Your Word and Handshake

Your Word and Handshake

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by NFL commentator and former Harvard basketball player James Brown, and it was taken from his book Role Of A Lifetime. The scripture is Matthew 5:37 Simply let your Yes be Yes, and your No, No; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

James Brown was a high school All American in basketball, and he was recruited by nearly all of the top teams in the country except for UCLA which was in the middle of their run where they won 10 national championships in 12 years. He finally narrowed his decision between Harvard and UNC. Below is from his book.

After an agonizing and long period of introspection and analysis, the process finally resulted in my selection of Harvard. They offered me early admission, because of my grades and the situation I was in with my recruitment elsewhere, to allow me to effectively end the continuing recruitment process and put it all behind me. I accepted and said that I would attend.

That is when the letter arrived that threw our house into chaos. Any thoughts of being a role model in Cambridge were put on hold when I held in my hands the envelope with UCLA written on its face in deep sky blue and sun gold.

Mom, this is from UCLA. I have to go. I have to at least visit. Pauley Pavillion. John Wooden. It is U-C-L-A. I said it slowly, carefully enunciating each letter, as if she were having trouble with my spelling. It is the mecca of college basketball. They dominate college basketball-they have won two straight national championships and four of the last five.

My mother was unmoved. My father, too, was completely unmoved. They sat me down. James, you have given your word to Harvard. Your word means more than anything, son. You shook hands and said that you were coming-you cannot change your mind now. You are going to Harvard. That was that.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

If I Live Right

If I Live Right

 
Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, 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.
 
Over the years I have seen people getting completely destroyed by the troubles in their lives, and here is why.  There is a premise underneath our lives that is so deep that we do not even realize it is there.  And the premise is this:  If I live right, my life should go right.   So if your life goes wrong, you either say something is wrong with me and I hate myself because I must be a failure, or you say I hate God because He is not treating me as I deserve.  This premise that if I live right that my life should go right is going to lead you into self-hatred or God-hatred, and your life will be poisoned.  Something has to destroy the premise, and there is only one thing that will.  Jesus Christ was a perfect man and an absolutely great person.  He was a Man anointed with the Spirit, and He was perfectly loving, godly and good.  He went into the wilderness where He was tested and tried; but He was absolutely obedient, and He did it for us because He was living the life we should have lived. 
 
Years later this perfectly loving, godly and good Man ended up on the cross.  He lived right, yet His life on Earth did not end right.  He says, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?  That is the only time in His entire life when He does not call God Father – the only time -- why?  Because on the cross, He was losing His Sonship and His relationship with His Father because He was getting the punishment that we deserved.  Jesus loses the Sonship so that we can have it and so that we can become sons and daughters of God.
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Let Your Yes Be Yes

Let Your Yes Be Yes

 Dear Champions,

This past Sunday was Valentine s Day, so I wanted to share a few thoughts.

Last week one of my students told his girl friend that he loved her.  My 7th graders know exactly how I think about that. I expect a guy and a girl that are going out or dating that tell each other that they love each other to get engaged and get married. 

Love is a decision and a commitment, and it is not a feeling. No couple will always feel in love with each other because we all get aggravated with each other from time to time. For a married person to tell his spouse that he does not love her anymore is an incorrect statement when you know what the word love really means in relationships. If love is a decision and a commitment, then you cannot fall out of love.

Do I really expect my 7th grade guy to get a ring and marry his girlfriend?  Of course not. But what I hope is that he will stop misusing the word love.  Matthew 5:37 says Simply let your Yes be Yes, and your No, No; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

In other words, mean what you say and say what you mean.  Let your word be true. Say that you love your dating partner only when you have made a decision to be committed to that person for the rest of your life.  You cannot fall out of love when you know what the word love really means.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining
 

Have a Great Day!

Have a Great Day!

 
Dear Champions,
 
Psalm 118:24  This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
 
On Friday, January 29, 2010, Jim Daddy Miller, senior director of Camp Greystone, went home to heaven.  Attitude is the key, winners we will be was part of the Breakfast Club song that we sang every morning before he inspired us all with words or wisdom and with corny and sometimes funny jokes.  Never have I met a man that was as positive and as encouraging as this man.  He believed and taught us all that everyday was a great day and that we should make the most of it.  He made it a point to leave every person that he met feel better about him or herself after he interacted with them.
 
Once I was interacting with some students here in Chattanooga, TN, and a woman that I had never met before walked by and told me that I reminded her of a friend of hers from North Carolina named Jim Miller from Camp Greystone.  What a complement!  It was at that moment that I realized the incredible impact that he had on me and on others.  Because of his life, so many of us have been changed, blessed and impacted.  His life of enthusiasm, love and positive attitude left a mark on all of our lives. 
 
I miss my friend Jim Miller, and I am so blessed that I got to know him and become his friend.  May God help us to honor his life by helping us to make everyday a great day and to try and leave people better off after they have been around us.  And in the same way, may our light shine before men, that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.  (Matthew 5:16)
 
Thank you Jim Daddy for letting your light shine before me so that we could see your good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.
 
Champions, have a great day, a great week, and may you feel terrific!-David Vining

Choose Life

Choose Life

Dear Champions,

The Scripture is from Deuteronomy 30:19-20 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.

Pam knows about the pain of considering abortion.  More than 22 years ago, she and her husband, Bob, were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in a contaminated food or drink. She entered into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant. Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby.
 
She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted.  Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and, eventually, gave birth to a health baby boy August 14, 1987.
 
Pam s youngest son preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father s ministry in the Philippines.  He also plays football, and his name is Tim Tebow.

Look for their 30 second commercial during the upcoming Super Bowl, and have a great week!-David Vining

Meant for Something Beyond This World

Meant for Something Beyond This World

 
Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is Isaiah 55:2 and Philippians 3:20  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. . . Our citizenship is in heaven. 
 
In every single one of us there is a raging, unquenchable, and all consuming thirst that leads us to decide that nothing is good enough and nothing will satisfy us.  We all have an infinite capacity for boredom and irritability with anything, even the best things.  The thirst moves and progresses faster if you are successful.  The more successful that you are, the faster that you come to realize that you have a bottomless pit inside of you.  There is a black hole and an infinite vacuum in you and in me, and it does not matter what we put in there.  At first it is great, or she is great, or he is great.  Then, after awhile, I find fault, and I want to pull away. 
 
I have a large folder filled with quotes from successful and famous people, who after they got to the top, said, I do not know what happened, but I wanted to kill myself.  Boris Becker, for example, the tennis great, looking back on his life said that when he was at the height of his power and the height of his achievement and fame, he wanted to kill himself -- but why?  Because when he got all those things, he still felt empty.  He said, I had won Wimbledon twice; once I was the youngest player to ever do so.  I was rich.  I had all the material possessions I needed.  I guess it is like the old song about movies and pop stars who want to commit suicide.  They have everything, and yet they are so unhappy.  It is true.  I had nothing on the inside.
 
Like I said, it goes faster if you are successful, but we are all on our way.  Unless there is a cure, unless there is a medicine, unless there is a treatment, unless there is some kind of intervention, we are all on our way to being unhappy with anything and with everything.  Nothing will ever be good enough. If there is nothing in this world that ever satisfies me, then it must mean that I am made for something beyond this world. 
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Jesus is the Something Else

Jesus is the Something Else

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Heather Brown Holleman in the first paragraph and is by Larry Crab in the second paragraph.

Rick Hove, said, Do we pursue Jesus as a means to something more beautiful? In other words, many times I see my relationship with Jesus as the way to find health, happiness, or prosperity. But really, Jesus Himself is the thing I want. He is not a means to something else. He is the Something Else.

We approach Jesus the way a child approaches a weary Santa Claus in the mall, who for the hundredth time asks, What do you want for Christmas? I wager no child has ever pressed close to Santa s chest, looked up into his eyes, and said, You! I want only you. No child believes having Santa join him for dinner could bring more joy than watching Santa stack presents beneath the tree. Do we want the blessing of a better life more than we desire to draw near to Jesus?

May our hearts become like Psalm 27: 4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining