4 Things I love about working with FCA

Nearly 10 years ago a close friend introduced me to the fine people who work with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes in the Kentuckiana area. When we met then, I did not know how much God would bless me through their ministry and their devotion and commitment to Christ. Here are 4 things that I love about working with FCA:

1. Needed Relationships. I want to be a person who is making a positive difference in the lives of young people. Our schools today are full of students who are in need of friends and mentors. Our city is full of churches of people who want to do that. But there is a disconnect. It is not all that easy to make these relationships happen. We want to, but it is a challenge. FCA creates a situation to make these relationships happen. Last fall, I was able to spend hours with a group of soccer players who do not know Jesus. I bought them meals. Gave them rides. And we talked a lot about many things – high school soccer, food in other countries, and also Jesus’ death on the cross. There are so many players & coaches around the city that I now consider dear friends. Were it not for FCA, those relationships would have never happened. “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.” (1 Cor. 9:22-23)
2. Challenge Accepted. Coaches, teachers, counselors, administrators everywhere are continually challenging their students to step it up and be leaders. So many young people today have a desire or passion to lead, but they are held back by some fear or nervousness. FCA is specifically intentional about cultivating good leadership in Christian student-athletes. This point is very convicting and encouraging. I have seen numerous students go from being quiet and tentative to out-spoken and confident. Not only in what they believe but also in their work ethic on the field or court. Look around the broad sports landscape today and you will see that many of the well-known leaders are believers in Jesus. They have accepted the challenge. I am thankful for FCA focusing on this aspect of life, competition and faith.
3. Do all things with excellence. FCA wants everything to be done well. And that is fitting. God has told us “Whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God.” (1 Cor. 10:31) and “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” (1 Cor. 9:24) Winning is not everything, but it is certainly a goal and priority. You play to win the game. I am thankful that FCA does not shy away from this message. There are too many people today who seem to think that your athletic performance does not matter as long as you’re “focused on God.” However, God would say otherwise. When one is playing sports, they ought to do it all for God’s glory and to the best of their God-given ability.
4. Changed Lives. I love working with FCA because God is saving people through their work. I know of so many student athletes who have been literally changed by God because of the work being done by FCA. There are UofL athletes who have come to me hungry to know God and His word. There are middle schoolers who are finding their purpose and identity through FCA. And there are high schoolers passionate to give themselves to the work of God. It is incredible to see a student-athlete who is wandering through life lacking motivation who finds Christ. Once they come to know Jesus, their approach to all things changes. This is happening all around us. The basketball player at University of Louisville; the cyclist at P.R.P. High School; the track star at Fairdale High; or the soccer player at Manual High; just to name a few. And what is so great is that so many of us can list off many, many more students who are finding the meaning of life through FCA. I am thrilled to be involved in this great work. “And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor. 6:11) “But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)

Caring for those people who are physically unable to get to church is a challenge. Many churches fail to remember these people. Kevin Greer has written an excellent article about “Shut-In Ministry.”

You can read the article here.

For the past 3 Sunday evenings, we have been blessed and encouraged to have one of our church members teach us about the Bible.

Josh Wamble has been a part of First Baptist Fairdale for 8 years. He is a gifted teacher in our church. 

The title of his 3-part series was “What we believe about the Bible.”

You can listen to each of them here.

Part 1 – The Authority of the Bible

Part 2 – The Clarity, Necessity, and Sufficiency of the Bible

Part 3 – How we got the Bible we have

 

The Bible truly is God’s Word! May you be blessed and strengthened in your faith as you listen to these 3 messages.

When our first son, Joshua Jr., was born on January 2, 2008, I wrote him a lullaby. I was overcome with God’s goodness to me. I couldn’t then and I cannot now believe that I am father and daddy. I most certainly do not deserve all the blessing in my life. God is good to me. I have memorized that lullaby, and I sing it now to all of our children. I had thought that I would be able to write each of them a lullaby, but I have just adapted this one to fit each of them. It is pretty much the same lullaby, but I did have to change more this time since she is a girl. Either way, it expresses my heart in life and in fatherhood.

You can read the lullaby here. 

I will never forget that day in my front yard as a little boy when a friend from the neighborhood made me mad, and I called him something that I should not have called him. My mother heard me say it. She grabbed me by the arm; took me inside, into her bathroom in her bedroom; reached under the sink; pulled out a fresh bar of Dial soap; and crammed it into my mouth until I got the point.

She did not want me to talk like that ever again! I am thankful for a mom like that. It is because of her teaching me in moments like that one (I have never forgotten that!) that I have always tried to speak well and not have a foul mouth.

Well in the Bible in Proverbs 31 we have an awesome passage where another Godly mother is talking to her son. Many people are familiar with verses 10-31 about the “Godly woman.” But far less people are familiar with the first 9 verses of chapter 31 of Proverbs. King Lemuel says these 9 verses are an oracle that his mother taught him. It is so profound!

Verse 2 expresses how concerned she is for her son. She knows his potential. She knows that God has a calling and purpose on his life. She is burdened that her son not waste his life and throw his life away. And so she gives him, her son, this great advice.

Her advice is so fitting for today, Here it is:

1. Don’t let women distract you!
2. Stay away from Alcohol!
3. Stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves!

 

31:3 speaks to the danger that women can be. Bad relationships can destroy people. Don’t let women distract you. (Obviously,   men can distract women too. I am not meaning this to be one way. Relationships can be distracting.)

31:4-7 speaks about alcohol and what it can be good for. But it also speaks about how it distorts one’s focus and concentration. And if one plans to be a leader and difference maker, they need to stay away from Alcohol. Lemuel’s mother says alcohol may be cool for some people, but for those with a vision and a calling and a purpose Alcohol is not for them. Alcohol misleads people, and so – stay away from it.

Then 31:8-9 speak about the poor and the needy and those who cannot speak up for themselves. This godly mother in the Bible tells her son to make it his responsibility to stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. In other words, she is telling her son to make a difference in people’s lives. Success or significance is greater when you are not content on making your life better, but on making the lives of others better.

Notice that she is not telling her son to be the best or smartest or fastest or best looking. Certainly she may desire those things. But in the end, success is not determined by those things. This godly mother knew that. In the end, the way we impacted people is what counts. The lives that have been touched is what really matters!

May we all hear these 3 wise words from this Godly mother!

This past week I became very sick with a stomach virus that I had heard had been going around. This terrible “bug” left me depleted and in bed for several days. Cold, shaky, and weak, I did not leave my bed for nearly 48 hours. (Thanks to Lance Armstrong and Manti Te’o, I was not bored out of my mind.)

I pulled out my hospital socks to help me keep warm in recovery.

But as I laid there all that time, I was able to reflect on my life. (Now I certainly understand that a 48 hour stomach virus is not a very big deal. This is not at all to put me in a category as someone who is very sick or in the hospital.) There is so much that goes through your mind when you are sick. Every time I get sick, I go through this phase of wondering if I will ever get better. What if I don’t? Anyways, I always do. And here are some of my observations that I would like to share: 

1. Health is important. I cannot do all the responsibilities God has given me if I am not healthy. Therefore, I must prioritize my health. Some exercise is important! Like Paul says, “Bodily training is of some value.”

2. My wife is a blessing. Proverbs says “He who finds a wife, finds a good thing.” I have never known that to be more true than this week. As I lay in bed sleeping and moaning, she took care of everything including me. She is 38 weeks pregnant. Due any day. We have 3 little boys running around the house. And she still managed to keep me supplied with toast, chicken noodle soup, and gatorade in bed. She’s amazing!
   
   
3. Focus on where you are. Jim Elliott once said, “Where ever you are, Be all there.” As I was down and out, my sons must have come in to check on me a hundred times. They wanted me to play with them, read to them, wrestle with them, but I was unable to. I found myself thinking. As soon as I feel better, I am going to focus on my sons.

4.  Laziness is awful. As I began to feel somewhat better, my mind began to go over all the things that I could be doing. Things that I would have rather been doing. I began to get mad. Really frustrated. I didn’t want to watch another episode of Family Feud or SportsCenter. I wanted to get up and do something. As the Bible says “Go to the ant, you sluggard, and consider his ways.”

5. I have a good God, good friends and a good church family.  I do not deserve the love that I am shown on a daily basis. The people that God has placed around me are so good to me. I thank God for them. The calls and texts were thoughtful. The help was so on time. I even had two different dear friends conduct funeral services for me in my absence. What a blessing! I am not 100% yet, but I sure do feel better. I thank God that He has healed me.

Here is a video of Drew Dillman being interviewed after he finished 2nd place in Nationals for Under 23 Cyclocross.

At the 2:30 mark he speaks about his church. First Baptist Fairdale.

 

This past Sunday one of our dear church members, Fairdae boy and Marian University student Drew Dillman, was riding for Team USA in Belgium. While he was racing there, his mother and sister were being baptized here.

Here is a recent article on Drew and how he is using cycling to magnify Christ!

We are so proud of him!

During the month of December, we took a break from our usual sermon series from the Gospel of Luke. For the 4 Sundays leading up to Christmas, I preached 4 different sermons on Reactions to the Christmas Message. (Our church found this series to be such a blessing. We would recommend it for any future Christmas sermon series.)

Week 1: December 2nd = Joseph’s reaction to the Christmas message from Matthew 1:18-25. In one word, Joseph’s reaction to the Chrismas message was Obedience. You can listen to that whole sermon here.

Week 2: December 9th = Mary’s reaction to the Christmas message from Luke 2:26-38. In one word, Mary’s reaction to the Christmas message was Submission. You can listen to that whole sermon here.

Week 3: December 16th = The Shepherds’ reaction to the Christmas message from Luke 2:8-20. In one word, the Shepherds reaction to the Christmas message was Rejoicing. You can listen to the whole sermon here.

Week 4: December 23rd = The reaction of the Wise Men to the Christmas message from Matthew 2:1-12. In one word, the reaction of the wise men to the Christmas message was Worship. You can listen to the whole sermon here.

The Chrismas message is something that most Americans are quite familiar with. God made the virgin Mary pregnant. The baby was God and would be the Savior of the world. However, we are often not responsive to this powerful, truthful message. We pray God would stir in your hearts that the message would cause you to be Obedient, Submissive, Rejoicing and Worshiping.

Someone once said that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ This old and familiar phrase means that a complex idea can be conveyed with just a single still image. In many ways, I learned this on my first trip to New York City. I had often heard that New York City was so big, so fast-paced, and so diverse. But I wasn’t able to fully grasp it because I had never been to see it. Well, once I finally went I understood. That city is incredible. It really is so big and so fast-paced and so diverse. One might say you just have to be there to know what its truly like.

In many ways, God is like this. God is the most interesting and familiar subject in the world. All people everywhere think about God. They have thoughts on God, beliefs about God, opinions about God and so on. But all the different thoughts and opinions vary about God quite a bit.

One of the reasons why God is so misunderstood is because “no one has ever seen God” (John 1:18a).   Therefore as sinners, humans don’t understand God properly. This is what leads to many people saying things like ‘if god was real he could just come prove himself to everyone.’ And many people say they would believe in god if they ever saw him. Well, they wouldn’t, but that is for another time and discussion.

This thought is what makes Christmas and Christianity so unique and valuable. It is unlike any other religion. Its truly different. It is not people trying to figure out God. It is God showing and explaining Himself to people. God came to us.

In John 1:1-18, John says that God became a human and that human is Jesus. Jesus is God and man. Jesus is the answer to all the worlds questions, confusions, and misunderstandings about God. Jesus Christ the God-man is the picture that is worth more than a thousand words. But He is even more than a picture. He is real life. He is a person. He is just like us. And He is God, so he is just like God. In fact, Hebrews 1 says Jesus is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.”

John concludes this prologue (verses 1-18) by saying at the end of verse 18 that “he (Jesus)has made him (God) known.” The New American Standard version says it like this “he (Jesus) has explained him (God).” Jesus has made God known to the world. If you want to know what God is like, look to Jesus or look at Jesus. Jesus is the explanation of God. He is God in the flesh. He is God in a picture. As John MacArthur says “All that Jesus says and does interprets and explains who God is and what he does.”

Christmas is the culmination and fulfillment of this beautiful truth. The birth of Christ is the very moment that God became man. Galatians 4:4 says “when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman.” And as Christ lived and taught our understanding of God was becoming more clear. Jesus explained Him. God in Jesus makes sense. He is no longer confusing.

This Christmas take heart that all of God and his promises have been fulfilled… in Jesus. Christmas is about God clarifying God. When the virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus the world received the greatest gift ever. God was blessing the world. God was explaining Himself to us. God was clearing up any confusion about what He is like. No other religion has anything like this. No other god is like our God, the true God. He makes sense to us now. He is great and He has people everywhere. If you this Christmas believe that Jesus is God coming to save us, then you are God’s child. If you will believe this, then you can be God’s child. As 1:12 says “to all who did receive Him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”