontent because being god is a difficult task. Remember God never slumbers nor sleeps. If we choose to be god by focusing on our cloud of unbelief we will ultimately wear out because there is no rest. But if we focus on who we are in Him, beloved children of God Almighty, saved by Jesus’ completed work on the cross, our cloud of belief will grow and destroy our cloud of unbelief and we will enjoy a life of hope and joy, secure in the love and mercy of God. It’s that simple. Which cloud will you choose to be your focus?

The righteous shall live by faith!”

Tom Harmon was a star running back for the University of Michigan from 1938 to 1940. He won the Heisman Trophy in 1940. Harmon served as a U.S. Army pilot in World War II and was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1954.

Around 1960, Tom Harmon was a presenter at an awards ceremony at which I received a trophy for my Little League baseball team. Traveling with Mr. Harmon for his visit to our ceremony was his son, Mark, who like me had been born in 1951 and who like me loved sports of all kinds. Mark and I played catch both before and after the ceremony and it was obvious to me that he was an incredible athlete.

Little did I know that Mark Harmon would go on to play quarterback at UCLA while I was playing (mostly sitting) wide receiver and defensive back at Virginia Tech in the early 70’s. After a successful college career, Mark went on to fame as a television and movie star. He is best known as Leroy Jethro Gibbs, “Gibbs” on the hit show NCIS.

Which brings me to the concept of joy. As I have written before, joy and happiness are not the same thing, in fact, they are not even related. The root word of happiness is an old English word, “hap”. It is also the root of the word “hap”pen. A “hap” is a chance event over which you have no control. That is why when someone asks, “Who is to blame for the broken vase?”, it is appropriate to respond, “No one, it just “hap”pened.” We mean, it was just a chance event over which no one had control therefore no one is to blame.

Happiness is the state of being that exists when all of our “haps” are lined up exactly the way we desire. The problem is of course that since “haps” are chance events over which we have no control, “hap”piness is fleeting at best. The pursuit of happiness is a race without a finish line because the line keeps moving uncontrollably. By definition, happiness is focused on circumstances over which we have no control.

Joy on the other hand is the sense of well being that springs forth from a settled truth which resides on the inside and is not affected by the ever changing phenomena of life. The only way joy can be capped or forgotten is for the underlying truth to be ignored or disbelieved. In many cases, joy is simply knowing a secret.

In at least two episodes of the television drama “NCIS”, produced and directed by Mark Harmon, joy is revealed as incontainable and powerful. In one episode, Agent Ziva David is captured and imprisoned by the enemy. Agents Anthony DiNozzo and Timothy McGee allow themselves to be captured by the same enemy forces, all the time knowing that their boss, Agent LeRoy Jethro Gibbs is tracking their exact location. Gibbs is a decorated sniper and the plan is that DiNozzo will get himself placed in the interrogation room by the enemy causing the leader of the enemy to be positioned perfectly for a sniper shot from long distance. As the enemy leader is torturing Tony, including slaps across open wounds on his face, DiNozzo continues to mock the leader and endures the brutality. During the entire ordeal he has a gleam in his eyes. Why you ask? Because he knows a secret. He knows that the man standing over him is a dead man. He knows he is a defeated enemy. Agent DiNozzo has joy and it wells up from within allowing him to face incredible pain with a smile in his heart. He knows the truth and as long as he focuses on the truth, he overflows with joy. His circumstances are not in control because he is not looking for happiness. He is filled with joy.

In a more recent episode, Agent Sloane must come face to face with the man who killed her team in front of her as an act of psychological torture against her. Her torturer has kidnapped her boss, Leon Vance and she purposely allows herself to be captured in order to save Director Vance. In the closing scene of the episode, Agent Sloane is tied to a chair next to Vance and is being told by her former torturer that he is going to slowly kill the Director in front of her just like he did to her team members. His goal is to renew the effects of her PTSD that had crippled her for years after their first encounter. Instead, as he is explaining what he is about to do to Leon Vance, she begins to laugh out loud. Even Vance is concerned as he cannot understand her reaction. He is sure that she has cracked and she is losing her grip on reality. But the truth is that she is the only one in the room that knows the truth. She has joy. She laughs again and then she cannot contain the truth. She shouts, “Do you think I came here without letting Gibbs know where I was going?” “I am laughing because any second now, Agent Gibbs and his team are going to bust down this door and all of you are either dead or under arrest.” Then she laughs again. Suddenly Gibbs and his team rush in and her torturer is taken into custody.

As her torturer is about to be escorted out, he says to her, “Now you will get your revenge, you will torture me!” She replies, “Let me tell you what is going to happen to you. You will be safely escorted to a jail cell to await trial. You will be fed three meals a day and protected until your trial. You will receive a fair trial and a just punishment. You will not be tortured. You are the monster. We are not like you!” That is how joy responds to favor. Joy holds fast to the truth and does not return evil with evil. Joy is not controlled by circumstances, in fact, joy is the shield of faith against the schemes of the enemy.

These two episodes of a secular drama express a very deep understanding of what joy really is. The Bible tells us, in Hebrews 12:2, that “For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame…….” Jesus was filled with the joy of knowing the truth. That joy gave him the strength to face the mocking and the pain of the cross and his heart was protected until the Father raised him from the dead. Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.” Joy is only inferior to love when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit in believers. We know a secret that many others do not know. We know that we are saved by grace and grace alone and that God is rich in mercy, slow to anger and abounding in love. We know that God has the power to do what He has promised.

We are not prisoners to our circumstances. We are not creatures in pursuit of happiness. We are joyful, secure, and unconditionally loved children of God set free from our selfishness and perfected by the certain work of God through His Power, Word and Spirit. Even if we are tied to a chair being tortured and threatened, mocked or scorned, abandoned or rejected, we have our Father who is the Judge standing right outside the door about to enter the room. We know a secret. The world does not know the truth but we do. “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice. Let you reasonableness (your soundness of mind, your understanding of the truth) be known to all. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving (because you know the truth) let your requests be known to God. And the peace (Love, Joy, Peace) of God, which surpasses all understanding (its not controlled by circumstances) will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:4-7)

Month: February 2019

Your Two Clouds

The Overflowing Power of Joy