Angry Prayers

Angry Prayers

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Andrew Murray, and the Scripture is Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

There are a lot of books on the subject of prayer, but few contain chapters on Angry Prayers. The greatest book on prayer, however, is the Bible; and it records some angry prayers times when perplexed souls, confused by life, complained to God. The writer of Psalm 44:23-24, for example, wrote, Awake, O Lord! Why do you sleep? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever. Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?

In Jeremiah 12, the weeping prophet complained to the Lord, saying, in effect, Lord, I know You are righteous, but I do not understand why You are allowing these heartbreaks.

While we must not harbor bitterness toward God after all, He is righteous, and He does do all things well it is all right to express our frustrations and questions to Him. Even Jesus cried, My God, My God, why . . . ?

God knows all about us, and He is concerned about the details of our situations. We should never fear telling Him anything. It's by expressing our innermost feelings that we come to the point of confessing our sins and understanding His perspective which heals our minds.

So be honest in prayer, even when you are angry. Tell Him all about it, and you will find His grace is sufficient.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

From Rags to Riches-Part 2

From Rags to Riches-Part 2

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Reach Boivin and is more on Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner. The Scripture is 1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

During his final season at the University of Northern Iowa in 1993, Kurt Warner went to a country-music dance bar called Wild E. Coyotes. He spotted Brenda Carney Meoni and asked her to dance. Her immediate reaction? Get away. Get away, she thought. Here is this cute guy in a bar with an entourage of females, and I am the last person that makes sense for him to go to, Brenda said. I am a divorced woman with two kids, one with special needs. And Kurt is 21. They danced, and the next day, Warner was knocking on her door with a rose.

Again, I am screaming in my head, Go away, but I opened the door and said, Come on in, she said. My 2 and a half year old grabs him by the hand and shows him every radio we own. He fell in love with my kids before he fell in love with me. When we would have a fight and were going to break up, he would say, Well I get the kids. I am like, but they are my kids!

They stuck together, even when it appeared football was not in the future. He signed with the Green Bay Packers as a free agent in 1994 but was cut before the season began. He returned to UNI to work as a graduate assistant football coach and spent nights stocking shelves at the local Hy-Vee grocery store. He moved in with Brenda, who was struggling financially and turned to food stamps for a while. They drove a car that died every time it turned left.

Around this time, Warner began challenging Brenda about her faith. He questioned her, suggesting she was picking and choosing her beliefs from the Bible at her convenience. During this exploration, he closely studied the Bible. When I did, it was obvious what the truth was, Warner said.

Before they married, he told Brenda they should follow the Bible faithfully, which meant, among other things, no premarital sex. They married in 1997, and what followed was two Super Bowls and two MVP titles. During a visit to The Oprah Winfrey Show, Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner basically had three sentences to say, so, in the middle one, I made sure I mentioned my faith, because how could they cut it out? I went to watch the show on replay . . . and they cut it out!

Warner says, If you ever really want to do a story about who I am, God has got to be at the center of it. Every time I hear a piece or read a story that does not have that, they are missing the whole lesson of who I am.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

From Rags to Riches

Dear Champions,

I received this excerpt several years ago, and I think that it came from an FCA article but I'm not sure. The Scripture is at the end of the excerpt.

Kurt Warner, quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, became a Christian shortly after tragedy touched his life. The parents of his girlfriend Brenda, now his wife, were killed when a tornado demolished their home in Mountain View, Ark. They had planned to be baptized that night, but stayed home because Brenda's mother had a headache, USA Today said. People at the church were spared. Warner watched as Brenda, a Christian, responded to the tragedy with poise and grace rather than self-pity. He also knew how she had dealt with a crippling accident suffered by her son, Zachary, eight years earlier, when he was dropped on his head as a baby. Brenda sat in a rocking chair next to Zachary's hospital crib for 17 days, watching as he suffered seizures, quoting Bible verses, and asking God to perform a miracle. Although legally blind and brain-damaged, Zachary can read and gets around fairly well.

Warner's long road to gridiron success was filled with setbacks and bad breaks. He warmed the bench for four years at the University of Northern Iowa. Finally getting a chance as a fifth-year senior, he led the Panthers to the NCAA Division I-AA semifinals and was named the Gateway Conference Offensive Player of the Year. But he was passed over in the NFL draft and rejected by the Canadian Football League. Warner took a job stocking shelves for minimum wage at the Hy-Vee supermarket in Cedar Falls, Iowa, while he worked out at a college practice field during the day. A year later he was playing again, but in small-time Arena football, an indoor game using eight players on a side and 50-yard fields. He missed a tryout for the Chicago Bears in 1997 when he was bitten on the elbow by a vicious spider, leaving him unable to throw. After three years he took a step up. He was signed by the Rams and sent to the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe, where in the spring of 1998 he led the league in passing yardage and touchdowns. The Rams hired Warner for the 1998 season, but he played in only one game. He was left unprotected in the expansion draft, but the new Cleveland Browns didn't want him, either. Warner was still with the Rams in 1999, but the team signed superstar-prospect quarterback Trent Green before the season for $16.5 million, and it looked like Warner would be overlooked again. Green got hurt, and Warner stepped up to take his place. To the surprise of almost everyone, he threw a record 41 touchdown passes, led the league in completion percentage, and took the Rams to the best record in their conference, 13-3. In five months he had gone from being an anonymous bench-sitter to a Pro Bowl selection, and was named the NFL's most valuable player.

Warner told his story years ago at a Billy Graham event. Who am I? I am a devout Christian man, he told the crowd of 40,000. I am not a football player. That is what I do. When I throw a touchdown pass now, my thoughts are on how can I use this success on the field as a platform to glorify and praise my Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 3:4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Performance or Grace Based Christianity

Performance or Grace Based Christianity

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Jerry Bridges with a little help at the end by Tim Keller.

�As I see it, the Christian community is largely a performance-based culture today. We think we earn God�s blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life. Most Christians have a baseline of acceptable performance by which they gauge their acceptance by God. For many, this baseline is no more than regular church attendance and the avoidance of major sins.

For committed Christians, this baseline of acceptable performance includes regular practice of spiritual disciplines, obedience to God�s Word, and involvement in some form of ministry. If we focus on outward behavior, many score fairly well. But these Christians are even more vulnerable to self-righteousness, for they can look down their spiritual noses not only at the sinful society around them but even at other believers who are not as committed as they are.

�We think we earn God�s blessing or forfeit it by how well we live the Christian life.�

Then there is a third group. The baseline of this group includes more than the outward performance of disciplines, obedience, and ministry. These Christians also recognize the need to deal with sins of the heart like a critical spirit, pride, selfishness, envy, resentment, and anxiety. This group of Christians is far more likely to be plagued by a sense of guilt because group members have not met their own expectations. And because they think God�s acceptance of them is based on their performance, they have little joy in their Christian lives.

Tim Keller puts it this way. Religion says, �I give God a record of righteousness, and then God owes me blessing.� But the gospel says, �God through Jesus Christ has given me a perfect record of righteousness which I receive by faith, and now I live for him.� The gospel message is that you are more sinful and evil and weak than you ever dared believe, but you are more valued and accepted and loved than you ever dared hope. John 14:6 Jesus answered, �I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.� Grace shows you that you can only be saved through the works of Jesus and not your own works.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

God Comes to the World at Christmas Through the Unexpected

God Comes to the World at Christmas Through the Unexpected

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 1 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

God penetrates the world through the womb of a poor, unwed, Jewish teenage girl. We know that in those days women had a very, very low status. For example, a woman?s testimony was not admissible in court because of prejudice against women.

God is deliberately working with people the world despises. The very first witnesses to his nativity and resurrection are people whom the world says you can?t trust, people the world looks down on.

You don?t despise women, but you despise somebody. (Oh, yes you do!) You may not be a racist, but you certainly despise racists. You may not be a bigot, but you have certain people about which you think, They?re the reason for the problems in the world.

There?s a place in one of Martin Luther?s nativity sermons where he asks something like, ?Do you know what a stable smells like?? Do you know what that family would have smelled like after the birth when they went out into the city? And if they were standing next to you, how would you have felt about them and regarded them? He is saying, I want you to see Christ in the neighbor and in the type of people that you tend to despise.

Jesus Christ was the judge of the earth who came not to bring judgment but to bare judgment and to go to Hell for His enemies. Jesus says, I lost my glory, I lost my Father, I lost my life, and I lost everything, so that I wouldn?t lose you. The church should be a group of people who love one another for Jesus? sake. So be patient, it? ll take time, but Jesus has the power to transform your heart to love the despised of this world.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Jesus Took the Blame

Jesus Took the Blame

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller found in Nancy Guthrie's book Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, and the Scripture is 1 Peter 3:18 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

In all relationships-marriage, parent-child, co-worker-at some point you get into a conversation that goes something like this:

"You're to blame!"

"No, it's your fault!"

"No, it's you."

"No it isn't. It's you."

What's happening? The relationship is falling apart because neither side will take the blame, budge an inch, or make any concessions. Neither side will admit wrong or drop defenses. And as long as defenses are up, the relationship is going awry.

But then something happens:

"You're to blame!"

"No, it's your fault!"

"No, it's you."

"No it isn't. It's you."

"Okay, it's me."

One person drops defenses. The relationship starts to come back because one person is willing to say, "Yeah, it's me. I am to blame here." One person makes himself or herself vulnerable, and the relationship is restored.

There is no way to have a real relationship without becoming vulnerable to hurt. And Christmas tells us that God became breakable and fragile. God became someone we could hurt, and Jesus took the blame. Why? To get us back.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Dabo Swinney after he was named Clemson's head football coach last Monday, and the Scripture is Proverbs 3:6 In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

 

I need to take this platform that I have been blessed with, and I need to thank God.  There's only one reason that this guy from Alabama is sitting in front of you today, and that's because of the grace of God.  I hope people will listen to me when I tell them what my secret to success is.  That is to put your eyes on the Lord in everything that you do, believe in yourself, and you don't quit.  If you do that; you'll know success, and you'll know true happiness.

 

Last week as I knew this thing (of being the interim coach) was coming to an end, not knowing what was going to happen, I got a little devotional that comes to me everyday.  Tuesday of last week the scripture for the day was Revelation 3:8 (I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.  I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.). 

 

I came in Thursday morning and deleted that email, and it shows up again-the same email and the same verse.  So we had our Thanksgiving service that morning, and I read it to the team.  We've opened a door that nobody can shut.  I had a great peace about it, and I pretty much knew that South Carolina was in trouble on Saturday.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

P.S.  To read Dabo Swinney's life story and how he endured an alcoholic father and losing his home while in high school and many other challenges, click on the following link. 

 

http://clemson.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=882281