I saw this video recently and thought you might like to see the quick five minute story of a great American hero who happened to also be a Kansan.
I think we still raise young men in Kansas, just like this today.
(The pronunciation of the name of Father Kapaun the speaker uses in the video is correct.)
Years ago, when I was a young guy, a friend asked me if I wanted to go on vacation with him. I asked, “Where you thinking about going?” He said he was thinking about Los Angeles, just to put his feet in the Pacific Ocean. I told him yes, I was interested and a few days later off we went.
Now for me, the high point of the entire trip was the Grand Canyon. In person the Canyon is beyond description and is way more impressive than any picture. Before you start down into the Canyon there is a sign that says, “Hiking the Canyon is just the opposite of mountain climbing. When you hike uphill on a mountain you are fresh and excited and when you are tired you turn around and go downhill. Unfortunately, at the Canyon you go down into the Canyon while fresh and excited and when you are tired you turn around to go back, and then you must hike a mountain to get out of the Canyon.”
The sign also said to take plenty of water with you. Of course it was summer time and the temperature was forecasted to be over a hundred degrees that day. So we grabbed a couple of water bottles and down into the big Canyon we went. At first we thought we would go all the way to the bottom, to see the Colorado River, but decided after working our way downhill maybe we should not attempt a ten mile hike down with a ten mile hike back out. Instead we decided to go six miles in to Plateau Point and then six miles back out of the Canyon.
After we made it to Plateau Point, which is 1,300 feet above the river and a stunning view, we decided it was time to go back to the car and drive on further down the road. We had no idea how difficult the next several hours were going to be.
Like I said earlier, the temperature was well over hundred degrees. We were drinking water like crazy and the water was only available in certain places. We took nothing to eat with us and we were hungry. The trail slowly got steeper to where it felt like we were going straight up. The last part of the switchback trail is actually called, ‘Heartbreak Hill’ because you are so close, but yet so far from the top. It took hours to move up the trail. There were so many people coming into the Canyon and plenty of mule riders that you had to move to the side of the trail constantly.
When going through difficult times, around other people doing the same thing, you make friends easily with others experiencing the same thing. We made great friends with a couple of nineteen year old guys walking with us. One was a Frenchman and the other was an Israeli, who was reporting for his six months of required duty in the Israeli Army in ten days. We laughed, talked, sat by the side of the trail and we couldn’t believe how foolish all of us were for taking off down hill so unprepared, after they had warned us at the top of the Canyon.
Sin in our lives is just like hiking in the Grand Canyon. God warns us about sin. Our parents warn us about sin. The pastor or priest warns us about sin. But we want to do what we want to do and what others are doing and look at all these people going down the hill, into the Canyon, and into the sinful ways of man. The problem with sin is someday you may want to quit and then the devil has you in the bottom of this Canyon and you are going to have a difficult time getting out by yourself. Remember Jesus and call out to him even in your unbelief.
Romans 8:39 Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Several years ago, my youngest daughter was watching me as I worked out. One of the exercises I was doing that day was kipping pull-ups on a bar outside. My daughter said to me, “Dad, that bar is going to break.” I told her, “It was not going to break” and continued to do my workout. After another couple of sets of pull-ups, while at the top of a pull-up the supports holding the bar broke and I landed on my back. My daughter, ever so stoically said, “I told you Dad.” I would have answered her, most likely in anger, but I couldn’t, since I had knocked the wind out of myself!
Children see the world differently than adults. As adults we need to watch and listen to our children more. Instead of automatically thinking we know everything about everything.
Matthew 18: 1-4 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Little children depend on others for everything. God wants us to depend upon him in a simple and trusting way. People of faith rely upon God instead of themselves.
Salina Central football player Grant England takes a knee on the field after the final game of his high school career, Wichita Heights defeated Salina Central 10-7. The youngster is Salina Central Coach Mike Hall’s son.
Young people look to their parents first as role models and then at some point they also start to look at other people and try to emulate them. The young are trying to figure out who they are and who they should be like and our local high school athletes can be great role models for the youngsters in our towns.
High school football players may not know it but they are being watched closely by other people, young and old alike, to see how they will respond not only on the field but off the field in all areas and aspects of life.
Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
The Bible is filled with role models, people that we should try to follow. They were not perfect (except for Jesus) nor are we, but we could look to them for guidance.
I still like Joe Ehrmann’ talk ‘Be A Man’ it lasts fourteen minutes, you will like it. He is a great role model to follow. An NFL player that grew up to be a high school football coach and preacher.
Maybe you have never heard the title to this article before now but it should be a truth in all of our lives. No Bible, no breakfast, no Bible no bed.
Years ago when I still owned part of the Kansas Pregame magazine, I was in a high school weight room visiting with the football coach. We wanted his football team’s preseason information for our magazine, but we got to talking football and his philosophy of how to manage a team. Now this particular football coach took this team from a losing program each year to a multiple state championship.
Here is part of what he told me that day, “First of all, recruit the hallways of your school and encourage the kids to come join the team. We want lots of kids on the team but if you want to compete for a varsity spot on the team you must lift weights year round.” The coach says he tells the players right up front, “We want you on the team and you can play on the freshman team or the junior varsity team without lifting weights year round but to try to earn a varsity starting position you must lift weights year round.”
To be a football player we must have discipline or be disciplined. Webster’s dictionary says discipline is training intended to elicit a specified pattern of behavior or character and or train or develop by teaching and control.
Long before the football season starts you can ask high school football players what they want to accomplish during their football season and most of the time you will hear the comment, “We want to win a championship” whether it be league, district or state. Then you can ask the players, “What are you doing to become that champion?” Their answer usually sounds something like this, “We are lifting weights, running, playing 7 on 7, playing catch, practicing punting and kicking, studying film and the playbook.”
That is awesome that we have disciplined football players and coaches in our state. There is so much work that goes on before we actually get to the football season and the football games.
Let us compare your disciplined local football team that wants to win some kind of a championship to your local church and your own walk of faith.
What is the goal of the Christian religion? The goal is to go to heaven. So what are you doing to get to heaven? The football team is doing something practically everyday getting ready to compete for a championship. What are you doing everyday to get ready to combat Satan so that you can make it through the obstacle course called life and make it to your goal which is heaven?
Our job as a Christian going to heaven is to bring others with us. We are to recruit the hallways of our lives and encourage others to join God’s team. We are to be transformed and live our lives in such a fashion that others will want to join the team. Just like a football team that starts winning games the stands start to fill up and more kids want to join the team.
How do we become transformed as individuals? First of all you must ask Jesus to come into your life and you ask to join the team. Jesus is the coach of the Christian team and if you aren’t on the team you can’t hear the coach talk. After you join the team, then you can read the Bible and understand it. You can spend time in prayer, you fast, you meditate and you go to church whether you feel like it or not. If you want a starting position on the varsity team you do the heavy lifting year round!
The time to become a disciplined Christian is now! Dust off that Bible and start everyday to read one chapter a day no matter what. Let God transform you into the best Christian teammate possible through your daily workout with Him!
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Do you ever get bored during football season? My guess is no, the competition is coming every Friday night during the season and there is so much to do to be prepared.
Years ago I read General Norman Schwarzkopf’s book It doesn’t take a hero. Something that really stuck with me, when he was in command of an Army unit in Germany; he wanted no boredom and drift of his soldiers. He said it was easy to motivate the troops to do the physical workout each morning. He would take his unit to the wall that separated the two Germany’s and would tell them, “Men, we are the first line of defense if the Russians decide to come across this line.” The enemy was so close you could see them.
Typically in our day-to-day lives, we can’t see the enemy. We don’t see the need to read the Bible, we don’t see the need to pray, we don’t see the need to go to church on Sundays and we can’t see the enemy, so why prepare for the battle?
Lots of church going people don’t even believe in satan anyway, so why do we need to prepare for spiritual combat?
2 Corinthians 2:11 “Lest satan should take advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
The football coach studies the film of his opponent and may go watch them in person if possible. The coach does this so that hopefully nothing the opponent does is a surprise to him or his team.
The opponents of our football teams are studied in great detail, but do we do that in our own lives against the greatest enemy man kind will ever know? Do not be ignorant of satan’s ways and devices.
The enemy is close at hand. We should be preparing for combat everyday, with our own workout with God each morning or evening. The workout is not easy, that is why most folks won’t do it. It takes work to read the entire Bible, it takes work to memorize scripture and it takes work to carve out fifteen minutes of quiet time to walk and talk with God the Father. It takes work to get out of bed and get those cranky kids up, dressed and fed and to church on Sunday mornings. It takes work to go to Bible studies and Sunday school.
Just like General Norman Schwarzkopf did with his Army unit, may God open your eyes to the dangerous adversary we face each and every day.
I moved to Scott City in 4th grade. My next door neighbor was my age and had moved to Scott City two years before. We hit it off immediately and became best of friends.
We built several things together, including a tree house along the alley and the only way to get in was a fifteen foot rope climb. We built a zip line between two trees along our property line that started twenty feet up in the first tree. We also built a very sturdy fort made from old pallets and old cross arms from electrical power poles.
One day as we were building the fort my neighbor jumped off the top of the eight foot tall structure and landed on a board with a nail sticking out of it. The nail went through the bottom of his tennis shoe through his foot and then through the top of his shoe and was sticking above his foot and shoe about two inches!
When it happened, my neighbor let out the most incredible blood curdling scream. I ran up to him, realized what had happened and told him to sit down so I could pull the board off the bottom of his foot.
He instead started walking home, which was only about twenty five feet away, with the fifteen inch board and nail attached to the bottom of his foot. But with every step on that foot, he would scream again.
As kids we were in awe of what happened to my friend and every kid that heard his story of the incident was in awe also. Just to remind you the definition of awe is: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear. Awe is exactly what we felt when we thought of nails, boards and my neighbor’s situation. I have told that story hundreds of times over the years and so has my neighbor.
The lack of awe in today’s church is because of the lack of testimony by people who have experienced God. God saved you from a life of sin to be a testimony to someone else. It is like we are stepping on nails and not telling anyone about it. Can you imagine having something that traumatic happen to you, but remaining silent about it?
Have you told your story, your testimony? People are experiencing trauma all around us because satan has his yoke around their necks and he controls their lives. They are addicted to drugs, gossip, alcohol, pornography, sports, computers, knowledge and lots of other things.
Satan does his best to keep folks out of churches on Sunday and if people do go to church he wants them to get out of the church quickly and only go once a week. Why does satan not want folks at church? They can hear testimony from others who have experienced God. In my experience, the places where you hear testimony from others at church is in bible studies or Sunday school classes. It isn’t usually in Sunday morning worship services and maybe that is also why there is a lack of awe in our churches.
We need to tell our story, our testimony, not only inside the church but outside the church. God will help you to figure out where, when and how. But you must listen to the Holy Spirit and obey when the opportunity comes along.
Revelation 12:11 They triumphed over him (satan) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
I had a friend in college who had been a very good wrestler in high school, but at college his freshman year he stopped working out and started drinking lots of beer and gained a bunch of weight. When intramural wrestling came that winter he signed up and represented our fraternity house. He won a couple of matches then was pinned quickly in round three. After the match he was so angry that none of his friends could talk to him.
The next day I approached him and said, “So how you doing today?” He said, “Not quite as angry as last night but the fire is still burning.” So I asked him, “What are you going to do about that smoldering fire in your belly?” He told me, “I am not sure just yet.”
About a week later he approached me and said, “I know what I am going to do about that fire burning in my belly about losing that wrestling match.” I said, “Oh yeah, what are you going to do?” He said, “I am going to do 1,000 pushups and 1,000 sit-ups everyday for a year and next year I am going to pin that guy that beat me!”
Well every time I saw that kid after our conversation he was doing pushups and sit-ups. He broke those 1,000 pushups and 1,000 sit-ups into hours of the day and did between 70 and 100 every hour all day long for the next year. One year later he did pin that kid who had beat him and went on to win the first place t-shirt in intramurals.
Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 talks about runners running to win the perishable crown and how we should run to win the prize. It is not easy to be a champion in any sport at any level it takes real work! To be a Christian striving for the imperishable crown takes work also. Are you doing the equivalent of 1,000 pushups and 1,000 sit-ups in your daily walk with Christ?
Open your Bible and read one chapter a day. Discipline yourself that you must read one chapter a day before breakfast and or one chapter before bed at night. Personally, I started in Proverbs when I made my vow to read one chapter a day. If you are a brand new Christian you should go to Matthew after you read Proverbs and read the New Testament.
After you read one chapter think about what you just read. You will always have questions of why, how, where, when of the Bible. Let those questions lead you into prayer. Start with a quiet prayerful time of five minutes after you read your Bible.
My wrestling friend’s problem was he wanted to be a champion without the work it takes to be a champion. Once his opponent showed him his folly in thinking he got himself back on track to be the champion he really was.
Let me encourage you to be the Christian champion you were meant to be. The question is though are you ready to be that Christian champion striving for that imperishable crown with all the work that it takes?
When my two youngest girls were in grade school, I was their basketball coach in the local recreation league. One night we were working on catching a pass and quickly shooting the ball. Most of the girls were doing okay, but one girl was just struggling. She was not my daughter and her mother was at practice watching my every move.
I wasn’t sure how mom was going to take this, but I sent the rest of the team with the other coach to the other end of the gym. I did keep one other girl to be a defender. The girl who was struggling to do the drill was going to see just how quick the defense could be on you, close to the bucket.
I put the struggling girl on one side of the lane and myself and the other girl, my defender, on the other side of the lane. I told the defender, “As soon as I throw the ball across the lane, you go play defense and block her shot.”
Well that is exactly what happened. If the girl caught the ball cleanly, she would always try to dribble once before shooting. As soon as she started up with the ball to shoot it, the defender would knock it out of her hands.
After several attempts at catching and shooting, the girl was very frustrated. So I sent the defender to the other end of the gym with the rest of the team. I then asked the girl if she now understood why she must catch the ball cleanly, not dribble once, but get ready to shoot immediately. She said, “Yes.” So we started to work just on that, catching the ball to immediately shooting the ball.
Several years later during a middle school basketball game, the girl who used to struggle to do the drill in fifth grade, caught a pass about four feet from the basket and immediately shot the ball and scored. Her mother was sitting in the stands about ten feet away from me. The mom stands up and points at me and yells, “You taught my daughter that, thank you!”
Now when that girl was in fifth grade I could have given her a book on basketball and told her to read it. I could have sent her mother an email to a youtube video and told her daughter to watch it. I could have told her daughter to just practice that drill at home. But when you have direct experience at something average retention goes up to 80-90%. If you only have spoken or written communication average retention is only 5-10%. So most of you, when you come to read these devotional messages, will only remember 5-10% of it, if anything at all.
Your faith must be active. You must get involved with active learning. Jesus, at the Last Supper, washed the feet of his disciples, which was a job for a servant. When Jesus came to Peter, to wash his feet, Peter said, “Lord are you washing my feet?” Jesus said, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”
That last sentence has great meaning. When we get ready to do an experience a lot of the time we don’t get it at first, but afterwards that experience might have been the greatest single teaching moment of your life. Let me encourage you to get some experience with your faith. Get out of your own little world and reach out and be Jesus’ hands and feet in the life you are living.
Have you ever seen the football coach yell at a player because the player goes the wrong way on an offensive play? Ten guys get it right, but that one player screws up because he doesn’t know the play. The coach will usually say something like this to the player, “Have you read the playbook?”
Several years ago when I first met the new head football coach of our town, he said something that kind of shocked me. He told me he did not give the playbook to his players. He had one playbook for himself and gave each coach a copy but the players would never get one. So I asked him, “Why don’t the players get one?” His answer was, “Because they won’t read it and they won’t study it like they should so why give them one?”
Jesus saw the same thing in his day with God’s playbook. Two thousand years ago when Jesus was walking the earth the Old Testament was available to read but it sounds like not many people read or studied it much. Even if they had read it they did not know the meaning of what they were reading. (Now remember that the New Testament was not around until Jesus died on the cross and the disciples started writing the New Testament.) There are several passages in the Bible where Jesus asked the people, “Have you not read……?” So let’s get into some of those scriptures where Jesus questioned the people. All of the following are quotes of Jesus.
Matthew 22:31 says, “Have you not read what was spoken to you by God……”
Mark 12:10 says, “Have you not read this scripture…….…..”
Matthew 12:3 says, “Have you not read what David did….…..”
Matthew 19:4 says, “Have you read that he who created……….”
Matthew 22:31 says, “And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read…..”
Matthew 12:26 says, “And as for the dead being raised, have you not read….…”
Matthew 22:29 says, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor……..”
Sometime ago I wrote the story of my own conversion when I was convicted by the Holy Spirit to start reading the Bible for the first time. After the story was published, people started to approach me to tell me they really liked my story. At first I wasn’t sure how to respond to their comments, other than to say ‘Thank you.’ Saying ‘Thank you’ did not seem like the proper response. So I started to ask people, if they had ever read the Bible cover to cover?
My unscientific research of those who answered in the affirmative was less than ten percent of those who talked to me. Most folks told me they had read portions of the Bible but never read the whole thing cover to cover. Also many of them would follow that up with why they never had read the whole Bible. Does the coming up with an excuse mean that the Holy Spirit is working on them and trying to motivate them to read the whole Bible or playbook?
Go on-line and check some of this research that I have looked up but here are some of the shocking numbers on Bible reading in the United States of America from the year 2000:
Roughly 90% of Americans own a Bible with the average home having about 4 Bibles.
16% say they read the Bible daily.
21% say they read the Bible weekly.
12% say they read the Bible monthly.
41% say they rarely or never read the Bible. (We could add the other 10% of Americans that don’t own a Bible here also.)
So what kind of football team would you have if you had the same number of players reading and studying the playbook for football from the above numbers?
Now if Jesus was your football coach and you were getting ready to run a play from the playbook would Jesus be yelling at you after the play, “Have you never read the playbook?” or would Jesus be complementing you, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”