Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

My coworkers and bosses all know that I am a regular church goer. So, back at Christmas time I was fielding the usual questions: Does your church have a special Christmas service? A day-break service? etc. I was busy trying to explain that, no, we don’t have those services. That “my” church doesn’t do those things. Then it struck me that this was far from the first time that I had answered these questions. Do you have special Easter services? Good Friday? Thanksgiving? Put those negative answers alongside the answers about musical instruments, church councils and creeds and it occurred to me that to my coworkers the outstanding feature of the church of Christ might be that it doesn’t do anything. “Lucas? He goes to the Church that doesn’t have instrumental music, doesn’t cooperate with other churches, doesn’t give to orphanages, doesn’t have Christmas or Easter services and doesn’t have a fellowship hall.” Is this what we should be known for? What we don’t do?

Now, let me say that it is incredibly important to seek after God according to His ordinances. Doing those things would be against scripture, so we should not do them. But should we only be known for what we don’t do?

John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

Jesus says that we should be known by how we love each other. That His disciples would be known by how they loved each other. We should not be ostentatious in the good deeds we do for each other (Matt. 6:1-6) but we should be so busy doing good for each other that others can’t help but notice. Dad loves to tell the story about the time he was in the hospital and so many brethren visited him that the nurse was amazed and commented on it in a wondering voice. That is how people should know us, as the church which loves its own and does good for the world as well. (1 Timothy 2:1-2, “pray for all men” see also Jeremiah 29:7)

Surely God would rather have us known as the Church whose members are always going about doing good than as just “the Church which doesn’t . . .”

Isa. 1:16-17 “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.”
James 1:27 “Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”
 
Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

It has happened fairly often lately with the climate change – we will go through a long spell of dry in mid-May sometimes into June. Then the rains come. 2 inches in two days, 3 or 4 inches in a day. Rains every day for a week or two. Actually, this causes little problem if it has rained from the beginning. But, after weeks of just enough irrigation, the sudden influx of too much rain causes my tomatoes to crack, then the gnats and other bugs and the rot get in. Often, even green tomatoes burst.

Someone will say, well, Keith, God knows more about how much rain to send and when to send it than you do. No doubt. But, this is a sin cursed garden, not Eden. So, I have weeds, too much rain, too little rain, blights caused by just a dampening shower every evening which does not in a week add up to a tenth, but keeps it wet so fungi grow.

It surely makes me long for THE garden.

In a similar way some say that the will of God will not lead where the Grace of God is not sufficient. But, then, their self will leads them to situations and they expect the grace of God to rescue them....without harm. NOT!

Or, something has happened that derailed me, and I just know that God has a better plan for me. Seems more likely that sin ruined the better plan God had for me (and you) and now you (and I) are stuck with plan B or even plan J. We just cannot go our own way and expect to escape consequences. Our lives may turn out far worse and our service may be much less than would have been possible had we not gone our own way for a time, or two, or three.…

It is by the grace of God that I enjoy anything from my garden, even the tomatoes that did not crack and the other veggies rescued at great effort from bugs, blights and weeds. It is by the grace of God that there can be a Plan C (or Q). Rather than moaning about what might have been or expecting something better, we must press on with what is left in the service of God who loves us.
 
​Why should a living man complain, a man, about the punishment of his sins? … but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. (Lam 3:39,   Heb 12:10).
 
Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

My last post emphasized the need to seek God “according to the ordinance” as David says in 1 Chron. 15. David’s failure to do so led God to make a breach against him and it cost Uzzah his life. Or in Christ’s words, “Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21). I essentially concluded with the statement that it doesn’t matter how sincere your heart is if you aren’t seeking God according to the ordinance. Without backing up from that at all, I do want to show the other side. If our hearts aren’t right, it doesn’t matter how carefully we follow the ordinances.

In Isaiah’s day, the people were careful to keep the daily sacrifices going and celebrated the new moons as Moses had taught them, but God was not happy with them. Isa. 1:11-14 “What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. "When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.” What was the problem here? Notice that God doesn’t say they aren’t following His teachings closely enough, that isn’t the problem. So what is? He tells them in the next verse: “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood.” They were worshipping correctly, but they weren’t living as children of God. They showed up to worship on the Sabbath, but during the rest of the week their “hands are full of blood”. They were living sinful lives, and all the correct worship in the world wasn’t going to get them any closer to God. If they wanted a relationship with Him, He tells they that they will have to shape up. Isa 1:16-17 “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.”

Jesus dealt with the same issue with the Pharisees. Their strict observance of ordinance while hypocritically living lives of sin exasperated Him and He routinely tried to teach them better (or at least to warn others from following after them). Most well-known is His harangue against them in Matt. 23. A selection: vs 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” They were so careful about every detail of the ordinances of the Law, yet they failed to follow the underlining principles of the Law. Justice, mercy and faithfulness are far more important than making sure they tithed the herb garden properly. Their hearts weren’t right, so their law-keeping was worthless.

Notice, though, that Jesus didn’t say they were wrong for tithing the mint, dill, and cumin. “These [justice and mercy and faithfulness] you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.” Jesus says they should not have neglected proper tithing, just that it should have been done with a godly heart. And proper tithing did include the herb garden. Deuteronomy 14:22 says they should tithe all that came forth from the field. That would include herbs. They weren’t wrong about the ordinance, they were wrong about their hearts.

So, to last time’s
IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW SINCERE WE ARE IF WE AREN’T WORSHIPING ACCORDING TO THE ORDINANCE
we must add
IT DOESN’T MATTER HOW CAREFULLY WE FOLLOW THE ORDINANCES OF WORSHIP IF WE AREN’T SINCERE.

Micah 6:6-8 “With what shall I come before the LORD, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?" He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”

John 4:23 “. . . true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.”
 
Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

I once was a reasonably capable song-leader. I also was preaching part time at this medium size church back when Dene and I were engaged and in our honeymoon year. We were there early on a Sunday night and I was practicing a song when H.R. came in, bustling down the aisle the way he did when he was younger, “Do you like that song?” I replied that I did. “Well, then, why are you singing it that way?” He then proceeded to show me what I was doing incorrectly and how to do it right. Now, many would fault him for being too brusque—he should have been nicer with his manner, etc. But, I was grateful because I did like the song and did not want to sing it wrong.

How are you doing with your song which you are composing for Jesus? Each day you sing a new score, sometimes a solo, sometimes a concert or a duet, but each life makes music unto the Lord.

How would you feel if I came bursting in and said, “Do you like that song?” … “Then, why are you singing it that way?” Do you want to go around feeling good all the time, puffed up with positive comments and people’s suggestions so nicely thought out that you don’t know that your life is discordant to the music Jesus wrote? Do you want your song to Jesus to be off key and feel good, or risk a hurt feeling to be able to sing the right notes? A choral director looks right at the offender and says that he is flat, or sharp, or held that note too long, or whatever. We have become so afraid of offending people that we let them keep on singing the wrong notes and creating disharmony in our song to Jesus too!

Our sermons are positive, make people feel good and would never offend a sinner if he had done what is being preached about last night and planned to do it again tonight. In like manner are our personal attempts to tell someone that he needs to change.

A lot of people who could sing a beautiful melody to Jesus are rushing straight to eternal damnation for the lack of an H.R. to say, “Here is the way that song is supposed to be sung.”
 
Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?  Gal 4:16
 
Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Prov 27:6                  
 
Keith Ward    

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

The Old Testament believers sure did things differently than us. They approached God in ways most modern Christians would never dare. For instance, the ninth chapter of Daniel records that Daniel had been reading Jeremiah’s prophecy and discovered that the time of the captivity was to be 70 years. By that time,70 years had passed. So Daniel begins praying, and his prayer constitutes most of the rest of the chapter. While Daniel spends most of the prayer acknowledging the sins of the people and God’s righteousness in destroying them, the thrust of the prayer is actually that it’s time for God to restore the people to Jerusalem. Daniel urges God to hasten to do this “for your own sake” (vs. 19). While Daniel is very diplomatic about it, he is still rather boldly demanding that God keep His promises.

Nehemiah does this as well. In the first chapter Nehemiah calls on God to remember His word, that He would gather His people back to Jerusalem. Nehemiah is rather blunt and essentially says, “Hey, you promised! Remember what you promised and do it.” What kind of chutzpah does it take to remind God of His promises and demand that He keep them? But it’s not just Daniel and Nehemiah. We see these reminders of promises throughout the Psalms. Just two examples: Ps. 25:6 “Remember your mercy, O LORD”; Ps. 74:1-2 “O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation . . . Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt.” These men aren’t calling God on the carpet; rather they believe His promises so strongly that they feel comfortable depending on them and calling for them. “Reminding” God in this way really just showed their faith in, and dependence on, His promises.

God has made us promises, too. He has promised to keep us from facing unwinnable temptations (1 Cor. 10:13). He has promised to forgive us our sins if we will acknowledge them (1 John 1:8-9). He has promised to provide us with our daily necessities (Matt. 6:31-34). He has promised to work for us with great power (Eph. 1:19-20). He has promised to raise us from the dead to eternal life giving us a great inheritance by making us joint heirs with Christ (1 Cor. 15:53-57, Rom. 8:16-17). Do we believe in those promises? Do we believe in them enough to “call” God on them? The Apostles did. They believed in His promises of eternal life so strongly that they called on Christ to return as quickly as possible (1 Cor. 16:22, Rev. 22:20).

How much more successful would I be at defeating temptations if, when tempted, I prayed, “God, you said you’d always make a way of escape. Please help me see it now.”? How much more calm would I be about my finances if I prayed “God, you said if I seek your kingdom first, you’d provide for my needs, so I’m counting on you to let me eat.”? Etc, etc.

How strongly do you hold to His promises?

Rev. 22:20 “He who testifies these things says, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.”
 
Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Helene Smith, from her blog Maidservants of Christ.

When we lived abroad, I lived an entirely apolitical life.  I had no opportunity (nor desire) to speak about the politics of our host country and no need to think about the politics half a world away in America.  But since we have been back, (especially this last 12 months) it seems to be the only topic of conversation.  I have been thinking about it a lot and finally came up with these 6 passages to help me sort out how to deal with these conversations and my own responsibility.

1. In Jesus Name: Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.  (Col 3:17).  All our social media interactions as well as personal and political actions fall under this principle.  I sense a lot of cognitive dissonance (the pain that comes when two of our thoughts are in conflict).  The fact that our country has separated religion and the state has nothing to do with whether as a Christian my faith and politics can be separated.  They can't.  Whatever I do, I need to apply this standard to it.  Could I read my post (or explain my position) to Jesus and say, "See Lord, I did this in your name?"

2.   The Unity of the Spirit: Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (Ephesians 4:1-3). When we deal with other Christians on Facebook we are required to consider unity.  Check out Paul's logic here.  We are all indwelled by the same Spirit, thus we are united.  When I respond to my brother in anger, without humility, gentleness, tolerance and love, I break peace with one in who the Spirit dwells.  My connection to God is immediately hindered (Matthew 5:21-26).  This is as true when we have religious discussions on social media as it is when we have political ones (The Parable of the Trolls, The Parable of the Trolls Explained,The Care and Feeding of Trolls ).

3. With Honor: Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17).   Honor is a tough word for Americans.  We believe that "respect" is something that must be earned.  Honor is for those who have proven themselves honorable.  Yet God has always insisted that honor is given by the honorable to all men especially those in authority whether they deserve it or not (For a great example see Paul's apology to the High Priest in Acts 23:1-11). Thus when we are disrespectful, snide, derogatory, dismissive, and elitist we are showing ourselves to be honorless  (If you are thinking of all the other people who talk like this, I invite you to join me in some introspection).

4. With Truth: You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).  The children of Satan are liars; the children of the Heavenly Father are compelled to be truth-tellers. Practically speaking, on social media this commitment calls us to do several things: To commit to not passing on false news.  To not willfully misrepresent others.  To not tell only half of a story in order to shape other's opinions deceitfully (or pass on news that does this).  To recognize the truth even when it is politically inconvenient.  And to remember that the truth is always more complex than a sound bite.
​
5. From the Heart: Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart. The good man brings out of his good treasure what is good; and the evil man brings out of his evil treasure what is evil (Matthew 12:33-35). When I write a post, I often read it aloud to my husband asking "Does that sound ok?"  Sometimes I am trying to avoid being misunderstood but sometimes it is my conscience niggling at me.  I wonder if I should post the words that are bubbling up in frustration.  I find myself convicted again by Jesus' words.  The angry words, the divisive words, the hurtful words reflect my heart.  The rubric here isn't simply that I should double check before I post (although that certain is great advice) but if I find myself writing in a harsh and angry way, I must examine my heart.
 
6. Wi th Care But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36-37).    Jesus says all those careless words (I shudder when I think of every time I've said, "I didn't mean that.") will be accounted for in judgement.  Sometimes I imagine all the world gathered to be judged and God has my Facebook feed up on the Jumbotron asking me to explain this or that. Terrifying?   I must think with great care about what I say and how I say it. 
 
Do you have other verses that inform your social media interactions? Share them in the comments.  We can learn together how to be the people of God in the wild world of politics and social media.


Helene Smith
Maidservantsofchrist.blogspot.com

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

Member: Lord, have mercy!

Jesus: But you left my body, quit the church.

Member: But, Lord, you know what they did….

Jesus: Yes, and I will deal with them in their time, but you left me, abandoned me.

Member: but, but….

Jesus: I know: They were judgmental when they should have been helpful; They stepped on your fingers when you were trying to claw your way back; When you needed a helping hand, they slapped you down for the shortcomings you were trying to ask for help to deal with, but YOU left me, quit on ME.

Member: but, they built walls when I needed bridges, and I did not want to be part of them.

Jesus: But, I was asking that you be part of me, not part of them.  You know, I never allowed any temptation too great for you; I had the belief in you that you would overcome and be there, in my body, for the next one who was reaching. That you would be the compassionate hand helping instead of criticizing, that the lessons of your own hurt would teach you how. YOU abandoned MY body to those who hurt you and left them to hurt others and were not a balm for those others. Every one lost was like a crucifixion nail in my body and you were the hammer.

Member: Please, Lord…

Jesus: And who knows that your example might have saved some of the “them” that hurt you. But, you let YOUR hurt, your emotions, your feelings dominate your connection to me and your concern for others. You were all about yourself. It seems that you never knew me or what I was about, So…..

This was written for those who quit going to church. But, it could well apply to many who attend.

That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor 12:25-27).
 
Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

God, rather famously, expected His people to be holy. The command is repeatedly repeated in the Law. Lev. 11:44-45 “For I am Jehovah your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy . . . For I am Jehovah that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.” Lev. 20:7-8 “Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am Jehovah your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am Jehovah who sanctifies you.”

To be holy is to be separate or to be set apart. Something that is holy is set aside for a specific use and is to be only used for that purpose. We usually think about this in religious terms, but the concept is universal. My mother has a special set of silver that rarely sees use. It has been set aside for special occasions. These utensils are not every day, common forks and knives. They are special and are only used when special company is over or on other special occasions. In a sense, they are holy to special occasions.

This is what God expected from His chosen people. They were to be special to Him and His use. They weren’t supposed to be like all the regular people across the world. They were supposed to be set apart for Him. They failed in this. Isa. 2:6 “For thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with customs from the east, and are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike hands with the children of foreigners.” They hadn’t set themselves apart for God, instead they were just like all the foreigners.

We, too, are supposed to be a holy people. Notice that when Peter gives us this instruction, he tells us that we are to be holy as children of obedience and sets being holy opposite of fashioning ourselves according to our lusts. Living according to our common desires is the opposite of being holy:

1 Pet. 1:13-16 “Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy.”

All rules of righteous living boil down to the concept of holiness. If we are set apart to be God’s people, we need to follow His will. Leviticus 19 illustrates this concept. In verse two the Israelites were told to be holy, as He is holy. Then verses 3-4 instruct them to obey their parents, keep the Sabbath, and abhor idols. Why? Because, He says, “I AM Jehovah”. Then verses 9-10 command them to take care of the poor. Why? Because, He says, “I AM Jehovah”. Then verses 11-12 tell them not to steal, lie, or swear falsely by His name. Why? Because, He says, “I AM Jehovah”. They are to be holy, as He is, set apart for His use. They are to do these things because He, for whose use they are to be set apart, so directs them.

I think we sometimes consider being holy as only abstaining from evil, and that’s just not true. As He is castigating the Israelites for not being holy, God makes this plea: Isa. 1:16-17 “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.” He doesn’t just say “cease to do evil” but also implores them to “learn to do well”. Paul tell Christians the same thing: Eph. 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them.” We are created for good works.

Mom’s silver isn’t used except on special occasions, but on those occasions it is used. It is set aside for a purpose and is used for that purpose. We, as Christians are supposed to be set apart for God’s use. Not just staying “unspotted from the world” but actively doing the works He instructs us to do. Paul tell Titus (2:14) that Jesus “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.” His people have been redeemed from lawlessness and are zealous for good works. Zealous for good works. Every time I read this passage I wonder if Christ would recognize me as one of His. It’s not that I spend my time doing evil things, it’s just that so much of my time is used for my own entertainment: football, web-browsing, movie watching, Netflix binging, etc. Occasionally I do something actively good. Does that raise to the level of being zealous for good works? If I am holy, set apart for His use, I need to be working toward the use He has for me.

As holy people we are set apart for His use, to do His will. This doesn’t mean we are fuddy-duddies or dull buzz-kills who never do anything fun. Rather we are busy people actively

Isa. 61:6 “but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast.”
 
Lucas Ward

Today’s post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
Most of the things we remember from early childhood were traumatic in some way. I could not have been more than 4 or 5 when I was playing with matches in the kitchen floor. Mom was in there and now that I have been a parent, I suspect she knew what I was up to. Naturally, I burned my finger. She turned to my cry and said that hell would be like that but it would not ever stop.

Cruel?

Maybe, but the memory of that has kept me from a lot of sins. You see, I happen to believe that she was right. Oh, I do not expect literal flames any more than I expect literal streets of gold, but Jesus described hell in the worst possible terms imaginable. Consider them a while and it will help you stay on your diet—you won’t want to eat.

Would you warn your child firmly and frighteningly of the dangers of a snake? Or of some other hazard?

Some people treat HELL like it is a joke or only a mild curse word. We do not hear about it much anymore. We have become ashamed of frightening people into obedience. Jesus was not ashamed like that, “It is better to pluck out your eye than to enter hell”. I hold Dene when she jumps up and down from the pain of one of her eye medications and I can only imagine the pain of pulling out an eyeball and that is BETTER than hell?? In other words, “be good or else, big time or else”. We are not showing much love when we fail to warn people. We would jerk an enemy back from a rattlesnake or push a stranger from in front of a train, but we will not warn our friends of eternal hell.

My mom loved me.
 
And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ Luke 16:23-24
 
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. Matt 25:41
 
‘Where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Mark 9:48-49

Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.

Ty Cobb is my favorite historical baseball player. Reading the new biography of him by Charles Leerhsen, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, has confirmed this. When he retired from baseball, Cobb held ninety (90!) Major League records. When we think of him today, we primarily think of his hitting with good reason, as he still holds the career record for batting average at .366, the record for consecutive league batting titles at nine, and the record for most consecutive seasons batting at least .300 at an amazing 23. There have been over 100,000 men who have played baseball in the Major Leagues since 1900 but only two, Peter Rose and Ty Cobb, have over 4,000 hits.

So, Cobb was a great contact hitter, but what he was most known for in his day (1905-1928) was his base running. He not only set the record for most stolen bases, he also routinely kept running when all others would have stopped, makings singles into doubles and doubles into triples. He would tag up and take the next base on in-field popups and steal when the fielder threw the ball back to the pitcher. Jackie Robinson became famous partly for stealing home plate. He did it 19 times in his career. Cobb took home 54 times. My favorite Cobb story involves an inside-the-park home run that never left the infield. There was a man on third when Cobb hit a little dribbler. The runner assumed that the fielders would throw to first and tried to take home. Unfortunately for him, they threw to the catcher at home and caught him in a run-down. While he was darting back and forth between home and third with most of the other team chasing after him, no one notices that Cobb has kept rounding the bases. As they finally tagged the runner out near third base, Cobb was just passing third and headed for home. The opposing team was so agape at his chutzpah that no one thought to throw to home, and Cobb scored. You never knew what he was going to do, which was part of his plan. He intentionally tried to get into the heads of the opposing team. It has been said that if they kept records on causing poor, panicked throws Cobb would own that record too. In fact, a contemporary catcher, Ray Schalk, said “When Cobb is on first base and he breaks for second, the best thing you can do, really, is to throw to third.” When Cobb, who played for the Detroit Tigers, was roaming the bases, the other team needed to pay attention or he’d make them look silly.

So, Cobb was a Tiger prowling the bases trying to disrupt the other team. Please tell me you are already turning your Bibles to 1 Peter 5. 1 Pet. 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.” Like Cobb, Satan is roaming around trying to get us. Like the opposing baseball team, we are never sure exactly what Satan will throw at us next and we have to keep watch constantly. Unlike Cobb, who was trying to destroy confidence and win a baseball game, Satan’s is trying to destroy our souls and send us to Hell. We must be watchful. We must be aware. Satan’s “batting average” is unfortunately high. We are promised, however, that we can resist him. If we do, he will flee (James 4:7). That’s something Ty Cobb never did.

Lucas Ward