Let's Play Some Baseball Trivia

“My looking to Jesus brings me joy and peace, but it is God's looking to Jesus that secures my salvation and that of all His elect, since it is impossible for our God to look at Christ, our bleeding Surety, and then to be angry with us for sins already punished in Him.” – C.H. Spurgeon

A dear friend and I play an online baseball trivia game every morning and then compare our scores. It is called “Immaculate Grid” because the game features nine squares laid out like a tic-tac-toe board and you are required to fill in the blanks with a correct answer that matches the appropriate “grid”.

For instance, the column on the left may have the Yankees logo and the corresponding column on the top may have the Phillies logo. That means you have to pick a player who played for both the Yankees and the Phillies. The object of the game is not only to guess a correct answer, but also to guess one that very few others will come up with. The lower your “rarity score”, the better.

Got it?

In the example above, one possible answer that would probably generate a low rarity score would be Jim Konstanty, a relief pitcher who played for the Phils from 1948 to 1954, and the Yanks from 1954 to 1956. Another would be Oscar Gamble, a power-hitting outfielder who played for the Phillies (1970-1972) and the Yankees (1979-1984). There are 146 other possible correct answers – some obvious and some obscure.

Well, earlier this week my friend was a little discouraged because his score wasn’t perfect. I complimented him on getting 8 of 9 right and for managing a decent rarity score, but his reply was “Yes, but it wasn’t immaculate.”

“Remember,” I told him, “You are immaculate to God!”

Charles Spurgeon, the “Prince of Preachers”, agreed with my assessment and here is how he described that wonderful and transformational truth…

“God does not say, ‘And when you shall look upon the bow, and you shall remember My covenant, then I will not destroy the earth,’ but it is gloriously put, not upon our memory, which is fickle and frail, but upon God's memory, which is infinite and immutable. ‘When . . . the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant.’ It is not my remembering God – it is God's remembering me that is the ground of my safety; it is not my laying hold of His covenant, but His covenant's laying hold on me. Glory be to God!”

“Our Lord cannot forget the names of those whom He has graven on the palms of His hands. It is with us as it was with Israel in Egypt; the blood was upon the lintel and the two side-posts, but the Lord did not say, ‘When you see the blood I will pass over you,’ but ‘When I see the blood I will pass over you.’"

“But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation - if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” Colossians 1:22-23a (NIV)

- Rev. Dale M. Glading, President