"RULES OF GOLF"

Golf is a boring sport to watch on TV...but in channel surfing I heard a golf expert declare, "To play this game you gotta know the rules." POW! Even a game demands rigid rules!

Golf is a "Gentleman’s Game," personal ethics, personal responsibilities. Golf cannot survive without profound ethics.

On the TV show viewed, a great name in golf, sadly, lost it. Frustration, failure, yea defeat caused him to "blow it." The commentators were saddened. However the rule book stood firm. "To play this game you gotta know the rules."

You see golf has a "Bible," too! The official rule book. All go by this one book. Yes, there are times when the situation demands a hearing. Yes, there can be honest disagreements. however, the rule book, basically, is simple. Even a duffer can easily understand it. Recently it required an outside court to allow a crippled player, Casey Martin, to ride rather than walk.

The point? Christianity has a rule book called the Bible. Yes, there are some things that are hard to understand. Yet even a duffer can understand "belief and baptism equal salvation." A novice can know there is one body, Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism, God. Only the truth can make men free.

"To live the Christian life, you gotta know the rules." Blow the dust off the "Old Book." God’s Word still stands. It was written in common language by common men to common men. We need to study it — to learn God’s rules.

"To play this game you gotta know the rules."

Charles Hodge