What offends America is when Cecil the Lion got attacked.
What offends the American Christians is when the Detroit Lions get attacked from other Christians. Or the Bills of Buffalo. Or the Yankees of NY.
We that are saved, should be able to go to the Bible and honestly let it mold our thinking, our hobbies, and make us willing to turn from our American idols to serve the true and living God.
I was a sports nut until I got saved, even basically failing a big Phamokinetics exam in college because Buffalo Sabres Goalie Dominick Hasek was goaltending in the Olympics and the games were broadcast live on TV. At 3 AM.
I had basically been sports-free for the first few years I was saved, and any glory goes to God. I canceled my Buffalo Newspaper subscription recently because “I would just have to read the sports page.” My heart is supposed to be toward God and the church, yet when I would bring in the paper, it would be like there was a magnet pulling my heart toward it and it would not release until I at least scanned the headlines.
Why does the world have such a pull? Christians today think I am a fanatic for daring to sacrifice the sacred (Chicago) Bulls on the altar. We honestly can enjoy 80,000 fans who are mostly lost and will end up one day in Hell, and we that are saved are more at home there than with the Saved at church? Really?
Yes, I dabble in sports, but I had tried hard to run fast from all the Jack Eichel and Rex Ryan hoopla and I really tried hard to avoid it. Yet I can still feel the compulsion to have to find out how both these teams do. I still feel I have to know the second the Bills choose a starting QB. What difference is this years Bills season going to make in 5 years? The NFL and Pro-Sports (and college) are full of rapists, perverts, thieves, drunkards, drunk-drivers, now murderers (at least ex-stars, such as OJ “the glove-don’t fit” Simpson, queers, gamblers, drug uses, liars, men worshippers, idolaters, bad mannered, foul mouthed, wicked men.
They are time wasters and distractions at best, and they steal our affections and desires for God at worst. We who are saved should sharpen each other to get victory over this, instead of defending it.
Call it what it is. It is the pride of life.
To borrow a sports phrase, you can’t claim to be a Yankee fan, and own Red Sox paraphernalia.
The bible says friendship with the world means you are an enemy of God. You can’t claim to be in love with Jesus while having a heart dead set on the things of this world. The problem with American Christians, is we only stay free from the “bad sins”. The good sins are allowed to be enjoyed as long as you tithe and come to church. And your church and Christians around you set the bar.
Where God says TURN from your American Idols and SERVE the LIVING God.
“Anything you love more than God is an idol, I don’t care what it is” -Leonard Ravenhill –