Don’t Sell Your Name
Mark Cuban, owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, recently offered WGN Chicago Radio sports-talk host David Kaplan $50,000 to change his name legally to “Dallas Maverick.”
When Kaplan politely declined, Cuban sweetened the offer. Cuban would pay Kaplan $100,000 and donate $100,000 to Kaplan’s favorite charity if he took the name for one year.
After some soul searching, and being bombarded by e-mails from listeners who said he was crazy to turn down the money, Kaplan held firm and told Cuban no. Kaplan explained: “I’d be saying I’d do anything for money, and that bothers me. My name is my birthright. I’d like to preserve my integrity and credibility.”
“Christian” is the birthright of every follower of Jesus Christ. We have a responsibility to live every day in a way that brings honor to that name.
Skip Bayless, Chicago Tribune (1/10/01);
submitted by Gary Yates, Jamestown, Ohio
Character, Compromise, Money, Name
Genesis 25:19-34; 1 Peter 4:14-16
Streisand Scared by Medium
In an interview with Barbara Walters on the ABC news magazine “20/20,” Barbra Streisand told of visiting a Long Island psychic to contact her late father.
Streisand said, “It was very frightening. This table started to spell letters. It spelled M-A-N-N-Y, which was his nickname. I looked under the table, but there’s no wires. There’s no way this thing could move except with a vibration of some sort. And I never wanted to do it again.”
John Tyrangiel, Time (11/26/00);
submitted by Lorenzo DellaForesta, Dorval, Quebec
Afterlife, Occult, Witchcraft
Leviticus 19:31; 1 Samuel 28:1-25
Parents Can Deter Teens’ Drug Use
According to a survey conducted by Columbia University’s Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), “Almost one in five American teens say they live with ‘hands-off’ adults who fail to consistently set rules and monitor their behavior. These youth are at a four-times greater risk for smoking, drinking, and illegal drug use than their peers with ‘hands-on’ parents.” A survey of 1,000 children, 12- to 17-years old, found that:
Teens who believe their parents would “not be too upset” if they used marijuana are more than three times as likely to use drugs than those who believe their parents would be “extremely upset.”
Teens with parents who are “very unaware” of their academic performance are almost three times more likely to engage in substance use than their peers whose parents are “very aware” of their school performance.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., president of CASA remarked that, “Mothers and fathers who are parents rather than pals can greatly reduce the risk of their children smoking, drinking and using drugs.” In addition, he notes that “the family is fundamental to keeping children away from tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.”
Reuters (2/21/01);
submitted by Derek and Jeannie Chinn, Portland, Oregon
Drugs and Alcohol, Parenting, Teenagers
1 Samuel 2:12-36; 1 Kings 1:6; Proverbs 22:6
Coach Wooden’s Example
[John Wooden’s] UCLA teams won ten NCAA championships in 12 years. … No one speaks more eloquently about Wooden than Bill Walton, who played for UCLA at a troubled time in America, a time of Vietnam and Watergate, a time when young people were asking hard questions, when dissent was in style.
For Wooden, the answers never changed. “We thought he was nuts,” Walton said. “But in all his preachings and teachings, everything he told us turned out to be true . …”
His interest and goal was to make you the best basketball player but first to make you the best person,” Walton said. “He would never talk wins and losses but what we needed to succeed in life. Once you were a good human being, you had a chance to be a good player. He never deviated from that.
“He never tried to be your friend. He was your teacher, your coach. He handled us with extreme patience . …”
Today, Walton talks with the 90-year-old Wooden frequently. “He has thousands of maxims. He is more John Wooden today than ever. He is a man who truly has principles and ideas . …
“He didn’t teach basketball. He taught life.”
Hal Bock, AP, The Spokane-Review (12/4/00);
submitted by Bob Luhn, Othello, Washington
Leadership, Mentoring, Winning and Losing
Hebrews 13:7
Fooled by Small Beginnings
Forty years ago a Philadelphia congregation watched as three 9-year-old boys were baptized and joined the church. Not long after, unable to continue with its dwindling membership, the church sold the building and disbanded.
One of those boys was Tony Campolo, now author and Christian sociologist at Eastern College in Pennsylvania. Dr. Campolo remembers:
“Years later when I was doing research in the archives of our denominations, I decided to look up the church report for the year of my baptism. There was my name, and Dick White’s. He’s now a missionary. Bert Newman, now a professor of theology at an African seminary, was also there. Then I read the church report for ‘my’ year: ‘It has not been a good year for our church. We have lost 27 members. Three joined, and they were only children.'”
Marlene LeFever, Colorado Springs, Colorado
Baptism, Children, Church leadership
1 Samuel 16:1-13; Matthew 11:25-26, 18:1-3, 19:13-15
Almost Persuaded by Grace
Bono Vox of the band U2 said: “The most powerful idea that’s entered the world in the last few thousand years—the idea of grace—is the reason I would like to be a Christian. Though, as I said to [guitarist] The Edge one day, I sometimes feel more like a fan, rather than actually in the band. I can’t live up to it. But the reason I would like to is the idea of grace. It’s really powerful.”
Interviewed by Anthony DeCurtis, beliefnet.com;
submitted by Dave Bootsma, Vernon, British Columbia
Christianity, Faith and Works, Grace
Romans 3-4, 5:7-15; 2 Corinthians 4:15; Ephesians 2:8-10
Lasting Effects of Encouragement
As a boy, Larry Crabb stuttered. Now a popular speaker and Christian psychologist, Dr. Crabb recalls an incident in the church he attended as a young man. It was customary that young men in that church were encouraged to participate in the communion services by praying out loud. Feeling the pressure of expectation, the young Crabb stood to pray. In a terribly confused prayer, he recalls “thanking the Father for hanging on the cross and praising Christ for triumphantly bringing the Spirit from the grave.”
When he was finished, he vowed that he would never again speak or pray out loud in front of a group.
At the end of the service, not wanting to meet any of the church elders who might feel constrained to correct his theology, Crabb made for the door. Before he could get out, an older man named Jim Dunbar caught him.
Having prepared himself for the anticipated correction, Crabb instead found himself listening to these words from that older man: “Larry, there’s one thing I want you to know. Whatever you do for the Lord, I’m behind you one thousand percent.”
Crabb reflects in his book: “Even as I write these words, my eyes fill with tears. I have yet to tell that story to an audience without at least mildly choking. Those words were life words. They had power. They reached deep into my being.”
Dr. Larry Crabb, Encouragement: The Key to Caring
(Zondervan, 1984);
submitted by Alan Wilson, Nyon, Switzerland
Discipling, Encouragement, Mentoring
Proverbs 25:11; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:29
Honesty over Success
Vanderbilt University has an honor code. Freshmen pledge to do their own academic work with integrity and to report those who do not to the student-run honor council.
The students’ signatures remain on display in the lobby of the Sarratt Student Center throughout their four years at the university. Alongside the signatures is found not only a statement of the honor code itself, but also the often-quoted words of the man for whom the building is named, Madison Sarratt. The long-time dean of men and a teacher in the mathematics department said: “Today I am going to give you two examinations, one in trigonometry and one in honesty. I hope you will pass them both, but if you must fail one, let it be trigonometry, for there are many good [people] in this world today who cannot pass an examination in trigonometry, but there are no good [people] in the world who cannot pass an examination in honesty.”
Gaynelle Doll, Vanderbilt Today (Summer/Fall 1999);
submitted by Rubel Shelly, Nashville, Tennessee
Character, Cheating, Honesty, Integrity
Psalm 41:12; Proverbs 6:16-19; Ephesians 4:25
Following the Leader’s Heart
An Olympic equestrian champion was asked, “How does your horse know when it has to leap the hedges and hurdles, and why do some horses turn away or stumble?”
The woman answered, “That’s simple. You tear your heart out of your body and throw it over the hedge. The horse knows how desperate you are to catch up to your heart. So it leaps.”
Martin Marty in Communicating for Life by Quentin Schultze, (Baker, 2000); submitted by Jeff Arthurs, Portland, Oregon.
Leadership, Motivation, Passion
Proverbs 2:7
Augustine Tells of Miraculous Healing
During his pastoral ministry, Augustine came to know a woman in Carthage named Innocentia. A devout woman and highly regarded, she tragically discovered that she had breast cancer.
A physician told her the disease was incurable. She could opt for amputation and possibly prolong her life a little, or she could follow the advice of Hippocrates and do nothing. Either way, death would not be put off for long.
Augustine reports: Dismayed by this diagnosis, “She turned for help to God alone, in prayer.” In a dream, Innocentia was told to wait at the baptistry for the first woman who came out after being baptized, and to ask this woman to make the sign of the cross over the cancerous breast.
Innocentia did as she was told, and she was completely cured. When she told her doctor what had happened, he responded with a contemptuous tone, “I thought you would reveal some great discovery to me!” Then, seeing her horrified look, he backpedaled, saying, “What great thing was it for Christ to heal a cancer? He raised a man who had been dead for four days.”
Bruce Shelley, “Miracles Ended Long Ago—Or Did They?”
Christian History (Summer 2000)
God’s power, Healing, Miracles
Exodus 15:26; Psalm 103:3; John 11:38-44; James 5:13-16
Team President Redeems Athlete’s Ring
Lou Johnson, a 1965 World Series hero for the Los Angeles Dodgers, tried for 30 years to recover the championship ring he lost to drug dealers in 1971. Drug and alcohol abuse cost him everything from that magical season, including his uniform, glove, and the bat he used to hit the winning home run in the deciding game.
When Dodger president, Bob Graziano, learned that Johnson’s World Series ring was about to be auctioned on the Internet, he immediately wrote a check for $3,457 and bought the ring before any bids were posted. He did for Johnson what the former Dodger outfielder had been unable to do for himself.
Johnson, now 66 and working in the Dodgers front office, has been drug-free for years. He wept when given the ring. Johnson said, “It felt like a piece of me had been reborn.”
Likewise, our spiritual rebirth is because Jesus paid on the cross a price we could not pay for ourselves.
Los Angeles Times (2/10/01); submitted by Rick Kauffman
Grace, New Life, Redemption, Salvation
Romans 3:23-24, 8:3-4; Ephesians 1:7-8
First Class Misfits
After worrying for half an hour that we wouldn’t get on an overbooked flight, my wife and I were summoned to the check-in desk. A smiling agent whispered that this was our lucky day. To get us on the plane he was bumping us up to first class. This was the first and only time we’ve been so pampered on an airplane—good food, hot coffee, plenty of elbow room.
We played a little game, trying to guess who else didn’t belong in first class. One man stuck out. He padded around the cabin in his socks, restlessly sampling magazines, playing with but never actually using the in-flight phones. Twice he sneezed so loudly we thought the oxygen masks would drop down. And when the attendant brought linen tablecloths for our breakfast trays, he tucked his into his collar as a bib.
We see misfits at church, too—people who don’t seem to belong, who embarrass us and cause us to feel superior. Truth is, we don’t belong here any more than they do.
Ken Langley, Zion, Illinois
Arrogance, Community, Pride, Unity
Romans 14, 15:1-7; 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; James 2:1-13
Resourceful Stewardship
Before going to Europe on business, a man drove his Rolls-Royce to a bank in New York City. He went in and asked for an immediate loan of $5,000. The loan officer, taken aback, requested collateral. The man replied, “Well then, here are the keys to my Rolls-Royce.”
The loan officer had the car driven to the bank’s underground garage for safe-keeping and gave him $5,000.
Two weeks later, the man walked through the bank’s doors, asking to settle his loan and get his car back. “That will be $5,000 in principal, and $15.40 in interest,” the loan officer said. The man wrote out a check, got up, and started to walk away.
“Wait sir,” the loan officer said. “While you were gone, I found out you’re a millionaire. Why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000?”
The man smiled. “Where else could I safely park my Rolls-Royce in Manhattan for two weeks and pay only $15.40?”
Michael Herman, Glen Ellyn, Illinois
Money, Resourcefulness, Stewardship, Wisdom
Matthew 25:14-30
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