Encouraging News from World of Baseball
Absent the coronavirus suddenly canceling spring training two weeks ago, today would have marked the start of the 2020 major league baseball season.
It remains to be seen whether it will get going by mid-May. But whenever it does, I won’t be among those enthusiastically awaiting the event.
It took years, but a combination of stratospheric salaries and various scandals helped dim my youthful fascination with the sport.
The latest disgrace involving teams using high-tech methods to steal signals from their opponent made me shake my head.
No longer can Major League Baseball insist Pete Rose be kept out of the Hall of Fame for gambling when worse things have been going on the past 30 years.
Major League Reader
Despite this bad news, a friend recently tipped me off to a very encouraging story: veteran St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright launching a one-year Bible reading emphasis via his Twitter account.
About six weeks after Wainwright announced his plan, 13,000 fans had signaled their intentions to follow along—participation more meaningful in the new era of no church services.
I’m not necessarily a fan of one-year reading plans, having completed half a dozen in the past.
Too often the exercise turned into more of a desire to check off the day’s boxes than really comprehending what I had just read.
I told the friend who informed me of Wainwright’s plan that one year wasn’t enough time—it should be more like three years.
Which is when he tapped his phone and brought up an example of a three-year plan. When I searched later online, I found this one and another.
There are more. Ligonier Ministries offers a plethora of plans.
Among the options are a one-year plan, an historical plan, an in-depth study of Matthew, a two-year plan, and one that includes two daily readings from the Old Testament and the New.
Living the Truth
The point of any plan isn’t to complete it so you can boast about your accomplishment or amass more knowledge than the church member in the next pew (or home group).
It’s to chew on God’s Word, digest its truths, and allow the Lord to speak to you.
As Hebrews 4:12 says of Scripture: “For the word of God is alive, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart” (MEV).
My wife and I find the lessons in Explore the Bible, a series offered by LifeWay Christian Resources, especially enlightening for Bible study.
Since we started using it for morning devotions about 18 months ago, it has prompted us to dig into Scripture more diligently, reflect on its truths, and look at the Word in ways we hadn’t before.
Approved by God
Second Timothy 2:15 includes Paul’s instruction to his protégé, Timothy, to “show yourself approved by God, a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
It is this truth that is so badly needed in our modern, relativistic society where so many reject the idea that truth even exists.
So, no matter what plan you follow, keep on reading, studying, and living out its concepts.
