Thanks for your prayers over this past weekend during our outreach at the McLean County Fair. We set up a table for the Thursday-Saturday event and passed out bottles of water and had resources available (e.g. tracts, devotionals, bibles). Attendance was down quite a bit this year, probably due to the weather (windy) and concurrent events in nearby towns. But we were still able to give away 120 water bottles. Our congregation stepped up so that I wasn't forced to man the booth the whole weekend but was actually able to finish the sermon. I had hoped for a better turn out (we have a 100 or so water bottles left) and more opportunities to interact with people but I trust that God will use this for His good purposes.
If our weekend wasn't busy enough, on Sunday afternoon we had the youth families over to our home for a BBQ and games (bocce ball and croquet). We had a great time re-connecting with them (since we haven't had regular youth events this summer). On Sunday morning I preached on Matthew 9:9-34 and the sermon was entitled "Redefining Discipleship." If you like to listen to it you can by clicking here.
Last night my wife and I watched the MLB home run derby. If you haven't heard yet about what Josh hamilton did, you're missing out! He hit a record 28 homers in the first round of the derby (the next highest was like 8). Unfortunately he wore himself out and ended up losing in the finals to Justin Morneau of the Twins. But the reason I mention this is not merely because he broke a record but because of who he is and what he's been through.
Josh Hamilton was the number one overall draft pick by Tampa Bay a number of years ago but because of his addiction to drugs didn't end up making it to the big leagues until last year with the Reds (now he's with Texas). The only reason he was even competing in the homer run derby last night was due to God's grace. His wife prayed for him all the time as he was struggling with drugs and it was a result of him coming to faith in Jesus that he was finally able to break his addiction, change his lifestyle and make it back into baseball. Just making it to the big leagues after so much time off would have been amazing but he is a very talented player who has a reak shot at winning the triple crown this year!
When they interviewed him at the end of the derby last night he gave thanks to His Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Now, most of the time when I hear an athlete say that I cringe and await the backlash due to their lives not reflecting their claim to follow Jesus. However in Josh's case, I was glad to hear him express His faith in Jesus and I'm sure that no matter what people who heard him say that think about Christianity, they have to be amazed at the fact that Josh at least believes that the only reason he was even able to compete in the home run derby last night was because of what Christ has done in his life.
By God's Grace, Jeff
No comments:
Post a Comment