Tim Tebow

I find it comical that people are in such an uproar about Tim Tebow praying on the sidelines at games. God bless him for it. At least he is not scared to defend Christ. I am not even going to pretend that I enjoy sports. Not my passion, however I do hope the Texans win. It would be great for the fans. A man called into the Joe Pags and quoted scripture that says we should not pray in front of others, because of what Mr. Tebow is doing. It got me thinking that maybe just maybe it is because people think that it should be private and he shouldn’t really pray for a win or to do well in a game. It seems to be working out for him. Plus, if you read anything about him he seems to be doing pretty well in life so what is the problem?
“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. (Matthew 6:5-8 ESV)

I get why he said it because most Christians don’t pray in churches or in public about what is really going on in their lives. We say prayers out loud but is that what we are thinking, or what is in our hearts? That is why we are hypocrites. Our pastor made a statement in a sermon about what someone had said to him “I don’t want to go to church, because of church hypocrites.” His response was “yes, we are all hypocrites.” How many of us can actually admit that? Not many that I know of including myself.

We can talk about scripture as much as we want but do we actually live it? That is the paradox of course. We can attend every bible study, attend church, have our favorite verses, and be involved in the church but maybe we are doing it just to be seen by others. My favorite part of this is we judge others for not doing it the way would do it. That is a hypocrite. We either try to live it or we don’t. How is our faith without doing any of that? Questioning people about how they love God, or telling them what they should be doing sometimes is being judgmental. We have to be able to admit our own sins before we can confront another about it.
The whole reason why Christ said this is because the “religious elite” would do this in public to show how “religious” they were. I really do believe that whether or not Tim Tebow says it out loud, or silently that he is praying that he does well for himself and his team. Wouldn’t we pray for the same thing? The sad part is that now we are judging how a man prayers without even realizing that we are judging. My question is why do people care so much about this? A man in our Sunday school class was asked to pray out loud, and he was nervous about it. The person that asked him to pray asked is that how you pray in private? He said no. He told him to pray from his heart and what he felt led to say.

How many of us actually have sat in church, bowed our heads for prayer and didn’t even pray? That is what Christ is talking about it. That is a hypocrite. I wouldn’t do it then. I hate to admit it but there are some mornings in where I am thinking about the stuff I need to do for the week, or what we are going to have for lunch.

We are a managed and controlled society that if we waiver one way or another then it is wrong, and we just can’t be ourselves anymore. Accepting yourself for who you are is good thing. Accepting others for who they are is a good thing. God made us this way, so why we would ever question someone on their love and trust of our Savior? That is the funny thing about atheists, and even some professed Christians. There is great fear regarding God whether people realize they do it or not. If you don’t believe in him and you think it is a fairy tale why are you so angry that someone professes their faith? Why do Christians worry so much about defending scripture and the truth of scripture because of the fear of hurting someone else. Do you want them to go to hell? Our pastor said that “sure, let them go to hell comfortable.”

I have been watching my parents and I have to say I underestimated their faith. They never talk about god, but their actions are different. Both of them have devoted their lives to serving others. My dad said something the other day that made sense to me. The bible tells us how to live, but do we actually live it. Some people have too much religion and we seem to forget that we are supposed to live it. That is the way I see this blog now. I can write about it, but am I living it? Do my actions actually show my devotion and trust in the gospel? Do I do it, or am I pretending to be what others think I should be. For a very long time I did that because of individuals that felt that I needed to act a certain way to be a Christian.

We are all Peters running around denying Christ. We say that we love him, but our actions sometimes speak louder than words. We can quote scripture but are we doing it out of our love for God, or out of a need to control someone else through scripture? Here is a thought; would you let Paul into your house knowing that he was a murderer? Just think if he wasn’t in the bible and we just knew of him through history books. Would you think that he was evil even if they said he had stopped murdering? Remember, Christ said the act of murdering and the thought of it were the same.

That is how we know we are religious hypocrites. We wouldn’t even let him in the house unless he looked and acted the “part.” Right? How many of us would sit in our living room condemning him in our thoughts, but were kind to him right to his face? I don’t know if I could do it. He was convicted to hold true to the gospel no matter the consequence to himself.