I used played golf when I was a young man. It’s not an easy sport. If you want to hit the ball – and I’m not even talking about hitting a straight shot – there’s a few ground rules that you have to master well.

The first, and probably the most difficult of all, is to keep your head still. Before the club has even struck the ball, you want to see where it is going. Especially if you’re as erratic as I was, you had to follow the flight of the ball in order to know in which direction you had to looking for your ball.

There are quite a few other basic rules, like not bending one arm, standing with your feet kept neatly apart, shifting your weight from one foot to the other, and more.

I tried so hard to master these ground rules, but sadly my knees didn’t want to cooperate. I had to hang up my clubs, which made the courses in the Western Cape much safer …

Every sport, and every job, have a set of ground rules that you have to understand through and through before you can succeed in that sport or job.

It’s the same with our faith. You have to understand the basic rules really well. You have to master them; in other words, have a clear understanding of what they mean. They must become part of your lifestyle so that other people can see it in your conduct.

The writer of Hebrews said that he had talked more than enough about the following ground rules:

• ²turning your back on “salvation by self-help” and
• turning in trust toward God;
• baptismal instructions;
• laying on of hands;
• resurrection of the dead;
• eternal judgment.

But each of us must know exactly what we understand by these, because if we don’t master them, our legs will start shaking when the winds start blowing.

These rules must be the foundation. We need to base our lives on them. They determine our direction. And how can something determine our direction if we don’t understand exactly what salvation is, what we believe in, how baptism and the laying of hands work, about resurrection after we have finally died here on earth, and will happen to those who don’t believe?

Maybe you should make some time to make sure that you understand exactly what your ground rules are. Take a pen and write down next to these six items what you understand them to mean. Then go and compare it to the Word of God. And change your definition, where necessary.

And go and live them!

Scripture
Hebrews 6:1-3

Reflection
Do you understand the ground rules?
Can you help others understand them?
Ot what do you have to do differently?

Prayer
Father, I think you must be exhausted by my lack of concentration. I always have to go back to the start, because I don’t remember. That’s why I want to ask You to help me get past the first step and pay more attention, so that I can also help others with their faith. In Jesus’ Name, amen.