Do not expect...

Went into the lion's den yesterday...
watching the match on the grounds of the opposition camp
all for a bachelor night...for a brother...
It brought many insights...

"It is at the borders of pain and suffering

that the men are separated from the boys"

Emil Zatopek

1.
It is scary how "religious" the whole thing felt...
From the singing of club songs,
to the chants and cheers of fans,
like they were encouraging a speaker...

Except for the crass jokes and vulgarities...of course,
and the vehemence and insults spewed...
those were things you do not expect grown men to do,
but...there it was...on full display...
passion that is overboard, fully capable of turning into violence
Is this what a pagan place of worship would look like?

I just read Romans 1:18 to the end of the chapter in The Message version,
and in it was one of the grimmest pictures of sin i've ever read...
And the title of the passage was...

Ignoring God Leads to a Downward Spiral 

18-23 But God's angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing 

and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. 

But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! 

By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, 

people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can't see: 

eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. 

So nobody has a good excuse. 

What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, 

but when they didn't treat him like God, refusing to worship him, 

they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion 

so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. 

They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. 

They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands 

for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand. 

 24-25 So God said, in effect, "If that's what you want, that's what you get." 

It wasn't long before they were living in a pigpen, 

smeared with filth, filthy inside and out. 

And all this because they traded the true God for a fake god, 

and worshiped the god they made instead of the God who made them—

the God we bless, the God who blesses us. Oh, yes! 

 26-27 Worse followed. 

Refusing to know God, they soon didn't know how to be human either—

women didn't know how to be women, men didn't know how to be men. 

Sexually confused, they abused and defiled one another, 

women with women, men with men—all lust, no love. 

And then they paid for it, oh, how they paid for it—

emptied of God and love, godless and loveless wretches. 

 28-32 Since they didn't bother to acknowledge God, 

God quit bothering them and let them run loose. 

And then all hell broke loose: rampant evil, grabbing and grasping, vicious backstabbing. 

They made life hell on earth with their envy, wanton killing, bickering, and cheating. 

Look at them: mean-spirited, venomous, fork-tongued God-bashers. 

Bullies, swaggerers, insufferable windbags! 

They keep inventing new ways of wrecking lives. 

They ditch their parents when they get in the way. 

Stupid, slimy, cruel, cold-blooded. 

And it's not as if they don't know better. 

They know perfectly well they're spitting in God's face. 

And they don't care—worse, 

they hand out prizes to those who do the worst things best! 

Romans 1:18-32

2.
The amount of beer flowing around us,
and the amount of cash being floated was...stunning
If...for a night of entertainment, people are forking out hundreds,
then why are we complaining so much about little things?

The distinction is clear actually...
When we see it as OUR pleasure, OUR luxury,
we fight feverishly to defend the expenditure,
when we see it as a common fund or other people's money,
the ugly tendency to want to benefit from it or to get it arises

We pay tons for entertainment each year,
failing to see it for the luxury that it is...
We call it a blessing and indulge in it like we own it all,
And that word indulge, suddenly brings terrible connotations.

There were thing called "indulgences" in the early catholic church,
where people could PAY for remission of sins! Such blasphemy!
Imagine that...And yet people did it...because the priests encouraged it!
And in so doing, compounding the error of their ways...
Where were those who were supposed to speak up?
They were asleep, dead, or participating in this fraud...gosh

Lord, Please don't allow us to be asleep, dead or even worse today...

3.
This whole racism thing between Sua*ez & E*ra...it is so out of hand.
I'm not going to talk about who was right or wrong...
Or the legality or rights of each individual involved,
but i feel that there are some things to learn in all of these...

Even before these incidences...please look at the character of the individuals

E*ra is no angel, he is part of a whole French team that walked off...
but that was a display of unity against a single manager...
And in it, there was wholesale punishment, but he took it,
accepted the blame and moved on from there...

And for Sua*ez, please stop defending him like he is an angel...
I know you are die hard, fervant fans...yet...just google that name...
Luis Sua*ez, and on his own wiki page you will see his behaviour...

i) Suspended for fighting with a TEAMMATE and amassing 7 yellow cards
ii) Bit an opponent's shoulder, hereby gaining the nickname "Cannibal of A*ax"
and suspended for 7 games...
iii) And then in the World Cup, the world's biggest stage...
He stopped a sure goal with his hands, thereby being sent off,
and then he celebrated wildly when the other team missed the penalty

Please...judge a person on his character, not on the ability of their play
All of those things mentioned above are serious character flaws,
but in sport, we choose to celebrate him because he can score goals?
We choose to defend him because he plays for this particular team?
Winning at any cost, cannot be a high and noble ambition.

"...Competitive drive can drive you over the edge...

the will to win, minus the integrity will take you into danger...

the list of means by which humans cheat never ends.

Where there is ingenuity minus honesty, anything goes"

~Sir Steve Redgrave~ 
5 time Olympic Gold Medallist

'Pool should understand that it is making the situation worse,
by defending instead of disciplining, & taking a soft line
they are making a situation more volatile instead of helping
...when the manager uses the excuse "I didn't see it..." multiple times
it is blameshifting of the highest and most irresponsible order
you set the tone Sir, and you just gave everyone a lame means of excuse..

Character, values, sin, dignity, sportsmanship, lies, humility, arrogance,
they are all so convoluted and so complicated because we have the wrong role models
When we prize anything, we take on their characteristics...
And in this case, when we take on the wrong role models,
we are building the wrong values...completely, utterly wrong...

I was shocked to see how many times we are called names by God,
and one of the ones that keeps repeating...throughout history is...
we are a crooked, wicked, depraved generation...
And until we see that, we fail to see our need for God.

10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, 

but the wicked will continue to be wicked. 

None of the wicked will understand, 

but those who are wise will understand.

Daniel 12:10

Will the wise men with voices, raise up? ="(

4.
I was pretty stunned to hear it so clearly...
And yes, this was what came through...
"Do not expect any thanks..."

And harsh though it may seem...
I think that this is what will happen...sadly

It has always been the case,
those vilified, have no one to stand for them,
much less speak up for them...
so...they stand alone...with God...
and that...just...has...to be enough...sadly

Do the hard, but the right thing...always

"When Jesus is all you have,

you discover...He's all you need"

Paraphase of Joni Eareckson Tada

you (us, sinful people) no sooner killed the Author of Life 

than God raised him from the dead

—and we're the witnesses.

Acts 3:15 (The Message)