“You may worship no other god than me. ‘You shall not make yourselves any idols: no images of animals, birds, or fish.You must never bow or worship it in any way; for I, the Lord your God, am very possessive. I will not share your affection with any other god!’” (Exodus 20:3-5a The Living Bible)
Time seems to pass quickly, doesn’t it? The summer and fall seasons are being replaced by the winter season, which seems to be arriving earlier than the typical calendar date used to signify the start of winter. College football is still going on, but already college basketball has begun, and the latter will not end until the month of March 2025. That’s when hoop fans across the world start filling out their brackets for what we know as March Madness, trying to figure out who is going to come out as the real number one, the real champion.
March Madness is a few months out, but looking at it from a believer perspective, versus a basketball perspective, know that it is not too early to fill out your personal bracket, and honestly see who your champion is. We are actually going to do this in our men’s Sunday School class at the church I pastor when March comes around. The objective is for each participant, guided by personal integrity and adhering to the principle of being truthful, is to see if they already have a true champion, God, as He well should be. Really, He should win every round in your bracket.
This “Believer’s March Madness” exercise should be done by everyone, men and women, because we all need to look at how we as individuals choose between our options: the false gods of our times and the true and living God. Yes, we have to be honest and see who wins the various contests, contests which should each really be “no-contest,” when we are faced with choosing anything or anyone over God at any time during this season called “life.” God should come out on top, really! Year after year, and really day after day in each year we are blessed to see, God should come out on top!
Now, just in case someone says there are no false gods in our time and in case someone argues that there are no idols that God’s people might opt to pick in their personal bracket confrontations or decision-making, let me get some help from Mark Creech who contributed an article to Christian Post Voices.
Mr. Creech has this to say. “Idolatry in its larger meaning is properly understood as any substitution of what is created for the Creator. People may worship nature, money, mankind, power, history, or social and political systems instead of the God who created them all. The New Testament writers, in particular, recognized that the relationship need not be explicitly one of cultic worship; a man can place anyone or anything at the top of his pyramid of values, and that is ultimately what he serves. The ultimacy of that service profoundly affects the way he lives. When the society around him also turns away from God to idols, it is an idolatrous society and therefore is heading for destruction.” Strong words, but I strongly agree. As a matter of fact, those who even say that God is the head of their life and do not have “Don’t forsake the assembly of the saints” coming out as one of their winners in one all of their Sunday portion of their “brackets, “those individuals need to question the reasoning behind their choices. Look! I am not judging, just pointing out how people are doing when a God first mentality is pitted against many other things and persons.
Well, I can’t wait to do this exercise in Sunday School. Yet, you can go ahead and make you a 24, 32, or 64 contest bracket sheet today and see if you are in compliance with the commandment above, in the opening verse. It is still applicable.
March Madness, from a basketball perspective is a few months ahead and you can fill your brackets out once you see how teams do during the course of the regular season. But when it comes to filling out your brackets from a spiritual perspective, you should sit down and do it now.
My friend, do some kingdom work and pass this on to some basketball fans that you know! By the way, make sure you include the passage below, referred to as “Theology in a Nutshell.” It will be of beneficial in filling out your “brackets.” Be blessed!
“The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it? God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged, and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:24-31 The Message Bible)
Committed to the climb,
Mark L. King
Functional and Profitable Truth. 👍👑