45 - 10/27/11

Greetings.  I met with the fellas again today for our weekly Bible study and food inhaling.  They can really eat pizza.  Actually, it's good because then they get to the classroom as fast as they can because if they don't, they won't get any food.

The Golden Eagles were coming off a weekend where the three teams (Freshmen, JV and Varsity) swept Buchanan High.  I remember last Friday morning when I was driving to work, God placed upon my heart to start to pray for the football teams.  Now, I pray for the teams everyday, but God impressed upon me to pray for doubt.  They were doubting their individual abilities which God had given each one of them.

Doubt is deception and deception is the only weapon of the great deceiver.

So all day I prayed and thought about the JV and Varsity teams.  They both had played in games in which they came out strong but then ended up losing.  

When I got to the field, I got the overwhelming notion that I should tell them.  I wasn't sure it was the best idea, but I wanted to be faithful.  So when the JV team gathered for prayer in the end-zone.  We prayed for God to remove any doubt they had about their God given abilities.

I was able to pray for the doubt surrounding the varsity team as well.

Today's Bible study was on Galatians 6:2-5, which says, "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.  For each will have to bear his own load."

I thought this was a great passage to go through because it talked about bearing each others burdens and the pitfalls of pride.

God calls us to bear each others burdens because we all have burdens.  We all have things that weigh us down both physically and mentally.  John 13:34 tells us to love one another.  This is the law of Christ, that we love one another.  What better way to show this than coming up along side a brother and lifting them up.  

We talked about how they could lift each other up at practice and at games.  When they see a teammate struggling with a play or whatever, lift them up.  When God calls us to lift people up, it isn't so we can say how great we are but rather how great He is.

"For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing..."  People who think they are something miss out on God's glory because they are wrapped up in their pride.  They also miss the extension on God's people trying to help them.

Please continue to pray for this ministry and these young men.  

I love this calling.

James 4:7 "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."