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)

I Love T-Shirts

I love T-Shirts. I have about 500 billion (ok, not that many, but that's an important number REMEMBER IT). I like them because they are comfortable, cheap, and provide a great deal of social commentary. Recently I saw one in a mall, a teenage girl was wearing it and it said in big bold all capital letter "IT'S ALL ABOUT ME". When I passed her in the mall it got me to thinking - that's really sad. It's sad for 3 reasons (there's probably more):

1. That's small thinking.
2. It's a lot of pressure having everything about you.
3. It's just not true (even though it is the growing feeling of people today and not just people but believers in Jesus).

I am tired of hearing sermons and reading books that cast man as the center of the universe. It seems that everyone has fallen into the disease of "me theology". My life is about me, my time is about me, my money, my car, my house, my stuff, my wife...it's all about me.

As I spend time reading through Scripture I don't see anywhere that it is about me. Instead, I see a whole lot of places where it's VERY not about me; it is all about God. One of the most notable places is Psalm 19.1 (ESV, it's just a better version get over it) "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." The sky is about God, the stuff above the sky is about God. It speaks without words about the One who made them. It shows off His glory.

If you look beyond the sky and out into space I don't think anyone can help but be overwhelmed at how small we are. Some estimates say that there are over 500 BILLION galaxies out there in the heavens. We live in ONE. We live on a small planet in 1 of these 500 BILLION galaxies (told you it was an important number) . 1 out of 500,000,000,000. So 499,999,999,999 galaxies are out there, without us, declaring the glory of God and we somehow get psyched up about us and jacked up about who we are and what we've done. Does that make sense? Seems pretty insane to me.

It's good to not be lazy. It's good to work and accomplish, but when our lives become about magnifying us it gets insane. After all in the grand scheme of things we are in one galaxy of 500 billion, on one of the smaller planets in that galaxy and we are one person of approximately 6 billion on the planet. Translation: we are freaking tiny! So keep thinking magnifying us would be like putting us on a petri dish and looking at us underneath the microscope. Microscopes make small things big. Don't magnify yourself, magnify the God who made you. In order to do that you don't use a microscope, you use a telescope. They make big things smaller so we can see them. There are 500 billion galaxies out there and the universe is expanding constantly and the God who made that is bigger than that. Can you imagine the incredible pressure of developing it all, creating it all, and sustaining it all? NO, you can't even imagine it. But God does it everyday and I freak out when I have to speak a couple times a week, take some classes and cut the grass. And if that weren't enough He decides that "I love those 6 billion people on that 1 planet in that one galaxy of My 500 Billion galaxies and they need a Savior." TOTALLY BOGGLES THE MIND!

I want a t-shirt that says "it's definitely not about me" (notice no capital letters at all) it relieves the pressure, it's true, and it makes me look smart (of course it probably wouldn't sell, which would make one question about how smart it was).

Out,
jason crandall