The 1963 college football final AP poll had Pittsburgh....(Pitt).....as the number four team in the nation....with five votes cast for number one. The final UPI coaches poll had Pitt as the number three team in the nation.
Folks....most of that is from memory. I had to double-check a few things. Other than a glance at the sports section on a Monday....I no longer follow college sports....and haven't in....I don't know how many decades. There is nothing inherently evil in two teams of men battling on some field....or anyone striving for a trophy....but one need look no further than Eric Liddell to see how someone can live for a time for sport....with never a groan or a strain given without doing it for the glory of God!
Pitt did not get a bowl invitation that year. No....it had nothing to do with sanctions or recruiting violations....rather the timing of the invitations just didn't turn out right for Pitt....and there were not that many bowl games. Today there are over forty bowl games!
Where in the world am I going with this? Well I'll tell you. I'm going into the....'world'....as God's Word describes the....'world."
In 1960....the year of the Bill Mazeroski's bottom of the ninth home run that beat the Yankees in the World Series....there were eight teams in the National League. This will knock you out. In that same year the National Hockey League had only six teams....SIX TEAMS....sometimes referred to as The Original Six....and it didn't expand until 1967!
I could go on folks....and I have in similar posts over the years. Evangelicals are not going to like what I have to say about this...for today there is nothing more God and Family and Country than the World Series....or a college football game....two things....one....sports in America has turned into full-blown idolatry....fully developed idolatry! It dominates us....and has pushed God to the sidelines long ago. (as if God could be pushed anywhere?) That's point one. Not only do pastors not warn of this...but here in Pittsburgh they think that they present themselves as cool. I don't know how many times I have read such nonsense on pastor's bios such as...."And Pastor John is a big Steelers fan!" That's probably why the glory of God has never descended upon his preaching.
Point two....and this to conservatives....who spend half their time yelling Let's Go Brandon....and the other half shouting....USA USA USA....while wearing a red MAGA hat....or we evangelicals who blithely say that we just have to trust God....and go back to our pious avoidance of any examination on what the church has become....and I will include myself in this as it pertains to the message....we destroyed this country as much as any liberal Democrat....for we grabbed these sports....and entertainments....and made them our god....and turned God into a talisman....profitable only for good luck....or a cross necklace....or some kind of God Bless America rally to assuage our guilt. The Democrats may have moved the pagan statue into the public square....but we beat down all the hedges of protection that God had given to us so that paganism could roll right in.
We built this city....as the 1985 Starship song belts out! I'm as guilty as anyone if not moreso. And now we act surprised and offended at what we turned out to be. Dragging a vile demagogue in who makes a mockery of the Christian faith to somehow save us is absurd. We need to get on our knees and beg God.....plead with Him....to have mercy in what is ahead.
"Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them........For your God's have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal." Jeremiah 11:11 & 13
We might want to keep this verse in mind also....even as it pertains to seeking understanding and discernment....2 Corinthians 9:6
"But this I say. He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully."
