TODAY: I WANT TO JUST UTILIZE “SPORTS” TO SHOWCASE “FAITH”! (©MAKE-IT, TAKE-IT; The Football Game of LIFE AND ©MAKE-IT, TAKE-IT; The Football Game of LIFE; I/WE OWN THESE “COPYRIGHTS” AND I WANT TO USE THEM TO EXPLAIN/SHOWCASE “FAITH”)=James 2:14-26
New King James Version
Faith Without Works Is Dead
14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without [a]your works, and I will show you my faith by [b]my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is [c]dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made [d]perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was [e]accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.
25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?
26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
WHEN I CREATED AND “COPYRIGHTED” THESE VERY POTENTIALLY GREAT “BOARD GAMES AND VIDEO GAMES”=PLEASE ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ALL HOW “FAITH” AND “SPORTS” TEACH/EDUCATE ABOUT “LIFE & THE SPIRITUAL REALMS”!!
I HAD A VERY “FAMOUS COUSIN”=NAMED “MARVIN REECE”, WHO HELPED TEACH/TRAIN ME, ABOUT “BASKETBALL & FAITH”=BUT, THAT ALSO GOES FOR FOOTBALL, TOO!!!
“THE VERY SHORTENED LIFE & THE DEATH OF THE LEGEND”=©M.A.R.V.I.N. THE REECE OF (marvin reece harlem stars) HE was called, by LIBERTY-EYLAU HS Coach Paul Huddleston, Argubly the “GREATEST RECEIVER” AND “BASKETBALL PLAYER” TO EVER PLAY FOR THE “LIBERTY-EYLAU LEOPARDS” AND THE CITY OF “TEXARKANA, TEXAS” AND POSSIBLY EVEN THE “STATE OF TEXAS”??!!!
AS A “tiny/little” boy, MY FAMOUS COUSIN (MARVIN) USED TO PLAY WITH ME/US, AND teach “U.S.”, the “FAITH GAME OF BASKETBALL”, IN THE BACK YARD, BEHIND THEIR HOUSE, DURING His “Stop-Overs” from Playing with “The HARLEM STARS”/’ALL STARS”!!
MY GREAT COUSIN WAS A “HUMAN CREATURE” OF BEAUTY, AND GRACEFULNESS, WHENEVER HE WOULD “SHOOT” OR “DUNK” OR “TWIRL THE BASKETBALL UPON HIS GIGANTIC HANDS AND FINGERS” AND PRACTICE “BASKETBALL TRICKS”=”MANN, HOW COULD HE DO THOSE THINGS???”
HE TOLD ME “FAITH”=HE JUST REASONED WITHIN HIMSELF TO DO THEM AND HE DID THEM!!!
IT TOOK ME SOME TIME TO REALLY GROW UP AND UNDERSTAND WHAT HE MEANT…
ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN; BY THE TIME, I WAS IN THE 6TH GRADE AND desegregation, TRANSFORMED/TRANSPORTED “U.S.” TO “LIBERTY-EULAU” SCHOOL DISTRICT, FROM THE GRANDVIEW SCHOOL=WELL, BY THAT TIME, MY PRACTICING WITH “MARVIN” HAD HELPED ME BECOME QUITE A “DRIBBLER AND SHOOTER”, WITHIN MY OWN SELF, BUT, I WAS STILL “SHORT” AND I PLAYED WITH AND AGAINST PLAYERS MUCH OLDER AND BIGGER, THAN ME[ BUTTT, I ALWAYS GOT “PICKED/CHOSEN” FOR THE “PICK-UP” TEAMS, AND I WAS BEGINNING TO “STAR” AT “LIBERTY-EYLAU” MIDDLE SCHOOL. FOR A WHILE, THE WHITE COACHES, TRIED “NOT” TO LET “U.S.” NEWLY ARRIVALS (BLACK KIDS) PLAY, BUT, IT DID NOT TAKE VERY LONG, BEFORE I WAS A STARTING “POINT GUARD” WHO COULD ALSO “SHOOT-THE-LIGHTS-OUT” AND SOOO, OTHERS OF “U.S.” BLACK KIDS, “SPENCER”, WALKER, AND OTHERS BEGAN TO PLAY AND “START”. BY THE TIME, I REACHED HIGH SCHOOL, THE “REECE”, WITHIN ME (SPIRITUAL GENETICS) WAS SHOWING ALL THE TIMES.
NNooww=I was never/Ever, as Great as my Cousin (MARVIN)=But the LE Leopards’ Coaches, tried to “Fit me into HIS Famous Shoes!!
THE “FAITH” OF WHAT “MARVIN” TAUGHT ME AND THE “FAITH” WHICH THE SPORTS, ESPECIALLY “BASKETBALL” TAUGHT ME WAS ; WHENEVER THERE WAS NO DOUBT, MY SHOTS WOULD/COULD “GO INTO THAT BASKET”=THEY DID!!! SOMETIMES, MANY TIMES, “FALLING OUT OF BOUNDS OR TO THE FLOOR=I JUST THREW UP THE SHOTS AND “SWISH”=I WOULD EVEN SOMETIMES “SHRUG MY OWN SHOULDERS AND RAISE MY HANDS=”LIKE, I DON’T KNOW HOW/WHY THAT SHOT WENT IN”??
SOOO, WHENEVER I HAVE WATCHED A MICHAEL JORDAN, OR A Kobe Bryant, OR A “MAGIC JOHNSON”, OR A “KAREEM”, OR “SPENCER HAYWOOD”, OR “BILL RUSSELL” OR “WILT” OR EVEN IN FOOTBALL= “CALVIN JOHNSON”, OR “BULLET BOB HAYES” OR “DREW PEARSON”, OR “MICHAEL IRVING” AND COUNTLESS OTHERS “PLAY INTO THE ZONES”=WELL I CAN UNDERSTAND THEIR “SPIRITUAL FAITH GENETICS”
AND “HOW “FAITH” WITHIN SPORTS, DOES/HAS WORKED FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF HUMANITY AND OF MEN AND WOMEN!!!
“HAVING BELONGED TO THE FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIAN ATHLETES, EVEN WHEN ATTENDING AT “LIBERTY-EYLAU LEOPARDS DEN”=MANY TIMES, WHEN “WE” AS PEOPLE/HUMANS UTILIZE OUR “FAITH WITH DOING THE WORKS/WERKS”= “If God Is for Us, Who Can Be against Us”
If God is For Us, Who Can Be Against Us?
Scripture Reading — Romans 8:28-39
What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
“FAITH AND SPORTS AND WORKS/WERKS”!! WE CANNOT SIMPLY “HIDE OUT IN THESE BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES, ALL THE TIMES AND DO NOTHING AND EXPECT FOR “GOOD” TO OVERCOME EVIL!! WHY DO WE THINK THAT “SPORTS TEAMS “PRACTICE” OVER & OVER & OVER FOR/TOWARDS “PERFECTION OF PLAYS” AND “SKILLS” AND OF “SPIRIT OF CONSCIOUSNESS/EVEN GENETICS OF THE SPIRIT”??
I HOPE “THESE THINGS” WILL BE RESIGNATION WITHIN YOUR “SPIRIT AND GENETICS AND MINDS OF “FAITH AND SPORTS”!!
“©M.A.R.V.I.N. THE REECE” FLYING HIGH ABOVE THE OTHERS, WHILE WINNING AT “LIBERTY-EYLAU” HS, FOR THE “LEOPARDS”; BACK THEN, WE COULD NOT “DUNK”, IN A HS GAME=SOO “MARVIN” JUST SOARS HIGH AND GENTLY DROPS THE BASKETBALL=”BY FAITH”, INTO THE BASKET!!!!
