Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (p. 71). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) For many, they have trouble believing they can just make it through the last hour especially when it comes to temptation. Marks says, “Resisting temptation isn’t easy, that’s for sure. And I’ll be the first to admit I’ve lost many battles with pride, lust, greed, and anger. But it’s a winnable war. The problem is that most of us feel defeated before the battle even begins. Why? Because we can’t imagine winning every battle, every day. After all, who bats a thousand?” He goes on, “This might seem like a Jedi mind trick, but let me ask a question I ask everyone who is struggling with addiction: Do you think you can win the battle for one day? By the time a person comes to see me, they’re usually battling a habitual sin that seems unbeatable. They feel so defeated that...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (p. 118). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) You might ask, what does that mean? Mark says, “It wasn’t Jesus’s responsibility to wash feet. That job was reserved for the lowest servant on the Jewish totem pole. Yet Jesus took responsibility for something that wasn’t His responsibility.” Mark goes on, “Pilate did the exact opposite, washing his hands as a way of saying ‘I’m not responsible.’   But washing his hands didn’t absolve him of guilt. Pilate knew Jesus was innocent, yet he lacked the moral courage to let Jesus go. In the words of C. S. Lewis, ‘Pilate was merciful till it became risky.’ [C. S. Lewis, The Complete C. S. Lewis Signature Classics (New York: HarperOne, 2007), 270.] “One verse reveals Pilate’s moral weakness: ‘Wanting to satisfy the crowd . . . He had Jesus flogged, and handed him ...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Play the Man: Becoming the Man God Created You to Be (p. 91). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) True Grit was one of the first movies I saw in a theater.   I loved John Wayne. That movie showed what Hollywood thought grit was. Mark says, “Grit is an attitude— an unwillingness to give up, to give in. Grit is a sanctified stubborn streak! Even if you’re hanging on by a thread, you hang in there. No matter how many times you’ve been knocked down, you get back up! You keep on keeping on no matter what, no matter when, no matter how.” He later says, “Jesus endured the pain of the cross by fixing his eyes on us— the joy of His salvation. When He was on the cross, we were on his mind. And the way we stay strong in the face of pain and suffering and trials is by fixing our eyes on Him!” Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great ...