February 7, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, February 7.
Super Bowl LIX is just two days away! Do you remember your Roman numerals? (59). You don’t see them as often as you used to. My grandfather had a clock with them on it. In the old days the copyright dates for books and movies and songs were always in Roman numerals - but not anymore. Today, we use them for headings in outlines. Our Bibles use them to designate repeated books - II Kings, III John. And then, for some strange reason, there’s the Super Bowl.
Speaking of numbers, the Big Game will bring in something over a billion dollars in revenue. And it not only makes a lot of money, it costs a lot, too. Just to outfit a single player - uniform, pads, gloves, shoes, helmets - runs over $2000. But that’s money well spent. Football is a brutal, violent game, and the players need every bit of protection they can get.
Imagine if you will, when the clock strikes 5:30 on Sunday (a Roman numeral clock!), that the 22 players would run out on that New Orleans Superdome field. . . dressed only in shorts and t-shirts. Talk about a bloodbath! The trophy might have to be presented to the last man standing. Football players are famous for their toughness, but they realize, to a man, the importance of their protection, their armor. They would be foolish to play without it. But how often are we guilty of entering the field of battle - this dark world - without the armor of God? The Apostle Paul, in Ephesians 6, puts it like this.
Stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
When we live our lives without the armor of God, is it any surprise that we often end up on the sidelines, battered and bruised, wounded and discouraged. Sunday night’s Super Bowl - with all its money and history and hype - in the end, is just a game. But on Monday morning, you and I... go out to battle.
Meet you back here on Monday,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
