It's God's Fault

I am an avid football watcher and fan, but I do recognize the sports shortcomings.

One thing that drives me crazy is when I see some athletes attempt to show some signal of their faith into the game. Let me clarify. I want genuine Christ followers to play their sports in a way that honors the Lord and shines the light of their faith. What I don't approve of is being fake about this, or trying to shoehorn some demonstration into a situation where it doesn't fit.(See Deon Sanders).
Let me give you an example. As I was watching my beloved Aggies play the evil longhorns on Thanksgiving, I noticed something. Every time that the longhorn punter was about to kick, he made the sign of the cross over himself. Is kicking a punt so dangerous that you have to prepare your soul for eternity? (MLB batters do this a lot, too)

Yesterday, an athlete won the all time knucklehead award for faith and sports. His name is Steve Johnson and he is a wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills. On one play he was wide open in the end zone. The pass sails right to him and hits him in the hands. He dropped it! It happens, even to the best.

But, it's not his fault! It was God's fault. This is what he tweeted after the game:

"I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!!" "YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO..."

Wow! This is no joke. He really tweeted this, which means he really thought this. Nice of him to mention his praise and thanks to God while he is blaming God for dropping the pass.

My pastor in college always said, "You can't fix stupid".


"By the mouth of a fool comes a rod for his back." Proverbs 14:3

Sharing Christ Around The Globe - OCC

Imagine a child who has nothing. Christmas comes-- no presents at all. Imagine something worse - a person never knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Is there a way to address both of those problems? Yes.

It is called Operation Christmas Child. This fall our church has participated with this incredible outreach opportunity with hundreds of other churches. The process is simple. Pack a shoe box with toys and items for a kid in an underprivileged part of the world. That shoe box will be loaded with gospel story in their own language and then the child will get the gift.

It is about more than making a kid smile with a simple gift. It is about giving them the greatest gift of all time - Jesus Christ. Countless souls have been changed by this outreach.

I am thankful that we had the opportunity to be a part of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ. I pray that the boxes that go out will be used by God to bring scores of people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Needing a Savior

All human beings enter the world as sinners and condemned because they are sons and daughters of Adam (Rom. 5:12-19). Sin blinds human beings to their own wickedness and tricks people into thinking that they are righteous. Sin is not merely a matter of peccadilloes or mistakes. Human beings are fiercely rebellious and stubborn, which is captured in the metaphor of being stiff-necked. The sin of human beings is manifested supremely in the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. All enter into the world spiritually dead toward God and heading toward physical death and judgment. By nature, humans are children of wrath and rotten trees. From birth, they are under the dominion of the old age of the flesh instead of the new age of the Spirit. They are a brood of vipers instead of children of God.

The power and depth of sin function as the backdrop to God's saving promises, for such promises represent astonishing good news, given the devastation that sin inflicts on human beings. With the coming of Jesus Christ, the era of salvation and deliverance has dawned; with the death and resurrection of Jesus, the tyranny of sin and death has ended."

A quote from Magnifying God in Christ by Dr. Thomas Schreiner, page 172.

Vote

I voted! It is my privilege as an American and my responsibility as a Christ follower. My guiding principals in voting are determined by my first allegiance - to God and His Word. Not my pocket book, not my comfort, not my preferences.

We also have a biblical mandate to love and pray for all of our leaders, even if we didn't vote for them.

Massive Story - The Gospel

An exerpt from Al Mohler's book, He Is Not Silent
When Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 5:21 that "for our sake Hee made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God", he is talking about a cosmological reversal that is beyond anything we can understand. If our people think of the gospel as a small story in which they get to befriend Jesus and walk alone with Him in a garden, if they don't understand what a massive thing their salvation from sin really is, theen we are robbing them of the gospel.

Every time we preach, we need to create dissonance in the minds of our hearers. We need to declare their own wretchedness, our sin, and our powerlessness, and we need to admit frankly that we can't solve this problem. And then we proclaim the gospel. We show our people how God himself did what they were wholly unable to do. We tell them that the problem of sin was only solved when the sinless Son of God died on the cross as a substitute for His people. (page 101)

Massacre at Church

Headlines in many newspapers are recounting the story of a ruthless massacre of a specific group of people in Iraq. Did these people deserve it? Had they broken some laws? What were they doing to provoke such an attack? Nothing but worshiping God. Muslim extremists, terrorist, walked into this church and murdered 58 people simply for being Christian.
Terrible story! What these attackers don't realize is that the "blood of martyrs is the seed of the faith"(Tertullian said that). It just seems to be the way it works. They more they try and stop the spread of the gospel, the more it spreads.

Spend a moment, read this article, and pray for believers in Christ that are being persecuted all over the world.

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/11/01/2593238/iraqi-christians-mourn-after-church.html