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Isaiah 5:20-21 “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!”

Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.”

I Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: nether can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

With us deep into the NCAA college football playoff, the next two posts are going to feed off that energy to share some recent football metaphors and illustrations. Enjoy!

Most of you probably don’t know the name Trent Eaton. Yet, there is a very good chance that you’ve seen a video of him that went viral three months ago at an Oklahoma State football game against Houston. In the midst of another dismal loss, Trent’s sister offered him $10 to go over to an empty section of the stadium, take off his shirt, and wave it over his head. Needing the money and appreciating the challenge, he did!

A few minutes later, a few others randomly joined him. Several minutes later, the entire section with filled with hundreds of boys and men doing the exact same thing. Though they lost that game 39 – 17, and didn’t win another football game for the rest of the season, it was a viral moment. In the end, they may have broken a record for the most shirtless guys in one section of a football stadium and they launched a cultural phenomenon.

A large number of people followed Trent, even though there was no real reason to do so. He wasn’t attractive nor loud; he wasn’t gregarious nor charismatic. It just became the thing to do, and people mindlessly followed him.

In this case, it was a harmless way to turn a looming football loss into a bit of fun and frivolity. But, it’s a stark reminder that we must be careful in following the cultural trends that are all around us, especially in a society that has flip-flopped good and evil, light and darkness, bitter and sweet.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO BE EAGER TO FOLLOW CHRIST AND CAUTIOUS AND DISCERNING BEFORE FOLLOWING ANYTHING FROM THE WORLD AROUND US. There are plenty who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight. Yet, we must carefully examine them to decide if they are right, and good, and godly before we join them in any previously empty section of a stadium.

Haggai 1:2-7 “Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD’s house should be built. Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.”

Matthew 6:19-21 “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

In Haggai’s day, God’s people were too interested in other things to finish God’s work. They claimed that it was not yet time to be faithful. They were busy making themselves comfortable instead of making God’s work complete. As a result, their hard work lacked results. It was as if they were trying to fill a bag with holes.

In this New Year and during the year of our nation’s semiquincentennial, where are we too interested in other things to finish God’s work? Where are we too busy making ourselves comfortable instead of making God’s work complete? Meanwhile, why should we wonder why our hard work lacks results? It’s as if we are trying to fill a bag with holes.

The Lord brackets Haggai 1:6 with the same admonition – “Consider your ways.” He would likely admonish us with the same. We have been busy seeking our own prosperity, our own security, and our own stability. Meanwhile, we have less prosperity, security, and stability than we had in the past. We have been filling a bag with holes.

PLEASE PRAY THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS IN 2026 WOULD FOCUS ON GOD, HIS WAYS, HIS WILL, AND HIS WORKS. This year and always, we must carefully consider our ways, and align them with God’s ways. If we do, then we should see results instead of regrets.

Exodus 6:5-6 “And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant. Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments”

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

It is said that conviction from Exodus 6 provided the compelling moral justification that prompted President Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. Like the nation’s Founders a century before, Lincoln may have seen the escape of the Israelites from the bonds of Egyptian slavery as an analogy to America’s journey towards the Promised Land of liberty. It is a journey we are still on today as we enter the year of our nation’s 250^th birthday and as we collectively strive toward the loftiest of goals – to “form a more perfect union.”

The Emancipation Proclamation, in part, stated the following:

“That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.”

In an instant as the calendar turned to 1863, up to four million image-bearers of the Lord our God, who had been denied the liberty that they had deserved as a part of God’s creation, were declared permanently and forever free. It was a freedom to be maintained by the full power of the federal government. Yet, the ultimate moral justification for such a claim comes from a power far greater than that – a God who declares that we are all created in His image (Genesis 1:27).

Such a claim is amplified through another powerful, revolutionary, and righteous proclamation in His Word and through His Son. At the moment we accept Christ as our Saviour, we are reconciled to Him and made permanently and forever free. Once we embrace that freedom, it is recognized and maintained by the full power of an amazing Lord.

PLEASE PRAY THAT IN THIS YEAR OF CELEBRATION FOR OUR GREAT NATION, THAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS WOULD AMPLIFY THE TRUTHS OF THE ULTIMATE EMANCIPATION. We are redeemed and made forever free by the power of his stretched-out arm and great judgment. 

Romans 8:18 “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Psalm 121:1-2 “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.”

Billy Mitchell was the “dominant figure in American aviation” from 1919 to 1926. His advocacy for air power, though far beyond the capabilities of the time, would be a natural fit for the headlines of our current day. Decades before 1941, he foresaw the Japanese air attack on the American Navy. He also predicted the emergence of worldwide air transportation, commercial space travel, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial systems. His foresight was legendary.

In many ways, his enduring success was due to his intentionality in thinking about the future.

On December 17^th, 1925, Mitchell was convicted by court martial for his radical thoughts and unorthodox methods of trying to capture the attention of a world that didn’t understand the urgency to properly invest in new aviation capabilities. In the authoring of a manuscript around this time, his editors and publishers recommend that he back off from his more extreme concepts. His response – he wanted his writings to be read and relevant “a hundred years hence.” They are!

Far too often, Christians get stuck in the myopic mindset of the today and the here-and-now. We lament our sorry situations without a perspective that includes longevity. We don’t consider the outcomes that could arise from our current conditions a month from now, let alone a century from now. We certainly fall short in properly considering the eternal ramifications of our daily activities and the right alignment of our priorities. God wants us to lift up our eyes and expand our perspectives.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO EXPAND OUR PERSPECTIVES TO BETTER THINK IN TERMS OF ETERNITY. May our lives reflect a viewpoint that considers a hundred years hence and beyond.

ADMIN: The quotes above come from “Billy Mitchell: Crusader for Air Power” by Alfred E. Hurley. You can also see a related thought that I published this week at:

Billy Mitchell: Lessons a Hundred Years Hence

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Philippians 3:13-14 “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Matthew 22:36-40 “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

On December 17^th, 1903, lifeguard John T. Daniels took one of humanity’s most iconic photos – the world’s first flight with Orville Wright at the controls. Interestingly, Daniels had never taken a photo before. In fact, he had never even seen a camera and had only just received abbreviated instructions in its use by the Wright Brothers prior to that moment. Frankly, he got lucky and the picture ended up in focus.

We must not rely on such luck as we diligently and purposefully focus our lives. Fortunately, God provides practical and spiritual tools to create and sustain intentional focus. We are to set aside distractions and affix a gaze throughout our lives on our Lord and Saviour. We are to press towards Him in spite of those things that would divert our attention. And we are to make His clearly articulated priorities our own.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO FOCUS ON THE LORD OUR GOD WITH DUE DILIGENCE AND UNYIELDED DETERMINATION. When we do those things, we will capture something far more important than an iconic photo. We will capture a meaning and purpose in our lives that aligns with God’s plan – no luck needed!