Did you see the 98-yard fumble return by Sam Hubbard, a 265-pound defensive lineman with the Cincinnati Bengals? I wasn’t going to write about this play, mainly because I was hoping the Ravens would upset the Bengals, however, Jason Gay’s Wall Street Journal editorial of January 19 captured something worth thinking about.

Defensive linemen aren’t supposed to be able to run the ball, and certainly not that far or that fast. He was reported doing 17.43mph or, in units that make more sense, I think, 25.5 feet/second. Pretty fast. Not as fast as the guy chasing him: 30.3 feet/second, but fast enough.

How? How does a guy that big run that fast? Jason tells us:

The Amazon “Next Gen” statistics people clock Hubbard running at 17.43 mph. That’s not Hubbard’s fastest; he says he hits 18 mph doing sprints in Bengals’ practices. But it’s definitely fourth quarter, defensive-end-recovering-a-fumble-fast. 

It makes Hubbard thankful for hot summer workouts with local trainer Pat Coyne, running 110-yard sprints, 15 of them a week, when nobody’s watching.

“I’ve been doing those since high school,” he says. “Endurance is the thing in football—you’ve got to be able to play when you’re tired, because everyone’s always exhausted.” – Jason Gay, emphasis mine

15 110-yard sprints per week…when nobody’s watching…and he’s been doing those since high school.

It’s the behind-the-scenes work, work that no one sees, that makes the difference.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.” (Mark 9.28, 29, NIV)

But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5.16, NIV)

We left Abram yesterday asking God how he would know that he would possess the land that God had already promised him four times. God’s response is worth contemplating:

So He said to him, “Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, and a three-year-old female goat, and a three-year-old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” Then he brought all these to Him and cut them in two, and laid each half opposite the other; but he did not cut the birds…Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.” It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, “To your descendants I have given this land… (Genesis 15.9 – 18, NAS, emphasis mine)

It was a “cross my heart and hope to die” ceremony that God enacted with Abram. The idea was that two people entering into an oath with each other would divide the animals in half and each walk between the halves saying, “May I become like these animals if I don’t fulfill my end of the bargain.”

I will never forget T. L. Sheriden, a friend of mine’s father, preaching on this text. He told the story of the ceremony as I have and then, noting that Abram was in a deep sleep (so he couldn’t mess things up!) thundered:

And God walked between the pieces!

Some promises are unconditional. They don’t depend on my performance – a good thing.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace…In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1.7, 11 – 14, NAS)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1.3 – 5, NAS)

We’re working our way through Genesis using the new Pentateuch Reading Plan that June and I developed. Just 5 chapters/week! We got through the massive events in 1 – 11 – Creation, Fall, Flood, Nations – and we’re into God’s choosing Abram, “blessed to be a blessing,” even though he has some flaws (don’t we all?). The rest of Genesis, by the way, can be described as:

• Abraham (chapters 12 – 25)
• Isaac (chapters 25 – 27)
• Jacob (chapters (28 – 50)
• Joseph (chapters 37 – 50)

The first thing we see is God’s repeated promise including “the land.”

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you.” (Genesis 12.1, NAS)

Abram passed through the land as far as the site of Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. Now the Canaanite was then in the land. The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him. (Genesis 12.6, 7, NAS)

The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever…Arise, walk about the land…for I will give it to you.” (Genesis 13.14, 15, 17, NAS)

And He said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” (Genesis 15.7, NAS)

Repeated, specific promises, which make Abram’s question in the next verse a bit odd:

He said, “O Lord GOD, how may I know that I will possess it?” (Genesis 15.8, NAS)

If I were God, I’m thinking the answer to that question is,

Because I said so! Isn’t that enough?

God’s response is more startling and worth a longer look. Stay tuned!

I don’t want my Genesis meditations to get ahead of your readings if you’re following our Pentateuch Reading Plan, so let’s pause for some lessons from the world of sports.

The first is from Georgia’s complete domination of TCU in the college championship on January 9. 65 – 7 if you missed it. No typo: Georgia 65, TCU 7. It’s always instructive to hear what the coach attributed his team’s greatness to:

Coach Kirby Smart listed Georgia’s values:

• Hard work
• No entitlement
• Humility
• Connection

All of those will preach!

When asked before the game what his strategy was, Kirby said, “Aggression. We intend to go after them.” And they did. Maybe we could learn something:

This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours. This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels. (Ephesians 6.12, MSG)

The second lesson comes from the NFL wildcard playoff game between the Los Angeles Chargers (formerly the San Diego Chargers) and the Jacksonville Jaguars on January 14. I have a special interest in the Jaguars since their second-year quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, piloted Clemson to the national championship after the 2018 season. In that game, leading Alabama 31 – 16 at halftime (Clemson went on to win 44 – 16), Clemson coach Dabo Swinney responded to a reporter:

Ain’t nothin’ less important than the halftime score.

Anyway, back to the Chargers/Jaguars game, the Chargers were ahead 27 – 0 late in the second quarter. Trevor had thrown four interceptions. However, the Jaguars won the game 31 – 30. Trevor said in the post-game interview:

[This is] what belief can do and to see when a team believes in each other what you can accomplish.

He no doubt also believed, “Ain’t nothing less important than the halftime score.”

But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3.13, 14, NIV)

So God chose Abram, as we wrote Sunday, and we don’t even get out of chapter 12 before we find out what kind of man Abram was. Genesis 12 is a good, maybe tongue-in-cheek, argument for the inspiration of scripture. If I were compiling a book about God’s work in the world and the story of redemption, I think I would have left this part out:

Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there, for the famine was severe in the land. When he was about to enter Egypt, he said to Sarai his wife, “I know that you are a woman beautiful in appearance, and when the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me, but they will let you live. Say you are my sister, that it may go well with me because of you, and that my life may be spared for your sake.” (Genesis 12.10 – 13, ESV)

Really? The man God chose to make a nation out of, the one who was “blessed to be a blessing,” is the kind of man who would lie to protect himself and allow his wife to be taken into another man’s home?!

Abram wasn’t all bad. The Lord told him to go, and he went:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you…So Abram went, as the LORD had told him… (Genesis 12.1, 4, ESV)

This obedience is the first thing he is commended for in Hebrews 11, the Faith Hall of Fame:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11.8, ESV)

Enough faith to move to a strange place, but not enough faith to believe that God could protect him in Egypt without his lying about his wife. Do you think you’re unqualified because you don’t have enough faith? Think again.

Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9.24, ESV)

It’s Martin Luther King Day, and I need to continue a tradition I started two years ago, namely, a Martin Luther King Day blog.

• January 18, 2021: Excellence in Work. from Dr. King’s “street sweeper” speech
• January 17, 2022: Brotherly Love

This morning I’ve seen three editorials referring to “Letters from a Birmingham Jail.”

• A Timeless Work that Changed History by Eric Patterson, published by World Magazine
• Dr. Martin Luther King and the Nature of Law by John Stonestreet of Breakpoint, quoting Charles Colson
• Self-purification by Mike Metzger of Clapham Institute

Interestingly, each of these essays refers to a different aspect of the Letter. When I read it, here’s what grabbed me:

I guess it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say wait. But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick, brutalize, and even kill your black brothers and sisters with impunity; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can’t go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see the tears welling up in her little eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky, and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking in agonizing pathos: “Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?” when you take a cross country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading “white” men and “colored” when your first name becomes “nigger” and your middle name becomes “boy” (however old you are) and your last name becomes “John,” and when your wife and mother are never given the respected title of “Mrs.” when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tip-toe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of “nobodiness”—then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into an abyss of injustice where they experience the bleakness of corroding despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. – Martin Luther King, April 1963

I guess the good news is that some of the conditions Dr. King describes have changed since 1963. The bad news is that what he experienced was happening at all, often at the hands of people who were in church on Sunday. The other part of the bad news is that racism is still ongoing, as I’ve written before.

My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. (James 2.1, ESV)

And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.” (Revelation 5.9 – 10, ESV, emphasis mine)

Yesterday, we saw that God’s confounding the languages at Babel was in response to humanity’s propensity for evil. Forming people groups and scattering them was God intentionally slowing the spread of evil.

But look how Genesis is arranged: 11 chapters encompassing 2,000 years and four major events as articulated by Walk Through the Bible:

• Creation (Genesis 1 – 2)
• Fall (Genesis 3)
• Flood (Genesis 6 – 8)
• Nations (Genesis 11)

Beginning with Genesis 12, the rest of the Bible covers the next 2,000 years! What’s the next step? Once we have nations, God chooses one nation through which he will work to communicate to and save all the other nations! It’s right there in Genesis 12:

Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And…

• I will make of you a great nation, and
• I will bless you and
• make your name great, so that
• you will be a blessing.
• I will bless those who bless you, and
• him who dishonors you I will curse, and
• in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12.1 – 3, ESV, bulleted for clarity)

“You will be a blessing…in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

A key concept: blessed to be a blessing – something the descendants of Abram (later, his name was changed to Abraham) never got really good at. The Jerusalem Jewish leaders of the early church seemed shocked to find this out:

When they heard these things [that a Roman centurion and his friends and family believed and received the Holy Spirit], they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11.18, ESV)

Sometimes in our families and churches we act like it’s “us four and no more,” but that has never been God’s plan. In one sense, we’re all called to be “cross-cultural missionaries!”

Those who had been scattered by the persecution triggered by Stephen’s death traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, but they were still only speaking and dealing with their fellow Jews. Then some of the men from Cyprus and Cyrene who had come to Antioch started talking to Greeks, giving them the Message of the Master Jesus. God was pleased with what they were doing and put his stamp of approval on it—quite a number of the Greeks believed and turned to the Master. (Acts 11.19 – 21, MSG)

We’re thinking about the story of The Tower of Babel and the power of communications; WHY did God confuse the languages?

Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s language.” So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. (Genesis 11.7, 8, LSB)

Of course, the first reason is that God had commanded Noah and his descendants to “fill the earth.”

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.” (Genesis 9.1, LSB)

God said “scatter,” and the goal of the tower was that they would NOT be scattered.

And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11.4, LSB)

But the second reason that God confounded the languages was to slow the spread of evil. Before the flood, evil was doing very well:

Then Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6.5, LSB)

That’s a lot of evil! “every intent…was only evil continually.” We saw yesterday that with good communication anything can be accomplished. Unfortunately, “anything” can be any evil imaginable. Take the Internet, for example. The intent was that scientists could use it to collaborate effectively and efficiently and do great things. That is happening, of course. But among the largest uses of the Internet are pornography and gambling. Better communication and connectivity increase the spread of evil.

So at Babel, God confounds the languages, forcing the people to scatter, thereby slowing the spread of evil. Tomorrow, we’ll look at the next step.

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way… (Isaiah 53.6, ESV)

It’s Friday 13th! I’ve written about it before, so I won’t do so today. Hope you’ve had a good day.

Maybe Friday 13th weekend is a good time to talk about the Tower of Babel as described in Genesis 11.1 – 9.

The first lesson, interestingly enough, is positive: the power of communication:

And Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have begun to do. So now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. (Genesis 11.6, LSB)

“Nothing they purpose to do will be impossible for them” if they’re unified, speaking the same language. Often that’s not the case. In churches, for example, words are thrown around: “discipleship,” for example. Everyone is in favor of it, but few know what it means. That’s why when my Navigator friends begin to help a church create a culture of discipleship, one of the first steps is “picture of a disciple.” Do we know what we’re trying to produce?

To one church leader, a disciple is someone who comes to church regularly and behaves “nicely.” To another, a disciple is deep into Bible study. I just saw a church website in which “disciple” wasn’t used, but they wanted to make a difference in “structural racism” and “systemic poverty.” 

All good causes, but if we’re not unified around what we’re trying to do, it’s highly unlikely we will succeed – whatever “success” is. The people of Genesis 11 knew what they were trying to do and why:

And they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11.4, LSB)

And, according to God himself, they would have succeeded, unless God intervened. 

Tomorrow, we’ll remind ourselves why God intervened.

For if the trumpet produces an indistinct sound, who will prepare himself for battle? (1 Corinthians 14.8, LSB)

Yesterday we talked about Noah’s obedience in building the ark. But it just occurred to me…Noah didn’t build the ark by himself! He had three sons.

I’ve written before about one of my heroes, medical missionary Frank Dennis, now 92 years old. He’s not ministering in Taiwan anymore, but he’s still active, traveling, preaching twice a month when he’s in town, sending out emails, and sharing the gospel with anyone he comes in contact with. He recently sent an email about his lifelong friend Jack Kraft who passed away on December 29. My friend Frank was a medical missionary. His friend Jack was a behind-the-scenes supporter. Here are some excerpts from Frank’s email which you can read in its entirety here:

Our dear oldest friend, Jack Kraft, died quietly in his sleep. 12/29/2022, while in home hospice. He was a friend of Sally in Grade School in Minneapolis! Jack’s life and mine intertwined in many ways since Sally and I married in 1953. I want to share some of the fun things and God things we did together. Over the many years he was always helpful, cheerful and a close “brother” to me and I rejoice that he finished well with no blemishes on his Christian character. He let his light shine in many places for Jesus and many of those were linked to me.

…On our first furlough in 1966 Jack became my supply agent for medical equipment and furniture for the proposed hospital God had led me to build for the tribal people in Taitung county. He had a red truck and we went to many hospitals in the Twin Cities asking for used items. I was embarrassed but Jack went boldly to the top and we got 30 crates full of very usable items from beds and operating lights to operating tables, anesthesia machines, ventilators, IV stands and even hospital beds. Because electric beds and tables were now in style in America the old was out, but with frequent power failures in Taiwan at that time I was happy with stuff that worked manually!

…We were doing a lot of orthopedics and many of the supplies were not available in Taiwan. Jack was my main supply guy. He would find it, buy it and ship it to the hospital. One outstanding case led to a 5-year-old Taiwanese boy…who was run over by a truck, crushing his right leg. A local doctor wanted to amputate but a neighbor told them to go the foreign hospital in Taitung. An external fixator enabled us to heal the bones but a large skin graft was finally needed to save the leg. But our dermatome blades were too dull so I had asked Jack to send new ones. Our hospital at that time had the only electric dermatome in the county. We prayed the blades would come in time and just when the wound was just ready to graft, they arrived! Praise God (and Jack).

That story was written in a book, (all in Chinese) ”一粒麥子落在後山“ “A Grain of Wheat Falls on the Back Mountains” a book about the founding and history of the Taitung Christian Hospital. Someone gave Mr Leo Yan, a businessman from Taiwan in Texas, a copy of that book. He read it and said, ”I am that boy!” Leo called the Taitung hospital, got my phone number and called me. He drove from Texas with his wife and 4 children to visit me, stayed several days and we had a wonderful time learning how God had led him to become a Christian, leave business, go to seminary and become a pastor!! His family are now all devout followers of Jesus, a nurse, a medical student, a son in pre-med and one in college considering medicine.

It is a lesson: each member of the body of Christ doing their part; buying and shipping blades, the surgeon operating with his assistants, the nurses that gave care, the author of the book and the one who gave it to Leo and the Holy Spirit who put it all together to the glory of God! Isn’t it great to be on the team!

Jack was a real team player for Jesus! Thank you, Jesus, we were both on that same team!

There’s more, including pictures, in Frank’s email. I found it very inspiring. God uses ordinary people…and orthopedic surgeons!

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. (1 Corinthians 3.5 – 8, ESV)

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. (1 Corinthians 12.4 – 6, ESV)