Posts Tagged ‘praise’

TEBOW & PUJOLS – CHRIST OR MAMMON?

Sunday, December 18th, 2011

Very few athletes have been making as huge headlines recently than football’s Tim Tebow and baseball’s Albert Pujols. Both men have been known to wear their ‘testimony’ on their sleeves.
Love ’em or not, both men have people talking not just about their public professions of Faith in Jesus Christ. However, by doing so, they have invited more scrutiny on their individual lives to see if their talk matches their walk!

The latest example is current Chicago Bears wide receiver Sam Hurd. After claiming Christ, the Bible and a picture perfect family life, the Feds just arrested him last week, for running a Cocaine/Marijuana ring worth millions of dollars! When he was arrested last Friday and charged, the news media led with the fact that he was a man who quoted the Bible and spoke to others in need.This is actually not a bad thing, as many a so-called “Christian Athlete” has fallen  hard on  their face, making all their talk about “Jesus is my Savior” a laughing stock to a cynical word.  Christian ministries are actually partially to blame for this, because they fall all over themselves, to hire this or that newly minted celebrity athlete, who happens to say that he believes in the bible or is a “christian”! I have yet to hear of some poor soul say that he/she got saved because Kurt Warner or Deion Sanders spoke at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes banquet!

Both Pujols and Tebow do not fall into this category because neither have committed any type of crime. However both men have to guard their conduct – personal and professional, because the reputation of Christ rests on it.

READ THE REST OF THIS ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE

UNEARNED….IT’S ALL ABOUT GRACE!

Sunday, September 18th, 2011
In baseball or softball, an unearned run means the base runner got on base (or scored) due to an error and the pitcher is not charged with the run. In the dictionary sense of the word, it is something which a person was not qualified to receive, but was given anyway.
This past June 3, Coach Josh Maxwell’s Shelbyville (IL.)  Rams Girls High School softball team was playing the Alton Marquette team in the Illinois Class 2A state semifinals at Eastside Centre (East Peoria, Illinois). Coach Maxwell’s mother had just died one hour before game time. It was the top of the 3rd inning when Marquette’s all-star pitcher Alexis Silkwood blew an easy throw off a bunt to second base. This led to the only run of the entire game later on, due to a wild pitch by Silkwood, who had just an awful game that day. It was an unearned run.
Two things to note about this win for Coach, just hours after his dear mother passed away – it was an error in throwing….add this to a wild pitch by Marquette’s ace pitcher caused advanced the Rams’ base runners to score.  Secondly, they did nothing to earn it. They only showed up to play.
You know, there are so many we can say about Grace (like this real-life example)! It is said the old traditional hymns have more much more theology than the new worship songs, and they are correct! The ones about Grace have not only stood the test of time, but speak to us powerfully, even today! The Praise and Worship music of Chris Tomlin or the Gateway Worship band of Texas or Hillsong of Australia is amazing.