Are You Playing For The Wrong Team?

     This week, Trey Johnson wrote his name in the high school basketball history books.  For years to come people will remember his name and be telling his story.  But not for the right reason.  Trey Johnson plays for Hugo High in Hugo, Oklahoma.  His team is the underdog against Millwood High in the Oklahoma High School state playoffs.  It was a closely contested game, and with just 3.7 seconds left in the game Hugo High was in-bounding the ball with a 37-36 lead.  All they have to do is get the ball in-bounds and dribble out the clock.  Millwood was guarding well on the in-bounds pass when Trey Johnson broke away from the pack.  His teammate threw him the ball and with time expiring from the clock, he scored a basket in the wrong hoop to give Millwood, the opposing team, the winning basket.
     Romans chapter 13 paints a very similar picture.  Verse 11 begins, "And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.  Let us walk honestly, as in the day;  not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
     If we know Christ as our Savior, we have been put on His "team".  And yet so many of us live as though we haven't been saved.  Like Trey Johnson, we get caught up in the things that are going on around us and aren't paying attention to which direction we are going.  Paul tells the Roman Christians to WAKE UP!!!!  Look around you.  What direction are you heading in?  Are you going the right way, following the Lord's steps and directions?  Or are you going the wrong way?  If only someone could have gotten Trey's attention a blunder could have been avoided.  I can't imagine the difficulties that Trey will go through in his town and high school, because of one mistake that he made.  The mistakes that we make by playing for the wrong team can cost us a lot more.  Are you playing for the wrong team?  Look at what jersey you are wearing.  Does it say, "World", "Flesh", or even "Devil" on it?  Or does it read "Lord Jesus Christ"?  Play like it today!!

Are You Refusing To Save A Life?

     This week I read a news article that absolutely horrified me.  How a person could be so heartless as to stand by and just watch a person die without even trying to help.  Glenwood Gardens in Bakersfield, California is an independent living home.  An 87 year old woman named Lorraine Bayless collapsed in the dining room, and needed assistance.  A woman who identified herself as a nurse, called 911.  During the call she was instructed to perform CPR on Lorraine who lay dying near her to which she refused.  Reading through the phone conversation sends chills up my spine.  To think that someone who is supposed to help could be so cold to a person who needs help.
     Sadly, this nurse reminds me of many Christians.  Just like that nurse, our duty is to give people the help that they need.  People all around us are one breath away from death.  Eternal death.  Let that sink in.  They are just one breath away from eternity in the lake of fire.  They need our help.  Yet many of us are like that nurse that refuses to help.  That nurse knew what Lorraine needed.  She knew what could possibly save her life, and yet she just stood back and watched her die.  Even worse is the Christian who knows what his family needs.  They know what it is that their neighbor needs.  They understand what it is that their coworker needs.  And yet they stand by and do nothing.  They never bother to share eternal life with them.
     Before Jesus went back into heaven, he put His people on duty.  He gave us the responsibility to save lives all around us.  Christian, look around you.  Everyday, everywhere you go people are crying our for help.  They are searching for anyone who can give them what they truly need.  Are you refusing to save a life?  Who is it that Jesus would have you reach today?