FOULED OUT

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                         FOULED OUT
             Many  years  ago, when Marvin was  in  high school, the family
went with him to watch a  foot ball  game at the ball park.  The Grizzlies
 were playing the Pirates, as I recall.

             I  am not given to outburst of  enthusiasm, but one team made a
spectacular play, and one of the  boys  was  running about 70  yards  for  a
touchdown.   I half stood and quietly said,  "pour it  on, boy!".  He was
doing a  magnificent  job-- except for one thing which was being  overlooked
by most everyone in the park.

             One  of the officials had thrown  down  his white  flag  at the
line of  scrimmage,  and  was waving  his hands frantically.  Some one  of
 the boys had done something wrong, (I don't  remember what--it  doesn't
matter) and the play was  cancelled  at  the spot of the white  flag  on  the
ground.  I was disappointed, and a little ashamed for having urged the boy
on.

             As  we  sat back down, a  scripture  verse came  to  me.  II
Timothy 2:5 And if a  man  also strive  for  masteries, [yet] is he  not
 crowned, except he strive lawfully.

             God has strange ways of getting at us.   It was impressed upon
me that many times we "strive for  the masteries", and we go without a
 reward for it.  The rest of the game was ruined, for me, wondering  how
 many "White  flags"  there  were behind me, having been ignored as I rushed
on  in my quest for excellence.

             I  Corinthians  9:24--    I  therefore  so run,  not  as
uncertainly; so fight I, not  as  one that  beateth the air:  But I keep
under my  body, and  bring [it] into subjection: lest that  by  any means,
 when I have preached to others,  I  myself should be a castaway.

             Ephesians  6:12 For we wrestle  not  against flesh and blood,--