Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Tuesday 4/21/26
Transcript
- Greg: Hey, what's up guys? Good morning and welcome back to the latest episode of Beliefs, Ballots and Bets. It's Tuesday, the 21st of April, 2026. And as usual today, we've got a ⁓ little scripture verse on deck. It's always good to start with the word of God. Then we had a brief look and we'll kind of talk a little bit about how we can apply those teachings and apply that word into our day-to-day life and we'll examine that from a couple of different aspects. And then as always, we'll get to some of the fun stuff and we'll talk about the plays we've got locked in for today. And we were coming off a one and two day yesterday, not the way we wanted to start off after coming back from our vacation, but... It is what it is. We don't chase. We don't change anything. We're going to run the numbers. We got four plays on the board today. ⁓ three baseball, one basketball, and we'll just hope for better outcome. ⁓ the, verse of the day, it's, it's a few verses from the book of John. It's chapter eight verses 31 through 35. And Jesus says to the Jews who had believed in him, if you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say, how can you say that we shall be set free? To which Jesus replied, very truly, I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. You know, this is, it's a, it centers on a very simple yet powerful, powerful pattern that Staying with the teachings of Christ and staying into the Word of God, it leads us to knowing the truth. And Jesus specifies this, and we've all heard this verse, that you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. It's like Sally Seashells. But it's not the kind of freedom that we and our nation and today's current society think of. It's not the license or freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want and things of that. In fact, it's just the opposite. It's the freedom from those things. It's the freedom from the habits, the freedom from that internal justification for the things that we know is wrong. It's the freedom from the fears that hold us captive. And we can look at how that shapes various different aspects of our life. You know, when you were focused on the Word of God and you were focused on that truth, our habits get exposed. It's no longer about justifying. ⁓ We talked a little bit on a show yesterday about you the word sin itself comes from an old archery term that is you know, Inflict basically means to miss the target Well when truth is our aim we will get to see these habits and things that are causing us to miss the target And it'll help us remove the excuses that help us keep us stuck and focus help us focus on changing things You know this this is gonna require humility, but there again, if you're focused on the truth and the freedom that comes from the truth, it's a little easier to be humble and admit that the errors you make are limiting what's opening the doors to the growth. It's the arrogance that we possess by trying to live in our lives that keeps us from progressing and growing the way God calls us to grow. It's an ongoing commitment. Jesus specifically references, you know, continue in my word, implying that there's a level of, you know, daily, if not momentarily, discipleship, prayer, scripture reading, confession. It is an ongoing act of pursuing the truth. And again, we talked about this. This absolutely unlocks a different level of freedom. And it's not the freedom in the way we... we have always viewed it. It's not the freedom to sin, it's the freedom from sin. And I'm telling you, it's a completely different feeling when you approach it that way. And we talk about this and it's, you know, the topic of sin is so hard to discuss these days because we've been taught to try to tread so lightly and be so tolerant and accepting of everything. And I don't believe that's what the word calls us to do. In fact, this is exactly what this scripture verse is telling us. Jesus is telling us to focus on the truth. Don't get caught up in the opinions and the narratives of the day. Focus on the absolute truth and that can only be found in the Word of God. All let's get to the plays for the day. We've got four plays. We're going to start with a few baseball plays and then the final play is going to be a basketball play. ⁓ First play on the board, we've got the Baltimore Orioles and the Kansas City Royals. I simply like the pitching matchups in this one and it's two offenses frankly that don't impress me. So we're going under the total of nine here. Then the next two baseball plays, we're going over the seven and a half for the twins and the Mets and the Reds and the Rays. Both of those are posted at seven and a half this morning when I look, so we're going over the seven and a half. I think this is just an offensive matchup where I like them to be able to put runs on the board. I don't expect the pitchers to go deep. All of these teams can have some bullpen issues at times. So give me the Minnesota Twins and the New York Mets over seven and a half. And then we'll do the Cincinnati Reds and the Tampa Bay Rays over seven and a half as well. And then the final play of the day is the NBA game. Give me the Houston Rockets minus five against the Lakers. There's an old caveat and I- Laying points on the road is never something I would advise. Houston's down 0 1 the Lakers shot a ridiculous like 61 % from the field. I just don't see all of that continuing Houston knows they've got to get back in and even the series up. KD is listed as a day to day, know, coaches decision at the last minute. I expect Katie to try to go but either way I think Houston gets the win here. I think they dial up the defensive intensity and and I think they'll get the win cover the five and we'll go go back to. to one-on-one in that series. In summary, guys, let's get back to the ultimate topic at hand, which is return repeatedly to the truth. I'm gonna say that again. Return repeatedly to the truth. Study, confess, be willing to change what you believe when the facts and the truth that you uncover lead to that change. The freedom that comes from this is going to free you from the patterns that have armed you. It's a humble evidence approach. It's a disciplined approach to hopefully lead you to place where you can make better judgment, better decisions by basing things in the truth. As always, guys, get in your Bibles, say your prayers, love each other, and tell the truth. God bless.