A New Creation

A New Creation

 

Dear Champions,

 

Louis Zamperini was a USA Olympic medalist before getting shot down and becoming a prisoner of war in Japan.  He was unbelievably abused, beaten, starved and humiliated daily.  The worst tormenter of all was Mutsuhiro Watanabe nicknamed "The Bird."

 

When the war ended Zamperini became an alcoholic, and his marriage was nearly over.  The Bird visited his dreams nightly and continued to torment him.   He lived daily to go back to Japan to get revenge on the Bird.  Very begrudgingly, he attended a Billy Graham crusade and gave his life to Jesus.

 

The short excerpt is by Laura Hillenbrand from the book, Unbroken.   The movie didn't tell this part of the story.   The scripture is 2 Corinthians 5:17   Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

 

"This is it," said Billy Graham.  "God has spoken to you.  You come on."  Cynthia (Zamperini's wife) kept her eyes on Louie all the way home.  When they entered the apartment, Louie went straight to his cache of liquor.  It was the time of night when the need usually took hold of him, but for the first time in years, Louie had no desire to drink.  He carried the bottles to the kitchen sink, opened them, and poured their contents into the drain.  Then he hurried through the apartment, gathering packs of cigarettes, a secret stash of girlie magazines, everything that was part of his ruined years.  He heaved it all down the trash chute.

 

In the morning, he woke feeling cleansed.  For the first time in five years, the Bird hadn't come into his dreams.  The Bird would never come again.

 

Louie dug out the Bible that had been issued to him by the air corps and mailed home to his mother when he was believed dead.  He walked to Barnsdall Park, where he and Cynthia had gone in better days, and where Cynthia had gone, alone, when he'd been on his benders.  He found a spot under a tree, sat down, and began reading.

 

Resting in the shade and the stillness, Louie felt profound peace.  When he thought of his history, what resonated with him now was not all that he had suffered but the divine love that he believed had intervened to save him.  He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him.  In a single, silent moment, his rage, his fear, his humiliation and helplessness, had fallen away.  That morning, he believed, he was a new creation.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

In His Grip

In His Grip

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Joe Novenson and the scripture is John 10:27-28  My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.  I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Sunday, August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 225 crashed outside of Detroit.  One hundred fifty-five people and all of the crew were dead.  The crash was incredible, absolutely decimating the plane.  There was one survivor; a four-year-old girl named Cecilia.  When the airplane investigators found her they thought that it was a fluke-that she was probably a resident.  Maybe the plane landed on her house, and maybe she was in a car nearby.  They checked the registrar, and her name was on the plane.  She was still in the seat-belt, and you would think that should have clued them in.  She was alive, but how?  After she came to and they could interview her, this is her story.  

Her mother, as the plane was falling, disconnected her own seat-belt, got on to the seat with her daughter, jammed both her knees on either side of her four year old daughter's legs, grabbed the back of the chair, and held on.  So when the plane crashed, behind her she had seat and in front of her she had mother.  All of the impact of the crash was assumed by chair and by Mom.  She lived!  Did she live because she was good, tried hard and held on tight? No!  It was because someone grabbed her and held her.  

This is what Jesus did for us.  He took the punishment for us on the cross so that we don't have to take the punishment.  He holds us in the palm of His hands, and no one will snatch us away from Him.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Treated Like You Lived Like Jesus

Treated Like You Lived Like Jesus

 

Dear Champions,

Colossians 1:15  He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

 

The Bible tells us that Jesus Christ is the first born of all creation, the first born from the dead, and the only begotten Son of the Father.  Jesus Christ lived through all eternity in a state of first-born blessing, but He left that first born blessing and comes to Earth and dies on a cross. 

 

The way of salvation by your own effort where you dress up before God saying, "I'm really a pretty good person.  I sin here and there, but honestly I'm pretty good."  It'll never work to dress up for God and hope that God will somehow bless you. 

 

The way of the gospel is that Jesus Christ dressed up as you and me and got the curse that we deserved so that when you believe in Him, God now accepts you as if you had done everything that Jesus had done.  After all, Jesus Christ had just been treated as if He had done everything that you had done.  When you believe in Him you are treated as if you get the first-born blessing.  In Hebrews 12:22-23 it says the city of God, the new Jerusalem-it's a vision of heaven, is the church of the first-born.  What kind of family in it has nothing but first born?  How can you have 10 kids and every one of them be first born?  It's absolutely impossible. 

 

What that is telling us is that the love that you experience from the Father when you stand in the works and righteousness of Jesus Christ  makes you feel like you are the only one in the world.  He says, "There is no one like you."

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining  

Covered By His Wings

Covered By His Wings

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Psalm 91:4.  He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Let's just say that you are one of the cool kids, and you are in high school.  Here's a girl that is dorky, and nobody likes her.  Since she is isolated and alienated, you try to reach out and be a friend to her.  The next thing that you know the other cool girls are coming to you saying, "What are you doing with her?" 

What is happening is that some of that dorky-ness is rubbing off on you.  You aren't cool anymore if you hang out with her.  There is no way for you to diminish her isolation and alienation without you entering into it and some of it falling down on you.

After a fire in Yellowstone, forest rangers began their trek up the mountain to survey the damage.  One ranger found a bird that was literally petrified in ash perched on the ground at the base of a tree.  Somewhat sickened by this eerie sight the ranger knocked the bird over with a stick, and three tiny chicks scurried out from under their dead mother's wings.  When the blaze had arrived the mother had remained steadfast.  Instead of running she just stayed put because she had been willing to die so that those under the cover of her wings would live.

The only way  that you love a guilty, broken, messed up person to change them is that you have to do it substitutionarily.  On the cross Jesus took our penalty upon himself and got what we deserved.  Our sins and guilt and brokenness fell upon Him.  He took it himself so that we could be forgiven.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining