Competitors for Christ Newsletter Volume II, Issue 2
January 2024
View Previous Issues Here
Love Live Jesus
by Drew Stutts, Men's Basketball Coach
Aspire
We should all aspire to love like Jesus. The word Aspire means to direct one’s hope or ambitions towards achieving something. We should all aspire to love like Jesus. Whether you are a believer or not, following Christ’s example and specifically loving like He loved will lead toward a life of fulfillment happiness. We should love like Jesus because it is where we all will find our purpose and meaning in life.
Too often we can lose focus on what is important in life. We start searching for and chasing things that we believe will bring us fulfillment in life. The world wants us to buy the lie that more money and more power or a nicer car or bigger house will bring us happiness. And they will. But the love that Jesus taught us is transcendent love.
Loving like Jesus is the best way to live. When we love like Jesus, we can step outside of ourselves and clearly see our loved ones and their needs. We can rise above our human imperfections and get into transcendent love. We should all aspire to love like Jesus, but if you are a believer, you have been commanded to love like Jesus. John 13:34-35 reads, “Jesus says, A new command I give to you, love one another as I have loved you. So you must love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
Jesus doesn’t just command us to love one another, but to love one another as He loved us. Our love for each other is how people will know we belong to Jesus. It’s not what we believe, but how we love. In John 15:10-12 Jesus says again, if you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love. Just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in His love. I’ve told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Then a few verses later in verse 17, He says, “This is my command, love each other. Jesus is very clear that He expects us as Christians to love as He has loved. Scripture is full of examples of Christ displaying his love toward others. That’s what he did. He loved and He is the perfect example for us to follow.
Aware- being in the moment. I think about being where my feet are; being present. So often we spend so much of our time dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, neither of which we have a lot of control over. But what we do have some control over is the present. Being present allows us to be aware of the opportunities right in front of us each day.
The red car theory is the idea that we don’t see what we aren’t looking for and we do see what we are looking for. On a recent trip to Jackson, my kids and I played a game and counted how many red cars we saw during that 30 minute drive. Afterwards, I called my assistant Grant Burns and asked him how many cars he saw on his way to Jackosn. He had just made the same trip. He said one car. He remembered one red car. But in my car, we were looking for red cars and we counted over 200 red cars. We were looking and aware of the red cars just like we should be actively looking for opportunities to love like Jesus.
If we aren’t living with awareness, we could have opportunities right under our noses and not take advantage of them.
Action
Jesus didn’t just come to earth to talk about love. He came to live it out. He acted. We see Jesus’ love through action throughout scripture. We see Jesus’ love in action when he feeds the 5,000. We see Jesus’ love in action when he sees the poor widow cast in everything she had. We see Jesus’ love in action when He causes the blind to see. We see Jesus’ love in action when He defended the woman caught in adultery. We see Jesus’ love in action when He raises Lazarus from the dead. We see Jesus’ love in action when He commands the little children to be brought to Him. We see Jesus’ love in action when He washes His disciples’ feet. We see Jesus’ love in action when He prayed in the garden. We saw His love in action in everything He did. We saw His love in action when He hung on the cross for our sin.
Jesus didn’t just talk about love, He lived it. And he expects us to live it in our lives each day. Our words are important, but our actions speak much louder than our words. Jesus, in many cases, cared for their emotional and physical needs before He addressed their Spiritual needs. You have heard it said, people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
What does love like Jesus mean for us? We can love like Jesus by opening our homes to those that need a home. We can love like Jesus by helping someone that is struggling in class. We can love like Jesus by being a friend. We can love like Jesus by showing appreciation. We can love like Jesus by writing a letter to someone. We can love like Jesus by helping those that haven’t found their people. We can love like Jesus by give a ride to the airport. We can love like Jesus by changing a flat tire. We can love like Jesus by taking someone to lunch. We can love like Jesus by volunteering to serve. We can love like Jesus by praying for someone. You don’t have to feed 5,000 or raise someone from the dead to love like Jesus. You simply must take the abilities that God has blessed you with and glorify Him by loving like He did.
Prayer Guide
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Date
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Daily Prayer Item
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Comments
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6-Jan
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The Foundation of our team be Jesus
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Matthew 7:24
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7-Jan
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The Coaching Staff
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Philippians 2:19-24
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8-Jan
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All Position #1
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Ephesians 6:18
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9-Jan
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All Position #2
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Romans 12:9-10
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10-Jan
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All Position #3
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Ephesians 4:2-3
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11-Jan
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All Pitchers
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I John 4:7-8
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12-Jan
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That we would always be mentally prepared
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Matthew 26:41
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13-Jan
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That God would protect our team from injury
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1 Peter 5:7
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14-Jan
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That we would work hard at all we do
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Proverbs 10:26
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15-Jan
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Pray for David Shannon and the administration
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Jeremiah 29:7
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16-Jan
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Pray for our Athletic Director
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1 Peter 2:17
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17-Jan
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Pray for the other coaches and student-athletes at FHU
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Job 42:10
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18-Jan
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Pray our team is fearless and known for great courage
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Joshua 1:9
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19-Jan
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Pray our team is confident, but humble
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James 4:6
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20-Jan
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Pray that Jesus is our competitive example
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Hebrews 12:1-3
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21-Jan
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Pray our team is unselfish on and off the field
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1 Corinthians 1:10
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22-Jan
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Pray that our team practices servant leadership
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Philippians 2:3-4
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23-Jan
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Pray that our team practices sportsmanship
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Proverbs 24:17-18
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24-Jan
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Pray that our team exercises integrity
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Proverbs 28:6
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25-Jan
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Pray that our team practices respect
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Romans 12:10
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26-Jan
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Pray that our team exercises responsibility
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Ezekiel 18:20
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27-Jan
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Pray our team is healthy at this time
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3 John 2
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28-Jan
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Pray our team will perform well in the classroom
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James 1:5
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29-Jan
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Pray we will listen to the right people
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Proverbs 6:20-25
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30-Jan
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Pray each player understands his role
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1 Corinthians 12:12-26
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31-Jan
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Pray each player understands our strategy
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Proverbs 16:9
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1-Feb
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Thank God for FHU and the opportunity to play
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Psalm 91:14-16
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2-Feb
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Thank God for our parents support
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Exodus 20:12
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3-Feb
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Pray that everything we do will honor the Lord
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Colossians 3:23-24
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As Joshua stood with the Israelites preparing to enter the Promised Land, he helped them get ready for the journey by devoting himself to prayer. I would like to encourage you to pick a team and pray for them over the next 30 days. The guide will help you on your journey.
Be Watchful
by Jonathan Estes, FHU Athletic Director
One day a man walks down a street and falls into a deep hole. He sits there feeling lost and hopeless telling himself that it isn’t his fault. Finally, after a long period, he finds a way out of the hole. The next day he walks down the same street with the same hole. He pretends he doesn’t see it and he falls in. He sits there telling himself that he can’t believe he is in the same place again. He continues to tell himself that it isn’t his fault, and it takes him a long time to get out. On the third day he walks down the same street again with the same hole and yet again he sees it and falls in. As he sits there in unbelief, he tells himself that it’s a habit. But this time he accepts that it is his fault, and he finds his way out immediately. On the next day, as he’s walking down the street, he sees the hole and decides he’ll walk around it, thus not falling in. The next day, as he is starting out, he decides he’ll take another street.
This story is a metaphor for life. Life has many paths with many holes representing diversions and distractions that trap us and keep us from doing what God has called us to do and be. We must learn to be watchful and see these traps and avoid them all together. Satan knows how to put these holes and traps in our way to ensnare us and keep us from serving God.
Understanding Diversions
That are many diversions and distractions in our lives: some good and some not so good that vie for our attention. A military application of a diversion would be actions intended to draw off attention from a main attack. A soldier causes the enemy to look the other way while he moves in for the strike. Another example is magic. A magician diverts our attention while the process of the trick is done out of our sight. We are allowed to see what the magician wants us to see while keeping the other unseen.
How Satan uses Diversions
Satan uses diversions on us to cause us to focus on the immediate and sensual things of this world.
1 John 2:15-17 says “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”
He uses diversion to lessen our effectiveness in our service to God by shifting or removing our focus. Jesus tells us to not give in to the world but to stay focused on what is truly important.
Matthew 16:24-26 says “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 25 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”
Procrastination is a cousin of diversion. Procrastination is simply putting off until later what needs to be done today. Satan’s primary attempt at using procrastination against us is to cause us to delay our obedience to God. Satan also may use procrastination to cause us to put off repenting of sin in our lives. By causing us to delay doing what we must do to remove sin in our lives, our heart grows harder until it becomes difficult and more difficult to do what we must do.
Luke 9:59-62
59 Then He said to another, “Follow Me.”
But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
60 Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”
61 And another also said, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.”
62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Why? Because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:15), our life is but a vapor that appears for a little time and is gone (James 4:14).
Satan uses diversions to turn our focus from obeying God’s will to satisfying passing things of this world. Just like children, we are sometimes focused on satisfying ourselves by taking advantage of comforts and world pleasures. Many of these things are not wrong or bad until they start interfering with obeying and serving God. Good things become bad things when they take us away from the best things. We can get caught up in life’s enjoyments and turn our focus off God. At those times, Satan easily enters our lives. We become so absorbed by life, we ignore eternity. We don’t take the time to worship, pray, study, and meditate on God.
Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the [a]author and [b]finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We have an opportunity to transform the world we live in by the power of God living in us through His Spirit. Be watchful for Satan, the roaring lion who is seeking whom he may devour and focus on obeying, serving and glorifying God in our lives on a daily basis.
