The New York Yankees and other thoughts on combating evil

OK, I'm a little biased. I'm from Detroit and the Tigers are playing the Yankees in the playoffs. We are up 2 games to 1 in a best of 5 series and we're winning 4-0 in the top of the 5th. We're killing them, but I still can't stand the Yankees and their yearly dominance. I think I agree with Larry Lucchino when he called them the "Evil Empire". The thing is that most of the time they beat you before you even start the game; before the first pitch is even thrown. They psych you out with their 10 future hall-of-famers and their nearly $200,000,000 payroll. That's what happened to the Tigers in the first game of the series. Walking in they knew they couldn't win and so they didn't. The thing is once you decide that you're going to fight them and that they are really not more powerful than you (they're only flesh, blood, and pinstripes) then you're ready to fight.

Anybody see where I'm going here? Anybody out there? Anybody actually reading this or am I just ranting about nothing? (It doesn't matter, the Tigers just scored another run, 5-0, I'm feeling no pain).

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6.12 (ESV)

We are fighting something different than us. We absolutely are. Satan and his demons are stronger than us by far. They are stronger than us and if we aren't careful they'll psych us out before we even start the battle. But there are a couple things I've had to realize:

He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. 1 John 4.4

In case you were wondering that's Jesus in us and Satan who's in the world.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8.31

Nobody, not even Satan and his demons, it doesn't mean that they won't try though. It doesn't mean that they won't fight. It's our duty to remember that when that fight comes, when we feel pushed in and beaten down and nearly crushed that

In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8.37-39

Right now you are already more than a conqueror, you are better than the Tigers in this series (btw, they just scored 2 more runs), you are the winner; not on your own, NEVER on your own, but through Him who loved us. In the words of David Crowder "We've already won and you don't have a chance!" We win!

Evil reigns in this evil world, but this world is passing away along with its passions, but whoever does the will of God remains (1 John 2.17), abides, and CONQUERS. The world is a big, strong, powerful, and evil team, but we have overcome it.

For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

1 John 5:4-5

One evil empire is going down right now (Yankees, score: 7-0), but it is just a shadow of that other one that we can't see. That other one that has already lost, they just don't realize it yet. That other one who right now in our struggles, trials, pains, and hurts seems so big and so enormous and so powerful that we'll never win, that this pain will never stop that we will never make it. Remember it's not true, what you see right now isn't all that's there:

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4.8

The payroll doesn't matter, the pinstripes don't matter, Christ in you the hope of Glory matters!

Out,

jason

P.S. The Tigers just scored again (8-0)