Undefeated!

Have you ever been undefeated like NCAA wrestling and Olympic Gold Medalist Cael Sanderson, 159-0! Not many people will reach an undefeated season, much less a career.  However, for him to accomplish this amazing feat, he had to Lose first.  You see to know what it takes to win you have to lose.  You need to experience the feeling of missing the mark.  Then the questions of why and how and what I need to do different come.  Now Cael wrestled for his father in high school and that is where he experienced only 3 losses, but you know what those losses caused him to work hard to win!  As a coach I truly appreciate how sports and coaching relate so closely to Jesus and how God wants to be in our life.  Except, we never have to experience true loss because Jesus did it for us.  We will experience the sense of loss, though in our life.  The loss of a job, a relationship, financial stability and worse the loss of a loved one.  The crazy part in that last one, is when we lose them here on Earth, it is really a win for them in Heaven.

I am the first to admit I was always gung ho about how real Heaven is and I knew it to be true, but when I lost my mom, I shifted from concrete conviction of its realness to saying LORD!! I hope Heaven is real.  The loss we experience on Earth hurts and can consume us.  Much like a team that just can’t seem to win.  Then you go and watch them practice or lack thereof and you realize why they are losing.  That is how our walk with Christ is.  The beauty of believing in Jesus is the win is already in the books for us.  We just must get to the finish line and in a way that honors him and not us.  Jesus set the tone for winning when he defeated death and the devil.  He is truly undefeated but even in his perfect record, he had to suffer a loss to gain back the win.  He had to take on all the sin of the world.  You see the mistake we make is believing that the devil had something to do with Jesus’ death and he didn’t.  Jesus’ death was pre-ordained, he knew he was coming to take our sin.  We must understand the only way to defeat death is to die and then come back to life.  Jesus did, and I might add he is the only GOD who has done that.  These other gods that people follow have died and stayed dead.

So, what was it that drove Cael Sanderson to not lose and go 159-0 in college?  He didn’t like how it felt to lose and he did everything he could to never experience that again.  When I look at my life with Christ I do not do everything I can to draw near to him and live my life to fullest.  Just like the millions of athletes who all say they want to be champions and that’s it, with words and no actions, we fall short.  We must learn to sacrifice what we want and what our will is and ask God to show us what his Will is for us.  You get to that point by experiencing a loss, a loss that rocks your world spiritually, emotionally and physically.  However, in that experience you must release it all to Christ!  Cael Sanderson believes strongly in Jesus Christ and he said what kept him winning wasn’t just the physical and mental preparation to be a champion, the main thing was remembering to be humble for the gifts God had given him and the grace he received through Jesus Christ!  Let’s Get It!!  Live your life like the undefeated Champion you are through Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior, Our Redeemer!

One Love, One King, All Christ!

My Friend, My Champion, My Savior, My King

When I first met you I felt compassion
This warmth that embraced my soul
There I was with this new focus and passion
And for first time, what I was missing filled the hole

My Friend!

 
I learned that you did not just die for me
but you championed and defeated death
Taking my place on the cross and setting me free
For the World did not know that wasn’t your last breath

My Champion!

The choice you made to take on all our sin
Is a perfect love that we truly cannot comprehend
You took our loss to give us the win
But in the end the true victory came with your heavenly ascend

My Savior!

I surrender to your power and might
seeking refuge and comfort beneath your wing
O how grateful I am for your guiding light
You, Jesus, My Friend, My Champion, My Savior, My King!

One Love, One King, All Christ!

What We Dwell On in our mind is our choice!

As we mature in life through experience you come to learn new lessons of life. When you wonder about people and their success typically when you talk to them about their thoughts they think about their success a lot. The dwell on it.. they think on.. they might even obsess over it. Ultimately, you learn in life what you think about most is what you become. This has been very true in my life and the difficult part is knowing how not to dwell on the lies or negative thoughts that come.

I can say most of my negative thoughts in my life stem from a young age. Again words that were said to me, not to ruin me for life on purpose but, none the less they did. The battle of believing in the good of who you are as a person is so hard. My worst enemy is myself. The evil one played a huge part in getting me to believe a lot of those lies but the self talk of mental scrutiny turned from “you are” to “I am.” It was a subtle change but one many of us believe. Then I was reading this book and one of the sentences said, what we dwell on is our choice. That hit me hard because when we are alone we dwell on so many things, many of the negative and a lot of times become overwhelmed. Here is where Jesus comes into play!! Literally, He says ask me for anything and you shall receive it. Well when I am in my head I will find myself focusing on the things I missed or regrets for something I did not do. Instead of the win we have in Jesus. We have the Holy Spirit and we have God our Father. I want to start to dwell on His love for me and what He wants me to experience here on Earth. How he wants me to share what He is in my life with those that I meet.

Why is it so hard for us to dwell on the good things or the power of God. Why is it so easy to believe in the Hollywood version of the evil one’s power. We get so caught up in what we see we choose to not live by faith. It is through faith that we know Christ died for us and defeated death. This, as a Christian, I know!  Then why don’t I live my life with that same steadfast belief? Well if the devil knows he can’t get us into hell they next best thing is to get you so overwhelmed with yourself. When you think about yourself you do not have time to share Christ with others or even live your life that way. We have to choose to be different and be ok with that difference. Yes there will be many that will turn away from you but for those that turn to you because of the Jesus they see in you, it’s worth it.

I am making a choice to dwell on God’s power and His perfect love. He tells us that perfect love casts out all fear. Much of my fears have to do with failure but that also drives me. Now, even though that has helped me with some success I believe I have missed out on the blessings of letting God get the glory! I will choose to do that from here on out.

I will share with you one of the ways I plan on capturing my thoughts and giving them to Christ which is to start and end my day with Psalm 91. It was introduced to me years ago, but as I am reading a book that is dedicated to breaking down the Psalm, I realized this is what I have been missing. I hope this reaches someone who needs to hear this as I needed it. I choose to dwell on Christ and His love for me!

One Love, One King, All Christ!