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

Two Babes in a Manger

TWO BABES IN A MANGER

Dear Champions,

 

I do not know the source of the excerpt, but it is touching.  

 

In 1994, two Americans answered an invitation from the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics based on biblical principles to 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. 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 don't have any place to stay.  Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn't, because I didn't 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.

 

"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining

Infinite Value of No Value

Infinite Value or No Value

Dear Champions,

The short excerpt is by Tim Keller, and the Scripture is 1 Corinthians 15: 3-6 . . .Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time . . .

 

If the resurrection happened, then Christianity is of infinite value.  However, if the resurrection is not true, then Christianity is of no value at all.  It's either of infinite value, or it's of no value.

 

Other religions aren't vulnerable like Christianity.  They say that their founder wasn't God and that their founders were prophets.  They say that the way to get to God is to try to live a good life.

 

But Christianity says that Jesus was the son of God and that the resurrection proves it.  It says that nobody is good enough, and our founder is God.  Christianity says, "Our religion doesn't tell you how to find God by your efforts, but how Jesus came and did it all for you."  He died for your sins.  He was your substitute.  He brings you to God.  

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining