It may lack the emotion as is times past but still I have never wanted a team to win as much as I do tonight. The Stanley Cup is like a Super Bowl trophy in a number of American cities and Pittsburgh is one of them. In a few minutes the Pittsburgh Penguins take the ice in the fourth game of the Stanley Cup finals with a 3 to 1 lead. Win tonight and they are the Stanley Cup champions. Sydney Crosby will hoist the cup over his head and skate around the Consol Energy Center in celebration, and just about all of Pittsburgh will go wild. I want the Pens to win as bad as I have ever wanted a team to win.....but not for the reasons you might think.
From the farthest heavens to the tiniest nanostructures within the atom, the design of the Creator of this universe has mystified and awed some of the greatest scientists in all of God's creation. The placing of this beautiful rotating ball in a universe of galaxies keeps even agnostic and atheist scientists of today enraptured in their search of answers to its origin. The functional magnificence of this mass of tissue within the cranium of man explores the wonder of everything from art to engineering and from invention to imagination. What the aforementioned agnostic and atheist scientists do not realize is that they are the created....examining creation....as if it merely evolved. Those scientists who do acknowledge a design, and there are many, appreciate with reverence the enormity of brilliance that must somewhere exist.
There is more to design than molecules and gases and elements. There is metaphysical design, and a most unique and wonderful part of that design is time itself divided into years and seasons.....and weeks! One would need not go further than the first book in God's written Word to man....the book of Genesis in the Bible....to see the delineation of weeks into days and the importance of one of those seven days over the the other six.
God gave man six days to pursue his interests and one day to pursue his creator. Do this and those other six days will see order and productivity. Ignore the day set aside for their creator and man will reap chaos and futility in his endeavors commensurate with his knowledge verses ignorance of God and humility verses pride within himself.
It is now a little after 9 O'clock in the evening and the Penguins are probably playing in the second period of the game that I oh so badly want them to win, but I want to get this post off first. I want them to win for two reasons, one trivial but acceptable in God's sight....I'm a Penguins fan... and the other important in accordance with my own worldview and observation of the world that we live in. If the Penguins lose tonight there is another game scheduled for 8:00 in the evening three days from now.....Sunday! Most of Pittsburgh will do what it has done today, wait in intense anticipation for the game and maybe the Stanley Cup. This will have been their Lord's Day in these dangerous and seditious times. The hedge of protection that God has given in observance of the Lord's Day will have been cut down so low that a child could crawl over it. If the Penguins should win that Cup in a few hours from now, many Christians will at least have one less obstacle to God's blessings in His gift of one day in seven to man.
Note..... June 11.....The Sharks beat the Penguins and the two teams will play again Sunday. In my novella that is on the 'Isaac Crockett' link on this page, there is minor league hockey championship game played. Isaac Crockett is a big fan of the local Sharks (I chose this name 16 or 17 years ago when I wrote this short novel) His comments about the Lord's Day were well known, for he was one of the biggest names in Rock music which he left to pursue his Christian calling. Apparently many people in his home town took his defense of the Lord's Day seriously. Attendance was down and the Sharks lost the game. The following is some of the dialogue from the aftermath of the game:
Isaac Crockett.....Chapter 29:
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Sharks championship game was now history with a 3 to 2 loss to the Providence Wings. There had been a number of articles in the newspaper on Isaac's beliefs on sports and Sundays. The radio talk show had also found an audience for the topic. A rather remarkable thing happened the night of the Sharks final game, there were quite a number of empty seats in the arena. Not only was this a loss of money in receipts but the crowd noise was diminished. One sports writer opined that maybe Isaac Crockett's 'crusade' had some affect on Christians who were fans of the Sharks, and there were many. This confounded Isaac for he had only answered questions as they were asked of him and certainly did not seek publicity.
It was the Saturday after the big game and Isaac was in the bookstore building a new display......
Dave Thomas was the owner of the Sharks. He had owned the team for eight years and spent a lot of money developing it and this was the first year that the Sharks started to pay dividends. He had met Isaac on one occasion and was delighted that this rock star was such a big fan. Dave Thomas was flamboyant and outgoing but he also had a bad temper and would often get into shouting arguments with sports writers who he didn't think were giving his team a fair shake. He walked into the Law And Gospel Book Shoppe.
Isaac looked over and immediately recognized him. He was happy to see him and the attendance in the final game did not register with him.
"Hello Mr. Thomas." Isaac said extending his hand which was ignored.
"Crockett, I want to thank you for steering people away from the game!
This took Isaac by surprise. He purposely delayed his answer to give Dave Thomas a few moments to settle down. It didn't work.
"Mr. Thomas, I didn't try to influence anyone."
"Bullshit! You were all over the media telling everyone how they weren't supposed to play sports on Sunday!"
Isaac looked over to the young lady and her two children and then back.
"I never brought the subject up. I only answered questions that were asked of me."
"You're lying Crockett. I heard you with my own ears...the Lords' Day this and the Lord's Day that!"
"My belief is that Sundays are to be for the Lord. I won't deny that. It never occurred to me that anyone would even care about what I said."
"You got a million bucks in the bank and can afford to close on Sunday...and you got that money in rock and roll. Now Mr. Holy Man, your sticking it to me."
The people in the store had gathered in one section and others passing by outside stopped to see what was going on.
"There is no...crusade...on my part.... Mr. Thomas."
Anne had just put a poster from the movie Chariots Of Fire up in the front window and used her artistic talent to fashion the window with poster paint... the Olympic symbols of five intertwined gold rings. Inside she painted the five solas of the Reformation. The Olympics were coming up and Isaac had asked her to work on it but wasn't aware that she had already done it.
"There's no crusade Mr. Thomas, that's all I can tell you."
With that the Sharks owner turned and pointed to the poster.
"Yeah, well what's all this Olympic crap about a some guy who wouldn't run on Sundays?"
Isaac knew that he had a point.
"I guess that you have a point there. Maybe I was a little bit naive in thinking my thoughts wouldn't affect anyone. The Sunday issue is important to me. In fact I think that our fascination with sports on that day is one of the biggest reasons that we are collapsing as a nation, that we have lost all discernment and common sense.. but I was still surprised by your low attendance."
"And now you're going to plaster all this crap over the Boardwalk and use your name to ruin my team."
He took a step towards Isaac as his voice grew louder. Dave Thomas had played minor league hockey and was an enforcer with a reputation as a tough customer.
"Let me tell you this Mr. Crockett....you shut your mouth or I'll fill it with my fist!"
Isaac remained calm but he could see that the issue had to be addressed right then. He had to make it known that he would not compromise his beliefs. He walked over to the window and picked up the torn poster and gently reattached it to the window.
Mr. Thomas...you know that I enjoy hockey and I look forward to going to see the Sharks next year. I will tell this, I won't bring up the subject and will demand accurate reporting of any answers that I may have to give."
Thomas was not appeased at all and was incensed by his putting the poster back in the window.
He overturned the display that Isaac was working on and grabbed Isaac by the shirt.
"Not good enough Crockett!"
"Please take your hands off my shirt Mr. Thomas."
"Sure!"
With that he let go of the shirt and gave Isaac an elbow into the rib cage sending him to the floor. As Isaac tried to regain his breath Dave Thomas walked out of the store.
From the farthest heavens to the tiniest nanostructures within the atom, the design of the Creator of this universe has mystified and awed some of the greatest scientists in all of God's creation. The placing of this beautiful rotating ball in a universe of galaxies keeps even agnostic and atheist scientists of today enraptured in their search of answers to its origin. The functional magnificence of this mass of tissue within the cranium of man explores the wonder of everything from art to engineering and from invention to imagination. What the aforementioned agnostic and atheist scientists do not realize is that they are the created....examining creation....as if it merely evolved. Those scientists who do acknowledge a design, and there are many, appreciate with reverence the enormity of brilliance that must somewhere exist.
There is more to design than molecules and gases and elements. There is metaphysical design, and a most unique and wonderful part of that design is time itself divided into years and seasons.....and weeks! One would need not go further than the first book in God's written Word to man....the book of Genesis in the Bible....to see the delineation of weeks into days and the importance of one of those seven days over the the other six.
God gave man six days to pursue his interests and one day to pursue his creator. Do this and those other six days will see order and productivity. Ignore the day set aside for their creator and man will reap chaos and futility in his endeavors commensurate with his knowledge verses ignorance of God and humility verses pride within himself.
It is now a little after 9 O'clock in the evening and the Penguins are probably playing in the second period of the game that I oh so badly want them to win, but I want to get this post off first. I want them to win for two reasons, one trivial but acceptable in God's sight....I'm a Penguins fan... and the other important in accordance with my own worldview and observation of the world that we live in. If the Penguins lose tonight there is another game scheduled for 8:00 in the evening three days from now.....Sunday! Most of Pittsburgh will do what it has done today, wait in intense anticipation for the game and maybe the Stanley Cup. This will have been their Lord's Day in these dangerous and seditious times. The hedge of protection that God has given in observance of the Lord's Day will have been cut down so low that a child could crawl over it. If the Penguins should win that Cup in a few hours from now, many Christians will at least have one less obstacle to God's blessings in His gift of one day in seven to man.
Note..... June 11.....The Sharks beat the Penguins and the two teams will play again Sunday. In my novella that is on the 'Isaac Crockett' link on this page, there is minor league hockey championship game played. Isaac Crockett is a big fan of the local Sharks (I chose this name 16 or 17 years ago when I wrote this short novel) His comments about the Lord's Day were well known, for he was one of the biggest names in Rock music which he left to pursue his Christian calling. Apparently many people in his home town took his defense of the Lord's Day seriously. Attendance was down and the Sharks lost the game. The following is some of the dialogue from the aftermath of the game:
Isaac Crockett.....Chapter 29:
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The Sharks championship game was now history with a 3 to 2 loss to the Providence Wings. There had been a number of articles in the newspaper on Isaac's beliefs on sports and Sundays. The radio talk show had also found an audience for the topic. A rather remarkable thing happened the night of the Sharks final game, there were quite a number of empty seats in the arena. Not only was this a loss of money in receipts but the crowd noise was diminished. One sports writer opined that maybe Isaac Crockett's 'crusade' had some affect on Christians who were fans of the Sharks, and there were many. This confounded Isaac for he had only answered questions as they were asked of him and certainly did not seek publicity.
It was the Saturday after the big game and Isaac was in the bookstore building a new display......
Dave Thomas was the owner of the Sharks. He had owned the team for eight years and spent a lot of money developing it and this was the first year that the Sharks started to pay dividends. He had met Isaac on one occasion and was delighted that this rock star was such a big fan. Dave Thomas was flamboyant and outgoing but he also had a bad temper and would often get into shouting arguments with sports writers who he didn't think were giving his team a fair shake. He walked into the Law And Gospel Book Shoppe.
Isaac looked over and immediately recognized him. He was happy to see him and the attendance in the final game did not register with him.
"Hello Mr. Thomas." Isaac said extending his hand which was ignored.
"Crockett, I want to thank you for steering people away from the game!
This took Isaac by surprise. He purposely delayed his answer to give Dave Thomas a few moments to settle down. It didn't work.
"Mr. Thomas, I didn't try to influence anyone."
"Bullshit! You were all over the media telling everyone how they weren't supposed to play sports on Sunday!"
Isaac looked over to the young lady and her two children and then back.
"I never brought the subject up. I only answered questions that were asked of me."
"You're lying Crockett. I heard you with my own ears...the Lords' Day this and the Lord's Day that!"
"My belief is that Sundays are to be for the Lord. I won't deny that. It never occurred to me that anyone would even care about what I said."
"You got a million bucks in the bank and can afford to close on Sunday...and you got that money in rock and roll. Now Mr. Holy Man, your sticking it to me."
The people in the store had gathered in one section and others passing by outside stopped to see what was going on.
"There is no...crusade...on my part.... Mr. Thomas."
Anne had just put a poster from the movie Chariots Of Fire up in the front window and used her artistic talent to fashion the window with poster paint... the Olympic symbols of five intertwined gold rings. Inside she painted the five solas of the Reformation. The Olympics were coming up and Isaac had asked her to work on it but wasn't aware that she had already done it.
"There's no crusade Mr. Thomas, that's all I can tell you."
With that the Sharks owner turned and pointed to the poster.
"Yeah, well what's all this Olympic crap about a some guy who wouldn't run on Sundays?"
Isaac knew that he had a point.
"I guess that you have a point there. Maybe I was a little bit naive in thinking my thoughts wouldn't affect anyone. The Sunday issue is important to me. In fact I think that our fascination with sports on that day is one of the biggest reasons that we are collapsing as a nation, that we have lost all discernment and common sense.. but I was still surprised by your low attendance."
"And now you're going to plaster all this crap over the Boardwalk and use your name to ruin my team."
He took a step towards Isaac as his voice grew louder. Dave Thomas had played minor league hockey and was an enforcer with a reputation as a tough customer.
"Let me tell you this Mr. Crockett....you shut your mouth or I'll fill it with my fist!"
Isaac remained calm but he could see that the issue had to be addressed right then. He had to make it known that he would not compromise his beliefs. He walked over to the window and picked up the torn poster and gently reattached it to the window.
Mr. Thomas...you know that I enjoy hockey and I look forward to going to see the Sharks next year. I will tell this, I won't bring up the subject and will demand accurate reporting of any answers that I may have to give."
Thomas was not appeased at all and was incensed by his putting the poster back in the window.
He overturned the display that Isaac was working on and grabbed Isaac by the shirt.
"Not good enough Crockett!"
"Please take your hands off my shirt Mr. Thomas."
"Sure!"
With that he let go of the shirt and gave Isaac an elbow into the rib cage sending him to the floor. As Isaac tried to regain his breath Dave Thomas walked out of the store.
