True Satisfaction of the Soul

CJ Mahaney at Sovereign Grace Ministries has a great blog post on US Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps and the recent picture of him smoking marijuana.

Josh Reynolds
Central-Northeast Nebraska FCA

Doing Sports God's Way: The Essential

For centuries, athletes and coaches have been trained with the understanding that hard work is what produces results. For many, results are determined by who does the extra rep, runs the extra line, or watches the extra hour of film. Most often, I do agree with this idea. Colossians 3:23 says, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart as working for the Lord and not for men.” This verse does make it very clear that God desires great effort in our approach to athletics. However we must be very careful to understand that “Doing Sports God’s Way”, isn’t for the purpose of getting worldly results. In fact, “Doing Sports God’s Way,” isn’t dependant upon our hard work or abilities at all.

“Doing Sports God’s Way” is God’s work. On our own we are helpless. We are in direct rebellion against God because of our sinful nature and unable to possibly compete or coach in any manner that pleases God. It is only when Christ, in His mercy and grace, saves us from the darkness of sin that we can do anything that pleases Him.

So the next time that you attempt to “Do Sports God’s Way”, first please take the time to evaluate if you have put your trust in Him to empower you to honor Him through sports. The Gospel must be of first importance.

Brian Conklin
Omaha FCA Director

Faith, Trust, Belief

It has been very interesting to observe two different basketball games over the past few weeks and see the same lesson in each game.

The first game was a high school game and the parable of sports came alive when I watched the drastic difference in the level of trust between the two different teams. Keep in mind how trust and faith are synonymous to one another. Team A was extremely patient. They worked the offense and passed the ball until they found the best shot and in their wisdom, they took it. Team B did not work their offense at all. Each time someone got the ball, they immediately looked to score. They might be triple-teamed in the post and they would still look to do things their own way instead of trusting their offense and their coach who designed the offense. Compared to Team A, Team B looked looked like chaos.

The second game was a college game which was higher paced and had a higher level of stress at the end of the game with the home team down by 3. The home team did a great job of getting back into the game and had the crowd cheering loudly. Unfortunately, each of the players went back to their bad habits of taking things into their own hands instead of trusting in the offense, their teammates and even their coach! Yes, one of the players was even arguing with the coach on which inbounds play they should run. The game ended in a disaster with the road team missing a free throw and his team still getting the rebound. Yet another chaotic situation.

I was reminded as I watched these games of how this is exactly like our relationship with Jesus. As ridiculous as it sounds, we sometimes live our lives arguing with the coach of all coaches about which play we should run in life, not trusting His perfect plan for us. Our life ends up in chaos because we thought we knew more about our life than God did. Jesus had this to say about our faith when a terrible storm came up while He was asleep on a boat with his disciples: "He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm." Why is it that in our pride we think we have life all figured out when we did nothing to create ourselves, the world, or anything in the world? All God asks of us is to simply trust Him. And why wouldn't we? Even the fiercest of storms obey Him.

Nate Lewis
FCA Area Representative
Western Nebraska

Tim Tebow and his Faith

Here is an interview by Florida Quarterback Tim Tebow. You can download the Doing Sports God's Way lesson here.

Faith and Football

Randy Alcorn writes some great thoughts on football stars Tim Tebow, Kurt Warner, and Jason Hanson. He also writes about about his perspective of sports and heaven. Will there be sports in heaven?

Josh Reynolds
Central-Northeast Nebraska FCA