There are just times that occur in life that blow your mind and make you say, “Wow!”  I am the father of two incredible boys, Drew (almost 3 yrs old) and Sam (just turned 7 weeks old).  Those two boys are a couple of the greatest things that ever happened to me.  God has taught me so much about Himself (and myself) through these boys.  Today was  another one of those lessons.

I had taken Drew out fishing this morning before the rain came in.  We had gotten back about time for lunch, so we were eating a sandwich and some chips at the table.  Naomi had Sam and was playing with him at the other end of the table.  Drew begins to play with Sam and mess with him.  You can already tell that these guys have great potential of being really close as they grow up.  Sam begins to smile and almost laugh at his brother’s “playing with him.”  Now Sam is not one to smile nor laugh much at this time in his life.  Something about his brother just brightens him up though.

It was in that moment, as I was scarfing down my sandwich and chips that the Holy Spirit whispered to my heart, “You feel that joy welling up inside of you because them two boys are playing well with each other?  That’s what I feel when Christians live together in love with one another.”

We may have different opinions on certain aspects of our faith, but if we are what the Bible calls “brothers and sisters in Christ,” then we had better be loving one another as family because in glory, we’re going to be doing that anyways.  Jesus’ prayer for us (John 17) was that we might be “one”.  This “one” is unity.  We don’t have to see things exactly the same way in every tiny part of our beliefs (though there are some essentials).

How are you and I doing with helping Jesus’ prayer become a reality?

That’s one phrase that I’ve never understood.  It describes being hit/shot by someone on your side/team.  How’s that friendly?  I actually get where the phrase comes from but still doesn’t sound very friendly to me.

It seems that the most of what I’m hearing on the radio concerning sports is not how Florida has won their second national championship in three years, but rather people wanting to run down this young man named Tim Tebow.  It seems that many in our society feel that this young man is a fake and a sham (or at least that’s what I’m hearing on sports radio where I’m livng).  With him “wearing bible verses on his eye black” and saying “God bless” with every statement that he makes, people are saying that he needs to quit selling religion.

Personally, I’m getting a little sick of this junk.  It aggrevates me to no end how people can be so ignorant sometimes.  I’m not a Florida fan by any means, but Tebow is truly one of college’s best athletes in a long time if not ever.  I think that it’s funny that everyone wants to down this guy because it seems that he is living his life as a young 20-something year old the way that we all should be living.  I don’t see where he is selling religion any more than public schools are selling the religion of atheism, agnosticism, or humanism with many of the subjects they teach in their classrooms.  When once has Tebow said on national camera that we all need to turn to Christ?  I’ve never heard one instance.

In John 17, Jesus prays that His disciples may be unified so that those who are not may see the awesome power of the living God at work and turn to Him.  Here we have some people who say (hmm?) that they’re believers but think that Tebow should keep the verses to himself and tune down the “God bless” statements and just let your life speak for God.  WHY???  God gave us a voice and a brain and a passion… He intends us to use them.  It sounds a little like the instance in Luke 19:39-40 where the religious people of the day told Jesus to rebuke the people who were shouting praises to Him and Jesus said that the stones would cry out if these people didn’t.

Let’s be careful in how we treat our fellow believers.  There are many who are watching and there is an enemy that is seeking to destroy us (John 10:10/1 Peter 5:8).