Duke Jeyaraj
India lost yet another Test Championship Final! Australia beat India comprehensively by 200 plus runs at The Oval, England on 11 June 2023. Chasing 444 runs for a difficult but definitely possible win, the four out of the top four of the Indian Test Batting line-up all got out after playing “questionable shots”. Rohit Sharma got out playing the sweep in offie Nathan Lyon’s very first over – a totally risky, and absolutely needless shot. You would have thought that Chateshwar Pujara was batting in the last over of a tight T20 chase instead of batting in the early stages of a relatively comfortable Test Final fourth innings chase when you analysed the way he got out. He got out attempting an appaling glide over the Keeper. Virat Kohli, who had sensibly cut out risky shots and played with a straight bat on Day Four evening, needlessly fished outside the offstump to be caught brilliantly in the slip cordon by Steve Smith off Scott Boland on Day 5. India’s number five, Ajinkya Rahane, hits own head in disgust when he also out after flashing outside the offstump, another needless shot given the circumstances. Four out of India’s Top Five got out to what could be termed as “questionable” shots at a time when India needed them to stay in the crease and hit only loose balls for boundaries. And sad result for Indian fans was this: yet another ICC Trophy Finals loss – the fourth straight one if you were counting (the T20 World Cup Final of 2014, the Champions Trophy Final of 2007, the Test Final of 2021 and this one).
As a believer, as a Christian leader do you do questionable things? Questionable things like entering in a closed space with the person of the opposite sex not your spouse? There were false teachers in Paul’s time who did questionable things. They “wormed their way into homes and gained control over week women” (2 Tim. 3:6). The result: these weak women along with these false teachers fell into sin, perhaps sexual sins. Getting into a locked space with a woman not your spouse in disobedience to what Paul wrote in the same letter a few verses above: “flee the evil desires of youth” (2 Tim. 2:22). Let us steer clear of doing questionable things and win “Tests” that Satan keeps bringing before us!
(The author, Duke Jeyaraj, is the founder of Grabbing the Google Gen from Gehenna Mission. This is a reader-supported Indian ministry. Reach us via WhatsApp at 918886040605 for more details).
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