FLAG ON THE PLAY | Frank Becker

Week Forty-Nine, 2024

Lift up a banner in the land. Blow the trumpet among the nations. Prepare the nations for battle. Jeremiah 51:27

During football games at all levels, things go on at the bottom of the pile of players that go unseen by the referees. It is not unusual for players to get a shot or two in at an opposing player during a scramble for a loose ball. It is also common, if the foul is officially observed, that the targeted player retaliates – and draws a flag, followed by a personal foul penalty.

Yellow laundry on the field. Personal foul. Unsportsmanlike conduct. Fifteen yards and an automatic first down! In life, we can get flags and not always fairly and often from the flag thrower not in position to judge.

Life is like that. We get flags through spam and scam and generally in the commercial world. But sometimes the flags are entirely valid. We, yes even though those who love the Lord are sinners and sometimes we get caught.

God throws flags on our plays in life. The Lord sees everything you do, and He watches where you go. An evil man will be caught in his wicked ways; the ropes of his sins will tie him up. He will die because he does not control himself, and he will be held captive by his foolishness.

The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. The Lord is watching everywhere, keeping his eye on both the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3 God doesn’t miss a thing – he’s alert to good and evil alike.

Flags can also be used to exalt the Lord or celebrate revival, in the church and in our hearts as well. There are many ways that God can use your gifts and talents to convey messages to His people. As you minister with flags, you are declaring to the body of Christ that the Lord Is Our Banner. Our flags identify us as His children, His messengers, His servants, His Salt, His Light and His beacons on earth.

Which kind of heavenly flags are you drawing?

Sometimes True Stories

“You heard Me tell you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming back to you.'” John 14:28

You go to the local pound, and you find a cute little dog to rescue. You bring it home and it looks at you with such love because you saved it from a probable death. You are its master and it knows that you will love it; you will provide it with all the physical and emotional needs it has. When you leave, you say you will be right back. But it doesn’t know when, and will wait in anticipation by the window or door knowing you will come. When you do, it is filled with overwhelming, tail wagging joy.

As a Christian, you have a Master, who is Jesus, who has rescued you and saved you from a certain death. He is the source of all your needs…..physical, emotional and spiritual. He has left, but said He will return. You don’t know when, but will wait with anticipation. When He returns, and He will, you will be filled with overwhelming joy, because then you will be with Him forever.

Wait for Jesus like your dog. Rich Jensen

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WORDS OF WISDOM: EDGAR APONTE

You cannot earn your way to heaven because you don’t deserve to be there no matter what you do to get there.

The Bible is not an appetizer. It is the main meal, not a diving board but the pool we swim in daily.

The way you enter the Christian life is the same way you continue in the Christian life — by grace through faith.

Resist the natural tendency toward self-justification. Rejoice in the gift of salvation.

Salvation was by faith then, and salvation is still by faith now.

Trust in Jesus!

Quotes You Can Use

Transparency is a requirement of good government. Michael Smith

Understanding contrast and contradiction, seeing an overweight man walking proudly home with a loaf of bread in both arms. Dwight Short

Jesus was not, and is not, against wealth or stuff in and of itself—unless it becomes our god. Marty Stubblefield

God is like a Potter and created His children as Vessels to serve Him. And seniors are those of them whom He passed through the furnace and baked to last as long as He wanted them to be used. Unless baked, the earthen vessels God created for His honor, would not last. And we all are the work of His hand. Stephen Bernard

Give all the power to the many, they will oppress the few. Give all the power to the few, they will oppress the many. Alexander Hamilton

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking. George S. Patton

Freedom in Christ comes only as a gift through faith and never as an achievement. Edgar Aponte

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9

Justification is by faith alone in Christ alone. Andrew Evans

Christianity is not a religion of works but a relationship of love through adoption in Jesus. Live out your identity as a child of God. Edgar Aponte

There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. Ernest Hemingway

Now more than ever, men and women are re-evaluating their lives and their priorities.

Now more than ever, perhaps more than ever before, people in our nation and in our world are searching for answers…searching to fill the hole in their hearts… and the void in their lives.

Those who choose not to know are slaves to those who do. Michael Smith.

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