www.Tom Roy.net
I wish each of you a very Merry Christmas week.
There will be one last blog next week as I see what is next in my life. I will be retiring from UPI after 38 years and look forward to what God might have next for me.
Stay tuned…I just may show up again in blogsville 🙂
Thanks for YEARS of reading and feedback!!
This week I ask us all to ask ourselves this question…Are we life givers or life takers?
The challenge:
When you first meet someone ask them how they are doing.
Then ask them what is new in their lives.
Finally try to drop the word I from the conversation…make it a you or a we.
Of these 3 areas are foreign to you…you may just be a life taker!
Hayden Carlo, 25, was pulled over by Plano police because he had an expired registration. He said he told the police officer that he was struggling financially. He said he had to choose between updating his registration and feeding his kids.
Carlo recalled their conversation. He flatly said he doesn’t have an excuse for the expired registration except he can’t afford a new one.
“I don’t have the money,” he told the officer. “It was either feed my kids or get this registration done.”
The police officer then handed the driver a citation, but when Carlo unfolded the paper, he saw a crisp $100 bill.
He said he “broke down” in his car. “What else can you do?” he asked.
Grace is my most beloved word in the world. As I study Jesus’ life, the notion of grace keeps hitting me in the face. All his stories made the wrong person the hero: the prodigal son not the responsible older brother, Lazarus not the rich man, the Good Samaritan not the Jewish rabbi. And I began to see grace as one of the great, often untapped, powers of the universe that God has asked us to set loose.
The French philosopher Simone Weil wrote a book called Gravity and Grace which describes two different ways of approach. The world runs by rules like gravity. As Isaac Newton studied the universe, he came up with fixed rules like “Every action deserves an equal and opposite reaction.” Athletics runs that way, as does the economy and politics. Stop making your car or house payments, and the bank repossesses them. Bomb my country and we will bomb you back. Against that pattern comes a strikingly different pattern. From God we deserve anger and we get love; we deserve punishment and we get forgiveness.
Grace is unfair. We deserve God’s wrath and get God’s love, deserve punishment and get forgiveness. We don’t get what we deserve. Paul put it ironically, “The wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life.” We work hard for wages, which vanish at death; we do nothing to deserve grace, and get life eternal. It’s unfair that a human rights abuser like Saul gets forgiven, or a murderer/adulterer like King David, or a thief hanging on a cross who has a conversion just before death. Yes, it’s unfair—gloriously unfair I would say. Coach Campman
Educated, Uneducated. God loves you.
Common laborer, CEO. God loves you.
First Grade Student, College Professor. God loves you.
Success, Failure. God loves you.
Coach, Umpire. God loves you.
“God doesn’t love us because of who we are. God loves us because of who He is.”
“…being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”
(Philippians 1:6)
Keith Madison
There are two common wrong attitudes to sport – some dismiss sports as merely a game, while others worship sports as nearly a God. When viewed through the lens of Scripture, however, we will see that sport is more than a game, less than a God, and when transformed by the gospel can be received as a gift.
As people we were created to play. Play does not have a secondary purpose. It is simply creatively delighting in and enjoying God’s good creation for its own sake.
Like a father who builds a sandbox for his children, God is honoured and takes joy when his sons and daughters delight in his workmanship. John Calvin called the world “the theatre of God’s glory” but it is also the playground of God’s goodness.
Sports and competition are gifts of God in creation to be richly enjoyed with thanksgiving.
Why do people play sports? On the one hand, men and women play sports because they are created to play and want to use their gifts to glorify God. On the other hand, people often play sports as a way to justify themselves, to prove themselves to the world.
When sinners understand that they are justified by the blood of Christ, this frees them from having to justify themselves through their accomplishments. Sports then become a gift; they no longer bear the pressure of being the way that we prove ourselves to the world.
Stuart Weir
The baseball managers take both into consideration when deciding on the starting lineup, substitutions and the pitching strategies for the opposing team. We all have situations and we all have our tendencies when dealing with them and our strategies for life.
Sometimes we need to change our lineup to match the stadium we’re playing in and in addition to what lineup we’re facing. Right handed pitchers for right handed batters and lefty for lefty is generally the strategy for match ups. But there are times we have to leave the pitcher in to work his way out of the jam regardless of which way the bat is swinging. We can’t really control all our situations although we think we do at times.
We can control our tendencies and strategy for life. What are our tendencies? We have the power to create new tendencies. We have to make the choice to do or say or think something different than before and keep doing that.
This will create a habit or a new tendency. Do we have scriptures to quote or songs to sing for our starting lineup that we know are tried and true?
Are we prepared to walk out to the mound each morning for the game? What do we need to do to prepare? Are we willing to trust the Manager? The One we can draw close to and trust? He will draw close to us and give us wisdom when we ask. “Father God, may we know, trust and accept your word for our day. May we draw close to You and trust You to guide us through the game.
Help us to work though the situations and bring glory to You. We thank You that You are always with us, ready to guide us and always love us.” “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.” Romans 12:12. “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when ever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.” James 1:2-5.
Julie Kinzer
Paul wrote to the Hebrew church and said, “For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise”.
Understand patience is not a natural trait. Some people have a natural tendency to be flexible, tolerant, resistant, lenient, or reserved, but this isn’t patience because pushed to the limit this will run out and what we think is patience will quit, give up, turn away, and fail to stick with
You’ve been through too much – stick with it.
It’s too hard – stick with it.
WHY?
Victory is yours – stick with it.
God has a blessing for you – stick with it.
Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world so – stick with it.
Your future depends on it – stick with it.
Coach Campman
Tom Roy 