Where Does Your Identity Lie

What's up everybody? So, two weeks ago I reported to Spring Training. I came in better shape than I've ever been in (as baseball players we are genetically engineered to say that every spring even when we're fat). But, I truly believe I was better prepared to play ball this year than ever before. This was supposed to be my year. Everyone I know, and don't know, was telling me this was my year to win the Cy Young. I had thrown 7 bullpen sessions in preparation to face hitters for the first time, and everything was going great. I honestly can't remember a time where my delivery and overall confidence in my stuff was even close to where it is now. But, God had different plans than all that for me this year. While facing hitters the first time I felt a twinge in my elbow, and long story short I am scheduled to have Tommy John surgery on monday morning. Season over, no Cy Young, no competing,...nothing. But, let me say this. I have learned more about myself in the last two days than in the last five years combined. Here is what I've learned...my status/success in baseball doesn't define me, not even close. I have been amazed at how much peace i've felt through all this. My wife has made that easy, as she has kept her amazing positive attitude throughout. Another thing I've learned is that I have been EXTREMELY blessed with some of the best friends and teammates a person could ever ask for. Before I left the clubhouse my teammates all showed me so much support it literally has been eye opening. I have been so much in awe of how fortunate I am that I haven't even had time to think about being hurt. Praise God for that.
Another thing I know is that I could not have done anything differently coming in to spring. My ligament had been partially torn twice before so it has finally reached it's breaking point. I'm okay with that. I absolutely hate the idea of missing this season with teammates. I think we have a real good shot to win the World Series. The group we have is really special, and I'll have my pom pom''s out in full force. But here's the deal. This injury, the one that makes me miss an entire year of baseball, has allowed me to stop missing what is right in front of me. I am blessed with an amazing God. A God who continues to teach me lessons in mysterious ways. I'm blessed with an amazing family. I'm blessed with friends who really care for me, and I have felt it this week. And I'm blessed with teammates that started out as friends and have become family. I believe this to be a test from God, and it has opened my eyes. I believe I can still greatly impact God's Kingdom from this disabled list. And if any of you people who I just bragged about catch me slippin....please slap me around. Thanks for reading.

my identity?
-adam wainwright ...follower of Christ

Fearing God????

This is my first time writing for e fellowship. I was at our bible study tonight and shared this story with the guys and Adam told me I had to fill in for him tonight so here it goes…..

Anyone that knows me knows that I have a Golden Retriever named Cammie my wife and I love her more than anything. One of my favorite things she does is when we come home she runs to the door wagging her tail like crazy and loves on us for as long as we will stand there. Well, my wife and I went out for breakfast 4 days ago for about an hour or so. Our plan was to come back, get Cammie and take her to Petsmart so she could get some new toys. When I opened the door go greet her she wasn’t there. Then I walked in the condo I noticed that she had got into the bathroom trashcan and got out one piece of paper and chewed on it. Now this wasn’t like Turner and Hooch style where the blinds were tore down the kitchen cabinets were emptied and the entire house was trashed. No this was one piece of paper. When I looked around the corner I saw Cammie sitting up looking at me and shaking out of control. She was shaking like she had been stranded for hours in the Antarctica. When I looked at her and started to scold her she wouldn’t even look at me and before too long she slowly walked over to me still shaking and curled up at my feet and gave me the saddest look I have ever seen. She has done this before but this time it hit me different. I was so disappointed in her that I told my wife we weren’t going to the pet store and I literally didn’t talk to or pet her for two hours. I went on a run later that day and I usually take her with me but since I was still mad at her this time I didn’t take her. On my I pod the song International Harvester came on by Craig Morgan. Now I am a redneck and love country so I have heard this song a million times but never like this. Part of the lyrics go like this

I'm a God fearing hardworking combine driver

Then it all hit me…..

My dog knew that she had done something wrong and I can only imagine what she was thinking when she heard my truck pull up. She was so scared of me as her master that all she could do is shake because she knew she made a mistake. It didn’t matter to her if it was a big mistake or not she knew she messed up and let me down. I look at that picture of Cammie and I said to myself…… I have never been that dog. I don’t fear god.

Why is that??? How can I not fear the one that created me for crying out loud? The one that made the heavens and the earth and all other things. The fact is that I am so scared of so many other things that really don’t matter at all. For instance……

- giving up 2 runs and not getting an out

- having one of my teammate not like or respect me

These are just quick examples. The fact is we follow the rules and laws that people put in place but not the ones that our creator did. I will be confronted with a decision and I know that there is a clear right and wrong thing to do but I’ll quickly justify it by saying “well it’s not hurting anyone” or “nobody will know about it” or the go to is “it’s not like I’m the only one that’s doing it” and I will go ahead and make the decision that is in the wrong. And I don’t shake like my dog… I just simply go on about my life and put on the Christian face around the right people and “deal with it”

I’m going to take a line from Fred our Chapel leader….Can I tell you something???? I’m sick of it. I’m sick of accepting the worldly view as to what’s right and what’s wrong. And fearing the people and situations that wont get me into heaven.

Dadgummit!!!!!!!! I AM WORKING TO FEAR GOD NOW.

Sorry it’s so long but hopefully it impacts you… I could get into why I’m really glad god doesn’t yell and put me it timeout when I screw up like I did to Cammie but that a completely different topic….

Here are some verses that talk about fear

1 Samuel 12:14

Now if you fear and worship the Lord and listen to his voice and if you do not rebel against the Lords commands then both you and your king will show that you recognize the lord as your God.

Deuteronomy 6:13

You must fear the Lord your God and serve him

Hebrews 13:6

So we can say with Confidence “The lord is my helper so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?

Psalm 61:5

For you have heard my vows, O God. You have given me an inheritance reserved for those who fear your name.

Piper Journal Entry

Snippet

Romans 14:11 "As surely as I live, says the Lord 'every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.'"

So powerful is this verse. Every knee will bow, don't lose faith when you feel weary in your faith, you're on the winning team. Unfortunately it will be tough and agonizing for the prideful who have rejected Him. My neighborhood hit an atheist with this scripture one time (maybe a year ago) and I remember how my heart sank into my stomach at the thought of what it might be like to be a non-believer on judgement day. Like Joe Dirt said... "Dang".
I'm so thankful to be in with the King. Take a little time out of your day to praise God for who He is. Amen.

What's the difference

Guys,

I was listening to an interview this week with Herschel Walker. A Georgia boy legend. If you didn't know already, he is in MMA now and about to get in the ring again for his second fight. If you couldn't tell by the picture, Herschel is a genetic freak. He was talking about his workout regimen and it bases off of push ups and sit ups as it has his entire life. One of the highlights was the numbers of these exercises that he finally spilled (Herschel is extremely humble) after being asked over and over. He's up to 750 push-ups and 1,500 sit-ups a day!!! hahaha. awesome. So, like his entire life, he is just awed at through out the interview and they keep asking him about his routine and another gem comes out that he only eats one meal a day, and has given up meat. He just said he has always eaten once a day, but in college it was usually a hamburger or something, ha. Ok, so what do you think the next question would be?? I'm glad they asked, cus I would have asked the same thing and that is, "where do you get the energy, being nearly 50 years old and eating once a day with no protein from animals and working the same muscle group everyday?". Anybody wondering when I'm going to tie in some God to this point, here it comes. He said "my main source of strength is from my Lord, and Savior Jesus Christ". You can imagine how many more questions he got about his routine....(crickets). Can't be talking about a routine an athlete has if Jesus is involved right? Might offend someone.

My main point of this was not to get into the not talking about Jesus on-air, but that they were so intrigued by Herschel they just had to know what makes him tick. What makes him different? Why does he act the way he does? What does he work so hard? What's the difference between him and someone else. The answer was Jesus.

John 1:5 "The Light shined in the darkness, and the darkness did not understand it"

What a verse, and how many ways we can take that. They asked Herschel so many questions, because they had to know what made him shine. Was it the push-ups or the diet, nope. That's what we want as christians. We want people asking what makes him act that way? In high school the biggest issue seemed to always come down to drinking and partying. When someone would decide not to drink at a party or partake in weed or whatever, people had questions for them, right? They had to know. Why? But its sooo fun, blah blah blah. Then we grew up....some and the issue changed into different topics. The one I like that Blake brought up awhile ago was gossip. Gossip is huge in sports and the clubhouse. I will also tell you that it does not change in the world of business. It's the same old song and dance. "did you hear about Bill and his wife?" Terrible.

Psalm 52:2-"your tongue plots destruction; it is like a sharpened razor, you who practice deceit"

I like how it says PRACTICE deceit. Terry had a post talking about falling into sin or making plans to sin. Big difference

So, I think a good topic for us to make sure we let our light shine would be to sit the next slamfest out. Bite your tongue, make people wonder why you don't talk garbage about other people to make yourself feel better. Go a different route. Little things can turn into big things. Don't think that practicing small victories add up, cus they do. Just ask how the Green Bay Packers. They just tried to have the IR players not be in the Super Bowl team photo and it turned into a huge story. You never know what impact you are making.

ONE

Ty

Be Still and be Renewed

Do you feel rested right now? Do you feel spiritually renewed? Do you talk to God about everything? QqqHow many of us are taking our sabbath seriously? The word sabbath actually means to cease. People in olden times certainly took their sabbath seriously. Back then the people used the sabbath as a time of repenting of sin and worshipping the Lord...and that is all. Recently it was pointed out to me that I have been thinking of Sunday, and actually rest in general, all wrong. Sunday is the first day of the week. God has made it that way so we start out our weeks fully rested and strong for the coming days. Are we actually giving Sunday to God though? It's been said that we should not sabbath (cease) because we are tired, but so that we don't get tired. I've always heard that the best thing you could do is wake up early and talk to God before you talk to anyone else. On a grander scale shouldn't we use Sunday as a means of getting us prepared for the rest of the week? When we start our mornings or weeks out with a Godly set of armor on, there is no way the darkness of this world can touch us. In Mark 2:27 it says "the sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath.". Here's why I'm telling y'all this. Thiere are certain things we make time for that is just plain wasting our lives. There is seemingly a worldly priority among people today to work the most, and make the most money, and worship the least. But, the things we need to make time for are serious, life changing, things. Like God and family. Here's my challenge to all y'all giving the Holy Spirit time can transform or renew a persons life. Soooooo, take a good hard look in the mirror. Check your priorities. Check your schedule. Check your spending. Check yourself and ask if your taking the time to be renewed. Use the first day of the week to get refreshed. 2 corinthians 4:16 " therefor we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, inwardly we are being renewed day by day.".

Thanks for listening,

Adam

Heart, Soul,and Strength

Deuteronomy 6:5-7
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you lie down and when you get up.”
God’s commandments are pretty good; they have carried value for years and generations. More recently I looked at this verse in a different way. I asked myself how I can live this out. What would it look like to really be this verse? Since I’m a former professional athlete and many followers of this blog are current (both amateur and professional) athletes, I came up with this powerful conclusion.
We can control 3 things that ultimately affect how we feel and how we perform, not just in sports but in life (stay with me here). We can control what we Focus on, the Meaning we give our circumstances (both past, current, and future), and we can control our Physiology (the way we carry ourselves, swagger, body language, whatever term makes sense to you). Examples would be: Focus – focus on good thoughts then you feel good, bad thoughts you feel bad. Meaning – if you strike out you’re either closer to getting a hit or you’ve lost the ability to hit. Physiology- slouch over and put your head down (feel crummy) pull your shoulders back and smile (I bet you’ll feel a lot better).
Hopefully you can see and understand the differences I’ve laid out there. The power that each of us has when being able to control these three things is unbelievable. Now when you put Jesus at the center or make Him the focus/motivation of these it creates a serious force. When you can step outside your selfish thoughts and focus on the goodness of God or the love of our Lord Jesus, how good does that feel? When I’m knee deep in worship (focusing on Jesus) I feel unstoppable, like nothing in this world can keep me down. Think of how much time we’ve all wasted in self pity because we feel our circumstances are unfair or unbearable? If we were able to snap out of that focus and put it on how fortunate we are to have a Savior, wouldn’t that look different? You might be reading this saying, ya ya, what about baseball or how does this pertain to my job. Here you go…
We know how good we feel when we’re doing well. In those times what are you focusing on, what meaning are you assigning to your life or job or value, and what does your Physiology look like (aka body language)? Really think about it, see it in your mind. Now ask yourself this what if you were to Focus on those successful at bats or scoreless innings or big deals you closed? What if you visualized them and made them feel real again? What if you put a positive Meaning to your current situation or your next outing, asking yourself empowering questions that force your mind to anticipate success in your next opportunity? What if you put a smile on because you were focused on all of your blessings as opposed to your failures, what if you pulled your shoulders back and felt the power at your finger tips that has been developed from all those tough days in the gym or in class? How do you think you would perform? Do you think you would be in a peak state, a state of preparedness that was primed for dominance?
So here is the tie in. Heart, Soul, and Strength could equal Focus, Meaning, and Physiology. Focus (what’s on your heart tend to be your focus), Meaning (what’s in your soul tends to be the subconscious meaning that you give things and studies show that our subconscious mind is much more powerful than our conscious mind), and Physiology or body language, that’s pretty straight forward. Driving it home is that focusing on good things means focusing on all that God is and if we do these three things (essentially all we have) then I think we can dominate for the Kingdom. I’m pretty sure God wants us to succeed in whatever he has us doing. I hope you felt this message, like I did.

Two way street

While recently breaking down Nehemiah 9 it occurred to me that the time we spend in worship is a fraction of time compared to the way they used to worship. In Nehemiahs day the people spent 1/4 of their day reading Gods word. Embarrassingly that sounds like an impossible amount of time. Then, they spent another 1/4 of their day confessing their sin and worshipping. I sometimes wonder why God seemed to have more encounters with people back in the day than he does in today's world. Well, a big part of it may be that they wanted to see Him more. Clearly the people back then had a greater devotion to our Lord. So, the next time you think Gods too busy to talk just take some time out to call on Him. He might not answer if we don't call. This relationship that is Christianity is a two way street. Thanks for reading

-Adam

ARE YOU THIRSTY?

"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God, My soul thirsts for God, for the living God." - Psalm 42:1-2

Do you pant for God? Are you desperately seeking the living God? Every year in the African serengeti over two million animals migrate hundreds of miles in a desperate pursuit for flowing water. Hundreds of thousands of them don't even survive the journey because dehydration and exhaustion. Can you imagine how awesome it must feel for the ones who do make it? You walk through that last dry, dusty field and over that last hill of rocks and at last you've made it! There it is, finally, fresh water flowing in abundance ready and willing to quench that desperate thirst! I imagine these animals are ecstatic and want to look at that water and shout out as loud as they can, "I'm so glad to finally see you!"

Well, this should be the way in which we thirst for God. So again my question: Is your soul panting out of a desperate thirst for God? What will you say when you finally meet your Maker? Do you see yourself shouting out praise in overwhelming gratitude and dancing on your way to the KIng or is that picture just seem silly and awkward to you? Think about it and be honest with yourself. Oh, how incredibly boring my worship can be from time to time. Oh, how easily I take the grace of God for granted. I want to be at a place in my relationship with Christ where I'm more excited to worship Him than to watch the Super Bowl. I want to cheer louder for Jesus than for touchdowns. It may be easy to laugh at that comment, but I'm serious. It's embarrassing how nonchalant I can be when worshipping my Savior. No more getting a quick drink at puddles here and there. It's time to desperately seek out the Living Water.

Praise the name of Jesus Christ our Savior,

- Terry

I'm gunna let it shine....

What's up fellas? My bad missin my day the last few times, but I'll crank it up from now on. So, today I had a meeting with a friend of mine from growing up. Actually he was a coach and one of my mentors since I can remember being alive. The reason for the meeting was he had some questions about my Christian walk. He approached me and wanted to know all about what I have learned, and what changed in me over the last ten years. A great conversation struck up from that and he agreed to rededicate his life to our Living God. I was excited but it also got me thinking. Two things instantly shot into my head. 1.... Ten years ago I was clearly not portraying Christ in my every day life...and...2. He could see a difference in me now. The reason I'm bringing this up is that we all have pasts, and we can't get past that. But, what are we doing right now that can reflect God's greatness. Let me rephrase that.... what are we letting God do in us that reflect His glory. Our God's light shines so bright that if we truly have Him in our heart His rays will come shooting out of us in all directions. My challenge is for us to live our lives shamelessly in pursuit of our one true God so that everyone we know now and will know in the future will know exactly why we live the way we do. AND.... Who we live it for. God Bless y'all.... we can be fishers of men....

adam

Lecrae - Going In ft. Swoope

Gossip

I had no clue what to write today but as I started glancing through some notes I saw "talking about others..." Just writing that out makes me feel shamed and guilty. Spring training is one month away and have I really addressed this sin in my life? BP, clubhouse, weight room, plane rides, dinner, and the bullpen gives me ample time to talk about someone or jump in on a convo about a guy that bugs me. Why do I do that? Looking at it now it's probably for two reasons: To try to be funny and blend in, and because I'm either jealous or insecure of that guy.

Adam, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You have watched me do it one someone we both know for two years in STL. The craziest thing is that I do like that guy, but I guess I'm just jealous of him. That's just pure "haterade" at it's finest and it's embarrassing! I had the audacity to clown on him behind his back then go talk to him like it was nothing. Makes me sick bro, really does. That's not what a man of God does. No way!!! Praise be to God that he revealed something to me this morning... This was not planned. 

Plan of action today and moving forward...

1.You hear gossip in a group, bite your tongue and try to get off that topic.

2.Remember God's word applies to EVERYTHING. Loving your neighbor, gossip, slow to speak, murder (anger). SO READ IT, STUDY IT, LIVE IT. 

Pray for your boy. 

Blake 

Boasting - Lecrae (feat. Anthony Evans) - lyrics on screen

The Just Shall Live by Faith

What's shakin, crew. Hope everybody has settled back into a routine after the FFF (forced family fun) that is the holidays.
Today I wanted to get into the story of Abel a little bit and how he was the first to have faith. He is mentioned in Genesis obviously, but also in Hebrews Chapter 11 (this chapter hypes up all the bible heavy hitters) God says in verse 4 "By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead". A perfect example of that last line is this post here. Even though he is dead, Abels faith still speaks to us and rings true.
The way I want to take this has to do with our little GA bible study that we have been trying to kick off here. Terry was going over a presentation he was going to do and brought up the message of faith vs works. His example was in the Old Testament when a group of people basically said to God, "hey, we've been keeping the Sabbath and making sacrifices at the altar and doing the 10 commandments. We need some wealth and happiness rained down on us". Terry summed up God's answer as, I don't care that you are doing everything that I told you to do. Your heart is not in it. You are doing these things for the wrong reasons which makes them worthless. (Terry, please clarify this story in a reply. I just hit the highs).
To bring this back to Abel and the Hebrew verse, God says "Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did". Now, we all know the evil in Cain and how he was the first murderer but we can assume for a long while both were doing everything that God commanded of them. Cain was tilling the fields and doing hard work. He was working and sacrificing and doing as God commanded for awhile, but where was his heart? Abel had it the right way. Remember, Adam and Eve saw first hand, in the Garden, the glory of God. They literally walked and talked with God in the cool of the day. 2 Corinthians 5 talks about how we walk by faith and not by sight. This simply was not true for Adam and Eve. They GOT to walk by sight. Abel was born outside of Eden, yet he had this incredible faith. That is why he is thought of as primitive faith. He was the first person on earth to have faith without seeing. What an amazing label to have.
This lesson just reminds me of the Mormons or Jews or any other religion that weighs heavily on works and the results of those actions. Our good deeds are not what is weighed and judged at the end of the day (or End of Days) it is your heart. How many times did David royally screw things up in his life? Yet, he was a man after Gods own heart. Just like the post on the subject of money last week, its another heart issue. Everything is pretty simplified when you sit down and go over a few things. As Andy Stanley (our preacher) says "gotta read the bible". Sounds dumb to say that, but how many people actually read the bible? Very few in terms of people of the world.

ONE

Ty

Crucified With Christ

Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Jesus paid the ransom for many, we know that or at least have heard that before hence John 3:16. The beginning of the Galatian verse tees up a question, "what does being crucified with Christ mean"? Stay with the verse and we see Paul say that he no longer lives in the body but it is Christ in him and Paul's effort here is simply faith. However, faith is never that simple, especially in this world with credit and pending bills that need to get paid, diseases, relationship strains, job happenings, etc... The faith component of this scripture can be explained by the topic or conversation of faith muscle. What or how do you build it? I believe that has been addressed on this blog before so you can check the archives for that. What I feel led to discuss today is the living in the body verse not living in the body.

To live in the body is to see things through one lens, your own. This view is limiting and can be selfish (most often is).

To live outside the body is to see things through multiple perspectives. Often we can equate this to watching a movie where multiple characters are being developed. However to take it higher or further is to see things through God's perspective which is like watching a parade from the Goodyear blimp except you see the start, finish, and all the actions in between all at the same time because you operate outside of time. Oh what an advantage it is to be God!

I mentioned these to drive home the fact that our goal is to have faith in the process even though we can't see the end, we can trust that the end will be good for us (not always what we want but it's always best). During the process if we truly have faith then the old man (how we used to be) will no longer be throwing his temper tantrums and it will be the new man who will exude Christ-like reactions that will bring glory to His name. How many times have you marveled over somebodies Christ-like reaction (ex: Colt McCoy in last years championship game)? The goal is for us to have people in our lives see more of Jesus in us and less of our old selves. That is when we truly are becoming a contagious Christian. For 2011 let's push to crucify more of that old man and embrace more Jesus.