Corinthians 5 says:
14 For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died;
15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
The love of Christ is a powerful force, and it is contained within the heart of every believer who has called upon His name. If we are walking in love, flowing from our love for our Heavenly Father, then we become sensitized to the neighbors and needs around us. It's more than a gushy feeling; rather, it is a desire to please God and to radiate His character, to look at another person through His eyes and to treat them as He would. Our challenge is to become one with the Father and with Jesus through the Holy Spirit so that we can experience and spread that love.
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We are called to be conduits of the love of Christ, and as we walk in that love, perhaps through our testimony and the way we conduct ourselves, people will be won to Him. Romans 5 says:
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As Faith Radio gets ready for another Family Faith Night, I wanted to shine the spotlight on someone in baseball who is shining his light for Christ. In the past, I've talked about former Rays star and 2016 All-Star Ben Zobrist and his strong faith. Ditto on All-Stars Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Daniel Murphy, who is now with the Washington Nationals.
Sports Spectrum has a piece on the Arizona Diamondbacks' Paul Goldschmidt. This All-Star comes from what is termed an "unusual religious background": his father was Jewish and the grandson of parents who left Germany in the late 1930’s to escape the Holocaust. His mother was a Catholic, who raised Paul in the church, but he admits it was never a priority or something meaningful in his life.
Team chaplain Brian Hommel describes Goldschmidt as “a good humanitarian” but one who initially approached Christianity with negative perceptions. “He didn’t understand the point of following a belief system when he, himself, was a moralistically good person.”
Goldschmidt explains: “Without ever getting into the Bible and reading, I was making judgments...Just one example: I’m thinking so-and-so is a Christian and I’m looking at the mistakes they’re making. But when you read the Bible, every single person you know on this planet that’s ever walked has made a mistake, and every single person that God used in the Bible was a sinner.”
The story goes on:
The chaplain says that Paul is speaking up more about his Christianity in chapel, and Goldschmidt was a star student in an season-long Romans study. As of this June story, Goldschmidt was reading the Bible straight through. The story says that Paul and his wife, Amy, visit the Phoenix Children’s Hospital so often they have visitors’ credentials to come and go whenever they like. He also speaks in churches and events like “Tales from the Dugout,” a baseball counterpart to a hugely successful Tales from the [PGA golf] Tour, an outreach ministry in Phoenix that has hosted as many as 4,000 attendees.
Paul Goldschmidt is an example of someone who was loved into the Kingdom. He relates about a meeting on a road trip with members of the home team:
Another word: express - we can be ready to share the love of Christ at any given moment, allowing His life and love to flow through us. Because He is in us, we can be effective in expressing the love of Christ. And effect - the results are left up to God, but in those divine moments, there is the potential for a life-changing experience. And, the seed you plant, as it is watered and grows, can bear fruit for the glory of God in building His Kingdom.
6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
As Faith Radio gets ready for another Family Faith Night, I wanted to shine the spotlight on someone in baseball who is shining his light for Christ. In the past, I've talked about former Rays star and 2016 All-Star Ben Zobrist and his strong faith. Ditto on All-Stars Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Daniel Murphy, who is now with the Washington Nationals.
Sports Spectrum has a piece on the Arizona Diamondbacks' Paul Goldschmidt. This All-Star comes from what is termed an "unusual religious background": his father was Jewish and the grandson of parents who left Germany in the late 1930’s to escape the Holocaust. His mother was a Catholic, who raised Paul in the church, but he admits it was never a priority or something meaningful in his life.
Team chaplain Brian Hommel describes Goldschmidt as “a good humanitarian” but one who initially approached Christianity with negative perceptions. “He didn’t understand the point of following a belief system when he, himself, was a moralistically good person.”
Goldschmidt explains: “Without ever getting into the Bible and reading, I was making judgments...Just one example: I’m thinking so-and-so is a Christian and I’m looking at the mistakes they’re making. But when you read the Bible, every single person you know on this planet that’s ever walked has made a mistake, and every single person that God used in the Bible was a sinner.”
The story goes on:
Encounters with “sinners saved by grace,” specifically other Diamondbacks’ teammates and their wives in an off-season couples Bible study, led to his relationship with Jesus Christ. The people he encountered and “the way they treated people and the love they showed everyone and their openness,” according to Goldschmidt, was what touched his heart. “It was a slow process, but I wanted to know more about these people; why were they so full of grace and everything that Jesus showed in His life?”Hommel says: “We just loved on him, and it wasn’t because he was Paul Goldschmidt, the baseball player. That still speaks to him today,” adding, “The idea with the study is just being open and honest." Referring to former Arizona teammate Ian Kennedy, now with Kansas City, the chaplain says, "Whether it’s me or Ian or any of the other couples, we just openly share about our struggles in life, our journey with God, and our relationship to our spouses.”
The chaplain says that Paul is speaking up more about his Christianity in chapel, and Goldschmidt was a star student in an season-long Romans study. As of this June story, Goldschmidt was reading the Bible straight through. The story says that Paul and his wife, Amy, visit the Phoenix Children’s Hospital so often they have visitors’ credentials to come and go whenever they like. He also speaks in churches and events like “Tales from the Dugout,” a baseball counterpart to a hugely successful Tales from the [PGA golf] Tour, an outreach ministry in Phoenix that has hosted as many as 4,000 attendees.
Paul Goldschmidt is an example of someone who was loved into the Kingdom. He relates about a meeting on a road trip with members of the home team:
“We were talking about, what is your story? How did you come to know Christ? When that question got asked, I’m thinking someone’s going to say this pastor spoke this verse to me or this guy brought me a Bible and I started reading it. With every single person that was in the room, it was somebody else in their life that had, essentially, loved them.”I've heard the phrase, "won by love." Isn't that what we are talking about here? An encounter with the love of Christ, expressed by a believer who bears His name, can have a dramatic effect. There are three important words here: encounter - that can refer to a ministry opportunity, an interaction with someone who is used by the Lord to share Christ, a divine appointment or moment. We can seek to be part of those moments.
Another word: express - we can be ready to share the love of Christ at any given moment, allowing His life and love to flow through us. Because He is in us, we can be effective in expressing the love of Christ. And effect - the results are left up to God, but in those divine moments, there is the potential for a life-changing experience. And, the seed you plant, as it is watered and grows, can bear fruit for the glory of God in building His Kingdom.
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