KEVIN ELWORTH LIVE

When I was a kid I, like most kids, played baseball for a season. It was a lot of fun and I still remember a lot about it. I played for the Mustangs, I was an outfielder and I SUCKED at hitting the ball, but oddly enough only when we played games. In practice I could KILL the ball. My coach was nice about it, although I’m sure it frustrated him to no end knowing what I could do but wouldn’t in a game, but he was patient and never pushed me or scolded me. I’m thankful for that, but what I wish I did have was someone to tell me that it was okay to strike out trying. Don’t get me wrong, I struck out A LOT! But only because the pitcher knew I wasn’t going to swing. I got walked a lot too mostly from just luck. Most of this had to do with my personality type. When I was a kid I was the shyest person in our church. There was a guy in our church who was known as the candy man, and although I knew if I stuck out my hand he’d give me a piece of candy, I was terrified to stick out my hand. I still got a lot of candy, but only because the guy was nice enough to hand it to my dad and dad would give it to me. Strange to think that now I’ve spoken to churches and audiences that range from as small as 5 up to over 1000. That has to be all God!

Oddly enough there’s a very valid spiritual lesson here. If someone would have told me that it was okay to strike out trying and I did so the odds are eventually I would have accidently connected with the ball and gotten a base hit. That would have built my confidence and the thrill of the hit would have given me enough courage to swing the bat again the next time.
So many times we shy away from sharing the gospel with someone in a word or in an act because we’re afraid we might miss the ball and say or do something wrong. Do you really think that what Jesus cares about, that we say and do everything perfect? Something tells me that He doesn’t care if we get it perfect every time, because we’re not going to get it perfect ever. If we never swing the bat we’re never going to hit the ball and if we never say a word they are never going to hear anything.

What can you do today to take a risk and swing the bat. You might miss! But you might get a base hit too.

I haven’t read this book yet, but I’ve heard about it and I love the idea. Check their website out here for a bit more information about it. They do this cool thing where they give you a new challenge every Monday about a way you can show the love of Christ to those around you.

We’ve had a rough few weeks now, but beat up a bit, but not without reason, God is changing us to be more like Him and since we’ve started going through this He’s given us a new mindset. Our goal right now is to be the best representation of JESUS we can be to our neighbors. Last night I was motivated so I decided that I was going to wait for our trash guys to come around and give them a cold Pepsi (should have been a Coke because we all know it’s a far superior product) and something Mexican to eat. You wouldn’t believe the look on their face when they say me hand it to them. I guarantee you I just opened a door with those guys that they will remember every time they see me.

What can you do to show Christ to those around you?

What’s God put on your heart to do? What vision has He given you that is over your head, that without Him it’s just not going to happen? I’ve listened to two different sermons this week from Mark 2, the story of the paralytic who couldn’t get to Jesus. His friends were on a mission and they weren’t about to let anything get in their way. This was the second time Jesus went to Capernaum, in their minds He may never come back, they had to get it done now. When they couldn’t get through the door, they tore apart the roof! Check out that attitude, anything goes when it comes to getting people to Jesus! Think about that, read it again, Anything goes when it comes to getting people to Jesus. Who in your life needs to get to Jesus and what are you doing about it? For Cris and I, it’s 25,000 students that are ripping our hearts out because they have no way to Jesus right now, and I’m going to do anything I can to get them to HIM. We’ve got to fight harder!

How can you claim to have faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ if you favor some people over others? James 2.1 So if you were to continue reading in that chapter you would see how that James is saying don’t show favor over the guy who comes to you in a fancy suit over the poor guy coming with his hand out.

This is Easter Sunday, the day the most the world goes to church whether they usually attend or not. There’s probably going to be a lot of sinners in your churches, the ones who don’t exactly know how to act like a Christian because they have yet to meet Christ. It’s okay for imperfect people to meet Christ, it has to be, you weren’t perfect when you met Christ either!

Doing some reading right now about Roman Catholicism this week trying to understand more about what we are up against here in Mexico. Did you know that “Mary is being presented in current Roman teaching as a Mediator along with Christ”! Also “That it is being said that Mary’s sufferings, particularly those at the cross, were redemptive in the same sense that Christ’s sufferings were redemptive”! Is that not the most astounding thing you’ve ever heard? I shudder to write the words that cross my through my mind right now, but I think the Catholic church is one of the greatest tools that Satan has ever used to deceive people from believing the truth of the gospel.

Quotes from Loraine Boettner’s “Roman Catholicism” page 9 and 10