Testimonies

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There was a brief season in my life when I served as a basketball referee for high school and junior college basketball games. On one occasion when I admittedly made a questionable call the player penalized became enraged and verbally attacked me. I carried on with the flow of the game without using my inherent authority to penalize him further or even eject him. I hadn't fully learned how to apply the authority that the basketball rules granted me. In the back of my mind I knew the call was not a good one, but even that did not justify the mean-spirited attack. Some time later I seem to remember the player approaching me and apologizing for his attitude and words.

Now I see that many of us as believers put up with a lot of attacks on ourselves and our families from our spiritual adversary because we don't know the authority we possess as his "referees" in the name of Jesus our Savior and Lord. We could severely penalize him or "throw him out of the game" if we knew our rulebook better and weren't too timid to apply it.
One thing is sure, the devil and his demons will not be coming back around to apologize to us! Even if there is some truth in their accusations we don't have to receive them because they have all been received for us already, and disarmed and defused by Jesus at the cross.

Maybe we could learn a lesson in history from the opposite extreme when baseball player Babe Ruth once questioned a notorious umpire who was silent after a pitch was thrown, "Well, is it a ball or a strike?" "It ain't nothin till I call it somethin!" With those words the Babe was put swiftly in his place that day.

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