I've always liked hearing stories about missionaries and also just listening to all that they had to tell about their lives and experiences, ever since I was young and they would on occasion visit us when on furlough. It is such a rewarding and educating experience and usually their zeal for The Lord rubs off on others. Last week there was a story in Sports Illustrated magazine about Heisman Trophy winner and two-time national champion, Florida quarterback, Tim Tebow, and it just gave me goose bumps as I read it!
Here is an excerpt from the SI story:
The man on the other end of the line is calling from the Philippines. He has taken time from his missionary work to reply to a reporter's e-mailed questions. Now Bob Tebow has a question of his own: "Have you heard the story of Timmy's birth?"
Even if you have, it's worth hearing from the mouth of his father: "When I was out in the mountains in Mindanao, back in '86, I was showing a film and preaching that night. I was weeping over the millions of babies being [aborted] in America, and I prayed, 'God, if you give me a son, if you give me Timmy, I'll raise him to be a preacher.'" Not long after, Bob and Pam Tebow conceived their fifth child. It was a very difficult pregnancy. "The placenta was never properly attached, and there was bleeding from the get-go," Bob recalls. "We thought we'd lost him several times." Early in the pregnancy Pam contracted amebic dysentery, which briefly put her in a coma. Her doctors, fearful that medications they had given her had damaged the fetus, advised her to abort it. She refused, and on Aug. 14, 1987, Pam delivered a healthy if somewhat scrawny Timothy Richard Tebow.
"All his life, from the moment he could understand, I told him, 'You're a miracle baby,'" Bob recalls. "'God's got a purpose for you, and at some point I think He's going to call you to preach.'I asked God for a preacher, and he gave me a quarterback."
"It's a good line, and a welcome injection of levity from a man who takes his religion very seriously. But it's fast becoming obsolete. Having covered Tim for three years, I would say he's the most effective ambassador-warrior for his faith I've come across in 25 years at SI.
The Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association web-site
Read the whole story at SI Vault HERE
It's always good to look at and review what matters most in this life, from time to time and from reports in the news last week, a church leader from one of America's major denominations is missing it.
A lot of publicity had been given to the Episcopal Church of America (ECUSA) national convention in Anaheim California and in particular, to the statements made by it's presiding bishop, Dr. Katherine Jefferts Schori.
Richard Mouw, from Fuller Theological Seminary in his article last week in "Christianity Today" entitled, "The Heresy of 'Individualism'?" writes:
"In her opening address to the Episcopal Church's recent General Convention, the Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, the church's presiding bishop, made a special point of denouncing what she labeled "the great Western heresy"—the teaching, in her words, "that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God." This "individualist focus," she declared, "is a form of idolatry."
And also:
In all of this, however, the presiding bishop would discover an important nuance. We evangelicals never downplay the importance of individuals—as individuals—coming to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. We never say that an individual's very personal relationship to God is not important. What we do say is that individual salvation is not enough.
........Call that "individualism" if you want. But for us not only is it not heresy, it is at the heart of what it means to affirm the gospel of Jesus Christ."
It is always good to recommend and to read the "Gospel of John" because of the very words of Jesus and how He has made them simple enough for even a child to understand! I think that the story of the "Good Shepherd" really demonstrates this in chapter 10 and aren't the events of last week ironic in light of what Jesus says that anyone that does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs up another way is a thief and a robber! He goes on to say, "Truly, truly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep" and "If anyone enters by Me he will be saved". Today we hear so many so called "learned" people saying that all the major religions lead to God and eternal life even without Jesus. In fact, last week I was listening to a Christian radio station where they played some audio clips from a few years ago of Mrs. Jefferts Schori saying this very thing about three major religions of the world aside from Christianity. This has to be a major departure from Christian orthodoxy on her part and truth is not determined by what seems right in the mind of a religious leader but by what has been plainly written in God's Word, the Bible.
Are we being idolatrous or even boastful? The apostle Paul says "But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Gal. 6:14 (Boasting Only in the Cross -by John Piper)
Can we know and have complete confidence that the Gospel is really true?
("I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." I John 5:13)
Theologian R. C. Sproul has a good presentation of The Gospel - on his Ligonier Ministries Web-site:
The Gospel
"There is no greater message to be heard than that which we call the Gospel. But as important as that is, it is often given to massive distortions or over simplifications. People think they’re preaching the Gospel to you when they tell you, 'you can have a purpose to your life', or that 'you can have meaning to your life', or that 'you can have a personal relationship with Jesus.' All of those things are true, and they’re all important, but they don’t get to the heart of the Gospel.
The Gospel is called the 'good news' because it addresses the most serious problem that you and I have as human beings, and that problem is simply this: God is holy and He is just, and I’m not. And at the end of my life, I’m going to stand before a just and holy God, and I’ll be judged. And I’ll be judged either on the basis of my own righteousness – or lack of it – or the righteousness of another. The good news of the Gospel is that Jesus lived a life of perfect righteousness, of perfect obedience to God, not for His own well being but for His people. He has done for me what I couldn’t possibly do for myself. But not only has He lived that life of perfect obedience, He offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice to satisfy the justice and the righteousness of God.
The great misconception in our day is this: that God isn’t concerned to protect His own integrity. He’s a kind of wishy-washy deity, who just waves a wand of forgiveness over everybody. No. For God to forgive you is a very costly matter. It cost the sacrifice of His own Son. So valuable was that sacrifice that God pronounced it valuable by raising Him from the dead – so that Christ died for us, He was raised for our justification. So the Gospel is something objective. It is the message of who Jesus is and what He did. And it also has a subjective dimension. How are the benefits of Jesus subjectively appropriated to us? How do I get it? The Bible makes it clear that we are justified not by our works, not by our efforts, not by our deeds, but by faith – and by faith alone. The only way you can receive the benefit of Christ’s life and death is by putting your trust in Him – and in Him alone. You do that, you’re declared just by God, you’re adopted into His family, you’re forgiven of all of your sins, and you have begun your pilgrimage for eternity."
R.C.Sproul-
If you still have some questions about this please read the excellent post by Dan Edelen from over at Cerulean Sanctum blog from a week ago. I think it is helpful and the link is below.
How to Become a Christian HERE
Is everyone as tired of all the adulation of Michael Jackson from the media as I am? Maybe it's time to turn off the television and just look back at some people who have gone on, but who have made a real positive difference in the life of society and of the church too. One such person was John Calvin and today, July 10th, is his 500th birthday!
Illustration by Krieg Barrie, courtesy of World Magazine. All rights reserved
Here are a few comments on Calvin that were posted today by some that I like to follow on Twitter:
Albert Mohler: Reading Bruce Gordon's massive new work on John Calvin, whose 500th birthday is today. http://bit.ly/owo5Z
John Piper: CALVIN: WHY WE EXIST: “Set before [man], as the prime motive of his existence, zeal to illustrate the glory of God."
The best 128 page biography of John Calvin only $2 just today at Desiring God. The first one I ever read. http://ow.ly/gZ9T
Tom Ascol: Happy Calvin's birthday--one benefit of being in Indonesia...we get it first
Jason Smathers: Reading Calvin the Evangelist, thanks @hereiblog for the link: http://bit.ly/2qknkJ
Paul Edwards: How different the church would be today were it not for 500 years of John Calvin. In honor of his 500th birthday I say, "Soli Deo Gloria!
