Roles on the Team - Responding to God's Providence On and Off the Court
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What is God’s Providence?
God the good Creator of all things, in His infinite power and wisdom does uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures and things, from the greatest even to the least, by His most wise and holy providence, to the end for the which they were created, according unto His infallible foreknowledge, and the free and immutable counsel of His own will; to the praise of the glory of His wisdom, power, justice, infinite goodness, and mercy.
i. God from all eternity did, by the most wise (Rom. 11:33) and holy counsel of His own will, freely (Rom. 9:15, 18), and unchangeably (Heb. 6:17) ordain whatsoever comes to pass (Eph. 1:11): yet so, as thereby neither is God the author of sin (James 1:13, 17; 1 John 1:5), nor is violence offered to the will of the creatures (Matt. 17:12; Acts 2:23; 4:27-28); nor is the liberty or contingency of second causes taken away, but rather established (John 19:11; Prov. 16:33).
Where can I learn about God’s Providence in the Bible? What should I know?
24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,
God created all of us - And he made from one man every nation of mankind
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
God is independent and self-sufficient. He does not need us, we need him. - Does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything. Need is a creature word
10 For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.
God gives us our life span - having determined allotted periods. We are born exactly when God determined us to be born. We will die exactly when God has chosen us to die. We each have an allotted period on this earth. I believe that God also determines and guides all the events in between birth an death.
33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.
God gives us our living spaces - the boundaries of their dwelling place - Not only has God allotted our times, he has allotted our dwelling places. The sole of you shoes have never touched a basketball court God did not put your on. Every address you have ever had was the address God gave you for that period of time.
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
God shows us opportunities to seek him - that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him - Paul is saying God is building the circumstances, situations and peoples and places that are in you life in order to encourage you to seek him, pursue him, follow him, love him and serve him. We are responsible to seek him.
God will be found, because he is near - find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us
6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
23 And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.
What does God’s Providence have to basketball and my role on the team?
Every person on the team, every coach, every parent, every fan every opponent, every game, every play, every dribble, every shot, every outcome, every about every thing is in the plan of God according to the Providence of God, so its ultimate aim is to cause you to seek God and live for him.
The Heidelberg Catechism asks to what advantage it is to know that God rules and upholds all things and then answers this way: “That we may be patient in adversity; thankful in prosperity; and that in all things, which may hereafter befall us, we place our firm trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing shall separate us from His love; since all creatures are so in His hand, that without His will they cannot so much as move.”
How should we respond to specific situations that happen on the basketball team?