June 18, 2021.  2:58 a.m.  An hour or so ago as I prayed and emptied my heart to the Almighty I was reminded of a situation that took place many years ago in the world of college basketball.  Having been a part of that world I can assure you that it is a world in and of itself.  That unique world allows the uncommon to become common, it allows the least to become the most, the unknown to become known, the last to become first.  That world allows nobodies to become somebodies.  But as is the case with everything worthwhile, two unchangeable truths stand paramount: 1) there is a price to pay for success and 2) few are willing to pay the price.

When one participates in that world there is no other world.  College basketball is an all-consuming task master.  One eats, sleeps, walks, talks, lives and dies basketball.  One’s existence revolves around a brown leather ball.  One’s “family” consists of those who wear the same uniform, work to exhaustion alongside others who are like-minded, and most important of all, who OBEY THE DICTATES of the man whose word is, in that world, written in stone.  That world is one which the stone writer has created, one which he owns and operates according to his rules.  Having been a part of that world, I count myself fortunate for having as my college coach a man whose work ethic was an exact duplicate of my father’s.  They both had the same unspoken motto: “Do the job.  Do the job right.  Do the job done right now.”  Having had those two “slave drivers” looming over me during my formative years prepared me for obeying and serving the ultimate “slave driver”–God–later in life.  After willingly becoming His slave, which meant obeying His every Word, I was placed on His “Glory Road” which was very much like the road He had forced me to trod during the first two decades of my life.  Admittedly, it took me many years to finally embrace His rules of the “race” He would have me run, a race I am still running as I enter my 80th year.  Incredibly, I am still learning how to run that life-long race.  And there is only one set of rules.  As the Apostle Paul said, all salvation seekers run the race, but only one wins the prize (1 Cor. 9:24).  Paul said that he “PRESSED FORWARD” toward the prize–salvation (Phil. 3:14).  Early on, Paul knew that what baseball great Yogi Berra said was right when he proclaimed his most famous “Yogiism”: “It ain’t over ’till its over.”  Long ago I vowed to diligently follow the Lord’s race rules until the end so as to win the ultimate prize–eternal life.

Which brings me to the title of this posting.  Several years ago a movie was made about a group of young men who “came out of nowhere” to win the ultimate prize in the world of college basketball–the national championship.  The “nowhere” those fellows came out of was El Paso, Texas.  Before that time 99.99% of the world’s population had never heard of El Paso, Texas.  Most Americans, including some Texans, did not know that there was a college there.  Then they won the national championship.  The nation was shocked.  Gamblers were undoubtedly in a tizzy.  Who are these guys? millions of basketball zealots asked.

While in prayer this morning God unexpectedly reminded me of that bygone phenomenon.  Why?  Because the clawing, fighting and working those guys had to go through to win their WORLDLY prize is a fitting example of the way God’s true saints, His Very Elect, His “little flock” must claw, fight and work in order to win their SPIRITUAL prize–eternal life in the Kingdom of God.  The basketball team from El Paso showed the American people how to get to where they want to go.  To say they were unknown is a gross understatement.  The few who knew that the college existed summarily dismissed its basketball team.

But what no one else knew was that the unknowns from nowhere had a secret weapon.  His name was Don Haskins–their slave-driving master who knew the route to glory and forced them to take it.  “Walk the walk or take a walk” describes his coaching style.  His hard-nosed, my-way-or-the-highway, work-till-you drop approach to the task took those unknown players to the apex of the college basketball world.  The movie depicting their arduous journey was aptly titled “Glory Road.”  How that most unlikely group reaped their worldly glory serves as a perfect example of how those who seek God’s glory must work, strive, struggle and overcome while enduring the rejection of those who claim to be on the same road.  Yes, I said WORK!  Only those who have “counted the cost” of serving the Lord HIS WAY (Lk. 14:28), and are willing to pay that cost until the return of Jesus Christ, will arrive at the end of their Glory Road–the Kingdom of God.  Few, Jesus said, would choose that course.  Even a few of those would remain on it until the end (Mat. 7:13,14; 10:22; 24:13).

This series concerns the hard, hazardous route true saints must take in order to reap the spiritual rewards God has promised those who are willing to endure the hardships that Jesus, His prophets, apostles and their followers endured.  Be reminded that the Old Testament prophets were tortured, hated and rejected by the religious masses to whom they preached and for whom they ministered.  Tradition holds that Isaiah was sawn in two.  Jeremiah was thrown into a well to starve to death.  Jesus was crucified and 11 of the apostles were martyred.  John, the only apostle who was not martyred, was imprisoned “for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ” (Rev. 1:9).  His fellow apostles were killed for the same reason.  Hebrews 11 tells of others who were “tortured, mocked, scourged, bound, imprisoned, stoned, sawn asunder, tempted and slain with the sword.”  They “wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted and tormented.”  They “wandered in deserts and mountains and lived in dens and caves of the earth” (Heb. 11:35-38).  For the “only believe,” “I’m o.k., you’re o.k., we’re all o.k.,” “It’s all good,” “come as your are, stay as your are,” “sinners saved by grace,” “only believe,” “just show up, pay up, fess up and get ready to go up” crowd, God has a message for you–YOU ARE NOT MERELY WRONG, YOU ARE DEAD WRONG.  In the following posting we will learn exactly what “counting the cost” means.

I will prepare you for God’s Truth by telling you to REJECT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER LEARNED IN CHURCH.  As the Apostle Paul told those in the church at Corinth who would count the cost of discipleship and pay it: “Come out of her (the worldly church) and be ye separate.  Touch not that unclean thing” (1 Cor. 6:14-7:1).  As an introduction to the cost-counting measure the Lord commands for eternal life, let us carefully examine 7:1: “HAVING THESE PROMISES, DEARLY BELOVED, LET US CLEANSE OURSELVES OF ALL FILTHINESS OF THE FLESH AND SPIRIT BY PERFECTING HOLINESS IN THE FEAR OF GOD.”  L.J.