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

Communion on the Moon

Communion on the Moon:  July 20, 1969

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Eric Metaxas and was gotten from his blog found at http://www.ericmetaxas.com/   (click there at the July 19 posting if you want more), and the Scripture is in the passage.

Forty years ago on July 20, 1969 two human beings changed history by walking on the surface of the moon.   But what happened before Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong exited the Lunar Module is perhaps even more amazing, if only because so few people know about it.

I am talking about the fact that Buzz Aldrin took communion on the surface of the moon.  The background to the story is that Aldrin was an elder at his Presbyterian Church in Texas during this period in his life, and knowing that he would soon be doing something unprecedented in human history, he felt he should mark the occasion somehow.  Here is his own account of what happened:

In the radio blackout, I opened the little plastic packages which contained the bread and the wine. I poured the wine into the chalice our church had given me. In the one-sixth gravity of the moon, the wine slowly curled and gracefully came up the side of the cup. Then I read the Scripture, I am the vine, you are the branches. Whosoever abides in me will bring forth much fruit.  Apart from me you can do nothing.  I had intended to read my communion passage back to earth, but at the last minute [they] had requested that I not do this. NASA was already embroiled in a legal battle with Madelyn Murray O Hare, the celebrated opponent of religion, over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas.  I agreed reluctantly.   …I ate the tiny Host and swallowed the wine. I gave thanks for the intelligence and spirit that had brought two young pilots to the Sea of Tranquility. It was interesting for me to think: the very first liquid ever poured on the moon, and the very first food eaten there, were the communion elements.

And of course, it is interesting to think that some of the first words spoken on the moon were the words of Jesus Christ, who made the Earth and the moon ­ and Who, in the immortal words of Dante, is Himself the Love that moves the Sun and other stars.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Authentic Christianity

Authentic Christianity

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Bethany Haley, and the Scripture is in the excerpt.

There is a world out there of false faces where we say what we say because we are supposed to say it, and we do what we do because we are supposed to do it. We are who we are because we are supposed to be it, but it is not real. We are afraid to be our authentic selves for fear of the judgments, whispers, and opinions of others, and we try so hard to be who others think we should be that we never know who we are.

In that land of fakeness, we waste so many glances looking around to either compare our selves, families, or marriages with others.....to either seek approval or to one up someone....that we forget to look up, becoming distracted from the only One who we truly need the approval of.

In that land of supposed tos Satan hides, and we never know he is there. It is the Land of Masks, and he has the largest one. If he is able to convince us to become distracted into what we think we are supposed to be, he knows we will never find out who we are in the eyes of the Father.  He knows if we become so caught up in achieving, accomplishing, comparing ourselves with others, then we will fail to see His purpose for our lives: to love God, to be loved by God, and to love others through His example of love....and act accordingly.

The Land of Reality is when we become free to live in the real world which is overflowing in mistakes and ever-abundant with grace with giant hands that pick us up when we fall.  It is in such a World that Christ was born: to minister to the sick - not the well. A world where grace is not a license to sin, but a fuel to feed a longing to please Him -The One we love.

Matthew 6:25, 33 Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. . . . But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Father, Free us to live lives in search of being more like you - in pleasing you and you alone. 

Champions, have a great summer!-David Vining

Grace to the Humble

Grace to the Humble

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt came from the book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by the pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, Jim Cymbala, and the Scripture is James 4:6 . . . God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

I was so depressed by what I saw-and even more by what I felt in my spirit-that I literally could not preach.  Five minutes into my sermon, I began choking on the words.  Tears filled my eyes, and gloom engulfed me.  With that, I just quit.  It was embarrassing, but I could not do anything else.

I leaned into the pulpit, my face planted in my hands, and sobbed.  Things were quiet at first, but soon the Spirit of God came down upon us.  People began to call upon the Lord – God help us, we prayed.

Suddenly a young usher came running down the center aisle and threw himself on the altar.  He began to cry as he prayed.  I am sorry!  I will not do it again!  Please forgive me!  Instantly I realized that he was apologizing for taking money from the offering plate.

That evening, when I was at my lowest, I realized that God is attracted to weakness.  He cannot resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need Him.  Our weakness, in fact makes room for His power.

In a parallel vein, people are not put off by honesty, either, and I did not have to keep up a ministerial front.  Jesus called fishermen, not graduates of rabbinical schools, and the main requirement was to be natural and sincere.  I had to stop trying to act ministerial – whatever that was, and what a breakthrough that was for me as I learned to trust God to use my natural personality.  God has always despised sham and pretense, and the minute I started trying to effect a posture of pose, Gods Spirit would be grieved.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Thy Will Be Done

Thy Will Be Done

 
Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Romans 1:22-24 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

To those who object to the doctrine of hell C.S. Lewis asked several questions.  What are you asking God to do?  Wipe out all past sins?  He did so on the cross. To forgive them? They will not ask for forgiveness. To leave them alone? Alas, that is what He must do
 
Lewis points out the truth of Romans 1 – God gives people what they want.  Do you want to be your own person and live without God?  He will let you. Hell is a monument to human freedom.
 
There are two kinds of people.  There are those who say to God, Thy will be done, and those to whom God says, thy will be done.  It is such hell because it is a self choice. Most people have a bad view of hell – people in a pit trying to get out and God laughs and closes the lid to keep them in. Not so. No one in hell is saying let me out because God gives them up to THEIR desires.
 
2 Peter 3:9 . . . The Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.  We serve a God that would rather die for us than to live without us.
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

It is the Sick That Need a Doctor

It is the Sick That Need a Doctor

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by from Our Daily Bread, and the Scripture is Hebrews 4:13 Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

I heard about a judge who used bumper stickers to encourage better driving.  He gave two options to people guilty of driving while intoxicated.
 
The first option was to attach this message to their bumpers.  This car owned by a convicted drunk driver.  Almost all offenders preferred the second option:  Enroll in an alcohol treatment program.  The majority of people cared about what others thought of them and wanted to maintain a good image.

The fear of embarrassment applies to other kinds of unacceptable behavior as well.  For example, not many of us would be willing to walk around with a sign on our backs that read something like this:  Danger:  I am a Christian who does not spend time in prayer or Bible reading, I gossip too much, I am too often self-righteous and judgmental, and I am controlled by lust rather than love.

The bad news is that our Heavenly Father sees all of our sins and shortcomings, and we must all appear before Him and face judgment when we die..  The good news is that is why Jesus came.  Matthew 9:12-13 Jesus says, It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. . . .For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.  We are all sick, but Jesus took the judgment for us on the cross when we put our trust in Him. He does not just give us fire insurance for the end; but He equips us to live now, and He changes us from the inside out to be conformed into His image. 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining