"Out of Bounds"

"The wicked have laid a snare for me: yet I erred not from thy precepts." (Psalms 119:110)

  To the best of my ability, nothing that I do even begins to come close to measuring up to what Christ has done for me. That being said, the simplest way to acknowledge what He has done for me, is when I walk in His finished work. Think of this like a baseball batter up to bat, who is kept up to bat by continually hitting the ball out of bounds; the hit never counts as a strike because it was hit out of bounds. It might have counted as a strike had he never swung and hit it; but as long as he swings the bat and makes contact, his effort is counted as an action that keeps him safe. That is pretty much the point of what I see here today; that no matter what the enemy might throw at me, as long as I use the tools that Christ has given me, deliverance from sin, guilt, and shame, there is nothing that can knock me off the path that He has set me upon, or cause me to be captured or ensnared in a trap. The enemy of my soul has many tools in his toolbox, the most powerful one is that of discouragement. If I keep my focus upon my own abilities and failures, it is really easy to get discouraged; and the enemy is right there to encourage and add to any discouragement that I might feel. If the bat was to be given a characteristic description, it would be the word of God; as long as I hold to the Word, I will never strike out, I will never be knocked out of the batter's box, and I will never loose the ability to try again and again. The goal is to hit a home run; and the beauty of hitting it out of bounds, is that I get to keep trying and trying until it happens! Keep your eyes on Christ Jesus, the Umpire; the One who not only watches and enforces the game, He made the rules...

"So the administrators and high officers went to the king and said, "Long live King Darius! We are all in agreement -we the administrators, officials, high officers, advisers, and governors -that the king should make a law that will be strictly enforced. Give orders that for the next thirty days any person who prays to anyone, divine or human -except to you, Your Majesty -will be thrown into the den of lions. And now, Your Majesty, issue and sign this law so it cannot be changed, an official law of the Medes and Persians that cannot be revoked." So King Darius signed the law. But when Daniel learned that the law had been signed, he went home and knelt down as usual in his upstairs room, with its window open towards Jerusalem. He prayed three times a day, just as he had always done, giving thanks to his God." (Daniel 6:6-10) NLT