No Bible, No Breakfast, No Bible, No Bed

Maybe you have never heard the title to this article before now but it should be a truth in all of our lives. No Bible, no breakfast, no Bible no bed.

Years ago when I still owned part of the Kansas Pregame magazine, I was in a high school weight room visiting with the football coach. We wanted his football team’s preseason information for our magazine, but we got to talking football and his philosophy of how to manage a team. Now this particular football coach took this team from a losing program each year to a multiple state championship.

Here is part of what he told me that day, “First of all, recruit the hallways of your school and encourage the kids to come join the team. We want lots of kids on the team but if you want to compete for a varsity spot on the team you must lift weights year round.” The coach says he tells the players right up front, “We want you on the team and you can play on the freshman team or the junior varsity team without lifting weights year round but to try to earn a varsity starting position you must lift weights year round.”

To be a football player we must have discipline or be disciplined. Webster’s dictionary says discipline is training intended to elicit a specified pattern of behavior or character and or train or develop by teaching and control.

Long before the football season starts you can ask high school football players what they want to accomplish during their football season and most of the time you will hear the comment, “We want to win a championship” whether it be league, district or state. Then you can ask the players, “What are you doing to become that champion?” Their answer usually sounds something like this, “We are lifting weights, running, playing 7 on 7, playing catch, practicing punting and kicking, studying film and the playbook.”

That is awesome that we have disciplined football players and coaches in our state. There is so much work that goes on before we actually get to the football season and the football games.

Let us compare your disciplined local football team that wants to win some kind of a championship to your local church and your own walk of faith.

What is the goal of the Christian religion? The goal is to go to heaven. So what are you doing to get to heaven? The football team is doing something practically everyday getting ready to compete for a championship. What are you doing everyday to get ready to combat Satan so that you can make it through the obstacle course called life and make it to your goal which is heaven?

Our job as a Christian going to heaven is to bring others with us. We are to recruit the hallways of our lives and encourage others to join God’s team. We are to be transformed and live our lives in such a fashion that others will want to join the team. Just like a football team that starts winning games the stands start to fill up and more kids want to join the team.

How do we become transformed as individuals? First of all you must ask Jesus to come into your life and you ask to join the team. Jesus is the coach of the Christian team and if you aren’t on the team you can’t hear the coach talk. After you join the team, then you can read the Bible and understand it. You can spend time in prayer, you fast, you meditate and you go to church whether you feel like it or not. If you want a starting position on the varsity team you do the heavy lifting year round!

The time to become a disciplined Christian is now! Dust off that Bible and start everyday to read one chapter a day no matter what. Let God transform you into the best Christian teammate possible through your daily workout with Him!

Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.