Joy from Jail

I am going to be speaking in my church in May, and I would like to share a condensed version of what I will be saying. I’m going to be talking about my favorite verse, Philippians 4:1 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I used to think that this verse meant that everything will be fine, or that there will always be a happy ending. Certain circumstances have proven me wrong. Since I became a Christian the only thing about suffering in my life that has changed is my reaction to it, family members have still gotten sick, I was cut from the team for the second time, I’ve bombed tests, life has been far from the easy street I imagined it would be. To understand Phil. 4:13, you need to look at what was going on when it was written, when Paul wrote the book of Philippians he was chained up in a jail cell, he has seen good friends doe by the hands of the Romans and probably knew his time was near. But he had great joy! He knew that Jesus was still with him and even though he was locked up and previously shipwrecked that Jesus still loved him and would give him strength. This verse doesn’t mean there will be no bumps in the road; it means that when the bumps come we’ve got God to get us through them. There are times when we feel pain in our lives but we must remember that God is looking down in love and will help us through the rough times.

Spring Training

SInce I haven't written a post on the Red Sox for a while here's one for those who want one. So far I think the Red Sox have done pretty well, the “regulars” have out preformed last year’s season, Lugo definitely made many changes in the offseason and has drastically improved, the battle for the starting shortstop will be interesting this year. Pitchers like Bucholz, Wakefield, Becket, and Penny have been very impressive, Beckett seems to be over last year, Penny fired three hitless innings, and Wakefield was amazing last night against the Yankees. I am especially happy that Bucholz is doing well hopefully this will result in many more wins than last year Lester as usual has been very well also. Hopefully Drew will feel better because when he’s at his best he can get a ton of extra base hits. Lowell is doing very well so far, he is definitely not the injured Lowell we saw last year. In 11 days, April 6 the Red Sox will have a home opener against the Rays at 1:05; let’s see if they can beat them this time!

Tryout Tips

Well I’ve had my baseball tryouts and tomorrow they make cuts. The best advice I can give to players who are trying to make a team is this: be confident and calm. The worst thing you can do is be nervous, as I said to my friends, “this isn’t the time to be nervous, the only time we are allowed to be nervous is after the season ends.” Tryouts can be tough, and if you make a bad play or strikeout that makes it harder but the best thing you can do is remind yourself of how hard you (hopefully) worked, forget the bad incident, chillax, and get back in the game, I also listen to music before practices preferably Third day. Just do your best and hopefully that will be good enough and good luck.

Lose my Life!?

I remember the first time I read the New Testament. Before I got my Bible I had never read a single word of God’s message. I received it the day I became a Christian in July and then drank every word like it was a cool spring I found in the desert. It was around Christmas when I was first experienced Jesus, it was exciting I mean I’ve been hearing Him all summer and I finally get to meet Him. My first impression was “Wow, this is so true” and then “Wait a minute what does He mean there?” It wasn’t far off from His disciples who were just as baffled and amazed. There was one particular claim that has confused me until a short while ago “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me and for the Gospel will save it.” Mark 8: 34-35. The main question was this, what does it mean to save and lose my life? Does Jesus mean I must become a martyr? Or should I lock myself away without any worldly possessions? Well that seems pretty hard to do, but how can I lose my life? My church preached on this a while ago and while I sat in the pew I had a thought. As I’ve said before we can get lost in the day to day business of life, we go to work, make money, buy things, cook dinner, take care of families, play on sports teams, go to school, the list goes on and on. Bottom line is, it is easy to get caught up in it all. The question I had to ask is this, when in my life have I gone out of my way to show Jesus, maybe it is helping the new kid find his classes, holding the door, not cheating on that test, being nice to the rookie on the team, when have I gone out of my way to serve others? As I said, there is a cost to follow Christ, it means being kind when we’re mad, being honest when caught, and being humble when we’re proud, but the reward is that when we carry this cross and walk in His footsteps we fully realize His presence and love in our lives. It’s Sunday, I’ll ask you this, over the course of this week try to make a point of showing God’s love to someone every day, and by Saturday reflect on where you stand with God.

It was Awsome!

I would first like to say that I am sorry for my lack of blogging (if that’s the correct term), I’ve been extremely busy preparing for the upcoming season ( I will soon post another list of my baseball tips). Second, as you can see I was at a Third Day concert, it was last night in Worcester for those of you who were there I hope you had a great time and for those who weren’t it was great Third Day is my favorite band and hopefully they will have another concert in this area. One thing really stood out to me during the concert, it wasn’t the lights or the music (which were both really cool), it was the fact that in an old concert hall hundreds of people from all over New England came to one place. This isn’t just people from Massachusetts; there were people from Maine, Rohde Island, New York, New Hampshire, and Vermont. One thing I have noticed is that we can view church as just the building we go to on Sunday; sometimes we can associate church with pews, hymns, and sermons. But that isn’t the case, in the Bible Paul writes that “we are the body of Christ, and each of us is part of it.” 1 Corinthians 12:27. The church isn’t just the building, it’s where believers from all over New England, people who don’t even know each other can come together to worship God and praise His name. I was standing with only three people I knew, my dad and friend but I was also standing with God’s beloved family worshiping Him with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Third Day Concert

Do we trust Him?

I was thinking about the passage in Mark 10: 17-31 the story of the rich man. I used to think that Jesus disliked rich people, and then I wrote a post about it a while back on how the rich man saw himself as good and Jesus showed him that he wasn’t. Then I had a thought; Jesus doesn’t dislike rich people, only the proud. Jesus asked this man to sell all his possessions and give all the money to the poor, not because being rich was bad but because the man’s riches made him proud they gave him his security, basically the rich man replaced God with his stuff. I wrote a post about Lent and how we must give something up, not for the sake of losing it but to grow closer to God, this is along those lines. By asking the man to sell all he had Jesus was basically telling him “You have a lot of things you have your life, will you trust me with it?” Do we trust Jesus with our lives? Do we freely give what we have? I don’t mean that we should all move out of our homes and beg on the street that is hardly productive. What I do mean and what I think Jesus meant is that we can’t build up security in the world or in ourselves. That’s the point of a tithe, God doesn’t want our money (He doesn’t even have a use for it) what He wants is for us to show Him that because He blessed us with what we have that we trust Him enough to at least give a little back. God blesses us immensely throughout our lives and not only with material blessings but with family, friends, and the life He gave us. In current times it is important to remember this passage, it is times like this where we can’t find our security in ourselves and in things but in God, I ask that you remember this God’s grace and love has no recessions.