Your Compass In The Game (Of Life)

I really liked this devotional I read today, so I thought I’d reprint it here…



Continue In The Spirit

Scripture Reading: Colossians 2:16-23 –
Therefore, let no one sit in judgement on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath. Such things are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality – the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it – belongs to Christ. Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting of self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions (he claims) he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit, and not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world’s crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? – Why do you submit to rules and regulations? (Such as) do not handle (this), do not taste (that), do not even touch (them), referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines. Such practices have indeed the outward appearance that popularly passes for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh – the lower nature. Instead, they do not honour God, but serve only to indulge the flesh.

Key Verse: Colossians 3:3 –
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect in the flesh?


The tackler could see it coming – a fullback carrying the football loosely at his side. A sudden turn and the tackler lunged after the ball. It popped loose and spiraled toward the ground.

He started to dive on the ball, but it bounded just high enough for him to pick it up and run. Breaking free from the other players, he started running down the football field as fast as he could run.

The crowd was shouting wildly as he crossed the goal line and pounded the ball proudly in the dirt. It was the first touchdown of his high school career – and perhaps his last – he had run into the wrong end zone.

We often have the right goal in mind spiritually when tackling the Christian faith but wind up in the wrong end zone. The Colossian believers had a sincere desire to serve God. However, they had become entangled in legalism and were imposing unrealistic demands on young believers. They had also begun judging actions of others.

The moment you think you have it together enough to judge another person is the moment you run into the wrong end zone. Paul described legalism as bondage. Don’t get caught up in it. Instead, “stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made you free” (Galatians 5:1).

Father, I have begun with You. Now keep me headed the right direction. I don’t want to wind up in the wrong end zone.




Just yesterday I blogged about how feelings and the heart can lead you into bondage. How what you want to believe can keep you from hearing what God was saying. There are similarities between this, and the football player analogy, the young man who heard the crowd roaring but never realized the noise was because he was running the wrong direction.

Legalism is bondage. Faith can be bondage too, if handled incorrectly. You have to check your faith (what you are believing in and believing for) with your legalism; you have to go to the Book and make sure that what you are believing lines up with God’s Word, completely lines up with it. If it doesn’t…stop, put your head up (and your knees down!), and seek to fully understand which way you are actually headed before taking another step in the wrong direction…



Today is going to be a good day.

God goes before me. God is my blocker, clearing my way down the field and keeping me going in the correct direction; He will see me all the way to the correct end zone.

Truthfully, feels like i have been playing a long time without scoring...it'll be nice to put some points on the board!