Carrying the Name!

Have you ever been to the beach and seen one of those planes flying over the ocean with a large, long banner hanging out the back with a message on it?  The banners say something like "All you can eat buffet, 4th street, only $6.99" or "Buy 1 get 1 free boogie boards at waves on 10th street."  They fly over carrying messages.  Messages of "can't miss" deals that are going on all around us! Deals that are so good that they have to share them with us.


We do this everyday with the clothes we wear, things we do, names we proclaim!  Look at your facebook page.  You will see names like: Lil Wayne, Lady Gaga, Waka Flocka Flame, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Brown, Chris Tomlin, Lecrae, David Crowder, and even names like J.C. Penny, American Eagle, Hollister, Banana Republic and Gap among many others.  We carry these names everyday.  We tweet, text and make them our statuses.  I recently heard Louie Giglio give a message on this. We are awesome at carrying names, we do it everyday.  These people have incredible music or clothes or athletic talent to offer us that entertains or clothes us but what is that? What is that in the long run.  There is a name that has so much more to offer you that we never carry!  The name that transcends barriers of culture and prejudices, the name that saves and rescues, the name that is above every name, the name that every knee will bow to, the name that dispells darkness and makes the demons tremble...the name of JESUS!

That is our call in Fellowship of Christian Athletes, your church and every where you go every day of the year.  We are to carry the name of Jesus.  Giglio says "we have to make sure that we are not just mules for the culture and at the end of a lifetime we are guilty of carrying the names of the culture that counts so much on us." But, when everything has been talked about, did you carry THE Name?  Do you carry the name of Jesus Christ to the ends of the earth?  All too often we carry the name of the ministry we represent or the team that we support or our favorite musical artist.  But, we are to carry the Name of Jesus because that is the only name that will save!

"Walk in Wisdom"

The numbers are staggering! 47.3 million kids are playing sports in America today and only 7 million are playing high school sports.  Now, there are a lot of reasons as to why this is how it is including cuts and less roster spots.  But, the amount of kids that are playing sports today is incredible.  When I step back and look at these numbers I think of the amount of children that are playing and coaches that are coaching sports without the hope and unconditional love of Jesus Christ.  Those are the coaches and athletes that we at Fellowship of Christian Athletes are called to go to.  To love them, to serve them to support them and after developing a relationship with them to present them with the hope and good news of Jesus Christ!

For the past few months I have been thinking about this calling that God has placed on my life and has put in front of Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  How do we minister to coaches and athletes?  What is the best way to go about this?  In reading a few books recently God has led me to a verse that I believe shows us how we are to go about this ministry.  Colossians 4:5 tells us, "Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time."  Wouldn't it be a lot easier if God would just tell us how, when, and where we are to do ministry and witnessing?  Here is your answer.  We are to walk in wisdom!  These people that are without Jesus Christ are without everything that matters.  They are without hope, peace, forgiveness, direction, identity, purpose, understanding as to who they are, where they come from, or most of all where they are going.

How do we walk in wisdom though?  I truly believe that this all starts in prayer, in your closet and then moves at the movement of the Lord.  It starts with a relationship, showing the individual that you care about them, about their athletic endeavors or the team they coach, and most importantly you care about them as a person.  Whether they want to hear about "religion" or "Christianity" or not, they will recognize that something is different about you.  Our conduct and words can and do penetrate all prejudices and preconceived ideas about Jesus, Christians or religious people.  Are you walking in wisdom to those who you are called to minister to?  I pray that everyday I would, in my time spent with my Lord and Savior, gain wisdom from Him and walk in that wisdom to each and every athlete and coach I come in contact with.