Enjoying God

Enjoying God

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

 

When you have a general belief in God, you go to Him for things.   When you've begun to experience the glory of God, who He is and what He does becomes an end in itself.

 

What if you would come to the top of a bluff and look down at an incredible vista of the ocean with waves breaking on the sea as far as you can see.  It's beautiful!  You sit down, and you just put your fist on your chin and look at it.  You can't get enough of it!  What are you trying to accomplish?  Nothing!  It's satisfying in itself and fills you up.

 

When your prayer life is like this you've begun to approach the glory and presence of God.  To glorify Him means to enjoy Him.  We glorify God by enjoying Him forever!  John Piper says it this way:  "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him."

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Promises or Preparation

Promises or Preparation

Dear Champions,

 

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

Every single Saturday couples take vows to get married that they can't keep even though they mean well.  They overlooked a principle that all of us understand in every other realm of life, but when it comes to relationships we don't think it is true. Promises are no substitute for preparation.  If you've ever entered a long distance race and have not prepared for it, then it's a waste of time to promise that you will finish.  What determines whether you finish a long distance race is not the promise, but it's whether you are prepared.  Everybody understands that, but when it comes to relationships people think, "I can promise my way past my lack of preparation."  Just because you say "I do," doesn't make you able or capable, but it only makes you accountable.  When you are accountable for something that you are not capable of doing, you become miserable.  A lack of preparation cannot be trumped by a promise. 

A prudent person is a person that understands that all of life is connected.  What happened yesterday impacts tomorrow.  What I am doing today will eventually become my past, and it will show up in my future.  Proverbs 14:8 says that the wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways.  Ways are behaviors, patterns, habits, and trends, and they are what makes us predictable.  The prudent person knows that the best indicator of my future behavior is my past behavior.  If I want to know where I'm actually going to be all I have to do is look back at where I have been and see what direction I'm headed in.   The prudent person pays attention not to commitments and promises, but they pay attention to their past.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Love

Love

 

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

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 a feeling, that's right.  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."  Biblically, love is a commitment.  It'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! 

 

Love is simply a decision to serve somebody and be committed regardless of your feelings and how that person acts.  The person attracts you, there are a lot of things that you like about them, you have fun together, and that takes you to the door.  At a certain point, the door will not open until you simply make a decision that you are going to love this person.  Your feelings will always come and go.  A lot of people don't get married because they're sure that if this is the one, "My feelings will never ebb.   I will just know that it's the one because I'll never have any problems.  I'll never look at that person and feel, Ugh!  I'll always feel like giving myself to them."  

 

You will wait until Hell freezes over if you wait for that.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Watch Out!

Watch Out!

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller and the scripture is Luke 12:15 Then he said to them, 'Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.'

 

For years I've had people come to me as a pastor saying I've got a problem with sex, but I've never had anybody come to me saying, "Pastor, I've got a problem with greed."  Jesus says that's why you've got to watch for it.  It always hides from you.  There are greedy people around, but nobody thinks it is them. 

 

Juliet Shore says in her book The Overspent American that we're always hanging out with people who make more than we do.  Therefore, nobody feels materialistic or that they make too much.  Nobody feels they spend too much money on themselves.  Only 1/3 of American households who make more than $100,000/year agree with the statement 'I can afford to buy everything I really need.'  Two thirds of all American households making over $100,000/year feel they do not make enough to buy all the things that they really need.  

 

The most wealthy people in the most wealthy country in the history of the world believe they can't afford everything that they really need.  Watch out!

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Weak People

Weak People

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me (Jesus), 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."

 

Every other religion says that God is the top of a ladder.  He's put a ladder down between you and heaven and earth, and He is standing at the top of the ladder saying, "Perform, Do Good, Live Right, Emulate the Heroes!   If You Try Real Hard You Can Come Up The Ladder and Come To Heaven!"  

 

But Jesus Christ said, "You will see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man."  He said, "You'll never come up the ladder!  The Christian God is not a god who stands at the top of the ladder but who sent His Son down to be the ladder.  He says, "My son Jesus Christ will come down and live the life that you should lived and die the death that you should have died."  These Bible stories are not a series of role models to emulate but weak people like you and me that a strong God had to come down and be weak and die on the cross to save us. The gospel saves people, not who are strong, but those who will admit that they are sinners and that they are weak.  God works with weak people and through them.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Fulfilling Promises

Fulfilling Promises

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is 2 Peter 3:8-9 . . . With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.  The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

 

In Genesis God takes Abraham aside and makes a promise to him.  He says, "Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.  Through one of your descendants I will save the world."  When Mary was told that she would give birth to the Messiah, God fulfilled His promise to Abraham.  This took centuries.  God always fulfills His promises but never at the time and never in the way you expect.

 

The Israelites had all expected a Messiah, but a lot of them had given up.  It had been four hundred years since there was even a prophet in Israel let alone a Messiah.   Most all of the others that were still expecting a Messiah did not expect their king to be born in a feed trough. 

 

Even though God seemed to be absolutely away without leave, He was working.  In a sense, God is saying that even though I do not come through with My promises at the time you expect or in the way you expect, I always come through.  You can trust me.  You don't have to take matters into your own hands.  God promises you to take care of you, to love you, to work all things out for your good in your life, but it never seems to happen in the time you want; it never seems to happen in the way you want.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Gratitude-Be Great Today

Gratitude-Be Great Today

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Dabo Swinney when speaking at the White House on Monday night, and the scripture is Colossians 3:15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 

"The whole college football world was captured by Tyler Trent," Swinney said.  "He was the Purdue football fan that was battling cancer.  Probably saw that, and he just passed recently.  And here's what he said. 'Though I am in hospice care and have to wake up every morning knowing that the day might be my last, I still have a choice to make:  to make that day the best it can be.  Yet, isn't that a choice we all have every day?  After all, nobody knows the amount of days we have left.  Some could say we are all in hospice to a certain degree.  So why don't we act like it.'

"'So why don't we act like it?  Where is your gratitude?  With Christmas coming up, what are you thankful for?  I had to write my will recently, and I'm just thankful I can give my family Christmas presents, maybe even for one last time.  Let's not forget that my doctors gave me 3 months to live almost two-and-a half months ago.  So why can't we live grateful lives?  Why can't we make every day count like it's the last?'

"So for this team and all you guys moving on and even the guys coming back, that's what I would say, is go live and be great today, in order for your someday to become reality, you just got to be your best today."

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

P.S.  If you didn't see Tyler Trent's story, check it out at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgBGwtk3qZY&t=232s