ACTS 2 (Part 2)

Mount Sinai

A study of the day of Pentecost would also be better understood in the light of the first Pentecost during the giving of the law at Mount Sinai.[1] The giving of the law was approximately seven weeks after the Passover that occurred in Egypt (Exo 19:1). The coming of the Holy Spirit was seven weeks after the death of Jesus.[2] The correlation of the blood on the doorway in Egypt and the blood Christ shed on the cross need not be explored deeper here. It should suffice to say that the events in Egypt are a direct foreshadowing of the work that Christ would fulfill on the cross. Yet, the coming of God on Mount Sinai must be examined to better understand the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

God begins His discourse with Moses by reminding him that Israel has been delivered from their oppressor and if they keep their covenant with God, then they will be a kingdom of priests (Exo 19:6). There was also a prescribed time of preparation set forth in Exodus, that parallels the time that the disciples spent in prayer, waiting on God. As we will see, the disciples remained faithful to their belief in God and God made them preachers to all nations (Acts 2:5-6). During the account in Exodus, God gives Moses the words to speak so that the people of Israel will believe forever (Exo 19:10). We see the parallel happen in the temple in Jerusalem when the disciples speak with other tongues. God the Holy Spirit gives them the words to speak so that the people may believe (Acts 2:41). The call for sanctification in Exodus 19:14 is followed by a washing. Peter’s call for repentance is followed by the commandment to be baptized (Acts 2:38).

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^[1] Ted Cabal, Chad Owen Brand, E. Ray Clendenen et al., The Apologetics Study Bible: Real Questions, Straight Answers, Stronger Faith (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2007), 187.

^[2] Iain D. Campbell, Opening Up Exodus (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2006), 79-80.

ACTS 2: Study of the Holy Spirit

This is a paper I wrote for my most recent class.  Some of it was finished at about 4:30 in the morning, so if it seems a little random, hey that’s what happens.  Enjoy.  I welcome your feedback. 

INTRODUCTION

The Holy Spirit has probably been the least studied and most misunderstood person of the Godhead. Therefore a correct understanding of the role and purpose of the Holy Spirit within the church is not only an important element of Christina theology, but essential for continued life of Christ’s Church. In order to better understand the third person of the Trinity, one must understand the reason for His coming and the events that surrounded His coming on the day of Pentecost as recorded in Acts 2.

Feast of Weeks

The day of Pentecost was also known as the “Feast of Weeks.” It was celebrated seven weeks after the “Feast of Firstfruits.” The word Pentecost means “fiftieth,” because the day was fifty days after firstfruits. In Acts 2, Pentecost was fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul explains that Jesus was “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20-23).” For the feast, the priest was to give a wave offering of two loaves of leavened bread and a sacrifice of 13 animals. This was the only time that leavened bread was used in an offering to God. The two different loaves may represent the two factions of the church, both Jew and Gentile. Wiersbe points out that the leaven in the bread is to show that the church would contain sin until it was with Christ in heaven.[1] He cites Ephesians 5:27, but this passage speaks about Christ loving the church to the point that He gave His own life so that she will be without spot or any blemish. This seems to be contradiction rather than support the sin that is in the church. Obviously, the individual people within the church have sin in their lives, but this is not the intention of God.

In order to bake a loaf of leavened bread, the baker must intentionally include leaven in the dough. The leaven could also be included due to careless cleaning of the bowl with which the dough was mixed. Neither of these two instances is in keeping with guidelines that God sets out for His church. Believers are not to intentionally allow sin to be incorporated into the body, nor is it supposed to be careless about removing sin from within the body. Christ warns his followers to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees (Mat 16:6, Mark 8:15, Luke 12:1). Paul also exhorts the church to remove the leaven of sin, because the result will be the spread of sin (1 Cor 5:6-8, Gal 5:9). There is only one point in which the kingdom is likened unto leaven. In Luke 13:21, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to the leaven, but the context of the passage is more about something with small beginnings have a great impact. The first passage of the mustard seed (Luke 13:19) starts out as a small item but grows into a plant the size of a tree. The same goes for the leaven; it is incorporated into the three loaves so that the whole batch is consumed. Here the context of the leaven is not in relation to any form of sin.

A better context for the leavened loaves to be presented would be that they represent the daily sustainment of God’s blessings. We must remember that the point of the Feast of Weeks was to give God the glory for the harvest. The Feast of Firstfruits was the presentation of the first grain from the harvest. The Feast of Weeks marked the end of the harvest and the thanks given to God for the year’s harvest. The leavened bread was used daily by the Jews and this is recognition of God’s sustainment seems to be a better representation for the two loaves (Mat 6:11, Luke 11:3). To strengthen this view, Acts 2:46 points out that those converted on the day of Pentecost were daily in the temple and broke bread from house to house.

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^[1] Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Holy (Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1996), 106-07.

Jonah (Part 4)

Jonah 1:13

Jonah has confessed to the men of the ship that God is bringing this storm, because he is fleeing the call of God.

The sailors have a reaction that is not what I would consider in their best interest.  They again take up their efforts to get back to dry land on their own. 

To my knowledge, Jonah was no sailor.  So here he is standing helpless on the deck of a ship in the midst of probably the worst storm he has ever seen.  Jonah can’t help.  He probably can’t even pull properly at the ores.  Have you ever been is a boat with someone who doesn’t know how to paddle properly?

Jonah was willing to the let the ship break apart and the men drown till he was singled out by the casting of lots.  I would like to think that if I were in Jonah’s position, I would either jump overboard or repent.  Jonah does neither of these things, and we have to take warning from this.  Sin in your life will take you down a road that is farther and darker than you ever thought imaginable. 

I have seen it time and time again in the body of Christ where a man or woman let sin grow in their heart and when it came out into the open, your shocked at how far from God they truly are.  I don’t condemn them though. 

If not for the grace of God, I would be much worse.

The sailors also serve as a warning to believers and non-believers alike.  These sailors are determined to save Jonah,  they appear to be even more caring and forgiving than Christians are.  When a Christian rebels from God they allow Satan an opportunity to make the Church loose face.  Yet, what the sailors may not realize is that their actions of love and selflessness are an affront to God.  They are helping Jonah along in his sin by defying the correction of God.

Many times the world will accept backslidden Christians and give them shelter, encouragement, etc. that only ends up prolonging the correction that God and the Church desires. 

In response, God increases the intensity of the storm.  Jonah and the sailors are heaping condemnation and trouble upon themselves. 

If you are hiding sin in your life, do us all a favor and repent.

As we will see, if we confess our sins and repent, He is faithful and just to forgive us. 

So What’s It Gonna Be

Today I was torn.  I was wrestling with myself on whether or not to waste my time.

I was struggling on whether or not an apostate church is even worth the time of a small time (and even that’s being generous) blogger with too much time on his hands.

Then my heart began to break.  I believe God gave me a glimpse of why He wept over Jerusalem.  This story broke my heart.

The Associated Press: Clergy finds US pastor guilty of marrying gays

At first I was infuriated.  I thought to myself, “Wesley must be rolling over in his grave.”

The Wesley brothers have been dead just a little over 200 years and the great revivals of their day have been degenerated into this.

I didn’t get it.  How does this happen?  How can a body fall so far?

Then God whispered in my ear. It was a single phase He has given me many times.  Something that makes me shrink with shame every time.  I don’t want to do what He tells me to.  I can’t take it, not again.

“Look in the mirror,” He says.

God is not blaming me for the sins of someone else, He is not holding me responsible for the fall of an entire denomination, but He is telling me to take inventory of my own witness.

What am I doing to show this fallen world the Light of life?  Am I hiding my candle under a bushel?

I am ashamed to say that I do more than I care to admit.

Every time God and I have this conversation, it goes pretty much the same way.  I think to myself, “I can’t do this. I can’t get it together.”

Every time God interrupts my thoughts with the same response, “Your right.  You can’t do it. Not on your own.  You can’t keep it together.  Not the way I want you to. That’s why I made a way. “

It is this way that we must proclaim and live in this fallen world.  We must proclaim the Gospel truth to people.  We must confront them with their sin and show them the way to salvation. We cannot comfort them on their way to hell.

We may not be able to save a denomination from following the world and lusting to tickle the ears of a congregation, but maybe we could.

Until we get off our hands and start opening our mouths, our co-workers may still be headed to hell.  The kids who cut our lawns may never know the love of Christ we keep to
ourselves.  Our parents may not get know saving grace.

It’s awful hard to play in the game till you get off the bench.

I leave you with the same question God leaves me with, “So what’s it gonna be?”

Moral or Good?

I am not sure if many of you have been following this story or not, but recently a man was ordered to take down a billboard that condemns his ex-girlfriend for getting an abortion.

You can read more about it here.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/23/judge-tells-boyfriend-to-remove-abortion-billboard/

When I first heard about the story I applauded the man’s fortitude for standing against abortion, but something hit me today.

It’s one of those times when I realize that this world is so twisted that we fail to see the root cause of our problems. The lines of right and wrong have been so blurred that we have to be very careful about what we call “good”.

It reminds me of Luke 18.  Who is good?  There is only One who is good, God.

This man may be the one the pro-life movement is rallying around, but one big detail is being overlooked.  If this had not been living in sin and sleeping with his girlfriend, then this would not have happened.

It wasn’t his wife or even his fiancé.  It was a girlfriend.

While I am in no way trying to downplay the horrors of abortion, I am saying that people need to wake up and realize that sin will only lead to more sin.

I don’t know this man at all, but from a Christian perspective, it is kinda hard to live in sin and then want to turn around and claim the moral high ground.

Without God we are all doomed to perpetuate a sinful life no matter how much we may want to slap a moral veneer on it.

DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.

Sounds great.  Those are all things we are commanded to do, and even the world can do those.

Yet, when it comes to the root of our problems, the heart, the world is found wanting.  When God says, “You will give this up for me.”  They fold and walk away.

DO NOT COMMIT AN ABORTION.

The world will yell, “Amen,” but when it comes to not sleeping with your girlfriend.  Well, that’s just too much.

Jonah (Part 3)

Jonah has set out to flee from God’s call. So he boards a ship that is destined for Tarshish.

As I said before, thank God that He does not just let us go about our lives when we chose to turn our backs on Him. God brings a great storm on the ship and the sailors pray to their own gods and do everything within their power to keep the ship on its course.

Ever stop to think about how your choices can bring calamity to those around you?

I mean Jonah made this choice all by himself, but the consequences of his decision threatened the lives of others. Luckily God is merciful and He doesn’t always use such measures to get our attention, but it obviously can’t be ruled out.

Where is Jonah when this is all happening? He is asleep in the bottom of the boat.

Have you ever been so stressed out that you just seem to collapse? This is another clue as to the inner turmoil Jonah had to be going through. He knew what he was doing was wrong, and he probably was none too happy about his decisions. But, despite all this he still refuses to repent for his sins.

The ship’s captain calls on Jonah to pray to his God, but Jonah either refused or just went through the motions. Jonah won’t even confess to the men on the ship until God calls him out with the casting of the lots.

Jonah confesses to the sailors who he is and why this is all happening. He says he knows this is why the storm has come and all they have to do is through him overboard. Then the waters will calm and they will be allowed to go on their way.

This is Jonah’s first hint that he would rather be dead than do what God wants him to do.

Jonah did not know that a fish would come get him. I don’t think that he had any idea that he could swim back to dry land. Jonah wasn’t even trying to avoid a death at the hands of his enemies. At this point, God was his enemy.

This whole time the storm is getting worse and worse. The sailors cannot believe that Jonah would do such a thing, but yet they have a very interesting response to Jonah’s confession.

Next time we will begin with a look at how the sailors react to Jonah’s situation.

Jonah (Part 2)

So Jonah has told God that he refuses to go to Nineveh.  Jonah heads down to the docks to find a ship that is destine for Tarshish.  I have heard before that at this time, Tarshish was the farthest point in the known world from where Jonah was.  I don’t know if that is true or not, but to me the most outstanding point to be made is that Jonah was setting out for that was free from the Lord’s presence.

I don’t believe for a second that Jonah thought he could run and find a place where the Lord would not be, but he probably wanted to find a place where he could hide God.

Jonah wanted to find a place where no one knew who he was, somewhere where he could flee from his reputation as a prophet.  I am sure Jonah and I are the only men in history who have looked for a place where people did not know we where Christians so that we could suppress God in our lives and let sin take hold.  I don’t mean that I try to find the
hole-in-the-wall bar across town where nobody will recognize me, but the times I don’t pray over my food in public because people might stare.  Then there are the times that I’m at work and want people to think I’m part of their crowd so I talk bad about people behind
their back.  Or the time…

Now that we have established what a horrible person Jonah and I are, let’s continue.

Jonah has such a hatred for the people of Nineveh that he would rather quit the business and quit God than preach a message of repentance.  Jonah knew what he was doing and he was leaving town to get it done.

Luckily God didn’t let Jonah get away with it and neither will He let me get away with it.  Dare I go out on a limb and say He won’t let you get away with it either?

Time is up again. Thanks for reading.

Jonah (Part 1)

I have been fixated with Johan lately. I know it’s a story we have heard a hundred times, but as my pastor says, “we must always be careful of those stories we know well.” Because we know them we tend not to pay too close attention.

It takes some effort to try and understand all the symbolism of Isaiah’s prophecy. It takes a little meditation to grasp the John’s revelation.

Does it really take that much to understand the story of Jonah?

Well, maybe we got it all figured out, but let us take a walk together through this book one more time and see what we get out of it. Hopefully you will read this and think, “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” But if not, maybe God can let us both grow through this.

Do me a favor. Read Jonah once all the way through. It’s only 4 chapters so it won’t take long.

I wish I could go through this book verse by verse but that would be too tedious to read. If you want to read my commentary on Jonah, wait about 45 years from now and I should be done with my complete commentary on the Bible. Till then we are cutting to the chase and hitting the highlights.

The first thing I noticed is that God said Nineveh’s sin had confronted Him. Understand that ALL sin confronts God, but it seems that there comes a certain time when God says “enough.”

Am I the only one who has reached that point, even after I have been saved, where God points out something in my life and says, “Enough!”

Jonah was told to go preach against the city. God didn’t tell Jonah to go convert people. God is the only one who can convert anyone. Oh yes we can manipulate people’s emotions into praying a prayer and going about their life, we could even get someone to live a moral life, but only God can save someone.

The point of preaching is not to trick people into living better lives. Any preacher who does not confront you with the sin that is in your life and tell you that there is only one way to be cleansed of that sin is a charlatan that only uses God as a means for a pay-check.

At least Jonah was truthful with himself and God. As we will see later, he flat out said, “I don’t want to, and you can’t make me!”

As we will see later, God never made Jonah do anything, but He did make a pretty compelling argument.

My words are up so till next time, let me know what you think so we can work through this together.

Same Old Story. Does the Bible Really Say…?

Now the serpent was more shrewd than any of the wild animals that the LORD God had made.  He said to the woman, “Is it really true that God said,…”  Gen 3:1

I was once told that when you hear God is doing something new, rest assure that Satan is doing something old.

God is the same and never changes.  Well guess what, Satan hasn’t changed his playbook much either. 

The newest version of Satan’s attempt is Rob Bell’s “Love Wins.”  I don’t want to get into a long drawn out critique of his work, because there are men who are much better at that than I am, but I do want to show you how to spot these wolves in sheep’s clothing.

From the very beginning, Satan has taken God’s truth and twisted it just enough to take someone off the straight and narrow path.  He did this exact thing with Eve.  Eve knew she wasn’t supposed to eat of the tree, but when Satan gives us an alternative that fits what we really want anyway, we will take it. 

I do not mean to give Satan more credit than he deserves, but we have to understand where this age old idea comes from.  Satan does not run around placing these individual ideas in the minds of every person, but especially this day in age, he doesn’t have to.  There are plenty of people who are planting these seeds for him. 

Rob Bell is one of them.  And I am going to go ahead and say it that Rick Warren is one of them, too.  I wish there was enough time to point out all those who are pedaling God for a profit, but I would wear a hole in my keyboard long before I could list them all. 

After listening to a number of different interviews with Mr. Bell, I believe his ideas come more from a desire to be relevant than a planted seed from Satan.  Bell has taken an idea that everyone gets to go to heaven, and used that to interpret Scripture.  I do not know any born-again Christian who takes this guy seriously, but there are others who are harder to pick out. 

It’s the guys like Warren that scare me the most.  I have only read one of his books (The Purpose Driven Church), but that was enough for me to know that this man is dangerous.  I do not believe I am overstating the issue.  Warren is smart enough to say the right thing but then goes in a completely opposite direction.

Warren will state time and time again that the church is not meant to cater to the wants and desires of its congregation.  Yet, time and time again he says that the only way you can grow your church is to find out what your congregation wants and desires through polls and go for that.  He would make one heck of a politician.  (I wonder, why did he really interview McCain and Obama?)

I don’t think that people as intelligent as Warren do this unknowingly.  If only Johann Tetzel had his skills Leo would have been drowning in gold.

College professors are another group that are great at taking a little bit of truth and twisting it ever so slightly that its hard to tell which way is up.  I am sure I have told many of you about a New Testament class that I took at a secular university where I literally watched a number of kids lose their faith.  In the face of criticism their faith did not stand. 

People like this poke holes in your beliefs, then stand back and laugh at you.

Warren and his like are taking what God has said and changing it ever so slightly that it is hard to tell what is true and what we wish were true.

I wish everyone got to go to heaven.  I wish the purpose of the church was to make everyone in a community feel fulfilled.  But, the truth makes them nothing more than wishes.

How do we know what is true?  Jesus gave us the example when he was tempted by Satan.

Read Matthew 4.  Every time Satan tempted Christ, he wasn’t trying to get Jesus to do anything extreme.  Jesus was hungry, turn the stones to bread.  Didn’t he turn the water to wine?  Jesus was the Son of God, prove it.  Didn’t Jesus perform miracles to prove who he was?  Jesus is going to rule the entire world, just worship someone different. 

Your eyes are satisfied when you think that everything you see can be yours, because God loves you and wants you to be happy.  It makes your flesh feel better that you can keep on sinning and not worry, because there is no hell anyway.  It strokes your pride when you think that the church is there to make sure that your needs are being met.

Many times Satan doesn’t make it about right and wrong.  It’s about intentions.  It’s about the heart.  It’s about God’s timing.

Do you want to go to heaven?  How are you going to get there?  Are you going to believe that you are a sinner and put your trust in the work of Jesus? Or are you going to believe that God loves you and you don’t have to worry about a hell because it doesn’t exist?

Do you want your church to grow?  How is it going to happen?  Are you going to conduct a poll and cater to people’s itching ears, or are you going to hit your knees and ask God for the strength to witness to a fallen world?

So how do we tell if our intentions and heart are pure?  What does the Word of God say?  This is the example Christ left us with.  Satan even quotes Scripture, but Jesus knows how to deal with him.  Jesus does not get into a philosophical argument about where people like Hitler go if there is no hell.  He uses the Word of God to fight his fight. 

As always I’ll let you in on a little secret that isn’t a secret at all.  God’s Word is more powerful than any argument you can come up with on your own.  Can your tongue but like a two edged sword?  Can your argument separate bone from the marrow?

Well it may seem like a secret to some but those are the ones who have their ears plugged and don’t want to listen anyway.

Lord, gives us ears to hear and a heart to learn. 

The World Never Gets It

It truly is a shame how easy it is for any idiot to sit behind a computer and prove to the world just how low their intelligence level is. 

Just when I thought there was starting to be decent sports reporting out there, ESPN’s Rick Reilly proves me wrong.  I know, I know. I said before, getting my theology from ESPN is like getting my politics from the Dixie Chicks, but this man has stooped to a new level of scumbag.  Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on him.  Maybe ESPN has its own version of the Special Olympics for writers and this guy got published just for showing up, but then again that would be an insult to handicapped people the world over.  This guy would probably ridicule a quadriplegic for not being able to dribble a basketball. 

I guess my expectations where a little high for a guy who’s new big book is about his two year search for the “worlds dumbest competition.”

I guess now I’ll tell you how I really feel about it. 

I am sure all of you know the firestorm Joel Northrup started when he decided that his convictions were worth more than a state title in wrestling.  Joel graciously bowed out of the first round of the tournament, instead of wrestling female Cassy Herkelman. 

I have know Joel for many years now and know that this is not the first time he has decided not to wrestle a girl.  But, before there wasn’t a state title at stake.  I wish I were in a position so I could talk to Joel and tell him what it meant to me personally for him to take this stand. 

Having been on a similar stage myself, I can imagine how hard it may have been for Joel to walk to the scorer’s table and tell them that he withdrew from the match. If you looked carefully at the photos taken at the event, you may notice one detail that has slipped past most people. When Joel withdrew he had enough respect for the sport and for Cassy to completely dress out as though he were going to walk out on the mat and wrestle.

Joel did not make a snap decision and it wasn’t a surprise to him who he was supposed to wrestle, yet he was completely geared up just to walk over and withdraw. 

Every major news outlet around the country quickly picked up the story and ran with it.  While most of the comments on message boards covering the story were positive, yesterday, ESPN allowed Mr. Reilly to show the world just how clueless they are about what really transpired. 

Do yourself a favor and don’t even read the article. It will make blood shoot from your eyes and you’ll end up kicking the family cat.  I’ll do the best I can to make it through the article again and tell you why the world will never understand why young men like Joel take the stands that they do.

Reilly spends about the first half of the article telling us how tough Cassy is and that she doesn’t need anybody protecting her, let alone Joel.

He acknowledges that most of Iowa and the Herkelmans respected Joel for his decision, whether they agreed with it or not.  But then he asks, “Why?”

He continues, “Does any wrong-headed decision suddenly become right when defended with religious conviction? In this age, don’t we know better? If my God told me to poke the elderly with sharp sticks, would that make it morally acceptable to others?”

The only thing I would find morally acceptable from this guy is if he poked himself with a sharp stick. 

The world, and Reilly included, thinks they know better, but to let them in on a little secret, Joel was the only one who did get it.  It’s not Joel’s fault that someone raised a girl and turned her into a boy.  When the rest of the world sees a boy, Joel sees a girl.  He sees the truth, not what the world is telling him. 

Cassy’s own father doesn’t see it.  “She’s my son,” says her dad, Bill. “She’s always been my son. Since she could walk, she’s always been the tomboy, busting stuff up, walkin’ through glass with her bare feet.”

But don’t let me get away from Reilly’s downhill slide into Dirtbag City.  He points out that Joel didn’t refuse to wrestle Cassy for sexual reasons, he and his father, Jamie, cited the physicality of the engagement. 

Reilly continues, “That’s where the Northrups are so wrong. Body slams and takedowns and gouges in the eye and elbows in the ribs are exactly how to respect Cassy Herkelman. This is what she lives for. She can elevate herself, thanks.”

No matter how hard it tries, world can’t pull the wool over Joel’s eyes.  He understands that this world will try and tell you that something evil is good.  If Joel “respected” Cassy in the hallway of any public school he would be arrested. 

If you haven’t broken your computer screen yet, hold on cause it gets worse. Reilly is going for a record, “If the Northrups really wanted to ‘respect’ women, they should’ve encouraged their son to face her. When he didn’t, it created a national media hurricane with Cassy in the eye of it. She was surrounded by 20 of us Friday not for how she wrestled (she wound up being eliminated two matches later) but for how she didn’t.”

Joel didn’t put her in that position. Her parents put her in that position by getting her into wrestling when she was in just second grade.  I am sure Cassy’s parents are great people and Cassy isn’t going to suffer any long term ill effects from all this, but yet again this world wants to blame everybody else for the situations they put themselves into.  Joel just happen to be the one who had enough guts to tell them all that what she was doing was wrong.

It wasn’t anything personal, it was just the truth.  I have heard that hell hath no fury greater than a woman scorned, but try telling anyone in this world that they are solely responsible for the situations they put themselves into and watch out.  How dare someone say that what Cassy was doing was anything but right.

Reilly can’t even see that maybe he and the 19 other bloodsuckers could have left her alone until after she was done wrestling.  No, it was Joel’s fault they couldn’t leave her alone.

Hang on people, I know it’s rough, but we are almost home and I don’t want to deprive Reilly of his shot at the title as the world’s biggest sleaze-ball.  He continues, “I don’t feel as bad for Cassy as I do for Joel. He was the fifth-ranked wrestler in the state at 112 pounds. He was 35-4. He had a chance to win the whole thing. In Iowa, that means a lifetime of people buying you lunch. It’s corn-state royalty. To give all that up to protect a girl who loathes being protected? What a waste of a dream.”

First of all, sometimes you have to protect people from themselves.  Secondly, Joel knows there is a better crown out there waiting for him.  Someone he knows is waiting to give him an eternal crown and tell him “Well done thy good and faithful servant!”  Those words would beat hearing you named announced a thousand times as a state champion.  There is more at stake here than a piece of metal.  Yet again, there are few people who can understand this.

Joel ended up losing a heartbreaker in overtime to be removed from the tournament, and Reilly can’t help but get a little personal as he crosses the finish line, “Neither he, nor his coaches, nor his dad, had any comment. He was reportedly on his way back home to Marion, Iowa, where his mom was about to deliver her eighth child. For the kid’s sake, I hope it’s a boy.”

And there you have it folks. Reilly wins going away. 

I tell you what Joel, this world is going mad.  There are idiots everywhere, and when you take a stand for Jesus they are going to hate you.  So please do me a favor, hold that new little baby close and teach him to be as strong as you are.  Don’t let him listen to this world.  I can only pray that my own boys understand what a great man you are and that they will try and follow the great example you set for them.  I only wish I were able to fully relate to you how proud I am of you.  Trust me when I say that there are people the world over that are taking strength from the stand you made. 

As for you Reilly, if you ever write a book about the “World’s Worst Writers” give me a call. I got your number one right here.