Yes it's from 2008 ¯(°_o)/¯ but it's a lot better graphic than I could come up with. And yes, it's from a gambling site. In Seminary we called this "plundering the Egyptians" (◔‿◔)
So…
there’s a little Basketball Tournament going on…
March…something or other.
Brackets are everywhere…like Spring pollen.
So I’ve worked really hard in my brackets.
But my brackets are different from all the others.
Mine are for…
The 2012 March Madness
Bible Verse Tournament…
If you click on it it gets bigger and easier to read. This. Took. Hours. To do.
I gathered the top 64 Bible verses…
I read surveys and threw in a couple of my own favorites…
‘cause – you know – it’s my tournament and all.
And some really good ones got left out…
because there was only room for 64 teams.
That was kind of sad.
Anyway…
Here’s some “behind the scenes” stuff on the selection process…
There are two kind of teams when it comes to March Madness selection. There are the “shoe ins”. Everybody knows they’ll be in the tournament – it’s just a matter of where they’ll be seeded (i.e. John 3:16 and Romans 8:28).
Then there are the teams on the “bubble”. They sit on a couch in the coach’s living room and watch “Selection Sunday”…hoping, and sometimes praying to hear their name. That would be teams like Joshua 1:8 or Hebrews 10:25.
And there were tough choices to be made.
I mean verses like 1 Cor 13:4-7 – the love verses…
or the Ten Commandments (Ex 20:2-17)…
they couldn’t even be considered…
too many verses…
no clear standout…
and not the same if even one verse had to stay home.
And what about great verses…
James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom…”
Or Joshua 24:15 “…as for me and my house…”
It was a tough job (◔‿◔) but somebody had to do it.
Then came the seeding.
The first slots were the top four seeds.
Everybody wants to be a top seed.
It’s the easiest route to the Final Four.
The top four seeds this year (keep in mind that all top four seeds have never made it to the Final Four – just sayin’)
♥✞ღ.…. John 3:16 “God so loved the world…”
♥✞ღ….. Jeremiah 20:11 “For I know well the plans I have for you…”
♥✞ღ….. Romans 8:28 “All things work together for the good…”
♥✞ღ….. Philippians 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ…”
But things started to get really interesting when I filled in the 9th seeds…
because that’s where each verse began to receive its opponent.
The first two that got paired were in the East Regional bracket (8 vs 9)
♥✞ღ.….Heb 11:1: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for…”
♥✞ღ….. 2 Cor 5:17: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation…”
Go ahead…pick a winner…
see how interesting this can be? (◔‿◔)
There’s more “behind the scenes” stuff…
But in the meantime…
If you’d like…
hit that right click button on the brackets…
save it (interesting how we use that word “save”. No?)…
and feel free to start filling them out.
Bring ‘em to church maybe.
I really need you to participate for this to be fun.
Let the Madness…
¯\(◔‿◔)/¯ begin…
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I pick Hebrews 11:1 as the winner of this one. Why? Because without the faith thing, the new creature thing means nothing, right? My referee on this choice is “without faith it is impossible to please God.” It’s in the rulebook!!!!
Hmmmmm. See how the controversy can start!!!! I haven’t really started picking the winners yet. But since you got the ball rolling my friend, I think I might be leaning toward the opposite choice. Because Hebrews 11:1 is just a definition of what faith is – while second Corinthians 5:17 tells me that I AM different – and therefore I should behave differently – and choose different things – and I can’t do it on my own – I DON’T do it on my own – but instead I’m re-created, and the old things need to give way to the new things – EVER new things – His mercies are new every morning. See how interesting this can get Cora? I’m excited about this. I’m not sure how I’m going to run the Tourney posts yet – still have more ‘splainin to do about the selection process. But thank you my friend for being in on the ground floor. God bless you!
I just set the whole picture as my wallpaper! I love it. There might be an upset in the South between the 1st and 16th seeds. Yah Yah Yah … God gave us His Son (v.16) but He came to Save us – not Condemn us (v.17) – such HOPE! Such GRACE! Eternal Life baby! Heehee! I’m not so into the basketball so this – I love! Can’t wait to read more about how it all came about … my best to you!
2-Es
COULD be – but remember – a number 16 seed has never beaten a number 1 seed. John wrote in a kind of flowy kind of Greek – poetic at times. And verse 17 – it’s really closely related to 16. No? but it’s just enough different to SAY something different. And I’ll be writing about this in a day or so – it was just a happy little coincidence that verse 16 would do battle against verse 17 – I didn’t see anything like THAT coming. And Felicia, I’m not sure how I’ll be handling this, but I DO want your finished brackets. I think I’ll be finishing mine here on the blog – but it’s nothing if it doesn’t have input from people whose wisdom my heart. So start filling yours out – and be ready to defend your picks – because I’ll be picking – but my mind could always be changed. God bless you Felecia went two e’s (◔‿◔)
This is so incredibly creative and clever, Craig! I know this must have taken you such a long time to do; know your time and effort is much appreciated. I do like those top seeds of yours! Great choices!
Blessings to you always!
Martha, I’ve actually looked forward to doing this for a while now – March Madness kind of snuck up on me – I’m late to the party – I should’ve started this a week ago – I’ll be going through the brackets myself figuring my way to the final four – which, as I said in the post – has never in NCAA history been made up of all the top four seeds – we’ll see how it works out here – but I’d heart your opinion – I need everybody’s opinion in order to make this work – and make it fun – and make it not all me – so please, when you have a moment or two – work your way through the brackets – and get your final four – maybe e-mail me the results. But I’d really heart it if you went through these brackets with me. Blessings to you always as well!
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