The Champions Spirit
Volume 68, Issue 7
February 22, 2009
In This Issue
That Which Counts!
Dwight D. Eisenhower is credited with saying, “What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.” I think the former President hit on a very real truth. Have you ever seen a Chihuahua confronting a much larger dog? I can’t help but think that those Chihuahuas think they are every bit as large as any dog they see and maybe bigger—the size of the fight in the dog is large.
It is easy for us to forget this truth. In so many ways, we are taught by this world that the victory goes to the one with the size. Can our team win? Who has the fastest, the strongest, and the biggest players? The “size of the dog” is often the decisive factor from that point of view.
What about spiritual matters? Can we stand in faith against the “big dogs” of temptation and sin? Can we stand for the truth of the Gospel when the “popular people” in our circle denounce God and His Word? Can we grow in our own faith toward God when the world looms large and challenging right in front of us?
If we keep our eyes focused on ourselves—if we are thinking only of our own strength and power, the size of our own fight within...then we might easily count all lost. However, if we remember that there is One within us who is greater than any opponent or obstacle facing us, then we realize that victory is certain. The Psalmist said in Psa. 20:7, “Some boast in chariots and some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God.” NASB95
When we realize that it doesn’t matter the size of our spiritual opponents...still there is victory—not because of us but Him. Being “in Him” and “He in us,” we win and that is truly “That Which Counts!”
—Larry Keele
FAMILY MATTERS...
Today is the day the Lord has made! We rejoice and are glad in it! We also rejoice that you have come to share in this time of worship! To our guests, we extend a hearty welcome! Come back whenever the opportunity arises!
We welcome Earl and Dee Ann Johnson and Dee Ann’s mother, Marie Sealy! This family placed their membership with us Sunday. Wednesday, after studying with the Freeds, Linda Horvath chose to be baptized into Christ her Lord! We rejoice in her decision.
A farewell pot-luck for Bill, Robin, and Walker Rasco follows our morning services. Bill has been here for 12 years, first as Youth Minister and later with Involvement and Education. Next week he begins his work preaching for the Spring Creek congregation in Tomball. We will miss Bill, Robin, and Walker but we pray that the Lord’s work will be blessed in our sister congregation.
Didn’t our young men do a great job leading worship last Sunday evening? We are so proud of them all!
Did you get it right? Come Home Sunday is September 13 and is focused on our membership. This event is aimed at getting all of us (our members) here together on one particular Sunday morning. I hope you were right again in answering our questions about our special day! Now, I hope that you will be here!
HAVE A BLESSED WEEK!
Bill's Bits
Farewell
Words cannot express, nor can this space contain all that I wish to say as we prepare to leave. When I look back on the 12+ years that I have been at Champions, I am amazed at the growth that God has sent my way. Growth in family. Robin and I met and married at Champions. Walker joined our family at Champions. Growth in ministry. God and you have taught me more about teaching and service than I could have imagined. I leave with a wealth of experience that will serve for a lifetime. Spiritual growth. The time spent at Champions has focused me on the fact that Jesus is the answer for all of man’s need. Jesus is the center of life and godliness. Paul’s final words in the Ephesian letter are appropriate here as I try to find words to leave you with.
“Peace to the brothers, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.” Ephesians 6:23-24
Thanks for 12 great years. I love you and it will always be my prayer that you will have an undying love for Jesus.
—Bill Rasco
Jeremy's Junction
This is a poem by Caitlin Johnson. It was shared in our class Wednesday night. I hope that it blesses all of you as much as it blessed us.
What It Means To Be Loved
Oh to be loved
Sinful in my nature
Under a transparent veil
Of exposed lies.
How my thoughts shift
Bound by the promise.
The way I think, wavering
Between truth and deception.
As time goes by,
I think I have changed.
Bad influences have left,
But I still feel empty.
Lies are gone,
Almost there, almost...
The story of a kiss from a betrayer is spoken,
I am false.
Soon I will come clean
And they will see what I really am;
I feel both blessed and unpromising
As I wait, patiently, for the right time.
Fear and longing
Dance in my eyes.
My body, my heart, are in need--
Both like a child with no father.
A powerful, omniscient God,
Of whom I do not deserve.
I cannot accept his mercy,
To look him in the eye and admit my faults.
What I need is love,
To be finally accepted.
Blood, a cross, the risen Christ,
Who wants only to be loved and accepted.
I fall to my knees,
Submission to an almighty God.
The Father and the Son,
What it means to be loved.
John's Jogs
REMEMBERING LINCOLN
February 12 was Abraham Lincoln’s 200th birthday. He was a giant among men. The burden he bore caused him to lose 30 pounds during his presidency. He watched more than 600,000 young men die in the U.S. where the population was just above 30 million. It tore his heart apart thinking of the loss of families that might have been.
Before he died, was Lincoln proud that he had had so much to do with the preserving of the Union? It’s more likely that he quoted the words of one of his favorite poets, William Knox, “Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?”
Lincoln was wise enough to realize that “no exclusive and inflexible plan could safely be prescribed.” This was a man who wrote, “He has the right to criticize who has the heart to help. Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?” He knew the difference between right and wrong and agonized over them.
Confusion over who he was existed in his time as it does in ours. Whenever he spoke most newspapers in the North said he extended an olive branch and most papers in the South said he extended a sword.
Into this fray a political Lincoln, a military Lincoln, and a spiritual Lincoln moved toward monumental decisions. Struggling for truth, sometimes befuddled by reality, this man who knew his Bible as well as some preachers would often be asked if he thought God was on the side of the North. His reply always remained the same. “My concern is not whether God is on our side. My great concern is to be on God’s side.”
What shaped this man to become what he became? What if he had attended a noted large academy in his quest for knowledge instead of basically self education? What if he had been born in a mansion instead of a log cabin with one window and one door? How much did the size of his upbringing affect the moral size of the man?
In seeking to define Lincoln, some have called him a genius, a benign incompetent, and others an idiot. He was none of these. He was an exceptional individual who fit the particular needs of this country at a very troubling time. It is interesting to note that this man, strong of mind, body and spirit, measured his decisions not on a scale of what was easy, but rather what was right.
As a side note - Charles Darwin was born on the same day.
—John Qualls