A Point of Order On My Kobe Bryant “Sunday Thought”

I would like to revisit my Sunday February 2, 2020, “Sunday Thought For The Day” titled: “Putting Kobe Bryant’s Death Into Perspective.” (See: Putting Kobe Bryant’s Death Into Perspective – Sunday Thought For The Day)

First and very importantly, I want to thank every subscriber and/or reader who commented on the post and those who contacted me by email and text message, that they had read Kobe Bryant and his daughter had attended “Mass” earlier that fateful morning. I genuinely appreciate being apprised of same. I was completely unaware that He had attended “Communion” earlier that morning nor was I aware that it appears, as one friend has informed me, Kobe did attend a Catholic Church.

More importantly however, I thank God, for this valuable teachable moment, which brings me to my point.

In the second paragraph of my “Sunday Thought For The Day” referenced above, I wrote: “…what I’ve found to be more tragic is the absence of references I have read or heard, that made mention of Bryant being a Christian man. I personally have neither read nor heard a single reference made that had anything to do with Kobe Bryant being a Christian man who had used his great wealth and fame to further God’s Kingdom. I didn’t hear or read of one person who came forward saying that Kobe Bryant had shared Christ with them and that they accepted the Lord as a result of his sharing.”

Please carefully read that second paragraph again. You will note that I made it abundantly clear that I personally had neither read nor heard any reference pursuant to Kobe Bryant being a Christian and/or doing the work of furthering God’s kingdom. That is a pivotal point of importance.

Understand, I’m not doubling down trying to avoid acknowledging that I shared incorrect information. The simple fact is that I didn’t share incorrect information, because as I specifically stated, I personally had not read nor heard a single mention of Kobe Bryant being a Christian man. I made it clear that I personally had neither read nor heard a single reference to his working to further God’s Kingdom nor any mention of him having reached people for Christ.

That doesn’t mean I didn’t quietly wonder about his church attendance, but church attendance wasn’t the point. The point was when we die, and what we do for Christ while we were/are alive.

At the end of our lives the only thing that matters is where we spend eternity and what we’ve done for Christ while alive with the talent(s) He has given us. Only what we have done for Christ has lasting and eternal relevance. This is why what I didn’t hear being said about Kobe was for me a testimony of wasted opportunity.

I cannot stress enough that unless and until those who claim to be Christians stand up for Christ we will never make a difference in the world. Until those of us who claim to be Christians truly put God first in every facet of life, we will never make a difference regardless of how much we wring our hands and feign concern regarding the moral condition of the world.

I submit and I will not retreat from my belief that the sinful condition the world wallows in today is by far and large because the Christian church, i.e., Christian people have disavowed themselves from how God in His Holy Word specifically directs us to live.

Suppose every truly born again Christian purposed on their knees before God, that they didn’t want to be remembered and eulogized as whatever the world deems magnanimous at that time. Rather they wanted their lives as Christians and work for Jesus Christ to be what was remembered and eulogized.

Recently the Pastor of our church attended the funeral of a Christian man who was remembered and eulogized for the great number of lives he touched sharing Jesus Christ as a Gideon. While alive he passed out thousands of bibles and shared Christ even more. I was blessed to have met him when I was a young minister and I remember his commitment to God fondly.

As a young minister in the 1980s, I vividly remember radio pastor, Dr. Steve Brown telling of a man employed at one of the most prestigious hotels in New York City, who was responsible for leading over 200 people to Christ as a doorman.

The man God brought into my life, less than one week after I was saved was a Christian blue-collar business owner who loved his family and racket-ball; but he loved Christ most of all. And now almost 40 years after the Lord brought him into my life, he has been responsible for planting at least three churches, leading people to Christ, helping missionaries and much more.

The men I have just referenced were/are ordinary men who committed their lives to Christ and lived every day for Him. They’ve left and will leave legacies that far exceeds that of someone who’s known for hitting a ball, being a champion vehicle driver or winning world championships but not using their platforms to reach people for Christ.

As I have said and written before: When I die I want my legacy to be that I was an unrepentant sinner going to hell, until the weekday afternoon that I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. I want my legacy to be that as a Christian we may stumble, but because of God’s matchless grace, prodigal children can be restored.

As Christians we can use Bryant’s passing to tell the unsaved that no matter how much money you have, no matter how much fame, prestige and power a person has, they cannot control the moment of their death. But they can decide where they will spend eternity by accepting or rejecting Jesus Christ.

The church has become impotent, ineffectual and given over to social ministries because they are feel good practices that allow a person(s) to live their lives buried in sin and disobedience and yet convince themselves all is right with their eternal soul because they feed the poor.

The church is impotent because women, homosexuals and sexual perverts have been given pastoral leadership over same. The church is impotent because no few churches today are more interested in having large congregations than they are in preaching thus sayeth the Lord and thus sayeth His Holy Word. And the fact that some churchgoers who are reading this are upset with what i have just said proves my point. The church today is impotent and ungodly because the people who claim to be Christians ignore God’s commands when said become inconvenient.

In the bible Abraham loved trusted God so much that he was willing to obey God’s seemingly unfathomable directive that he sacrifice his son Isaac. But Abraham obeyed and God rewarded him for his selfless obedience.

Today so-called believers turn their backs on God and His Holy Word because otherwise they will have to take a stand against the sexual sins of their children. I know Christian families who think it’s responsible parenting to get their daughters birth control pills/devices while they are still in high school and some when they start college, even though the Word of God is very clear we should practice abstinence until we are married.

We see numerous instances in which a young man or young men have been falsely accused of rape. If and when the truth is revealed that the female lied the standardized rumination addresses how the males lives were affected negatively. But we don’t hear the truth, which is the woman wouldn’t have been able to falsely accuse the males of rape, if the males hadn’t been disobedient to God and engaged in indiscriminate sex outside of marriage. Not to mention, what does it say about young men who think there’s nothing wrong with two or three of them having sex with the same woman at the same time because she said yes, the fact that she later lies notwithstanding?

I could site endless examples of how the so-called Christian Church of today has become disobedient to God, which brings back to the point of my “Sunday Thought” referenced above.

The only thing that matters eternally is what we do for God and in the name of Jesus. But people have bought into the lie of Satan that they can engage in that which God disapproves, and as long as the unsaved applaud them all is well.

I’m not picking scabs nor am I using Kobe to make myself holier than thou. I’m saying very few have the wealth, power, prestige, influence and public platform that Kobe did, to impact the world in a positive way for Christ.

As I made clear in my “Sunday Thought” I don’t follow or watch professional basketball. But I don’t watch or follow professional football and I barely watch professional baseball anymore. But Tim Tebow is a household name for the furtherance of God’s Kingdom.

The point of my aforementioned “Sunday Thought” was to reinforce if we claim to be a Christian and no one knows it, our witness for Christ in nonexistent. If we claim to be Christians and our focus is upon self and worldly things juxtaposed to using our talents for eternal benefit we are not witnesses for Christ.

As I made clear in my “Sunday Thought” when I die I want to be remembered for what I did that has eternal importance not for having won awards, etc.