God's Coaching #119

God's Coaching #119

Team spirit can get kind of silly, can’t it? Cheering on their favorite team makes normal people do some pretty wacky stuff. It makes girls do dangerous flips in the air and adults wear body paint to display their team’s colors. It causes muscular, grown men to start wildly hopping and chanting in a circle before kickoff and 300-pound linemen to sing something called an “alma mater” at the end of games. It makes tens of thousands of people line city streets and others drop confetti from skyscrapers as championship players slowly drive by in a parade.

In baseball, team spirit produced the Rally Monkey, Thunderstix, and Sausage Race. In the NFL, it produced the Lambeau Leap, the Black Hole, and the Hogettes. In case you were wondering, the Hogettes are a group of male Washington Redskins fans who have worn hats, dresses, and pig snouts to Redskins games since the 1980s, when a group of beefy offensive linemen nicknamed “the Hogs” led Washington to several Super Bowl titles. Team spirit never looked so, uh, unique.

What’s the Score?

The Bible talks a lot about spirit, but in a completely different context than face paint and team cheers. Scripture often uses “spirit” to describe angelic beings, a person’s soul, or the Holy Spirit. But did you know it also describes God the Father? It’s true. In John 4:24, Jesus himself says, “God is Spirit.”

God is not like us. He is not human and doesn’t possess a physical body. He doesn’t have size or dimension. His being is not like anything else in creation. That’s why he forbids us in Exodus 20:4 to worship him with any man-made images. Sometimes the Bible talks about God’s hands, arms, eyes, and mouth. But this is always because the biblical authors were trying to describe God in ways that humans could understand.

It’s not possible for us to fully comprehend God. He’s too large, and our brains are too small. But believing everything about God mentioned in the Bible is extremely important because we must worship God as he truly exists, not as we think he exists. That said, the Bible promises that Christians will see God’s face in heaven (Revelation 22:4). What that truly means is a mystery, but it is certainly something to get excited about!

On the Ball

Occasionally, God took visible form in the Old Testament. Check out these amazing Scripture passages to learn more:

1. Genesis 18:1-33

2. Genesis 32:24-30

3. Exodus 13:21-22

4. Exodus 24:9-11

5. Exodus 33:18-23

6. Judges 13:21-22

7. Isaiah 6:1

Coach’s Comment

God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth. John 4:24