Where To Run

Where To Run

Dear Champions,
The short excerpt was sent to me by Elise Glasser and is from the August 21^st edition of The Tennessean in Nashville, TN, and the Scripture is in the excerpt. 
 
19 year old Josiah Berger was driving along Del Rio Pike on Aug. 11 when police say he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a tree. He was taken to Vanderbilt Medical Center, where he would spend the next four days on life support.  While Berger s family stayed around the clock, prayer warriors, as they are now being called, also stood by. Despite their prayers for a miracle, Berger did not recover. He passed away Aug. 14, 2009 on his 19th birthday. His organs and tissues were donated to 77 people. Five of them had been on their deathbed before receiving the transplants.

Berger s father, Steve Berger, senior pastor of Grace Chapel, will tell you he has laid out on the floor many times shedding uncontrollable tears and has had sleepless nights since Josiah s death. He will tell you how his family has joined hands, prayed together and wept together behind the private walls of their home in one of the darkest moments of their lives. But then he will also tell you about the inexplicable joy and peace that has settled in and has turned their grief into a testimony and opportunity to help others.

The specific miracle that we were praying for was not answered, but other miracles were answered and they continue to be answered. Those five families ­ one man was praying for a heart and another vital organ to sustain his life. That prayer was answered that day. Can you imagine the prayers that those families were praying for that day? Those miracles came that day.

Berger continued, There were times in the first few days where you cannot imagine that this is happening; but I have 25 years of passionately following Christ in my heart, so I know where to go and who to cry out to and where to run. I know He is my strong tower, my shepherd, my banner of hope, my strength, my deliverer, and my healer. So because I know Him, when I need what I need, I know where to go.

Matthew 11:28-30 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  During Josiah s memorial service Berger asked those in the crowd wanting to turn their lives over to Christ to stand. Nearly 100 people stood up and answered the altar call.  You can read the whole article at http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/200908210210/COUNTY090101/908210320

How Are You Going To Live

How Are You Going To Live?

 
Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is part of a devotional given by 6th grader Max Casey on November 16, 2005 to the entire middle school at McCallie, a prep school in Chattanooga, TN.  Max went to heaven in August of 2006, and this is a look back.  The scripture is Psalm 18:24 This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
 
In April of this year, right after I was accepted to McCallie, I started to have double vision.  After a visit to the eye doctor and getting an MRI, I thought everything was clear, but my mom said that I had to go back to see another doctor.  I sat down in his office, and he said that it looks like you have a brain tumor. 
           
I was in a situation where I did not think I deserved to be.  And I know you have probably experienced this before, and it made you mad.  At the time, I had no faith in God and was a full-blown atheist.  During the first couple of months, I was dead-set on not believing because I did not think that it was fair to just start believing when you are in a time of need.  After a while, I decided that maybe God did this to me to teach me that, at any time, I could love him, and that He would forgive me.
 
About three months after my conversion, my uncle was told that he had cancer.  Well, my aunt started to become angry with God and did not see how this was fair that the people she loved all had bad things happening to them.  And when I found out about this, I thought, if God did not love us, then my uncle and I would not have a chance.  And, even if this did turn out for the worst, the world is not perfect.  If it were, Jesus never would have had to give his life for us, and Adam and Eve would never have eaten the fruit from the tree.
 
No matter what happens, God always loves you.  That is why he looked after Adam and Eve after they were banished from the Garden of Eden.  That is why my uncle and I do have a chance, and that is why Jesus did give his life for us.  Even if my aunt was rightfully mad, and even if everyone on earth was going to die tomorrow, the question I have for you is, How are you going to spend your last day of life?  Sad and angry with God?  What a way to spend your last day of life.  Earl Nightingale once said, Our attitude towards life determines life s attitude towards us.
 
You might ask what my attitude really is now.  It is mostly positive, because I cannot be mad at God, just like I said earlier.  I do not think that is what he intends for me to do.  I also try to keep a good sense of humor and laugh whenever possible.
 
In closing, I am to going to use a quote from folksinger Joan Baez: You do not get to choose how you are going to die or when. You can only decide how you are going to live… NOW.
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
 

Against All Odds

Against All Odds

Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is in honor of the start of college football, and it is written by Larry Williams from TigerIllustrated.com.  The Scripture is Genesis 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
 
When I see these guys, I see more than just football players, Clemson head football coach Dabo Swinney said.  I see a lot of myself in a lot of these guys.  Lost kids trying to find their way.  Scared.  They do not know what the future holds.  Problems at home.  Financial problems.  Whatever it is.

Swinney endured all of that and more starting at age 8, when he began to notice the effects of his father s drinking.  I started seeing things that kids should not see, said Swinney, the youngest of three boys.  There were times where my dad would be gone and would not come home, and I did not know why and mom would say this or that.  There would be big fights and arguments, police called to the house, windows broken.  I can remember praying to God to keep my family together and make things OK and protect my mom and my dad.  My dad was a great dad.  But when he would drink, it was not a good thing.

Were Swinney given an opportunity to change anything, he would change nothing.  Because all the strife, the heartache and heartbreak have shaped him into who he is today; a devoted Christian, a loving and committed father and husband, a successful coach.
 
When Swinney was 14, his fathers appliance business began to flounder and the family lost the home it had lived in for 10 years.  The slow deterioration culminated in his parents divorce when he was in the 11th grade.  He remembers sitting in the field house at Pelham High School crying like a baby after he heard the news.  To that point, he had tried to keep everything from his friends while painting his family as happy, sober, and normal.  I was playing three sports and in the Honor Society and all of that, but it had really taken a toll on me.  Swinney and his mother moved out and began renting a condo; but her job at the mall could not pay all the bills, and the eviction notice was nailed to the front door after just three months so they moved in with one of Swinneys high school buddies.

He says that he would not have been able to get through it without his relationship with Christ.  He remembers the day he was saved (Feb. 3, 1986), remembers what he wrote in his Bible that day (I dedicate my life to the Lord, and my life will never be the same.).
 
After mine and his mothers marriage broke up, we had some hard times for a while, his father Ervil Swinney said.  But he was just always an inspiration, and he was definitely an influence on me getting sober because I realized I wanted him to be as proud of me as I was of him.

It is just amazing how things work in your life, Coach Dabo Swinney said.  I know how to be successful, and that is:  You put your eyes on the Lord in everything you do, you believe in yourself, and you never quit.  If you do those three things, you are going to be successful. 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  The entire article may be found at this site: http://clemson.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=882281