… preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching (2 Timothy 4:2, ESV)
I’d love to know just how intentional broadcaster and writer Ken Brown was with his words. He is a professional after all. So there’s reason to wonder with a statement like this: “If you do end up in Hell, you might be there for a while.”
You’ll never be good at confronting the difficulty of a bunker if you never go there.No matter how he said it, the context of Brown’s words was set in discussion of the infamous large bunker on the fourteenth hole at St. Andrews. Any second meaning is something you and I might add.
This rests in due course, however, with the studies we have been undertaking lately, where we have recognized in the plain words of Scripture some intentional metaphorical applications to the world we live in—a world created by the same God who gave us the words on the pages of our Bible. Today we consider sand.
In the Old Testament, we come across several references to sand on the seashore likened to innumerable quantities, in the same way we might also speak of the stars in sky. In one of these instances, we read this: “And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured” (Genesis 41:49). Eventually, counting grains of sand becomes a wasteful, even futile, effort. Certainly this would be true for a golfer, whose purpose once in a bunker is to get the ball out, not to linger and explore the intricacies of the grains beneath her feet. You don’t want this to be like Hell, where you are there “for a while.”
The best way to prepare for a trip to golf’s sandy obstacles, however, is to practice. You’ll never be good at confronting the difficulty of a bunker if you never go there. In fact, tour professionals are so well-practiced that, finding bunkers to be more consistent than the rough around the greens, they will commonly aim for the bunkers when it is their best option.
So what about our state of preparation? Are we ready for the challenges that come our way? This doesn’t mean that we are good at unearthing arcane details. It means, often, that we are ready to converse. We must talk with ourselves, as it were, speaking gospel truths into our hearts and minds when the enemy would have us think otherwise. And we must talk to others, answering their questions about Jesus and explaining what it really means to follow him.
—
Jeff Hopper
November 18, 2016
Copyright 2016 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
OTHER DEVOTIONS IN THIS SERIES
Real World God 1: Introduction
Real World God 2: The Nature of Grass
Real World God 3: Trees & the Kingdom
Real World God 5: Rocks in the Way
Real World God 6: Mixed Messages
Real World God 7: Time with the Lord