Well, you had to know that sooner or later I'd come back to basketball. Those Chapel Hill teams are just about to finish up their regular seasons, and some pretty exciting things have been goin' on on the court!
The most exciting thing for me, personally, was that Coach Sumner needed a substitute for one game. Yep, you guessed it; I got to sit on the bench with the Tan Titans. I hadn't coached for a long time (four years), so Julie Schipper volunteered to be my assistant coach.
The Tan Titans, however, did not need much coaching. "Why?" you ask. Well, one of several reasons has to do with two players and three words. "Explain!" says you. OK. Decatur Brothers Defense or DBD. Yep, Miss Julie and I basically had very good mid-court seats for the game because of DBD.
What is DBD? Well, you may have to see it to believe it, but it works kind of like this. If someone tries to dribble, like a flash DBD steals the ball. If someone tries to pass, DBD intercepts. If the ball gets loose on the floor, DBD get there first and moves immediately from defense to offense. And if someone from the opposite team stands still with the ball, Oops, DBD has stripped him clean and is goin' the other way with the "rock."
Sitting on the sidelines speechless, I got to doin' some serious thinkin'. "What kind of defense are we supposed to be playing in our friendship with the Lord Jesus?" I asked myself. You didn't know we were supposed to play defense. Yep, it's called "standing firm with armor or SFWA." Wow, sounds pretty cool; you want to know more? OK.
You can read all about this in Ephesians 6:10-18. These Bible verses tell us that we have an opposing team to our friendship with Jesus. The verses call him "the evil one." God has given us a plan for our defense to deal with him. Let's make a list. First, we have to recognize that we have an opponent (verse 12). Second, we must make a choice by our will to "be strong in the Lord and His mighty power (verse 10)." And third, we must put on every piece of the armor God offers to us (verses 13-18).
"What armor is God handing out?" Let's make another list. 1) Being truthful and honest, 2) Living by God's right rules given in His Word, 3) Keeping Jesus' command to go tell others the Good News about Him, 4) Believing in faith that all God's promises are true, 5) Keeping our minds set on God's free gift of eternal life through Jesus' death at the cross and coming back to life, 6) Using God's Word to destroy any arguments of our enemy and 7) Talking to God all the time through prayer.
SFWA (standing firm with armor) always works. It will protect our friendship with Jesus and allow it to grow stronger each day. Now, armor pieces one through six all go to work for us when we do armor piece number seven. So let's pray!
Dear Lord, we thank You that You've given us a great defense. We choose to live this day by the strength of Your mighty power. We take up the armor You are offering to us, yes, every piece of it. And we will keep the lines of talking with You open all day through prayer. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Proud of you,
Pastor Wilson
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