Sharing Encouragement

Back-to-back victories by the Dallas Cowboys at the Super Bowl in 1993 and 1994 mask the fact that Jimmy Johnson, the team’s legendary former coach, knew as much about losing as he did about winning. In 1989, his first season in Dallas, Johnson’s team had only one win and fifteen losses! However, this overwhelming losing season was still not as humiliating as his first year as a high-school defensive coach, when his team finished the season with no wins and ten losses.

Johnson said about that first season in Dallas, “We had the worst team in the NFL, but I wouldn’t accept anything but being in the Super Bowl.”

Johnson kept a positive attitude. If a running back had the ball, he shouted, “Protect the ball,” rather than “Don’t fumble.” To his field-goal kickers he’d say, “Make this,” not “Don’t miss.” After a loss, he’d spend his post-game time plotting the next win, rather than second-guessing what had gone wrong.

The Cowboys responded and improved. It took four seasons of hard work, but then Super Bowl rings were on their fingers.

From Fortune (May 1, 1995) pg. 32.

Givers

There are three kinds of givers: the flint, the sponge, and the honeycomb. Which kind are you?

To get anything from the flint, you must hammer it. Yet, all you generally get are chips and sparks. The flint gives nothing away if it can help it and even then only with a great display.

To get anything from the sponge, you must squeeze it. It readily yields to pressure, and the more it is pressed, the more it gives. Still, you must push.

To get anything from the honeycomb, however, you must only take what freely flows from it. It gives its sweetness generously dripping on all without pressure, without begging or badgering.

Note, too, that there is another difference in the honeycomb. It is a renewable resource. If you are a “honeycomb giver” your life will be continually replenished as you give. And as long as you are connected to the source of life, you can never run dry. When you freely give, you will receive in like manner so that whatever you give away will soon be multiplied back to you.

From God’s Little Lessons for Leaders (Tulsa, OK: Honor Books, 2001), 73.

Perseverance

Sparky didn’t have much going for him. He failed every subject in the eighth grade, and in high school, he flunked Latin, Algebra, English, and Physics. He made the golf team, but he promptly lost the important match of the season and then lost the consolation match. He was awkward socially—more shy than disliked. He never once asked a girl out on a date in high school.

One thing, however, was important to Sparky—drawing. He was proud of his artwork even though no one else appreciated it. He submitted cartoons to the editors of his high school yearbook, but they were rejected. Even so, Sparky aspired to be an artist. After high school, he sent samples of his artwork to the Walt Disney Studios. Again, his work was rejected.

Still Sparky didn’t quit. He decided to write his own autobiography in cartoons. The popularity of his cartoon strip eventually led to countless books, television shows, and licensing opportunities. Sparky, you see, was Charles Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip. Like his main character Charlie Brown, Schulz seemed unable to succeed at many things. But he made the most of his talent and refused to quit.

Forgiveness

In his book, Beneath the Crops of Jesus, A. Leonard Griffith tells the story of a young Korean exchange student, a leader in Christian circles at the University of Pennsylvania, who left his apartment on the evening of April 25, 1958, to mail a letter to his parents. As he turned from the mailbox, he was met by eleven leather jacketed teenage boys. Without a word, they beat him with a blackjack, a lead pipe, and left him lying dead in the gutter.

All of Philadelphia cried out for vengeance. The district attorney planned to seek the death penalty for the arrested youth and then, this letter arrived signed by the boy’s parents and twenty other relatives in Korea:

Our family has met together and we have decided to petition that the most generous treatment possible within the laws of your government be given to those who have committed this criminal action....In order to give evidence of our sincere hope contained in this petition, we have decided to save money to start a fund to be used for the religious, educational, vocational, and social guidance of the boys when they are released...We have dared to express our hope with a spirit received from the gospel of our Savior Jesus Christ who died for our sins.


"You Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon you."
- Psalm 86:5 NKJV

From time to time I receive letters, phone calls, and emails of encouragement. Many are stories of how God is working and touching lives. I wanted to share a few that I received recently:

* * * * *

Happy New Year Sam. I wanted to share how your teaching at Manhattan Beach this past summer helped to change my life. I was asking the Lord about the direction in my life as I sensed I was at a crossroads. I also sensed that I was physically moving. During your week of teaching you taught on the "rope holders"... boy, did that minister to me. During that week the Lord kept giving me a single word "Calvary" and through various other "hints" I ended up moving to Winnipeg in October… Up till your message on "rope holders" I really felt that I was headed in a totally different direction.

So a thank you from me to you to start your year! Your teaching was one of my life changing times.
I hope I have the opportunity to hear you again soon!

* * * * *

Just wanted to say thank you for your help in the last year. Your insight and support has been a blessing to me and the ministry. May the Lord bless you in the New Year.

Fearless to Risk

One simply cannot live without taking risks. Risk is woven into every aspect of our daily experience.
· To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
· To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
· To reach out for another is to risk involvement.
· To expose feeling is to risk exposing our true selves.
· To place your ideas, your dreams, before the crowd is to risk.
· To love is to risk not being loved in return.
· To live is to risk dying.
· To hope is to risk despair.
· To try at all is to risk failure.
- Unknown

“God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind.”
- 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV

If you know you couldn’t fail what would you risk? What would you attempt?

What an incredible Christmas!
I felt so privileged to spend time with our son, daughter-in -law and granddaughter the week before Christmas. Then to come home to NC and have my mother and sister come down for a week. I laughed, ate, ate, went to movies had parties and ate. We had 20 over to eat on Christmas eve after speaking at Hope church at the first Christmas eve service. What a great day.

This season has also been a time I have been privileged to speak each week at Morganton NC First Church. It has been a joy to be home and feel the joy of sharing the message of Christmas in a congregation throughout the season. New Years eve Vicki and I shared the message of the Passover. Passover marks the New Year on the Jewish calender. What a great night we had as people took bitter herbs, a part of the Passover meal put it on bread and then dipped it in the juice of the cup symbolizing the the shed blood of Christ covering the suffering of our sin, past bondage's, tears of the past year. Many left suffering from 08 at the altar. I then shared from Acts 12 the story of another Passover experience, the jailing of Peter and his miraculous deliverance. The expectation of the church as they prayed for his freedom was heard by God as an angel came to the prison. Those in attendance wrote out their expectations for 09 and then Vicki and I prayed over ever person.

Tomorrow I will talk about faith that God responds to. It is not the size of the faith but the believing (pisteuo) that ignites the possible (dunata). Believing the spark that ignites the impossible and causes it to become possible. Believing activates supernatural power that enables what normally would never be possible. Don't worry about the size of your faith. If your believing, then faith the size of a mustard seed, will ignite supernatural power.