Random Act of Kindness Follow Up

Random Act of Kindness Follow Up

 

Dear Champions, 

The previous story on Larry Stewart was actually 5 years old, so I decided to google him to see if there was any more news on him.  I found out that he actually died in January of 2007 from his battle with cancer at 58 years old.  His private holiday giving started in December 1979 when he was at a drive-in restaurant nursing his wounds from having been fired. It was the second year in a row he had been fired the week before Christmas.

"It was cold and this carhop didn't have on a very big jacket, and I thought to myself, `I think I got it bad. She's out there in this cold making nickels and dimes,"' he said. He gave her $20 and told her to keep the change.

Champions, once again, have a great week!-David Vining

Random Acts of Kindness

 Random Acts of Kindness

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is from Dave Ramsey, and the Scripture is Luke 6:38  Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

One of the great holiday mysteries was revealed several years ago when Kansas City businessman Larry Stewart (aka Secret Santa) came forward and told the world that it is he who has gone around for the past 26 years and handed out $100 bills to random people at Christmas. He estimates that he has given away about $1.3 million during his time.

Stewart, who has cancer, said he revealed his identity because he wants to spread the word about how strongly he believes in random acts of kindness. He has plans to speak to community groups and get the word out about helping other people in need, be it through donating time or money. "That's what we're here for, to help others out," he said.

What's even more amazing than Secret Santa's story is its origins.  In the early 1970s, Stewart was a broke salesman. After living in his car for eight days and not eating anything in two days, he stopped at a diner and ate a big breakfast. He couldn't afford it, and pretended that he lost his wallet when he was done eating. The diner owner, who was also the chef, came over and paid for Stewart's meal. That one little act of kindness inspired Stewart to give about 1.3 million in the last 26 years.  The giving started with $5 and $10 bills, but as Stewart's career in cable television and long distance phone service grew, he found that he was able to give more. He started giving in Kansas City in 1979 and has traveled all over the country, even forming an entourage who goes out and gives. Stewart has been all over the place, giving money in New York after 9/11 as well as the Virginia/Washington, D.C. area after the sniper attacks a few years ago.

Stewart is proof that giving is the most fun you can have with money, and it's a joy to get to choose how you will help others. It could mean buying a hot meal for a family at a shelter, buying toys and giving them to charity, or just handing money out.  Giving makes us more Christ-like, and a spiritually mature Christian gives. It also makes us become less selfish, and less selfish people have more of a tendency to prosper in relationships and in wealth.  Because we are designed in God's image, we are happiest and most fulfilled when serving and giving.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The Great Wall Destroyer

The Great Wall Destroyer

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Ron Hutchcraft, and the Scripture is Acts 2:1,42,44  When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place.  They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.   All the believers were together and had everything in common.

That word fellowship underlined above is koinonia; it means intimate closeness.  If you want to tear down a wall between rooms, use a crow bar. If you want to tear down walls between people, you use prayer. You can't get really, really close until you really, really pray together. Oh, sure, sometimes prayer can be a time when people still keep their masks on, keep it superficial, stick to the general praying kind of stuff. But real prayer is where people come together and express how they really need the Lord. You know, worship Him with specific thanks for specific things He's done recently. You fight together on your knees for the lives of people you care about. You come against Satan. You come against the stronghold of darkness that you both know is there. You admit your struggle, you passionately seek His strength, His answers, and walls start coming down.

Every married couple needs to pray together daily. It is the ultimate glue between people: Christian coworkers, parents and their children, Christian friends, even if it starts out feeling awkward. Go to your Father together. In fact, the person you're having the most difficulty with is probably the one you most need to be praying with.

When we go into the Father's presence sort of distant from each other, we almost always come out of His presence closer. Prayer softens hearts; prayer helps us see people and situations through God's eyes. And prayer is the great wall destroyer.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Acceptance

Acceptance

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley & Stuart Hall from their book Max Q, and the Scripture is John 13:34-35  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

Many unbelieving teenagers feel unaccepted by the church.  Christ didn't make people feel that way.  As Christians we believe that certain things are right and certain things are wrong, and we have difficulty accepting people who are doing the wrong things.  We think that accepting them means lowering our standards.  But Jesus wasn't lowering his standards by accepting sinners.  He wasn't condoning people's behaviors or lifestyles by loving them.  He was simply doing just that:  loving them.  He loved them so much that he hated what sin was doing to them.

 

North Point Community Church is full of people who disagree theologically with us.  It's full of people who are over their heads in lifestyles and habits that are contradictory to God's design.  Our youth ministry is full of these kinds of teenagers. Yet they like us.  They want to be around us.  They appreciate and reciprocate the acceptance that we show to them.  And as a result, we are able to continue to pave a path of influence in their lives and draw them nearer and nearer to faith in Christ.

 

The inability of the church-at-large to accept people who are different-whether in appearance, belief, or behavior-says more about our insecurities than it does our spirituality.  Lost students don't become more hungry and thirsty for God by having our students reject them.

 

Acceptance leads to influence.  We close down around rejection, and we open up when we feel accepted.   Teenagers not coming to faith in Christ are a sign that unconditional acceptance and love are missing.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

An Introduction to Another Life

An Introduction to Another Life

 

The short excerpt is by Larry Crab from his book, The Pressure's Off, and the Scripture is Romans 8:18  I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

 

In September 2001, airplanes hijacked by terrorists crashed into New York's World Trade Center and into the Pentagon.  Religious leaders tried to reassure an unnerved citizenry by saying, "God is in control."

 

What do we mean to say that God is in control?  What should we mean?  And what comfort are we to draw from whatever we mean?  If God does exist and if He really is in control, it's patently clear that He isn't doing all He could to relieve suffering.

 

I cannot even approach an answer to these age-old questions without first fixing two thoughts firmly in my mind.  First, this life is only an introduction to another life, for followers of Jesus a better one.  Suffering could have a future point that justifies letting it continue in order to do its work.

 

The second thought is this:  God is devoting His power to an agenda I don't properly value.  We want the better life and we trust God to provide it.  After all, He is in control.  He can give it all to us, so we set about to persuade Him to use His power on our behalf. Somehow we've missed the arrogance in this thinking.  Believing that our greatest need is to be happy, safe, and fulfilled is all about us.  And we believe, deep down, that we're entitled to whatever we think we need. 

 

God is in control of seeing to it that nothing thwarts His plan for His people.  Is that plan to give us a better life now, as we define it?  No.  It's to reveal Himself as the greatest treasure the human heart could ever imagine, to draw people into a relationship with Him that utterly delights their souls. 

 

This life is only an introduction to another life, for followers of Jesus a better one.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

 

It's All About Economics

It's All About Economics

 

Dear Champions,

 

A close friend of mine, Darren Moorman, recently released a movie called Unconditional (Unconditionalthemovie.com) on September 21^st of this year.  It was an excellent movie.  It was very touching, well made, and I gave it a 10.  If I had to pick the major theme of the movie, then I would say that it was a movie about the importance of fatherhood.  It was a movie that I recommend to all of you.

 

I talked with Darren this past week and asked him how the movie was doing financially.  Sadly, it does not look like the movie is going to break even.  He explained that he had people that financially backed the movie that were going to back more of them, but they won't back future movies because of the financial hit taken on this one.  "It's all about economics," Darren explained.  "Hollywood wants to make money.  If good people don't go and support good movies, then good movies will simply just go away.  If trashy movies make money, then more trashy movies will be made."

The average cost of the commercials during last year's Super Bowl was $3.5 million.  Why?  Because what we watch and listen to influences our behavior.

 

Philipians 4:8 says, Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  

Champions, if you remember, pray that Darren Moorman will be able to produce more uplifting Christian movies.  If he does, then consider supporting them. -David Vining

 

P.S.  Hopefully, Unconditional will soon be available on DVD, but I don't think that it can be found at the movie theater anymore.

 

Accept Me Because of Jesus

Accept Me Because of Jesus

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

Jesus is a shepherd, and He's bringing you home.  In John chapter 10, Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd.  The hired hand when he sees the wolf coming; he abandons the sheep and runs away, but I lay down my life for the sheep".  Jesus is the only shepherd who became a sacrificial lamb.  He says, "I have done everything for you.  I lost my glory, I lost my Father, and I lost my life.  I lost everything, so that I wouldn't lose you."  Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world! 

Salvation of the world had to come into the world in weakness and through defeat.  It's the opposite of the way that you receive any other kind of salvation that any philosophy of any other religion offers.  Every other philosophy and religion says, "Here's how to relate to God:  Pull yourself together and be strong and then say, "God, accept me because of what I've done."  But the gospel is to admit that you are not together, and to admit that you are weak.  It is to say, "God, you're going to have to relate to me because of what Jesus has done." 

The gospel saves people, not who are strong, but those who will admit that they are sinners and that they are weak.  Religion says, "I give God a record of righteousness, and then God owes me blessing."  But the gospel says, "God through Jesus Christ has given me a perfect record of righteousness which I receive by faith, and now I live for him."  The gospel message is that you are more sinful and evil and weak than you ever dared believe, but you are more valued and accepted and loved than you ever dared hope.  John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me."   I didn't come to show you how to live the perfect life and then die, I lived the life you should have lived, I died the death that you should have died, I am the way!  Come ask for me, come grab me, come rest in me, reach out and say, 'Father, love me and accept me because of what Jesus did,' and you're there. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

A Wounded Me

A Wounded Me

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Luke 22:42-44  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.

There's no better way to intimacy with God than to have something horrible happen in your life that makes you really doubt God's love and go to Him anyway and say, "By God's grace, Thy will be done."  When it's hard, pray anyway.  When it's hard, obey anyway.  Keep saying, "Thy will be done," and it'll push you into an intimacy that you never had because you'll have to get to know Him as the good shepherd.  If you've been wounded and you say, "Lord, I want you to heal me," but it doesn't look like you are getting healed, then there is only one way through it.  You must say, "Evidently God you want a wounded me in this world to do certain things and be a certain person and get certain things done that I couldn't get done unless I was wounded. 

If in the history of the world, God has done His saving work through defeat, suffering, pain and confusing, inexplicable tragic and difficult situations, wouldn't it make sense that sometimes He'll work in your life like that? 

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

Marriage

Marriage

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Matt Birk, center for the Baltimore Ravens.  It was written to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune recently in response to some other opinions shared by a couple of NFL players.  The Scripture is Matthew 19:4-6 Haven't you read," Jesus replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?  So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."

Children have a right to a mom and a dad, and I realize that this doesn't always happen. Through the work my wife and I do at pregnancy resource centers and underprivileged schools, we have witnessed firsthand the many heroic efforts of single mothers and fathers -- many of whom work very hard to provide what's best for their kids. But recognizing the efforts of these parents and the resiliency of some (not all, unfortunately) of these kids, does not then give society the right to dismiss the potential long-term effects on a child of not knowing or being loved by his or her mother or father. Each plays a vital role in the raising of a child.

 

Same-sex unions may not affect my marriage specifically, but it will affect my children -- the next generation. Ideas have consequences, and laws shape culture. Marriage redefinition will affect the broader well-being of children and the welfare of society. As a Christian and a citizen, I am compelled to care about both.

 

I am speaking out on this issue because it is far too important to remain silent. People who are simply acknowledging the basic reality of marriage between one man and one woman are being labeled as "bigots" and "homophobic." Aren't we past that as a society?  Don't we all have family members and friends whom we love who have same-sex attraction? Attempting to silence those who may disagree with you is always un-American, but especially when it is through name-calling, it has no place in respectful conversation.

 

A defense of marriage is not meant as an offense to any person or group. All people should be afforded their inalienable American freedoms. There is no opposition between providing basic human rights to everyone and preserving marriage as the sacred union of one man and one woman.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

P.S.  To read the entire article go to http://www.focusonlinecommunities.com/blogs/Finding_Home/2012/10/03/this-nfl-player-said-what?refcd=136901

I Don't Love You That Much

I Don't Love You That Much

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

The definition of marriage is cleaving.  You don't know how to go about deciding whether to be married or who to be married to unless you know what marriage is.  Jesus says in Luke 14:28, "Before a man goes and builds a tower, he first counts the cost. Before a king goes off to war, he counts the cost."  You can't even make a decision about being married unless you understand something about what the Bible says that marriage is.  The definition of marriage is a covenant.  It's a public promise.  It's a permanent and exclusive legal commitment to share your entire life with someone else.  Unless you have someone who is willing to give you a promise like that, and that same person you are willing to give a promise to, you mustn't give yourself to that person.  If you don't have a promise like that and you aren't willing to give a promise like that, you don't really love that person enough to be married to them. 

 

The modern way of talking about love is totally different.  It's a completely subjective meaning.  When people say, "Why don't we live together?  Why do we need to be married?  I love you.  Why do I need a piece of paper to show you that love?"  If you define love as feeling, that's right.  That's not what the Bible ever means when it means love.  Biblically, if somebody says, "I love you, but I don't want to marry you."  What they mean is, "I don't love you that much."  There's no way around that.  A person who says, "I love you, and I want to marry you," loves you more than the person who says, "I love you, but I don't want to marry you."  Why?  Because love by definition biblically is a commitment.  It's the ability to make an exclusive and a permanent commitment.  That's what love is.  That's what you most want, and you know that.  When somebody says, "I don't need a piece of paper to show that I love you," yes you do!  If you love a person the way the Bible says that two people are supposed to love one another in order to share their lives together, it means that you have no problem making a legal permanent exclusive commitment to them.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Lasting Value

Lasting Value

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Mark Biller, and the Scripture is Psalm 90:12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

I love the story of Alfred Nobel, as related by Randy Alcorn in his book, The Treasure Principle:  Nobel dropped the newspaper and put his head in his hands. It was 1888.  Nobel was a Swedish chemist who made his fortune inventing and producing dynamite. His brother Ludvig had died in France. But now Alfred's grief was compounded by dismay. He'd just read an obituary in a French newspaper -not his brother's obituary, but his! An editor had confused the brothers.  The headline read, "The Merchant of Death Is Dead." Alfred Nobel's obituary described a man who had gotten rich by helping people kill one another.

 

Shaken by this appraisal of his life, Nobel resolved to use his wealth to change his legacy. When he died eight years later, he left more than $9 million to fund awards for people whose work benefited humanity. The awards became known as the Nobel Prizes. Alfred Nobel had a rare opportunity – to look at the assessment of his life at its end and still have the chance to change it. Before his life was over, Nobel made sure he had invested his wealth in something of lasting value.

 

Each of us chooses, either purposefully or passively, how we invest our time and treasure. The wise man invests his life carefully, using the temporary currencies of this life to gain riches that will last forever. As a poet once wrote, "Only one life, twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last."

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Independence and Interdependence

Independence and Interdependence

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

For men, the gift of independence has a tendency to become autonomy and tyranny.  The female gift of interdependence always has a tendency to become dependent.  In Genesis 3:17-18 after Adam and Eve rebel against God, God says to Adam, "You will sweat and work in the dust of the ground and thorns and thistles will come up."  He says to Eve in Genesis 3:16, "You will have pain in childbearing and your desire will be for your husband, but he will rule over you." 

 

When God curses humanity, He curses different aspects.  When He curses Adam, He curses his work.  He says, "Your need and desire to have an impact on the world, to be independent and to achieve is going to become an idol.  It's going to become too important to you, and you will always be frustrated because it will never give you what you want."  And He turns to the wife, and He curses her relationships.  He says, "You will want your husband desperately, but your husband will rule over you."

 

The teaching is that the wife's interdependence gift under the influence of sin will trip her up.  She will become a dependent person and will want to be taken care of.  The husband whose independent gift is now under the influence of sin, instead of being an independent person, he will be a tyrant and will rule over and master her.  When masculinity and femininity go bad, the independence becomes tyranny in men, and the interdependence becomes dependence in women.

 

The Bible teaches under the influence of sin that men will tend to oppress women, and women will tend to make it easy for them.  The fact is that men and women in marriage are supposed to learn to submit to one another, and the husband is supposed to have a loving authority.  The husband's independence becomes tyranny unless the wife pulls him back.  A man is not to be a tyrant but to be independent, and she needs to pull him back.  In the same way the wife will have a tendency to move toward dependence unless the husband in his strength pulls her back.  There needs to be a completion. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Your Glory-Part 2

Your Glory-Part 2

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller (the first paragraph) and Andy Stanley (the second and third paragraph), and the Scripture is Jeremiah 9:23-24 This is what the Lord says: "Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the Lord.

How do you decide whether a watch is a good or a bad watch?  You have to know what it was designed for.  For example, it's terrible at hammering nails – so don't try.  But if it's terrible at hammering nails, that's okay because it's very good at telling me the time.  Therefore, until I know what it is built and designed for, it is impossible to even talk about whether it's a good or a bad watch."

 

Your glory is not a big enough prize to devote your life to.  Begin factoring into your decisions and your life what would be most honoring to God?  You owe it to yourself to ask the question because it is the purpose for which you have been made, and you know this intuitively.  You're going to live for somebody's glory, and God has invited you to live for His.  Ask what would be most honoring to Him.  

 

When you cross the line and start living for God's glory and not your own, something inside of you is going to light up.  There's going to be a freedom that you've never experienced before, and you will step into the purpose for which you were made-to be a reflection of your Creator's glory.  

 

Man's chief in is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Your Glory-Part 1

Your Glory-Part 1

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Andy Stanley, and the scripture is Psalm 19:1-4 The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them.  Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.

 

You were created to reflect the image and the glory of God.  Your glory is really too small for you to give your life to and live for.  Everybody lives for somebody's glory.   Probably in your life no one has ever challenged you to decide whose glory that you're going to live for, so consequently guess whose glory you live for?

 

Living for your glory is too small a thing.  I don't care what you do and how much money you make and how cute your wife is and how cool your stuff is and how smart your kids are.  To become absorbed with you're glory makes you small. Ultimately it makes you insignificant because you weren't created for your glory.   You can never amass enough glory to fill you up, and when you become a glory hog you become less content, more unhappy, and more undesirable to be with.  You were made for something more, and you have been invited to something much bigger, grander and more glorious.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

True Happiness-Part 2

True Happiness-Part 2

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The Bible says seeking happiness is the fundamental bent and bias of our souls, and you'll never find happiness that way.  Jesus says that if you seek happiness it will always escape you. 

Is God committed to your happiness?  Absolutely and yet if you come to Him to make you happy you are coming to a false god.  If you say, "I'm interested in this Christianity and maybe I will come and bite on it if I can see that it will help me realize my goals and make me happy," you are not coming to God.  You are coming to a butler.  Either God exists, or He doesn't exist.  If He doesn't exist, you can't come to Him for happiness.  But if He does exist you have to realize that you must come to Him because He created you, and therefore He owns you.  To not come to Him and obey Him if He does exist would be an injustice.  So the only way to come to the real God rightly is to come to Him without conditions and say, "Forget happiness because I owe you everything." 

 

There's only two ways to come to God.  You can come to God on the basis of saying I owe you everything, and you owe me nothing.  The other way is on the basis of saying I'm going to come to you, but then you're going to owe me a lot.  The only way for you to know on what basis you have come is to see what happens in the bad seasons.  When things go wrong do you get upset and say what good did it do me to come to church and read my Bible?  That shows that you came to Him on the basis that I will do this and this, but then you owe me.  In other words, my number one priority is happiness, and I am using God as a way to get there as opposed to saying my number one priority is to serve God and if happiness happens that is great.

Here is the irony.  The less that you are concerned about your happiness and the more that you are concerned about God the happier that you will get.   Aim at heaven and get earth thrown in.  Aim at earth and you get neither.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

True Happiness-Part 1

True Happiness-Part 1

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

Happiness or "Blessed are" is found all through the Bible, and it can never be gotten directly.  It is always a by product of seeking something else more than happiness.  It never says when you see the word blessed that blessed is the one that seeks blessedness.  Blessedness is the one that seeks after something more than blessedness. 

 

Seek happiness or seek righteousness.  Which should you do?  If you seek righteousness you will get both.  If you seek happiness more than righteousness you will get neither.  The person that is happy is always the one that has stopped trying so hard to be happy and has sat down and said, "What am I living for"?  Jesus says in Matthew 6 that you who are worried should not have anxiety over these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.  He is saying that the reason that you are unhappy is that you have made something else your trust. 

 

Why is it that you sometimes cheat, lie, break your promises or break you own standards?  The normal and natural habit of our heart is that you believe in principles like honesty, purity and integrity, but sometimes you have to make an exception.  It means that there is one principle that is over all of the other principles, and that is that you've got to be happy.  Oh you believe in telling the truth, but not if you're going to have to lose your job over it because you wouldn't be happy.  You believe in doing this, but not if you're going to lost your girlfriend over it.  There is only one thing that you believe, and that is that the top priority that you are seeking is your happiness.  Everything else comes second and third.  The kingdom of God is great, but first seek happiness.  Honest is great, but first seek happiness.

 

Happiness is always a by product of seeking something else more than happiness.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

A Purpose Greater Than Yourself

A Purpose Greater Than Yourself

 

The short excerpt is from David Thomas in his book Remember Why You Play.  The author follows the Faith Christian Lions football team during the 2008 football season.  Kris Hogan is the head football coach, and below is part of what he told his team after losing in the state championship game.  The Scripture is Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus replied:  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.

 

Life is about relationships.  You guys don't play football just to win on the scoreboard.  The first, greatest commandment:  Love your teammates.  That is why you play football.  You don't play for the scoreboard.  I know you want to win.  I know you're hurt right now.  Let me tell you why I like football.  Because if the score were reversed now, you would have still had to demonstrate all of the biblical qualities that make a great husband, and make a great Christian, make a great dad.  It's perseverance.  It's commitment to other individuals.  Commitment to a team.  You're going to have to do that one of these days when you don't like what's going on in your church.  You don't just bail when things get tough.  You go to your pastor and you tell him you love him and you fix it from the inside.

 

You live life with a purpose greater than yourself.  That's what sports are about.  You're not always going to get what you even deserve in life.  On a work scale, you probably deserved to be the state champions.  Life is about how you deal with what you get.

 

Champions, have a great summer!-David Vining

 

P.S.  A movie called One Heart is supposed to come out later this year involving the Faith Lions and the Gainesville State School, a prison school.

The Impact of Fathers

The Impact of Fathers

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is an early Father's Day message by James Dobson, and the Scripture is at the bottom of the excerpt.

 

Prisons are populated primarily by men who were abandoned or rejected by their fathers.  Motivational speaker and writer Zig Ziglar quotes his friend Bill Glass, a dedicated evangelist who counseled almost every weekend for 25 years with men who were incarcerated, as saying that among the thousands of prisoners he had met, not one of them genuinely loved his dad.  95% of those on death row hated their fathers.  In 1998, there were 1,202,107 people in federal or state prisons.  Of that number 94% were males.  Of the 3,452 prisoners awaiting execution, only 48 were women.  That amounts to 98.6% males.  Clearly, as Babara Jackson said, "it is far easier to build strong children than to repair broken men."

 

Some years ago, executives of a greeting-card company decided to do something special for Mother's Day.  They set up a table in a federal prison, inviting any inmate who so desired to send a free card to his mom.  The lines were so long, they had to make another trip to the factory to get more cards.  Due to the success of the event, they decided to do the same thing on Father's Day, but this time no one came.  Not one prisoner felt the need to send a card to his dad.  Many had no idea who their fathers even were.  What a sobering illustration of a dad's importance to his children.

 

I once had a conversation with a man named Bill Houghton, who was president of a large construction firm.  Through the years, he had hired and managed thousands of employees.  I asked him,"When you are thinking of hiring an employee-especially a man-what do you look for?"  His answer surprised me.  He said, "I look primarily at the relationship between a man and his father.  If he felt loved by his dad and respected his authority, he's likely to be a good employee."  Then he added, "I won't hire a young man who has been in rebellion against his dad.  He will have difficulty with me, too."  I have also observed that the relationship between a boy and his father sets the tone for so much of what is to come.  He is that important at home.

 

Psalm 27:10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Begin With The End In Mind

Begin With The End In Mind

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is from David Thomas in his book Remember Why You Play.  The author follows the Faith Christian Lions football team during the 2008 football season.  Head coach Kris Hogan is the Christian head football coach.  The Scripture is James 4:14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

 

I want you to imagine that it is 60 years from now, and it is your funeral.  When your wife, kids and grandkids look back on your life, what would you want them to say about you.  You probably would not want them to say, He was never here, but he sure was rich.

 

What do you do every day?  What sarcasm do you use with your buddies that maybe you should not use?  What unlovable do you pass in the hallway that nobody is going to talk to all day, and all it would take is for a Lions football player to say, How is it going?  When they put you in the ground, you do not want people saying, he thought a little bit more about what people thought of him than doing the right thing.  He was a little too cool.

 

Nobody in this circle can pay back their mom and dad.  You might as well forget that.  But you can make them proud.  And you can make your mom and your dad, when they lay their head on their pillow at night, you can make their heart totally at ease and think how blessed they are to have a son who looks them in the eye and says, Yes sir and No sir, Yes maam and No maam.  Takes out the trash before being asked, Guys, you can make your mom and dad's life if you will be the young man that they have dreamed about you being.

 

You have to think about where you are going.  Habit number two from the Covey principles:  begin with the end in mind.  What would you want people to say about you when you are gone?

Ecclesiastes 12:13  Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind.  

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Meeting With God

Meeting With God

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is from David Thomas in his book Remember Why You Play.  The author follows the Faith Christian Lions football team during the 2008 football season.  Head coach Kris Hogan is the Christian head football coach.  The Scripture is Mark 1:35 Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.

 

Coach Hogan opened Open Floor Thursday by saying it would be an extremely short session.  If you are going to be what God intended you to be, if you are going to have any impact at all spiritually speaking, you must meet with God as a lifestyle.  You must take the time to put that on your calendar and schedule everything else around it.  If you do not, you will not have spiritual impact on this planet.  It is like taking a car and not putting gas in it.  It does not matter how many horses the engine has, it is not going to go without fuel.

 

Meeting with God is to your spiritual life what food is to your mortal body.  It will shut down and cease to function.  It is not that you will lose your sonship or relationship, but you will lose your fellowship with God, and you will be spiritual midgets.  You will not impact your kids.  You may think you will, but you will not.  The reason why is because the words you spoke did not have the anointing of God, so they are going to fall on deaf ears.  An uneducated person, such as Peter the fisherman, can get up and speak with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and 3000 can run to join the church.  But an educated man like Nicodemus, without the anointing, can speak and everyone will say, That is nice and go on about their business.

 

Your resources and mine are not enough to function in the Spirit and make an impact.  Oh, they might be enough to do some certain job, if that is what you want your life to be.  But you will have no impact spiritually if you do not make it a priority to meet with God over and over as a lifestyle.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Courage

Courage

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is from David Thomas in his book Remember Why You Play.  The author follows the Faith Christian Lions football team during the 2008 football season.  Head coach Kris Hogan is the Christian head football coach.  The Scripture is at the end of the excerpt.

 

What other people think about you really does not matter that much so long as you are doing what you know to be right.  Hogan asked the players to contemplate the courage it takes to be a Christian.  No great person has ever been with the crowd.  They always walk against the flow.

 

A crowd is where a coward goes to hide, because he cannot stand up.  You say, what does that have to do with Christianity?  Think about some of the things you may consider hard.  You might consider it hard to share your faith.  Especially with your cool buddies around.  You might think that is hard.  That is not nearly as easy as grabbing a beer and fitting in and drinking. 

 

It takes a lot more courage to be a Christian teenager than it does to be anything else on this planet.  Because you guys are moral wimps most of the time-and I am talking about your age, not you.  But teenagers are moral sissies.  They just cannot-because of their need for approval, they just cannot look another person in the eye and say, I am not going to drink.

 

It is a man of God who can override any crowd.  I value what God thinks about something more than your opinion of it.

 

Check your coward meter.  Where do you rank?  What are you willing to do?  Are you willing to be different?  Because if you will not be different, you will make no difference.  It takes a lot of courage to be the man of God that you dream about being.

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Reflection of His Grace

Reflection of His Grace

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

There were three seasons of Paul s life where he got so desperate and was in such pain that he fasted and prayed and asked God to give him some relief.  He was a man with amazing faith who ended up dying for what he believed, yet there was a period in his life when God was silent.  He was in the dark as to why God would not hear or answer his prayers, and some of us have mistaken God s silence as His absence.  Although he was a rock star in Christianity with perfect faith, God let him wander around in the dark for a while, and he got No for his answer.

 

2 Corinthians 12:9 But God said to Paul, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

 

Every single one of you has something that we wish God would change and apparently He is not going to change it.  Are you going to shake your fist and walk away, or will you accept No for an answer and lean hard on Him?  Paul said, my faith is not based on an answer to prayer but on the fact that Jesus is the Savior of the world and that He rose from the dead.  I am not going anywhere, but if you are not going to remove this, then I am trusting that your grace is going to empower me to keep on going.

 

When God says No, it is not a reflection of your faith; but if you respond correctly, you will become a refection of His grace, because it takes more faith to endure a No from God than to acquire a Yes.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Our Foundation

Our Foundation

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

 

The foundation of our faith as Christians is not and answer in our circumstances, but it is a person, Jesus Christ.  All of us try to figure out what God is like based on the way circumstances work out.  We are trying to figure out how to try to get God to work in our favor.  The reason we believe is not because things work out and God answers our prayers.  We believe because God sent His Son into the world to be our Savior.  He lived a life, died on the cross for our sins, and rose from the dead.  He was seen by hundreds of people who spent their lives telling people not simply what they believed, but what they were convinced they saw with their own two eyes. 

 

Every once in a while you meet somebody that has an extraordinary belief in Christ.  You look at their life and say, How could you continue to believe when God lets terrible things happen to you in your life, and God has not answered any of your prayers?  This is a person who understands the foundation of faith is not an experience, but a relationship with Jesus.  An experience sometimes jump starts your faith, but it is a person who did something in history that we lean our faith on.  That is what it means as a Christian to have faith. 

 

Faith is simply confidence that God is who He says that He is, and He will do everything that He has promised to do.  Hope is, God, here is what I want, and I hope that you will do it.  Faith is, Here is what I want, and you promised to do it.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Victory

Victory

The short excerpt is by Jim Daly, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:54-57  Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

When I was just nine years old, I saw something that made a tremendous impression on me. The day of my mother s funeral was sunny, but as we arrived at the cemetery, a tremendous wind blew up and the skies darkened. The weather mirrored my mood. My mom was dead and as I stood by her graveside and waited to see her casket lowered into the ground, tears fell fast upon my feet. My life as I had known it was now over. The wind served as a metaphor, disrupting what was supposed to be a calm service. All hope seemed lost.

 

But just as the minister completed his remarks, everyone in attendance looked up and saw that a strange cloud configuration had developed in the distance, revealing what looked like a staircase straight up into the sky.

 

A wonderful feeling of peace and joy swept over me. I believe that God used that moment to remind me that my dear mother, who had accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior just days earlier, had walked those white steps on her way to glory.

 

Some might dismiss such a moment as childlike emotion, but everybody that was there that day saw exactly the same thing. In fact, my brother, Mike, who was in the Navy and living a very worldly life was so taken by what he saw that he began to investigate Christianity. He subsequently committed his life to Jesus and is now a strong believer.

 

I have heard many stories that give me chills.  A local pastor has observed that there is a very thin wall between the here and the hereafter, especially at the hour of death.  I have had many people ask me to stop talking – so that they can listen to what they see happening in Heaven!

  

Because Jesus defeated death, we do not have to fear or fight death. Because He took the pain and the penalty we deserve, we can look forward to life eternal with Him.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

The Resurrection

The Resurrection

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  he was buried, he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve.  After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep.

 

For the last hundred years, scholars have tried to say that the gospels were written so late (100 years after the fact), that there were no eyewitnesses left to contradict.  But now the latest scholarly findings show that the gospels were written within the life-time of eyewitnesses so they could not be fabrications.  Secondly, if these were fabrications, they were the stupidest fabrications in history because the first eyewitnesses of the resurrection were women.  Women were of such low estate in that society and culture that their testimony was not admissible in court.  If you are going to make up a story to try to show that Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, you would never have women be the first eyewitnesses.  Why are all the documents saying that women were the first people that Jesus appeared to?  Because He did!   That is just like Jesus.  The Gospel destroys stereotypes and expectations.  There is nothing about the gospels that look like fabrications.  It is also hard to believe that if there were ringleaders for this hoax they all would have died for the hoax.  The evidence is mighty overwhelming, so here is the question.  Why did not everyone believe?

 

If the resurrection is true, then I lose control of my life.  It means that if Jesus is Savior, then He is Lord.  It means I cannot live the way I want to live.  This is still the reason that people cannot be objective about the evidence.  If the resurrection is true, you lose control with what you do with your money, sexuality and life.  It makes everything else unimportant.  But get this.  If the Gospel of the resurrection is not true, then everything is unimportant anyway. 

 

If you do not believe in the resurrection, doubt your doubts.  Be skeptical about your skepticism.  Spend the time.  You have gambled everything on it not being true.  You better be sure.  Look at the evidence.  Do the exploration.  If you do not want to believe in Christianity, do not just shrug and laugh at it because you have taken your life into your own hands.

 

1 Corinthians 15:14,19 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith, and we are of all people most to be pitied.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Mercy and Grace

Mercy and Grace

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is Hebrews 4:16 Let us then approach God s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. 

 

When you come to God, come boldly and confidently and with extreme emotion because He knows what you are carrying, and you will receive mercy every single time.  Mercy is Jesus standing outside the tomb of Lazarus already knowing that He is going to raise Lazarus from the dead and that everything is going to work out.  Yet before He intervenes, He pauses and weeps (John 11:35).  Everyone watching said, Look how much He loved Lazarus.  Why did He pause and weep?  It is because your Savior understands, and He is not too big and busy to feel what you feel.  Mercy is, I know, and I am not angry at you for feeling it. Keep bringing it to me every single time, and my response to you is going to be MERCY!  Sometimes it is going to be tangible mercy, and it is going to take the pressure off. Sometimes it is going to be the intangible thing that comes from knowing that my Heavenly Father knows, and that will be enough.

 

There is a second thing that you get every single time and that is the GRACE to help you in your time of need.  Grace in this context is the strength and the energy to endure.  God has not promised to deliver us from our circumstances, but He has promised us to be with us through them.  God says, Sometimes I am going to take the pressure off and intervene in your circumstances, but I can promise you every single time to give you the grace, strength, and power to endure if you will come to me. Do not give up on me just because you could not fine me in the circumstances of life.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

In This World

In This World

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

 

If God has not promised to make us rich, to answer all of our prayers, to keep bad things from happening to us, then what has He promised?  John 16:33 says . . . In this world you will have trouble. . .  Anytime a pastor or leader promises you a life without trouble, that's not what Jesus modeled or taught. 

 

Hebrews 4:14-15 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.  The high priest is the person that represents us to God.  To empathize is to say that I have been there and done that, and I know exactly how that feels.  When you are talking to Jesus, He knows exactly what you are going through and what it feels like.

 

Jesus was tempted in every single way that you have been tempted.  He has felt what you have felt and has faced what you have faced.  Jesus spent a night dreading the events of the following day.  Your Savior spent the night knowing that the next day He would be tried, beaten and crucified.  He experienced the rejection and the betrayal of His closest friends, and some of you know what that is like.  Jesus watched as His closest friends ran away in front of Him, and He listened as the person that He invested the most time in denied knowing Him three times.  He has experienced the rejection of a family member, and He saw everything He worked so hard and lived so intently for crumble around Him.  He experienced crushing temptation, and He knows about the temptations you face. 

John 16:33  . . . In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I (Jesus) have overcome the world.

Champions, have a great couple of weeks!-David Vining

 

What God Has Not Promised

What God Has Not Promised

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is Matthew 5:45 God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 

We really would like to use God and get Him to do what we want.  When you read the Bible, you will find that God cannot be shrunk down into a little box that we can manipulate and get Him to cooperate with us.  If you ever decide to embrace Christianity, then you need to look at what God has not promised you.  Most of the men who had the greatest faith in Jesus were martyred, persecuted, stoned or beaten.  They had incredible faith, and bad things still happened to them.  God has not promised to keep bad things from happening to those that believe in Him.  If something bad happens to you, that does not mean that God does not care about you or that He does not love you. 

 

None of the people that were closest to Jesus became wealthy because of their faith.  There was nothing in it for them, yet they continued to have this extraordinary faith in Jesus.  So why did they continue to believe?  They would say, I saw this guy on a cross, and three days later we had lunch.  I do not know if there is anything in this for me or not, but I am just telling you what I saw.  I am just going to go with the guy that rose from the dead.

 

Jesus went around and healed lots of people, but He did not heal everybody.  Every once in a while even now Jesus heals someone miraculously, but it is not the norm.  God has not promised to heal everyone, and He has not promised to reverse the consequences of your bad decisions.  Sometimes you get a break, but He does not promise to rescue you from the consequences of your sin.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Circumstantial Faith

Circumstantial Faith

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15:3-6 . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time. . .

 

Two things that erode faith faster than anything else are lifestyle decisions that eventually impact what we believe and unexplainable circumstances where God does not seem to do what we think that God ought to do.  Circumstantial faith is, I am believing and trusting in God based on my ability to find God in my circumstances.  Example:  When you were 12 years old and your Mom or Dad told you that this is how you are supposed to behave with a young man or woman, you believed them.  Then when you got older and moved to the big city, that did not seem to be so practical anymore.  Nobody else was behaving that way, so you abandoned what you were taught because of your circumstances.  It was circumstantial faith.

 

The pleasures of life will cause almost every single element of your belief system to become inconvenient.  If your faith is pure circumstantial, you will opt for pleasure over faith every single time, and you will adjust your belief system to match your lifestyle.  It means that what you have believed is not worth believing and that what you believe today is not worth believing tomorrow.  None of that is a problem until you come to a place in life where you really need to have some belief to lean on.  If all you have is circumstantial faith, eventually your faith will not hold up.

 

The foundation of Christianity is not an experience or your ability to make the world make sense.  It is not an event or an answered prayer with God, but the thing that we lean on is history.  Two thousand years ago a person, Jesus Christ, performed miracles, died on a cross, was raised from the dead, and was seen by over 500 people.  He claimed to be the one who represents us to God.  The foundation of our faith is a person, Jesus Christ. 

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining