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Football Magic Moments Wrapped Bible Devos

ARGENTINE GOALIE & CHRISTMAS!

Duke Jeyaraj

Emiliano Martinez, the 6’4” tall, Argentine Goalie, faced 14 penalty kicks in the Penalty Shootout stages of the 2022 World Cup. He made six saves. One kick went wide. This kind of success rate in saving penalties is simply phenomenal! Swaroop Swaminathan explains what makes Martinez successful: “He is probably the world’s best because of his confrontational style. You can argue it makes for ugly scenes but research has held that putting extra pressure on the spot-kickers does have the desired benefit. Extra pressure here includes everything from engaging in some trash talk to making the players wait…Against both sets of players (France and Netherlands) at the World Cup, his usual shenanigans were visible. Either speaking with them or trying to shake hands or celebrating wildly. Before Aurelian Tchoumeni’s kick, he actually threw the ball away, forcing the youngster to wait longer.”

Martinez’ tactics reminds us of a key Christmas truth. We too must have an confrontational, combative attitude when it comes to fighting Satan who tried to kill the Christmas baby Jesus through Herod (Rev. 12:4). This Revelation 12 Christmas chapter climaxes with this verse where there is a clarion call for Christ-followers to keep battling the Devil: ‘Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring – those who keep God’s commands and host fast their testimony about Jesus’ (Rev. 12:17). This battle between believers and the dragon will go on till the day of judgement which is talked about using the earth swallowing imagery (Rev. 12:16).

The believer has multiple enemies during his wilderness journey: the world, the flesh, the Devil, false teaching. And the believer must show the kind of aggressiveness that Martinez showed against Netherlands and Argentina during the knockout stages of the 2022 World Cup, against these enemies! Peter’s call to wage war against the flesh is memorable: “Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul” (I Peter 2:11). We have to wage war not only against the enemy of the flesh, but also the enemy of Satan, the World and False Teaching! Christmas is not just about a celebration! It is also about a collision against the Devil, the World, the Flesh and False Teaching!

(The author’s ministry is reader-suppported. WhatsApp him at +91-8886040605 for more details

By dukewords

Duke Jeyaraj was born to missionary parents in Vellore, South India and was saved at the age of 11 and committed for ministry and received the Holy Spirit Baptism at the age of 13. God opened the door for him to preach first as a school boy at the age of 16. He is a trained Agricultural Engineer [B. Tech from SHIATS, Allahabad, India], who did not pursue a career in the line of his education but nevertheless enjoys growing cacti in the balcony of his rented Chennai flat, during his spare time! He could have been a sports commentator but prefers to wrap Bible Truth around sports magic moments and other interesting-to-Google Genners contemporary events. God’s call upon him made him utterly restless and he obeyed that call to by founding the Grabbing the Google Generation from Gehenna Mission (G4 Mission) in 2006 to finally find serenity after having served as a International Bank Customer Service Executive/Youth Pastor/Bible College Teacher/Missionary/Youth Mag Editor. G4 Mission is not a church but an inter-denominational ministry to present-day people, a ministry which Duke works full time for, as an itinerant presenter/preacher/writer-at-residence since 2008 along with his wife, putting to use the formal theological training he received from Southern Asia Bible College in Bangalore-India [M. Div - a Gold Medal performance in 2001 & Doctor of Ministry - with project on Making Disciples of Modern Young Working Professionals Among India's Google Generation, World-wide]. Several Christian publications have carried Duke's articles over the years and at present Aim Magazine (the voice of  the Evangelical Fellowship of India an umbrella body of over 65,000 Indian churches/organisations), regularly carries Duke's writings. Duke's Bible-teaching book on Sex, Love, Marriage, Porn and more called, Straight Talk, is presently available on Amazon and Google Books.  Duke has preached by invitation beyond his national borders (we are talking about nations such as Bangladesh, Singapore, Germany, Nepal and the United Arab Emirates). Duke is called a 'Reverend' by a leading denomination (even as his ministry remains indepedent and inter-church).  Duke is called ‘dad’ by Dale (now a St. Stephen's Delhi student) and Datasha (now in Class 9) and ‘hubby’ by Evangelin (the daughter of a missionary couple to Odisha who is a hospital admin grad currently studying M. A. in Biblical Studies with SAIACS Bangalore) and calls Chennai, India, his current home after living in Hyderabad till June 2021. In case your curiosity is triggered by hearing all this, you may checkout www.dukewords.com [if you are the reading plain text type], www.soundcloud.com/shoutaloud [if you are part of the audio-listening tribe] and www.youtube.com/visitduke [if you group yourself with the video-steaming generation])

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