I mentioned the controversy surrounding Tim Tebow’s upcoming Super Bowl ad earlier today. What I totally forgot to mention is that this is the same player who have Bible verses on his eye black. To keep the sun out of their eyes, lots of athletes put eye black underneath them (since it’s black, it absorbs the sunlight, diminishing the glare: science!). Tebow puts, in white, chapter-verse citations to Scripture, and they’re consistently good. They’re usually (a) inspiring verses, (b) verses about the importance of faith, and/or (c) clever “football” verses.
In this latter category, here are the two best ones, in my opinion:
- Hebrews 12:12 Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
- Deuteronomy 33:27 The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He will drive out your enemy before you, saying, ‘Destroy him!’
For Deuteronomy 33:27, the God’s Word Translation (which is less a translation, and more a paraphrasing) has the best version: “The eternal God is your shelter, and his everlasting arms support you. He will force your enemies out of your way and tell you to destroy them.” I imagine if I were facing a bunch of huge guys wanting to tackle me, this verse would feel pretty darn inspiring.
I’ve yet to see how the new testament would condone or endorse a game like football which, by nature, involves causing tremendous physical injury and damage to other players (you don’t just throw a ball around… you grapple people to the ground damaging their skeletal system.)
Maybe if the papists take control again, they can persecute baptists this time by forcing them to be killed on the football field…?