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"Touching All The Bases"

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The night before last, the phone rang and my wife answered it.  When she got off the phone I asked her who it was and she said it was Papa which is what we call her Daddy.  She said he had said he just wanted to touch base.  When she said that I was brought to remembrance of a story I had heard about baseball once.  Well, I didn't give it too much thought, but this morning as I came out of Wal-Mart about to go to my physical therapy for my injured knee, I noticed a call on my cell phone, so I called Ruth and it was she who had called.  She said she just wanted to touch base.  Again, I was reminded of the story I had once heard.  Well, after my therapy I came home and did my usual morning stuff and went to bed.  Since I have gotten up, that baseball story has still been with me and the Lord has put it on my heart to write this little article.  My prayer is that as I do write this article He will lead me in the writing of it and use it as another seed for me to plant and that He will cause it to grow and grow fruitful.

I don't remember a lot of the details of the little story I heard, but the Lord has allowed me to remember what I needed to write this little article as I believe He would have me to write it.  I don't remember the year the said game was played nor the teams playing nor the final score.  Doesn't seem like I remember much does it?  Please read on and I promise that the heart of the story is more important than all of those minor details. 

I believe it was the 1919 or 1920 World Series and I believe it was Chicago playing New York and I believe the score was 3-2.  If you're interested after this story you can look it up.  Anyway, it was the last part of the last inning and there were two outs.  The last batter was up and he got a good hit and ran all the way around to home base, which would be the tie score.  The crowd went wild and flooded the field.  Within moments a voice came on the loud speakers calling for calm.  Finally after the crowd  was calmed, the voice on the speaker informed the crowd that the last run was an out, because the runner had failed to touch first base.

Well, I don't know a whole lot about baseball, but I do know the basic rules and the Lord has showed me through this little story, the startling resemblance between the game of baseball and our lives as we become Christians.  The basics are much the same.  As in baseball the pitcher throws the ball for the batter to hit, God sends us a calling to salvation and it is up to us to accept or miss that calling.  The first base is our accepting Jesus Christ into our hearts and lives.  From first base we are to proceed to the next base which is to publicly profess our New Birth through baptism, signifying our acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.  From there we go on to third base which is our becoming a member of a Bible believing Bible preaching church where we are to grow as God's New children and the body and bride of Christ.  From there it is on to home.  Only in our Christian life, while we are running our bases, God is busy moving home plate.  We are no longer headed back to where we started out.  If we run the bases as the basics are stated, our new home plate we will find in heaven where we will live with Him through-out  eternity.

The sad tragedy is that so many people fail to touch all the bases and home plate is being moved to hell where they will burn through-out eternity.  I know this to be a fact, because you see, I was one of those people, but by the infinite grace of God, I was allowed to see my new home plate before it was too late and I was allowed to go back and touch first base and start all over, before I got to home plate.

Quite a few years ago, I can't even remember when, I was in a church and I went forward at an altar call and I recited the sinners prayer with the preacher, but unfortunately I didn't really accept Jesus Christ into my heart and my life.  What I did was I stepped over first base.  I then proceeded to join the church which was really going to third base after which I was baptized which was going back to second base where I proceeded on my way toward my New Home which was then moved to hell.

Praise God though, on Friday the 13th of November in 1992, my wife talked me into going to a revival meeting at Holston Creek Baptist Church where a man named J. Harold Smith was preaching.  He preached a very good sermon titled "What Do You Have In Your Sack".  I will never forget that sermon nor that man that preached it, but more than that, I will never forget what took place that night.  All during that sermon, the Lord placed a mirror before me and it was a special mirror that didn't reveal the outside, but showed me the inside of my sack.  At this point, let me make the understatement of all time and say, it wasn't very pretty.  In there though, I could see my New Home Plate.  It was hell and that was where I was headed.  That night when the sermon was over, Mr. Smith never gave an invitation and I have been to a lot of his revival meetings since then and he has never failed to give one since then.  I know now why.  You see, God had already heard me recite the sinners prayer and He didn't want to hear another recital.  This night He wanted Mickey Quinn's prayer.  I prayed Mickey Quinn's prayer that night and He wonderfully and marvelously and completely saved me and moved my New Home Plate before Him in heaven.

Friends, this life that we live is like a sack that we are carrying around and in it are all the bases that we have either touched or just stepped over or missed completely.  I must mention that just before we touch Home Plate there is one stop we must make.  That stop is either called the Judgment Seat of Christ or it is called the Great White Throne Judgment.  There it will be that we empty out the contents of our sack.  If we have failed to touch first base, it will be the Great White Throne Judgment where every sin that we have ever committed will come pouring out of that sack and from way down in the bottom of that sack will come our New Home Plate.  It will have hell written all over it and God will say "Depart from me ye worker of iniquity, I never knew you".  If we have touched all the bases as we must, we will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ where the contents of our sacks will be revealed and tried by fire. I hope and pray that everyone who reads this little article will have touched all the bases, but if there is but one that has missed first base as in the story of the World Series and indeed as in my life, I pray that the Holy Spirit of God who is the only one who can call you to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, will lower before you that special mirror that your blind eyes will be opened and you will hurry to first base before it is too late.  Please consider this my friend, I love you, but more important than that, God Loves You.

What Do You Have In Your Sack?

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