Are We A Magnet Or An Excuse

Are We A Magnet Or An Excuse

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Ron Hutchcraft, and he Scripture is 2 Corinthians 5:20. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. . .

There he was in the homes of some ten million Americans every night - NBC's TV news anchorman. The voice that millions trust, or did trust. The most experienced, most watched anchorman in the country facing the worst possible question, "Can we believe him?"

Because of dramatic stories that he told about his assignments in the Middle East and during Hurricane Katrina; except in different tellings, there were different accounts. Accounts challenged by people who actually were there. So an anchorman had lost the one thing that a man with that kind of influence really can't do without - trust.

When you're the one responsible to report the Ultimate Story - God's Story - there's one thing you can't afford to lose - trust - because your life doesn't back it up. A person has to first trust the messenger usually before they will trust the message. So most people who come to Jesus do it because of a Christian they know. And most people who reject Jesus do it because of a Christian they know.

Your life, my life is either a magnet that attracts a lost person to Jesus, or it's an excuse for them to walk away from Him. In so doing, to walk possibly into an eternity without Him. So, I really need to constantly ask myself, "Is my life backing up the message? What is there in my life, what is there in the way I talk, what is there in the way I treat people, what is there in my attitude that contradicts what Jesus is like?"

And if I've lost their trust by my hypocrisy, I need to seek their forgiveness. Because I failed to show them how real Jesus is. I want to be a reason for people to trust Jesus, because they could trust me.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

We Worship Something

We Worship Something

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is the first commandment found in Exodus.  The Ten Commandments were written for people that were already believers because they trusted God by sprinkling the blood of the lamb over their doorposts.  God then passed over those home, the Egyptian firstborn sons were not so fortunate.

 

The problem with our heart is not our ordinary desire for bad things, but it is our over desire for good things.  It comes from idolatry.  Kill off the over desires in our heart which are caused by idolatry.  Exodus 20, the first commandment says, I am the Lord thy God.  Thou shalt not have no other gods before me.  Either you worship the true God, or you worship some other finite thing as a god. 

 

Notice that the one thing that is not possible is to have no god.  You are either going to worship God, or you are going to worship something as god.  It is impossible for the human heart not to worship anything and not to have any god.  Lots of people say, "I'm not religious, and I don't worship."  That may be true in the formal sense, but basically there is no such person.  Everybody lives for something that is the basis for your joy and ultimate value.  Whatever that something is, spiritually, it is your life.

 

What is there in my life -- what relationship, what condition, what thing – that if I lost it would make me not want to live?  Whatever that is, it is your life.  You have put into its hands the power of life and death over you.  It's your real Master and Savior and your real worship.  

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

When I Am Irresponsible

When I am Irresponsible

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt was written by me and was sent to my middle school tennis players and their parents last night.  The scripture is Luke 12:48 . . . From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.

 

When I am irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price.  When you are irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price. 

 

Today we left out 13 tennis balls on courts 1 and 2.  I had assumed that we had picked them all up.  Two high school players were playing on court 2 when I left practice.  On Monday of this week they had left quite a few balls out on those courts, and I informed Coach Voges who made them go back and pick them up.  Today as I walked by I reminded them again to pick up all of the tennis balls when they were finished.

 

After those two players finished and went down to courts 5 and 6 with the other varsity players, they only picked up the 3 balls that they brought up there.  When I walked back by courts 1 and 2, I went and picked up 13 tennis balls.  I was slightly angered.  I didn't handle it well, and I made a scene with those two high school players.   Both of those guys played 3 years for me in the middle school, and I really love them and think the world of them.  When I asked them why they didn't pick up those balls, one responded and said, "Those were the middle school players' balls."

 

I was disappointed on two levels.  I was disappointed in our current team that was irresponsible.   Whoever is given much, much is expected.  We are given so much by getting to go to McCallie, yet we have an entitlement issue when we are too lazy to pick up after ourselves.  I was also disappointed in our former middle school players that would not cover for our irresponsibility.  The mindset that those balls were the middle school players' tennis balls is also an entitlement issue.  I thought those were McCallie's tennis balls, and I thought all of us were on the same team and wanted to take care of what we had been given.  

 

I cannot tell you how many tennis balls that I have picked up at McCallie that I did not leave out.  I cannot tell you how much trash that I have picked up that I did not leave on the courts.  Every person on the middle school and high school team should take pride about our facilities and look to pick up all of our tennis balls and trash.   We have been given much, and we need to be a good steward of what God has given us.

 

When I am irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price.  When you are irresponsible, someone else has to pay the price.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

Only Through The Work Of Jesus

Only Through The Work Of Jesus

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.

The essence of sin is not breaking the rules.  It is taking a good thing and making it more important than God.  It's taking good things and living for them and being defined by them.  That's the reason why in the Ten Commandments the first commandment, the primary commandment, is to have no other gods before me.  Everything else, all of the other, the cheating, the lying, the murdering, the stealing, and all of that awful stuff, it all flows out of the first one.  That's commandments 2 through 10. 

Romans 3:10 says, "No one is righteous, not even one; no one seeks for God."  There are bad people who mug you and cheat and hurt people, and they, of course, are not looking for God.  But here's what's scary about good and religious people.  They think that they are looking for God, but they're not.  They are not looking for a God of grace.  They are looking for a god that they can control through their good works. 

Good people and bad people are both self-savers.  They both are taking things and making them into idols.  It's just that some idols lead you to be obedient to the law of God, and some idols lead you to be disobedient to the law of God.  But all the way across the board, no one is righteous, not even one; no one is seeking God, no one!  Good people think they are seeking God, but they're not.  They aren't seeking the God of grace.  They are seeking a god that they can control through their good works, a god who owes them.  That's the reason why if you are a Christian, grace has come in and grabbed a hold of you and shown you something that you weren't looking for.  It has shown you that you can only be saved through the work of Jesus and not your own works.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

An Infallible Person

An Infallible Person

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is John 5:24  Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life.

God has not given us an inescapable, infallible argument.  In Jesus, He has given us an inescapable, infallible Person!  Millions of people have found Him intellectually inescapable.  On the one hand we're going to see Him unbelievably open, welcoming, empowering and inclusive with those who were outsiders and outcasts.  You're going to see Him reaching out over and over to the poor, and to women, children, prostitutes, lepers, and even to collaborators with the enemy.   Jesus was utterly unique!  He was utterly outrageous!  He was over the top in His inclusiveness and openness and in His reaching out to all those people.

But, on the other hand, you're going to see Him making self-centered claims.  He says that He is going to judge the world on the last day, that He is the Author and Giver of life, that He alone has the authority to forgive sins, that He is equal with the Father.  He makes claims that go beyond anything anyone has ever said outside of a mental institution. 

Here's what's weird.  He's so beautiful, so tender, so kind, and so humble.  Jesus Christ lived a life of such moral beauty!   He got hundreds of people to believe in Him including the Jews.  They were the last people on earth who would ever believe that God could become human!  How do you explain claims like that?  How do you explain a life like that? 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

 

It Didn't Work

It Didn't Work

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller and is from a sermon on the Prodigal Son and the older brother (Luke 15:11-32).Luke 15:28-29 The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

 

The Pharisees were excellent at following the rules, and Jesus over and over again says to them that the pimps and prostitutes were going into the kingdom of God before them (Matthew 21:31).  As John Girsner once put it, "The thing that really separates us from God is not so much our sins but our damnable good works."   How could your goodness separate you more from God than your badness? 

 

Your goodness actually masks your battle with God.  The Bible defines sin as trying to be your own Savior and Lord.  If you are the prodigal brother, you just decide to be your own Savior and Lord.  You say, "I don't need God or religion.  Don't tell me what's right and wrong.  I will decide what is right and wrong for me."  You know that you've kicked God out of your life.  Therefore when there is smoke and when your life falls apart, you say that maybe you need God. 

 

But if you are the elder brother, your goodness masks the fact that you are also being your own Savior and Lord.  Because of your goodness you aren't all of that dependent on God.  You don't want total salvation. You just want help at certain points.  You don't pray to Him day and night in dependence on Him.  You pray to Him when you are in trouble.   You are your own Savior and Lord, but your goodness masks it.  When your life stops working and falls apart; there is smoke all over, and you can't find the fire. 

 

I don't know how many times I have heard people say, "I've tried Christianity and God, and it didn't work."  What they mean is, "I wanted something, and God didn't give it to me."

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

I Love You Because I Love You

I Love You Because I love You

 Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the scripture is paraphrased in the excerpt.

Deuteronomy 7 goes  like this.  The Lord did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other people, for you are the fewest of all people, but it was because the Lord loved you that He redeemed you from the land of slavery.   I loved you because I love you! 

Ed Clowney says that if you have a god who says, "I love you because you repented and submitted to me and because you are keeping up and obeying the 10 commandments," that is not love.  All real love has to be circular.   

You will never love a god who you believe is only loving you because you are good, and because you are faithful to him in every way.  He is not loving you for yourself, and you will never love Him for Himself.  You will love him as long as he is forking over comfort and as long as he is forking over answers to prayers.  You are making merchandise of each other.  But if God just says, "I have just loved you before the stars were put into heaven because you were more beautiful than the stars.  The stars may fall from heaven, but my love for you will stand."  When you realize that He loves you just for who you are in yourself, you will be able to give Him love just for who He is in Himself.

You are an absolute beauty to God, and He loves you because He loves you.

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining