When I Am Irresponsible

When I am Irresponsible

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt was written by me and was sent to my middle school tennis players and their parents last night.  The scripture is Luke 12:48 . . . From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

 

When I am irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price.  When you are irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price. 

 

Today we left out 13 tennis balls on courts 1 and 2.  I had assumed that we had picked them all up.  Two high school players were playing on court 2 when I left practice.  On Monday of this week they had left quite a few balls out on those courts, and I informed Coach Voges who made them go back and pick them up.  Today as I walked by I reminded them again to pick up all of the tennis balls when they were finished.

 

After those two players finished and went down to courts 5 and 6 with the other varsity players, they only picked up the 3 balls that they brought up there.  When I walked back by courts 1 and 2, I went and picked up 13 tennis balls.  I was slightly angered.  I didn't handle it well, and I made a scene with those two high school players.   Both of those guys played 3 years for me in the middle school, and I really love them and think the world of them.  When I asked them why they didn't pick up those balls, one responded and said, "Those were the middle school players' balls."

 

I was disappointed on two levels.  I was disappointed in our current team that was irresponsible.   Whoever is given much, much is expected.  We are given so much by getting to go to McCallie, yet we have an entitlement issue when we are too lazy to pick up after ourselves.  I was also disappointed in our former middle school players that would not cover for our irresponsibility.  The mindset that those balls were the middle school players' tennis balls is also an entitlement issue.  I thought those were McCallie's tennis balls, and I thought all of us were on the same team and wanted to take care of what we had been given.  

 

I cannot tell you how many tennis balls that I have picked up at McCallie that I did not leave out.  I cannot tell you how much trash that I have picked up that I did not leave on the courts.  Every person on the middle school and high school team should take pride about our facilities and look to pick up all of our tennis balls and trash.   We have been given much, and we need to be a good steward of what God has given us.

 

When I am irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price.  When you are irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Only Through The Work Of Jesus

Only Through The Work Of Jesus

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.

The essence of sin is not breaking the rules.  It is taking a good thing and making it more important than God.  It's taking good things and living for them and being defined by them.  That's the reason why in the Ten Commandments the first commandment, the primary commandment, is to have no other gods before me.  Everything else, all of the other, the cheating, the lying, the murdering, the stealing, and all of that awful stuff, it all flows out of the first one.  That's commandments 2 through 10. 

Romans 3:10 says, "No one is righteous, not even one; no one seeks for God."  There are bad people who mug you and cheat and hurt people, and they, of course, are not looking for God.  But here's what's scary about good and religious people.  They think that they are looking for God, but they're not.  They are not looking for a God of grace.  They are looking for a god that they can control through their good works. 

Good people and bad people are both self-savers.  They both are taking things and making them into idols.  It's just that some idols lead you to be obedient to the law of God, and some idols lead you to be disobedient to the law of God.  But all the way across the board, no one is righteous, not even one; no one is seeking God, no one!  Good people think they are seeking God, but they're not.  They aren't seeking the God of grace.  They are seeking a god that they can control through their good works, a god who owes them.  That's the reason why if you are a Christian, grace has come in and grabbed a hold of you and shown you something that you weren't looking for.  It has shown you that you can only be saved through the work of Jesus and not your own works.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

An Infallible Person

An Infallible Person

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is John 5:24  Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

God has not given us an inescapable, infallible argument.  In Jesus, He has given us an inescapable, infallible Person!  Millions of people have found Him intellectually inescapable.  On the one hand we're going to see Him unbelievably open, welcoming, empowering and inclusive with those who were outsiders and outcasts.  You're going to see Him reaching out over and over to the poor, and to women, children, prostitutes, lepers, and even to collaborators with the enemy.   Jesus was utterly unique!  He was utterly outrageous!  He was over the top in His inclusiveness and openness and in His reaching out to all those people.

But, on the other hand, you're going to see Him making self-centered claims.  He says that He is going to judge the world on the last day, that He is the Author and Giver of life, that He alone has the authority to forgive sins, that He is equal with the Father.  He makes claims that go beyond anything anyone has ever said outside of a mental institution. 

Here's what's weird.  He's so beautiful, so tender, so kind, and so humble.  Jesus Christ lived a life of such moral beauty!   He got hundreds of people to believe in Him including the Jews.  They were the last people on earth who would ever believe that God could become human!  How do you explain claims like that?  How do you explain a life like that? 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining