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.

We celebrated Austin’s big 3rd birthday this weekend and it was a blast. Obviously a little bit early as his birthday isn’t until June 30, but it worked and he had so much fun. He’s been talking about it forever. We’ll ask him, what do you want for your birthday and he’ll say, “balloons, kids, pool, ice cream, cars.” He loves matchbox cars, and I mean loves them. He’s probably got about 100 of them and got about 20 more for his birthday. Every time we go to the store he asks if he can get another one. That doesn’t happen.
I can’t believe he’s already 3. It’s hard to believe that just 3 short years ago we were living in Costa Rica, Crystal as on full time bed rest and Austin was about to make his dramatic appearance 6 weeks ahead of schedule. He’s still making dramatic appearances, just this time they are a little less dramatic thank God. Either way, we are super blessed to have such an amazing little boy living in our home and I can’t help but thank God daily for allowing me to be his daddy.

I just want to throw some props to my amazing wife for being who she is- amazing! I can’t say enough about her. Doesn’t she look amazing? I’m with you, I still can’t understand why she stood in front of a dumpy car to take this picture, but she makes that car look pretty good.
Sometimes in this field of ministry wives get tucked away and are under appreciated. Sometimes she puts in more time as a missionary than she is able to do as a mother and that’s just not fare. She is an amazing woman, wife, mother and missionary and I am so grateful.
Crystal Dawn Elworth, I am so thankful for you, for the work that you do, for the incredible sacrifices you make as a mother and a wife. I know times get though and we don’t get to spend as much time together, sometimes we don’t get to go out on dates or live the comfortable life. I can’t imagine going through this with anyone else. Thank you for being you and thank you being who you are, and thank you for not giving up.

I started this year on a trek through the bible. The Lord put it on my heart to really dive in deep to His word this year, so I started by reading it in the first 100 days of the year. Awesome thing to do, if you’ve never done something like that you should. Check out youversion.com for help with organizing a structured read like that. After my 100 day read I was going to read the New Testament every 30 days for the rest of the year, but that never happened. It’s funny how we schedule things like that and then find that it’s not exactly what we need.

So to change pace and to be more fitting to some of our current situation, I started reading through Joshua last week. By far one of my favorite books in the bible. I read chapter 3 last Friday which talks about when the Israelites crossed the Jordan river and I came across this verse, “When you see the Levitical priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, follow them. Since you have never traveled this way before, they will guide you”
I’d never noticed that verse before. Man can you imagine what it would have looked like if the Israelites decided to protect the Ark and make it follow them? What a disaster that would have happened.

How often is it that even though we’ve never been this way before that we take it into our own hands and lead the way? And then I wonder what would happen if we truly allowed God to lead the way as He wants to in our lives, what would be different and how much more would be and He be blessed?
We’ve got to let God be God and lead us into places we’ve never been. Like where we need faith that we’ve never had to have before. And when we need to depend on Him like never before. There are a lot of “like never befores” that are going to happen in our lives if we are going to follow Him, but that’s just it, if we follow Him, He’ll lead us exactly where we need to be.

Cris and I watched Invictus the other night. We had already planned on renting it, and then someone at Starbucks told me how great of a movie it was so I rented it that very night. Great story, very motivational, and I love movies that are based on true stories. Throughout the movie you keep hearing Morgan Freeman, who plays Nelson Mandela, quote parts of the poem Invictus. The last two lines of the poem are I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul.

I was thinking to myself, man those are good lines, very motivation, and encouraging to keep at it. No matter what people put in my way, I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul. But as I kept thinking about it, that is completely wrong and I would have to say that we are neither master nor captain of anything about our lives. Paul wrote in 1Cor6:19-20 that we have been bought with a price, a very high price and we do not belong to ourselves, we are Gods! (I realize that these verses are talking more about sexual immorality, but the precept still applies we are not our own)

In case your interested, here is the poem, read it yourself, let me know what you think.

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.