Winning begins with the fundamentals

This is a Bible

By Pastor Darrell Morgan, D.D.

The legendary football coach, Vince Lombardi, was a firm believer that winning teams were the best at doing the fundamentals well. In fact, he would begin each season by pulling the team together, holding up a football and saying, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” Then he proceeded to talk the whole team through the fundamentals of the game.

The problems that we face in America as a nation are really not all that hard to master either. I have often wanted to stand up and speak to all Americans and say, “Ladies and Gentlemen, This is a Bible!”

I grew up in a college town in North Georgia. We never locked the doors to our house, or our car; there was no need to. No one ever bothered anyone else’s things. Our word and a handshake were our bond and we were taught respect for our elders. On Sunday the only place open was the local Dairy Queen where after church we all got a cone and then went home.

From an early age I remember saying the Pledge of Allegiance to our flag and starting off each day with prayer given over the loud speaker by a youth in the school office. We were all taught things like discipline, hard work, respect for others and personal responsibility.

Somewhere in our society today we got the idea that all this just wasn’t true anymore (styles change – truth doesn’t). Maybe if someone gave us all a better education, a better house, or a better job, then it would solve all of society’s ills (now, I’m not against “better” by any means), but for the life of me I have never seen any of that work.

In Genesis 4:6-7 (NKJV) God asked Cain, “Why are you angry and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”

In the course of time Cain did not heed God’s advice and he killed his brother, Abel. Did Cain have a beef with Abel? No, not really. Cain really had a beef with God. Most of the world today still has a beef with God and others around Him, so the story goes on and on.

In the book of Deuteronomy 30:19 it says, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live…”

Just maybe it’s time to lift our Bibles up and say, “Apopka, this is a Bible!”

Darrell Morgan is the Lead Pastor at The Word of Life Church in Apopka and the President of the Apopka Christian Ministerial Alliance.