Fighting Our Way Through the Red-Zone

Comparing Spritual Warfare to a football game is seemingly becoming a manly theme. My Wednesday night men's Bible classes is currently reading a book called, Every Man, God's Man by Stephen Arterburn and Kenny Luck. One of the first chapters compares the struggles men have to being bogged down in the "Red Zone".

For those not familiar with football, the "Red Zone" is the part of the playing field between an opponent's 20 yard line and the End-Zone. It is at this point where some of the most dramatic moments in football take place. The Defense is now protecting their end-zone. They are focused on preventing their opponents from gaining even one more inch. They play tougher here than on any other part of the field. They seem to do even better than their best to keep their oppenents out of their end-zone and scoring points.

The offensive strategy also changes from looking for large gains in yardage to focusing on short yard gains to push past the hardened defense to reach their desired goal, which is their opponent's end-zone. They often resort to trick plays or the use of brut force to push their opponents backwards.

I guess you could compare a man's struggle to become a man of God to playing football. The Bible tells us to put on the armor of God, much like putting on a playing uniform. The Bible gives us strategies and moral guidelines in which to live our lives and guide our families, much like a playbook. It is our manly responsiblity to study the "playbook" and put on our "armor" before we attempt to take on our enemy. Believe me, the enemy has studied our playbook and he knows our battle plans better than we do.

The enemy, however; has convinced us that since he knows God's strategy for us, that we must switch strategies in order to try and trick him. This is just what the enemy wants us to do. What we fail to realize is, that even if Satan does know our playbook, that the playbook will still work against him. Satan has no defense against the Truth, and the Will of God for our lives. It's when we switch to our understanding of the game, that we get bogged down.

The closer we follow the game plan of God, the closer we get to our goal of an eternal life with God. This is our Goal. This is the Red-Zone. Satan's defense and attacks against us get stronger and he will do anything to distract us from following the gameplan set forth by God. It seems we can get no closer to our goal despite everything we try. We get bogged down and many times collapse under the pressure of a battle toughened Satan.

We must stay focused!! We must not give up!! We must remember, we already know the outcome of the game. WE WIN!! God will get us trough the Red-Zone, if we just rely on Him.

As you can tell football is not my sport of choice, so my thoughts may wonder a bit. I still hope you understood my message though. Maybe next time I can use a baseball reference.

Two Thought Provoking Links

Recently I have been introduced to two seperate and very thought provoking links.

The first is called...The Truth Project, which is presented by Focus on the Family. The Truth Project is a Christian based curriculum designed to counter the "lies" told to us by the world and refocus the Believer's faith on "the voice of truth" as presented by God in the Bible. This curriculum is taught to small groups which can be organized in a community near you. Ladybug (my new blog term for my wife) and I are thinking about taking one of these classes.

The second is a link to an upcoming documentary(?) film by Ben Stein, called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. This movie was created to openly challenge the Theory of Evolution and Darwinism as scientific theories. After watching the trailer, I am very interested in watching the movie. Speaking from personal experiences, I can say that some Science teachers in the public schools and on the college levels are not allowed to present "Intelligent Design" as a plausable theory of the creation of the universe and man. This is mainly due to possible law suits by radical atheistic or agnostic families who seem to think this would be forcing religion down the throats of their children. They don't seem to care that Darwinism & Evolution have no "smoking gun" proofs to back up their claims as well. To watch a short trailer about the movie click on the above link or link to All Rolled Into One (Ladybug's blog) to watch the trailer and read her take on the movie. For a synopsis of the movie from The Internet Movie Database (IMDB), (click here)

Watch the links and let me know what you think.

And Then There Were 7 (2 more drop Presidential Bids)

Nine Little Indians all running for President. Two lost big in Florida, and then there were Seven.

Two more presidential hopefuls officially ended their campaigns today, Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008.

Former North Carolina Senator and Democratic candidate John Edwards ended his campaign, leaving former First Lady and current New York Sen., Hillary Clinton, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and long shot candidate, former Alaskan Sen. Mike Gravel, left as the remaining three Democrats.

On the Republican side, former Mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani dropped out and endoresed John McCain. This leaves Arizona Sen. John McCain, Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and long shot candidate, Texas U.S. Representative Ron Paul as the remaining Republican hopefuls.

Prayer Request From a Crazy Man

In past posts I have mentioned that I suffer from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Because of this I tend to obsess about things to the point that it disrupts my daily activities. If I obsess about them long enough/or sometimes not long enough, I will compulsively act to attempt to remedy, or stop, these thoughts that just won't leave my head. To tell the truth it gets a little old.

I hate the fact I constantly worry about what my supervisor/co-workers/students or others think of me. It gets in the way of me doing my job as well as I need to be doing it. It also gets in the way of sleep, family activities and other normal daily functions. I just can't get some thoughts out of my head. If I get started on a specific task, the obsessive disorder will place that task above all other things until I get it done or someone stops me first.

Suffering from OCD is bad enough, but when you combine it with abnormal fears of confrontations, of any sort, and the occasional bouts of depression we all suffer from, this is not a good thing. I feel like I just want to crawl into a hole and hide until the anxiety I feel goes away. I am currently taking an anti-anxiety medication, but it seems like I have to take it every day or sometimes twice a day to keep these "crazy feelings" from taking over my life.

My OCD tends to be aggravated more when I am around large groups of people. If the classroom I teach is especially full, I will get "nervous" and overly irritated, or distracted. Activities with church groups or groups of friends will also have the same effect. I feel very uncomfortable going to a club to do a little dancing, going bowling or other group events. (Somehow going to watch The Texas Rangers play baseball doesn't bother me!) Because of this I constantly have to fight wanting to become reclusive.

I am asking my fellow blog readers and family to pray for me. Pray that God and His mighty power over all things can relieve me of this "problem." Pray that God guides me to the right people who can help me cope with and possibly treat this disorder in a way that I can have a more "normal" life. Pray for my family that they continue to try not and take some of the things I do "personally" against them. I love my family and I want them to know that.

Thanks guys & gals. Reading about your own "crazy" lives, helps me in ways you can't imagine.

Da guyz dat publish dem noosepapers is plnty smrt.

THE YEAR'S BEST [actual] HEADLINES OF 2007: NOT!!!

I received an email containing this list of THE YEAR'S BEST [ACTUAL] HEADLINES OF 2007!, from my best friend. Upon researching where the headlines came from (to give proper credit) I found out these aren't really headlines from 2007. This list has been going around for at least seven years. Check out this competition from 2000 in which people created images to match some of these headlines. Plus, I doubt if any of these were ever actual headlines either. For more information go to the Museum of Hoaxes. The headlines, real or not, are still funny anyway! I guess I need to break the news to my friend. Sorry Brent.

Crack Found on Governor's Daughter [Imagine that!]

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says [No, really?]

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers
[Now that's taking things a bit far!]

Iraqui Heads Seeking Arms [Are the terrorist recruiting zombies now?]

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over [What a guy!]

Miners Refuse to Work after Death [No-good-for-nothing' lazy so-and-sos!]

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendants [See if that works any better than a fair trial!]

War Dims Hope for Peace [I can see where it might have that effect!]

If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile [You think?]

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures [Who would have thought!]

Enfield ( London ) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide [They may be on to something!]

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges [You mean there's something stronger than duct tape?]

Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge [He probably IS the battery charge!]

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group [Weren't they fat enough?!]

Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Spacecraft [That's what he gets for eating those beans!]

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks [Do they taste like chicken?]

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half [Chainsaw Massacre all over again!]

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors [Boy, are they tall!]

And the winner is....Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead! [No comment necessary]

It's Now a Family Act!

It's official...all of my family members have blogs.

My daughter is the newest addition. Apparently she is ready for new pet. D.O.G. Blog is the name of her new blog. D.O.G. could stand for a couple of things. D.O.G = Daughter of God, and she really, really, really loves dogs.

My son's blog is a little different. CmE Domain is his blog and he has some neat things to read about, especially his version of a recent "Dime Incident", which you should read under November, not September, as his most recent blog states. If you want to read my version of this story, click here.

My wife's blog is called All Rolled Into One. The few fellows who read my blog with some regularity have wives who often read her blogs. I think it was Big Doofus who linked a few of these husband/wife bloggers together.

Now our entire family, except the dog, has their own blog. Feel free to check them out and encourage my young ones to write.