There were a couple of brothers that lived down the street from where my family lived. We went to the same church, same Boy Scout troop, were roughly the same age as my brother and me and their Dad worked for the same company our Dad did. We hung out together a lot.

When the older brother was in 8^th grade he set the middle school record for situps at 1,100 or 1,200 during his P.E. class which lasted roughly an hour. The situps were done while someone held your feet solid to the ground and as you did the situp your knees were bent and your hands held together behind your head. As you came up you touched your knees with your elbows. When you went back down you had to have your back and shoulders flat on the gym floor.

The record holders little brother was in 7^th grade that year and little brother decided when school started in the fall he was going to break his big brothers situp record. Recently, I asked little brother how he prepared for the competition that fall.

He began doing situps as soon as summer started. Before he went to bed each evening he did 20 situps. He continued to raise the number each week until he was doing 200 each and every night before he went to bed.

I asked him if he did pushups during this time. He said he did pushups in the same way with each evening doing so many and increasing the number each week. The most he did was 50 before bed each evening.

When school started he felt ready to claim the situp record. During the competition he felt great and never was hurting. He did 1,550 situps and wanted to continue, but the P.E. teacher made him quit, because had to go to the next class.

There is always competition between brothers of the same family. The Bible tells the story of Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brothers, the prodigal son and his brother. Those stories tell a difficult and hard lesson to learn. May you have competition with your brother, but may your bond to your brother be strong.

1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar, for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

https://youtu.be/NtxWTRt0vhI

My memory, of my Grandfather Mac is of me sitting on his lap at his home and him reading the Bible and the great stories of Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, Jonah and the whale, Moses, Samson, David and Goliath and about Jesus. My Grandpa Mac died of a heart attack walking home from work at noon hour when I was three years old and he was sixty three. My own Father found his Dad dead on the city sidewalk as he also drove home for noon hour.

My Father insisted that we go to church every Sunday. My Dad came from a family of 6 kids and he was the only one that took his family to church every Sunday. My Mother also came from a family of 6 kids and they did not go to church. When I was about 12 years old my Mother asked me how I could believe in God or Jesus when you can’t see them. I asked my Mother, “Do you believe in the wind? You can’t see the wind, but you can feel the wind. I can’t see God, but I feel the presence of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit in my life.

Both sides of my extended family had issues with sin in their lives, adultery, alcoholism, drug abuse, prostitutes, sexual immorality, divorce, early deaths, suicides, children out of wedlock given up for adoption. My family is probably a lot like your family. We all have problems with sin.

There is a story written in the Touchstone magazine about the truth about men and church. The research is from 1994 and the article is from 2003, but my guess is it is very appropriate still for today. Here is a quote from that shocking article: if Dad does not go to church, no matter how faithful his wife’s devotions, only one child in fifty will become a regular worshipper.

So today, I am humbled, grateful and thankful that my Grandpa Mac and my Dad took our family to church every Sunday back in the day.

Here is a link to the magazine article.

Kevin Stephenson first discovered St. Augustine while in seminary at Oral Roberts University, and wasn’t exactly sure what to make of him. But when Kevin read the Confessions, it moved him deeply; he was able to relate to the struggles of St. Augustine on a very personal level. Kevin was also surprised to see Christianity alive and thriving on Augustine’s home continent of Africa that early in Church history; he had been under the impression that Christianity was relatively new to Africa, and didn’t realize it was one of the first apostolic mission fields. St. Augustine became a Christian in the year 384.

Kansas State University basketball team used to practice in the upper gym at Ahearn Fieldhouse. If you went one story up from the level of the basketball practice facility there were openings in the hall ways into where the team was practicing. Those openings were covered with chain link fencing and had benches in front of them to allow you to watch and listen to practice. When the men’s team practiced, there were always a good number of people watching practice.

One day when I showed up to watch practice, the only two players left on the court floor were Scott Langton and Mike Evans who were the two starting guards. They were playing a game of one on one against each other. Their one on one started at the top of the key where one man would have the ball and the other played defense. The one with the ball would try to drive by the defender or step back to shoot a jump shot. This one on one game continued for quite some time and the longer it went the more physical the game became. Hand checking on the hip was turning into shoving and elbows were becoming more like forearm shivers from football.

All of a sudden Scott Langton, who was playing defense, reached up and grabbed Mike Evans by the hair with his left hand and hit Mike in the face with his right fist. Mike immediately hit Scott with a right handed fist as he threw his left arm up to break Scott’s grip on his hair. And both of them threw fists at each other four or five times and then each one of them jumped back away from each other. Nasty words were yelled at each other for a few moments. Both of them just stood there looking at each other for about 10 seconds saying nothing.

Eventually, Mike picked up the basketball and slammed it hard onto the court floor and then caught it. He walked back to the top of the key and waited. Scott stood in his spot for a few moments longer and slowly walked back to the top of the key to play defense. The game of one on one began again and it was just as physical if not a little more than before.

That team in 1976-1977 won the Big 8 championship and lost to Marquette 67-66, in the NCAA tournament, on a controversial call towards the end of the game. Mike Evans was 6’1” and Scott Langton was 5’11”. The other three starters were all 6’5” tall. That team had more fight and determination in them than you can imagine.

The will to win is extremely important. How badly do you want to win? Mike Evans and Scott Langton showed how badly they wanted to win by continuing the game of one on one and continuing to practice after they most likely would love to have quit practice at that moment.

The ancient Chinese philosopher, Confucius, said it best, “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential…these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.”

Some assistant football coaches are always assigned to a place in the press box or in one corner of the stadium to get a higher view of the field of play. The view from higher up allows the entire field to be seen from a better angle. They can see all 22 players on the field and can see potential possibilities for play calling on both sides of the ball. The coaches in the press box are then in contact with the coaches on the sidelines to help with suggestions and other ideas.

When we pray, we call to God for help, who is in a higher location and can see our lives from a better view point.

In a football game we know we are in a battle, a physical game that is about defeating our opponent on the field of play. In our lives most of us have no idea we are in a battle. It is a spiritual battle against satan and his fallen angels.

Coach Larry Toner said in a talk on prayer, “Bring someone to church with you who likes to fight” because that is what we are in, is a fight against satan.

This is the mentality we need to bring to prayer. We are fighting for our children, our spouses, our extended families, our churches, our friends and our own souls.

Do you see your prayer life as a fight against evil? Let me encourage you to call on the Most High God to look your life over and help you call some new plays.

1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Cuonzo Martin 🔊🔊 — Must watch for all coaches pic.twitter.com/uRpdJ7EDwP

— CoachTube.com (@thecoachtube) February 11, 2020

Our football coach told us to put a piece of athletic tape on the front of our helmets on the first day of practice. We then wrote our last name on that piece of athletic tape in large letters. Coach said, “Very soon I will remember your names, but here at the start of the football season, there are too many of you that I don’t know.”

We as players knew the coaches name, but he didn’t know us. One day, early in the season, we were scrimmaging and one of my teammates made an outstanding tackle and coach yelled out, “Who is that guy?” It became very apparent to us football players, that we needed to do exactly what the coach wanted us to do; in the way he wanted us to do it, so he would know us.

The most important question in your life is not, “Do you know Jesus or are you saved?” The most important question of your life is, “Does Jesus know you?”

Matthew 7: 21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not drive out demons in your name? Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them solemnly, I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.”

Football players go to practice every day and get known by the coach and you will become aware of what the coach wants.

Christians are supposed to go to practice every day and get known by Jesus through Bible reading, prayer, worship. God’s desire for you will become apparent after you spend time with him, but first you must repent of your sin and believe in Jesus.

There are many videos of Paul Washer. You don’t want to hear what he has to say, but you need to hear what he has to say.

We run all day long. We get up late and race to work or school. We move quickly between classes or meetings and hardly have time to sit and think about anything. Noon hour comes and we eat quickly, if we get to eat at all and then we begin the afternoon in another sprint to the finish line of school or work. After work or school we have practice of sports and other children we have to take care of and something to eat for supper and then we may go to another job or other meetings in the evening.

And when we pray, if we do that anymore, we race through our prayers at warp speed, spitting out our wants and needs as fast as we live our lives.

My life is no different than your life. I have raced through life at 70 to 80 hours of work a week for years. Married, with three children and we were involved in sports, work, school, church and multiple jobs at one time. But one thing I have continued to do is to find time to pray.

Recently, I read a book named ‘Silence The Mystery of Wholeness’ by Robert Sardello. The author has some great thoughts about silence, but one thing, in the book, that has changed my thoughts on prayer is to slow down. He encourages you to say your prayers one word at a time with silence between your words. This includes your memorized prayers such as the Our Father, Glory Be or Oh my Jesus.

Here is what the author says about one word at a time praying, “The words echo in an inner way as we silently speak the outer words. In this echoing we can feel, if we pay attention, an incredible, seemingly unending depth in what we are saying. It is as if we have entered a place where the word has become a spirit. The flatness of speaking transforms into dimensional space. This depth can extend to the point that the words seem to be no longer coming from “me” as I know myself to be, but from a being within me that speaks. When we pray, it is as if a second person is within us praying at a depth we can hardly imagine. Through our presence within the Silence, our spirit-being is able to speak. When we pray in the more usual way, we are often not present with our spirit. The presence of Silence is necessary for our inner spirit voice to resound. With this kind of praying, prayer and meditation join as one.”

There are many ways to pray; words, no words, standing, sitting, kneeling, walking, with or with out other people whenever you feel the need.

Romans 8:26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Scripture from The Message.