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

Two Babes In A Manger

TWO BABES IN A MANGER

 
Dear Champions,
 
I do not know who the author of this story is, but it is very touching.
 
In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics based on biblical principles in the public schools. They were invited to teach at prisons, businesses, the fire and police departments and a large orphanage. About 100 boys and girls who had been abandoned, abused, and left in the care of a government-run program were in the orphanage. They relate the following story in their own words:

It was nearing the holiday season, 1994, time for our orphans to hear, for the first time, the traditional story of Christmas. We told them about Mary and Joseph arriving in Bethlehem.  Finding no room in the inn, the couple went to a stable, where the baby Jesus was born and placed in a manger.  Throughout the story, the children and orphanage staff sat in amazement as they listened. Some sat on the edges of their stools, trying to grasp every word. Completing the story, we gave the children three small pieces of cardboard to make a crude manger.  Each child was given a small paper square, cut from yellow napkins I had brought with me. No colored paper was available in the city.  Following instructions, the children tore the paper and carefully laid strips in the manger for straw.  Small squares of flannel, cut from a worn-out nightgown an American lady was throwing away as she left Russia, were used for the baby s blanket. A doll-like baby was cut from tan felt we had brought from the United States.
 
The orphans were busy assembling their manger as I walked among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until I got to one table where little Misha sat. He looked to be about 6 years old and had finished his project. As I looked at the little boy s manger, I was startled to see not one, but two babies in the manger. Quickly, I called for the translator to ask the lad why there were two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at this completed manger scene, the child began to repeat the story very seriously.  For such a young boy, who had only heard the Christmas story once, he related the happenings accurately-until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then Misha started to ad-lib.
 
He made up his own ending to the story as he said, And when Maria laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay.  I told him I have no mamma and I have no papa, so I do not have any place to stay.  Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I could not because I did not have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift.
 
So I asked Jesus, If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?  And Jesus told me, If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anybody ever gave me. So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I could stay with him for always.
 
As little Misha finished his story, his eyes brimmed full of tears that splashed down his little cheeks. Putting his hand over his face, his head dropped to the table and his shoulders shook as he sobbed and sobbed.  The little orphan had found someone who would never abandon nor abuse him, someone who would stay with him for always.
 
Matthew 28:20  . . . And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

God Sought Me

God Sought Me

 
Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is by former Greystone camper Kelly Blount Grimsley, and the Scripture is Romans 10:20 And Isaiah boldly says, I was found by those who did not seek me; I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me.
 
Two weeks into our six week Greystone session, my parents dropped the bomb of their divorce.  I spent the next decade truly shell shocked, hurt, angry and lost.  I threw everything but God into the God shaped hole in my heart.  I never sought Him because I did not know how.  I accepted Christ during my five years at Greystone and had a Christian foundation laid, but I was nowhere near beginning a relationship with Christ. 
 
I somehow survived my rebellious teen years bouncing from one boarding school to another and married Mike when I was 21.  Mike was 34, a good man, from a good Christian family but had not begun living for Christ yet.  Boy do opposites attract!   Mike frequently points out that God called us together because it was a guaranteed way to have us searching for Him.  As our marriage inevitably unraveled, that is exactly what we did.  Mike took the Disciples study and dragged me kicking and screaming into it the following year. 
 
Through studying His word, our marriage not only survived, but began to thrive.  God calmed the raging storm that was within me, as only He can. Someone had prayed for me and though I was not seeking God, God sought me.  Though I was on a self destructive path, God guided my way and I came to know and love Christ, and He chose a husband for me that has come to be a strong spiritual leader for our family.
 
My parents divorce, death of friends, self destruction, marriage, children, and even a serious illness with our middle child have all proved Romans 8:28.  And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.   I believe prayers are the reason, and the power of prayer has become very real to me. I feel called to work with youth because someone prayed for me, and the power of a praying person has proven the difference that one person praying can make in the life a struggling kid. 
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

God is Our Head Coach

God is Our Head Coach
 

Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt is by former Redskins coach Joe Gibbs from his book Gameplan For Life, and the Scripture is Matthew 4:19  Come, follow me, Jesus said, and I will make you fishers of men.
 
When I came to believe that God had created me and that I was no accident, I should have been willing to let God be in charge of my life, but that realization came much later for me.
 
Football players have to let their coach be in charge.  For many of them, that is not easy.  One of my favorite guys to coach was quarterback Joe Theismann.  He had a passion to succeed, but left to his own wishes, he would have liked to call every play.  He was the type of player who would rather kneel in the huddle and draw up a play in the dirt than let the coach call the plays.
 
At our quarterback meeting before my very first preseason game with the Redskins, I outlined an involved game plan that we had been laboring over all week.  Then I made the mistake of asking if anybody had anything to add.  Well, Theisman had a million suggestions-things he saw, things he wanted to try.  Finally, I had to interrupt him and remind him of who was in charge, that there was already a game plan in place, and that it was his job to carry it out.
 
Everyone seems to have an idea about God, but only one view of God can be correct.  It does not make sense that He can be something different for every person.  If that were true, we would be guilty of creating God in our own image, rather than the other way around. Everybody is going to follow somebody.  In football, it is the head coach, and in life it is God.
 
Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Be Thankful

Be Thankful

 
Dear Champions,
 
The short excerpt was sent to me and is by an unknown author 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. 
 
A young man was getting ready to graduate from college.  For a long time he had admired a beautiful sports car in a dealers showroom and knowing his father could well afford it, he told his Dad that was all he wanted. As his graduation day approached the young man began looking for signs that his father had bought the car.  Finally on the morning of his graduation, his father called him into his study and told him how proud he was to have such a fine son and he told him how much he loved him.

He handed his son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box and found a lovely leather bound Bible with the young man s name embossed in gold.  Angry, he raised his voice to his father and said, With all your money you give me a Bible? and then he stormed out of the house, leaving the Bible.

Many years passed and the young man received a telegram telling him that his father had passed away and had willed all his possessions to his son so he needed to come home and take care of things. When he arrived at his father s house sadness and regret filled his heart. He began sorting through his fathers papers and saw the still new Bible just as he had left it years ago.  With tears in his eyes he opened the Bible and began to turn the pages and a car key dropped from the back of the Bible. It had a tag with the dealers name and on the tag was the date of his graduation and the words paid in full.
 
Let us pray for a grateful and thankful heart and receive the gift that our sins are paid for in full by Jesus.
 
Have a great week!-David Vining