Practice!

Posted on March 8, 2020 by Dr. Kevin M. Drury under Bible, Christian, Christianity, Commitment, Covenant, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, Faithful, LifeGiving, Mandate, Mature, Maturing, Message, Mission, Movement, Revolution, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training, Transformation

Practice!

The Bible talks about 2 opposing [imagine that] kinds of practice!

1. Practice righteousness
2. Practice sin

People say, “Practice does not make perfect.” That may be true but when you practice righteousness you become less perfect at sin, and when you practice sin you become less perfect at righteousness.

I believe it was the great coach Vince Lombardi who said something to the effect of, “Our practice may not make us perfect, but in pursuing perfection we will find excellence.”

Excellence is the quality of being outstanding and very good. It comes from excel which means: to be exceptionally good or proficient in an activity or subject.

So, how much practice are you putting in?

The more you practice being right with God the more right with God you prove yourself to be.

The more you practice sinning [not right with God] the more you prove you are not really right with God.

Which direction is your life heading?

What people fail to realize or admit is that practicing sin proves they do not really know God!

Know what I mean?

This may trigger some folks but I am a trigger happy preacher. Jesus said, “You are to be[come] perfect [just] as your Father in heaven is [was, is, and always will be] perfect.”

Selah

Leviticus 20:7,8 NAS – “7 You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be[come] holy, for I am the Lord your God. 8 You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you.“

Did you notice both “you shall?” They are not in the Hebrew which means the translators believed they are inferred. When removed from the text we get four commands:

1. Consecrate yourself

2. Be holy

3. Keep My statutes

4. Practice My statutes

“I am the Lord your God,” and the Lord’s sanctifying work is supposed to produce very specific activity!

Is the Lord your God? Is God your Lord?

What activity does sanctification produce? Personal responsibility and accountability to be set apart to God, and therefore away from everything contrary to God, as well as to be[come] like the God who saved and is sanctifying you.

Salvation and sanctification are for the purpose of keeping God’s statutes [written and spoken Word] and practicing what God says, among other things.

We are to keep [observe, guard, be in charge of, retain and treasure] God’s statutes.

We are also to practice [work, produce, accomplish, advance] His statutes so that His statutes work in and through us, produce His nature in us, accomplish His will in us, and we advance in them so we can advance His kingdom.

How can we advance His kingdom if His kingdom is not advancing within us?

The Old Testament gets such a bad rap by those who want to get by with doing the bare minimum, or worse, do wrong and tell everyone God is okay with it. It is as if they feel no personal responsibility to become and remain consecrated [separate to God], and holy.

Way to many Christians believe the Old Testament is irrelevant because, “We are not under the law.” They apparently do not know the Old contains the New and the New explains the Old.

As a side bar let me inject this bit of bitter herbs into “their” theology – Romans 6:14 – “sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Hmmm! How is that grace message that gives place to sin working out for you?

While I am here, grace alone does NOT save anyone. We are NOT saved by grace! We are saved by grace THROUGH faith and faith includes fidelity to God. No fidelity, no faith because the same Greek word is translated faith and faithful! And faithfulness is a fruit of the HOLY Spirit!

“Be holy” is not merely positional. It is practical based on the position! Positional holiness must translate into practical holiness or else the person is deceived into believing he is something he never was.

Because the Lord is “your” God “you” shall consecrate YOURSELF therefore, and be[come] holy!

If you be something you will become what you be!

By the way, did you know Paul said it is possible to receive God’s grace in vain? He did! Do you want to know why he wrote not to receive God’s grace in vain? Because in the first century there were church folk who claimed a salvation by grace but they were not producing fidelity to the God they claimed saved them!

Selah

Jesus said, “Seek FIRST the kingdom of God, and His righteousness.”

If we are not pursuing [practicing] God’s righteousness we are not seeking His kingdom as a priority in our lives! That means we are either seeking our own kingdom so we can live like we want, or we are seeking the devil’s kingdom so we can live like he lives.

John cleared this up for all who are confused!

1 John 3 NAS – “7 Little children [teknion], make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.

9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot [practice] sin, because he is born of God.

10 By this the children [teknon] of God and the children [teknon] of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

Why did John feel it was necessary to write, “make sure no one deceives you?”

Do you find it amazing Jesus came in the flesh to destroy the works of the devil? What works did Jesus come to destroy? SIN! Jesus came to destroy both the nature of sin and the activity of sin. Why? Because sin is the fruit of the devil’s nature, not God’s!

Nature infers natural and it is not natural for a child of God to practice sin!

I find it interesting “not loving his brother” is connected to “not practicing righteousness” and, “the one who practices sin is of the devil.”

This means if “you” practice sin then you are of the devil, and “you” are not my brother!

God’s seed will produce God’s life, and God’s life is righteousness! Many think because God is love God does not require anything of those he loves.

Love is so misused in today’s churchiosity culture that the first century saints would not recognize most of what is called love today.

John is known as the apostle of love because he wrote extensively on the subject. That may be because he laid his head on Jesus’ chest and heard His heartbeat!

John also writes extensively on behavioral traits in the authentic and counterfeit believer’s life!

In the above text he mentions the maturity level of “little children” and “children.” All three references use the same Greek word [or family of words]. The teknion [teknon] level of maturity is the last of four levels in the childhood stage of development, and is just under the next level which is called son [huios].

By the way, God adopts sons, not children!

Teknon children are awake, alert, and attentive to the needs of the Father and prepared to provide what He needs when He needs it. I can almost hear people say, “God does not need anything from me.” Well then, why did He call you?

Teknon children also live for the sole purpose of honoring the Father, and they will die in defense of His honor.

Do you see how this plays out in our text? “By this [practicing righteousness or practicing sin] the teknons of God and the teknons of the devil are OBVIOUS.

If it is so obvious why do so many refuse to see and or admit it?

Why do so many that say God is their Father fight to keep the moniker of “sinner?”

Why do they fight to keep the right to believe they are powerless in the sight of sin?

What does the grace they received actually produce?

If grace is not producing righteous behavior, did they receive it in vain, if indeed they truly received it?

Selah

John further states the authentic teknon of God cannot sin because God’s seed is in him! This is obviously referring to the practice of sinning, not the rare exception of sinning.

Selah

“Rare exception?” Yes, rare exception!

1 John 2 NAS – “1 My little children [teknion], I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

John writes teknon children know sinning is not permissible by God [“may not sin”]. He then states, “if anyone sins.” Why did the Holy [HOLY] Spirit inspire John to write “IF anyone sins?” Why not write, “WHEN anyone sins?” Because sinning is not becoming to a saint [holy person]!

Just because Jesus is the propitiation for “our” sins does not mean God permits us to sin!

The propitiational work of Jesus was in destroying sin! Remember?

Propitiation means among other things, atonement. At-One-Ment!

What is meant is we are one with the One who is our propitiation! So how can we continue to practice sin when we are one with the sinless One?

Does practice make perfect? It makes perfect sense to God!

Does it make perfect sense to you?

Receive and steward God’s passion, power, presence, priority, process, promises, protection, provision, pruning, purging, purity, and purpose!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
A radical spiritual revolutionary
Revolution Movement Co-Founder
http://www.revolutionmovement.org
kdrury@revolutionmovement.org

You say you want a revolution! Join our movement and turn your world upside down so God can turn His world right side up!

Honored & Humbled!

Posted on August 26, 2015 by Dr. Kevin M. Drury under Excellence, Hard Work, Sports, Teammates, Teamwork

As I write this blog today, Tuesday August 25, 2015, I am filled with grand memories of hidden practices away from the eyes of individuals and groups of people who would on any given game day witness the progress of this person who worked hard when no one was looking, without ever knowing the grueling process that took place in private!

Bouncing tennis or rubber balls off outside walls of houses or buildings just so I could practice fielding “grounders” without a glove on so that I could be prepared for any and all abnormal bounces that may happen in a game.

Laying on the ground outside with my eyes closed throwing a baseball or football as high into the air as I possibly could from that position, then jumping up to my feet still with my eyes closed so I could improve my vision and reaction time when finally opening my eyes, the ball already on its way back down I may have to quickly reposition myself to make the catch.

Painting a “home plate” on the outside wall of a house or building then backing up to the proper distance so I could work on my pitching skills.

Juggling for improved hand to eye coordination.

Last week I found out that I had been selected to be inducted into the Glynn County [Georgia] 2016 Class Sports Hall Of Fame!

As I listened to a friend and former teammate of mine, Jimmy Brown, explain to me the process by which I had been selected along with four other individuals I was both honored and humbled!

By the way – I am still honored and humbled and will remain honored and humbled!

Hall Of Fame!

Hall Of Famer!

Who would have ever thought that would happen?

Not me!

Thinking that those hundreds and more than likely thousands of hours of private workouts away from the spotlight would one day pay off by being chosen to be forever remembered for what people saw in public – NEVER!

What I did I did not for the glory of man, not even this man! I did it for the teams I played on and the teammates I played with!

I played team sports and there is absolutely no way I could have been selected for this great honor if it had not been for the many different members of the various teams I played on. These teammates paid their own price to be good enough to make the teams we played on together and to make the teams we played on great.

Combining the private and individual practices with all of the corporate practices paid off with multiple championships!

I am so blessed to have grown up in an era that gave me the opportunity to win 5 State Championships [4 in baseball and 1 in football] in a 7 year period.

#unmatched #greatestera #greatathletes #greatpeople #greatworkethic

My lifelong dream of becoming a MLB player never materialized! Was I good enough to have played in the Major Leagues? I will never know. But one thing I do know is this – the reason I did not make it was not because of a deficiency in effort on my part, not in private or in public.

So, today the announcement has been made in our local newspaper, the Brunswick News, and I am now free to make the announcement as well. So, I am posting this blog on my various social media sites.

The following is the bio on me that is in the press release to the media!

Kevin Drury

Kevin Drury was a star shortstop on Glynn Academy’s 1973 AAA state championship baseball team, whom long-time Brunswick News sports editor Murray Poole says “was one of the two best fielding shortstops he witnessed in his 40 years with the newspaper.”

Drury batted .380 as a junior for Max Braun’s Red Terror state champions − the only Glynn baseball team to win a state title − and then came back in his senior season to bat a sizzling .472 with 30 RBIs before Glynn fell in the state playoffs in Macon. Drury was a three-year starter and letterman for the Terrors and helped them also win two Region 3-AAA championships and two Class AAA South Georgia championships.

Drury was then drafted in the fifth round of the Major League Baseball Draft by the Chicago Cubs and played six seasons of professional baseball, climbing through the ranks of Class A and Double-A to make the Cubs’ Class Triple-A team, the Wichita (KS) Aeros in 1979.

Drury’s best season came in 1978 while playing for the Class Double-A Midland (TX) Cubs when he batted .319, had a .500 on-base percentage and was named to the league all-star team by the managers at season’s end. That season, Drury was called up to the Triple-A team where he hit for a .444 average before then being sent back down to Midland to help the team in their fight for a pennant. Of course, the next season, Drury would be promoted to Class Triple-A.

Prior to playing for Glynn, Drury was one of the best-ever youth baseball players to come through the Brunswick Recreation Department program. In fact, he may have the distinction of being the only local athlete to play on four state championship teams in baseball and one in football. He won baseball state championships as a 10-year-old, a 14-year-old, as a junior at Glynn in 1973 and that summer as a member of the Glynn County Recreation Department Senior League all-star team.

As a quarterback, Drury guided the City Optimist 13-year-old All-Star football team to the state championship in Calhoun in 1970.

Drury was featured in Sport Magazine in the October 1974 issue which had Reggie Jackson on the cover. A writer for the magazine came to Brunswick and interviewed him before a Senior League game at Edo Miller Park.

Drury also enjoyed an outstanding football career at Glynn Academy. Starting two years at split end in the Terrors’ run-oriented veer offense, he had a total of 40 career receptions for 613 yards (15.33 yards-per-catch) and nine touchdowns (one TD per 4.4 passes caught). In his junior season in 1972, Drury helped lead the Terrors of Coach Charles Pruett to the Region 3-AAA championship. After defeating the Waycross Bulldogs for the region title, Glynn fell to the Moultrie Packers and quarterback Ray Goff in the first round of the state playoffs in Moultrie. Pruett said at the time Drury “had the best hands he had ever seen on a receiver.” Drury earned Glynn MVP honors his senior season when he also played in the defensive backfield. As the starting punter for the Terrors his junior and senior seasons, Drury averaged over 36 yards per punt even though he was called on repeatedly to pooch punt on or about the opposing team’s 40-yard line.

Well as the saying goes, “That’s it folks!” Well not exactly!

There is no way to thank everyone who played a huge role in my being honored with this induction. I do feel though that I need to say thank you to some of the people who helped shape and guide me through the toughest years of my life.

Thank you’s!

For the selection and nominating committees for the Hall Of Fame! Thank you for recognizing what I have accomplished. This means more to me than I could ever convey!

My dad [Dr. E. C. Drury, D.C.], who died when I was 10 years old, so he never got to witness the process that paved the way for me to get to this point. Yet without his love for life and his love for sports I would have never even gotten started on this path.

Dad spent much time with me in the formative years teaching me things like:

The basic mechanics of throwing and catching footballs and baseballs, hitting baseballs and runners with footballs, as well as kicking footballs. He also taught me how to play basketball but I was never very adept as those skills.

You may not be the biggest, baddest or the fastest, but if you work harder and hustle all the time people will notice and want you on their team.

Work on the things you are not strong in without neglecting working on those things you are strong in. That way you will be a more balanced athlete.

My mom, Gloria Drury, was by far my most avid supporter. She died in October 1978 and missed the last 2 years of my professional career. Her fervor in the stands is still remembered by many people, especially the umpires and referees who bore the brunt of her assessments of their performance!

Sonny Miller, the Director of recreation for the City Recreation Department specifically, and all the people who made the City Recreation Department a safe place for young people to hang out. If it had not been for Sonny, his staff and “THE Rec Department” I do not think I would have made it to adulthood.

Coach Charlie Pruett, a coach that was a genuine Christian who lived his Christianity in a way that was modeled not mandated. Coach Pruett created a culture of honor in a sport that was violent and unmerciful. “You will not win by just showing up. You will have to hit harder and play smarter than the person opposite you in order to win” was a favorite quote that I remember!

Max Braun, the greatest high school baseball coach any athlete could ever play for. His obsessive compulsive focus on the fundamentals of the game and getting and staying in shape helped to shape the disciplines in my life that I needed to carry me past the problems of that day into my future.

Max’s knowledge of the game of baseball and his incessant demand for excellence enabled me to enter into professional ball not needing to be taught any of the fundamentals required to play the game of baseball efficiently and effectively.

The level of discipline he exerted on our teams helped to keep me anchored to my dream of playing in the Major Leagues. Although I strayed in certain ways I remained steadfast in my quest to reach my full potential and fulfill what I believed my purpose in life was.

The last shall be first!

Donna Drury, my wife of 41 years and the love of my life for 44 years. We connected at the “Rec” and have been on an amazing adventure together. Donna’s loyalty and level headedness has kept me pursuing what I am passionate about and life would never be the same without her. She has always been there to help me press on during the hard days that at times turned into weeks, months and even years at times. Donna’s passion for love and life have been an inspiration to me. Her dedication and determination to pursue excellence has helped me understand the difference between a spirit of excellence and the spirit of perfectionism. Perfectionism is a cruel taskmaster while excellence is a virtue to be attained.

The absolute most important Person in my life, although until I was 23 years old I did not have a relationship with Him, is the God and Father of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. God gave me passion and purpose. He instilled into me in my mother’s womb certain innate abilities that more than compensated for my lack of size and speed. Instinctively ‘knowing’ where to be and when to be there allowed me to make plays other players only dreamed of. These are qualities and characteristics that cannot be taught, just like heart, effort, passion and purpose.

The greatest gift I believe He gave me is the belief that I was born for greatness. I have carried greatness in my heart all of my life. I ‘instinctively’ knew, and I am still keenly aware that I was not born to be normal. That ‘knowing’ has driven me to get the most out of my life no matter what life presented me or where life took me.

Photo journey!

“24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25 Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27 but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” [1 Corinthians 9]

I have always ‘run’ to win!

I will always ‘run’ to win!

For the glory of God!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury

His Hisstorymaker

Revolution Movement

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Practice!

Honored & Humbled!