A Golf Lesson

Titus 3:5 - not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us...

I just finished reading a great golf fiction book, The Greatest Player Who Never Lived by J. Michael Veron. If you enjoy golf, this is an interesting and quick read. You can probably read the book faster than my blog! I hope this makes sense...

Near the end of the book the two main characters meet. The younger man, who has read a lot about the older man, asks him about his success in golf. One question was: How did you learn to hit (the ball) so long? The reply was: I never tried to hit it hard. That wouldn't work. The trick is to swing through the ball to a full finish. Just let the ball get in the way. ... Most of the members I would caddy for would just lash at the ball, like they were trying to punish it. I couldn't help but notice the difference.

So where am I headed with this? I mentioned the other day that knowing Jesus is something you can't work out on your own. It's sort of like the proper way to hit a golf ball. When the opportunity to receive Him is presented to you, you just swing through to a full finish. You give in and give yourself to the Lord. He is the one who has found you and has you in His sights to become an official child of God. All you need do is respond to His invitation. Lashing is not permitted! A gentle receiving is the answer.

Working hard to hopefully receive God's approval won't accomplish anything. It's the gentle receiving of Christ that matters. Those who gently open their hearts to the sometimes hard words Jesus has to convey, those who humble themselves, those who don't think more highly of themselves so as to balk at the simplicity of receiving Jesus as Lord and Savior, will receive...and go forward in life in ways unexplainable.

We need to understand the importance of knowing the difference between religion (works) and relationship with Jesus. It simply does not have anything to do with how good we are, or the work we think is necessary. It's like letting the club do all the work, letting yourself do no more than hold the club in your hands and letting the club do all the work. Think of Jesus as that club. He did all the work for us. It's only up to us to recognize what He has done and follow through. Whacking away at works in life is meaningless and does not produce a better score in the end.

This old man gave the young man a Rules of Golf book. The young man asked: What's this for? The old man replied: If your gonna play the game, you need to know the rules...you can get into a lotta trouble playing this game. Sometimes this book'll get you out better'n any club. You better know your options... God's Word can be our rules. We need to know them to understand the options...what is expected, what is truth. I'm not trying to say that reading the book gets you out of receiving Christ! Jesus may loosely be an analogy for a golf club, but you also need to know the rules, as He set them forth.

Another quote from the book went like this: One fella said...that a putt that was short couldn't fall into the hole...I never saw one that went past the hole fall in, either. We can be just short of receiving Christ, having heard His message and not taking it seriously, or we can let it slip by thinking there's always another shot at it later. Either way, we have not "holed out." We have not received what Jesus has to offer us for that final score known as eternal life.

God's love and mercy cannot be worked for. Oh, He loves us no matter what, even if we do not respond to His call. However, He will not allow one person into heaven without that relationship. The relationship seals the deal. Without the relationship, we are in a continual state of sin...and He abhors it and cannot be in it's presence. If you sense His calling, don't try so hard to ignore it. Another quote from the book states: We can't win if we don't play! There you have it. We can't win if we do not have Jesus Christ.

There were other lines in this book I could have used, but it was the second last sentence I decided to end with. The young man was wrapping up his thoughts about this old man who was a great champion although he was unknown (you'll have to read the book for the "why"). The old man lived a good life by taking a bogey circumstance in his life and answering it with a birdie...to even the score. His thought was: Some would say he finished with a course record.

Well, we can take our bogey circumstances without Christ and even the score by birdying with Christ's help! And we can finish with a course record. Take the opportunity today to meet Jesus, listen to His words, receive Him, read His Rule Book to know what is expected that we might know our eternal life is secure.

2Timothy 1:9 - who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began...

Life is a (Golf) Ball

Philippians 3:14 - I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. 

Take a golf course! You see there are nine or eighteen holes, sometimes more. But let's study just one hole. Each has several components. There is the tee box where you start. There is the fairway which is always a good place for you to end up after teeing off. There are roughs on either side of the fairway where, depending upon the length of the cut of grass, can either be an okay place or a bad lie! And there's a different terrain if you golf in Arizona!! Oh, the desert and cactus...and critters...beware.

There can be a multitude of trees or wooded areas lining the course. Sometimes streams or ponds or water features add interest and a challenge. If it's a golf community, you might encounter walls and backyards, even houses if you have a really poor a shot! Hills and valleys might crop up. And of course there are the dreaded bunkers--sand traps along the way to mess with one's mind.

At last there is the green. This is where the final target is located. It is normally a very well groomed, short cropped grass area. This doesn't always mean hitting the ball here is easy. There might be undulating hills or a slope; it might be elevated causing a ball to nicely make a shot hit the green only to roll off...even more than once. Somewhere on that green is a little hole for the ball to go in to. 

I know all about most of these particular areas...more often than some. 

I can remember as a child wondering what the great attraction was for my father who was an avid golf tournament watcher on Sunday afternoons. These guys would hit this little white ball repeatedly until it went into that little hole....and the crowd cheered.

Our relationship with Christ can be likened to a hole in golf and our life (us) is that little white ball. Let me explain!

A golfer always starts at the tee box. The first ball of the hole is driven from there. This tee box is like being first introduced to and first "teed off" in Christ. It was our starting point. The direction we go is the key issue. Which way and how far? There must be patience and endurance to get to that final goal.

Our final goal, where that little ball that is our life should up is that little hole, the target. There is a pin with a flag attached in that little hole, that we might spot the hole better and take aim. Jesus is like that pin. We keep our focus on Him to achieve the goal. All throughout our lives in Christ we are tempted by things that can take away our focus, not that the areas off the fairway are what I would call tempting. If we start in the fairway, our eyes focused on the pin, it can be considered the narrow path that we are to stay on as we walk with the Lord! He is our Way. It is the best place to spend our time but we can occasionally we veer off that path.

If we veer we are out of God's will. He tells us to walk neither to the left or right…where the roughs are, where the sand traps might be lurking, where the trees get in our way, or the bushes, streams and ponds suck up our balls, sometimes being lost forever unless we have the right tools (Holy Spirit and God's Word) to get it back into play. One bad shot and we end up having to refocus at least to get us back on the fairway to make our way more smoothly to the green.

Like I said, our life is like that ball from teeing off to getting into the little hole. There are twists and turns, there are little foxes that, if we aren't aware of them, creep in and maneuver us into less desirable situations. There are snares of the enemy, the sand traps of life, that can come against us. We need the wisdom and power (of God) to get us out of these places.

So, we make it to the green, the final place in Christ. This won't truly come in our earthly lives until we have finally run the race, or finished the hole, come to the end. No one ever achieves perfection or hitting the mark in the flesh. We try to live our lives the best we humanly can, adhering to the truth of God's Word, repenting of our mistakes, obeying the commandments and being in God's will. We will fail sometimes…and get into streams, lakes, roughs, sand. But somehow we manage to get out, whether we think carefully the best way to get ourselves out of these precarious situations and refocusing on the target, or we pick ourselves up, taking a penalty stroke, and put ourselves in a place where we are in play again, also being focused on Jesus, our Mark, our Target.

If we are in Christ, we get to the hole eventually, by God's grace given to those who call on the name of the Lord to be saved. We achieve some sort of score on the hole. The fact that we made it there is what is important. Remember that cheering crowd I mentioned? There is rejoicing in heaven for us too. Some might get there with a better score than others…depends on where you are throughout life, those situations, those choices you make, those upsets, those traps. Although all the shots to get us there may not have been perfect, we got there just the same. We hear well done, good and faithful servant. Our patience and perseverance paid off. And, oh, how grateful we are!

Revelation 3:21, 21:7 - To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son.