Christian Post Report – Aug 22, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Tim Tebow (11) throws during warm ups before a game against the Baltimore Ravens at Lincoln Financial Field.
Tim Tebow Tells Americans to Stop Idolizing Sports
Tim Tebow rose to fame as a college football star, but he is not shying away from warning others about turning high profile athletes and sports into idols.
“We choose to idolize certain things, and love certain things,” Tebow said while speaking at a benefit for the Cancer Wellness Foundation of Central Alabama. “I’m not saying it’s wrong to love sports, I love them as much as anybody. But do we choose to really see what matters?”
As a speaker at the Montgomery, Alabama, benefit called “The Journey Continues” Tebow invited three “wish girls” battling cancer to join him. Instead of focusing on celebrities, the athlete-turned-college football analyst spoke about how “messed up” it was that people were not honoring those trying to overcome cancer.
“All these men and women that are celebrities, they’re awesome, they’re good friends of mine. They do a lot,” Tebow said, according to the Montgomery Advertiser. “And everyone was idolizing these men and women, and nobody was paying attention to these three girls. I think all of them would agree, these three girls have more character, heart and determination to fight through what they had fought through than any one of those celebrities.”
The athlete said he was struck with the revelation: “This is what matters. This is what we should be focusing on.'”
Lucile G. Waller, the executive director for the Cancer Wellness Foundation, previously explained why Tebow was a great choice to speak at the recent benefit that took place at the Montgomery Performing Arts Center.
“On and off the field, he exemplifies Judeo Christian values of which most people in this country identify,” Waller said. “When one is faced with a life or death situation, as many of the patients which we help are, one relies on your faith in God.”
Tebow led the University of Florida Gators to a national championship as the team’s starting quarterback in 2008, after winning the Heisman Trophy on the team in 2007. He was also on the team when it won a championship in 2006 and was the first college sophomore to win a Heisman Trophy, which honors the best football player of a season.
The Christian athlete has struggled to find his place in the NFL after being drafted to the Denver Broncos in 2010, signing with the New York Jets in 2012, and getting picked up by the New England Patriots in 2013, followed by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2015, which cut him from the roster as a third-string quarterback.
“In the end, football is just a silly game. Greatness comes from serving,” Tebow told a crowd of students at a Liberty University convocation in 2013. “You want to be great? Be a servant. You want to be great? Humble yourself.”
Source : Christian Post
R. Kelly Says Only God Can Convince Him Not to Believe Bill Cosby
Christian Post Report – Actor Bill Cosby attends the American Comedy Awards in New York April 26, 2014.
Despite dozens of sexual misconduct allegations brought against comedian Bill Cosby, singer R.Kelly says he will not believe those accusations unless God tells him to.
In an interview with GQ magazine, the 49-year-old singer-songwriter and producer Robert Kelly, said he believed it was strange that older women were bringing up accusations against Cosby decades after it happened.
As a fan of the comedian, Kelly said only God could convince him that Cosby was guilty.
“If God showed me that they were telling the truth, I would say that’s wrong. I don’t care if it was a zillion years ago,” Kelly told GQ. “But God would have to do that, because God is the only one can show me that. When you wait 70 years, 50 years, 40 years, to say something that simple, it’s strange. You know why I say that is because it happened to me, and it wasn’t true.”
Kelly was once accused of making child pornography before being acquitted in 2008 of the 14 counts brought against him. Now Cosby is facing a legal battle after more than four dozen women accused the 78-year-old comedian of either drugging them, committing sexual assault, or both. Cosby became a popular celebrity for his role in the 1980s and 1990s family sitcom “The Cosby Show,” as well decades worth of stand up comedy routines and community service.
The recent accusations brought against the comedian may have mired Cosby’s image for some, but the comedian is still pressing forth with his comedy tour across North America. Last year, Cosby wrote a letter to his supporters in the community who purchased tickets in order to watch him perform.
“Dear Fans: GOD has blessed me with a wonderful gift to share with all of my fans. For 53 years I have continued to master this gift, which heals the soul and warms hearts, Laughter!” Cosby wrote in a message posted in the Sandusky Register. “I thank you, the theatre staff (Sandusky State Theater), the event organizers and the Sandusky Community for your continued support and coming to experience family, fun entertainment. Let’s Do It Again — I’m Far From Finished.”
In a 2011 interview with The Christian Post, Cosby spoke about keeping his faith during tough times. “If you have no faith, you’ve lost your battle. You can’t let things just happen. If you know right from wrong, and you know proof that certain things are true and people are telling you information to guide you and it’s good solid information, then you should have it.”
Source : Christian Post
When Life Gets Tough, Do You Know How to Trust God?
Life can present some tough obstacles, causing believers to rely all the more upon Christ. In a recent blog post for JeffBethke.com, the website of the inspirational speaker and New York Times best-selling author, Jefferson Bethke’s wife, Alyssa, tells believers to “roll our burdens to God and wait for Him to act.”
Bethke references Psalm 37: 5-6, “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act,” and shares the words of the late British Baptist preacher Charles Spurgeon who once encouraged the faithful to go beyond simply giving Christ only their present cares.
“‘Roll the whole burden of life upon the Lord,” says Spurgeon. “Leave with Jehovah not thy present fretfulness merely, but all thy cares; in fact, submit the whole tenor of thy way to Him. Cast away anxiety, resign thy will, submit thy judgment, leave all with the God of all,'” says the preacher, who uses the example of how the farmer sows his seeds, ploughs and leaves the harvest up to God.
Bethke encourages believers that no matter what they’re going through — from being unemployed or desiring a relationship, to experiencing marital issues or simply trying to make it day to day — they can hand it over to Christ and wait on Him for the solution.
“Wherever your heart is today, we can commit our way to Him,” writes Bethke. “We can leave our worries, doubts, desires and dreams at His feet — and wait for Him to act. We aren’t in control. He is.”
God’s ways are much higher than man’s. He wants His people to be happy and His plans for His children never fail, explains Bethke.
Bethke says that during difficult periods in her life, she relies heavily upon the book of Psalms for inspiration. “The Psalms are such an untapped and beautiful book that has gotten me through so many tough times. It’s a book of songs, laments, prayers, and cries. And it can be deeply healing to use them in those seasons.”
The wife and mother can’t overstate the importance of Scripture in the life of a believer. On her personal blog she writes, “God’s Word is His love letter to us. It’s beautiful, deep, scandalous, alive, wise and life changing. It’s radical — it flips our natural thinking on its head and radiates what is true and right and holy. It is a story of how the Creator of the universe, the Maker of all things, the God of all gods, the King of all kings — wants us.”
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Source : Christian Post
Virgin Mary’s ‘Tears’ Soaking Apartment Wall, Drawing Hundreds of Worshipers
Christian Post Report – Oil-soaked wall that Catholic family in British Colombia believes is the Virgin Mary’s tears, as featured in a CTV News Vancouver report published on January 23, 2016.
A Roman Catholic family in British Colombia believe the tears of the Virgin Mary are soaking one of their apartment walls in an alleged miracle, which has reportedly drawn over 300 worshipers to come to the apartment and pray.
CTV News Vancouver reported on Saturday that hundreds of people from across Canada are coming to the oil-soaked apartment wall in Surrey, where devout Catholic Sanna Lona claims she experienced a miracle.
Lona said three weeks ago she was alone in her bedroom when she felt someone touch her shoulder, after which she saw the Virgin Mary, who told her to look at the wall.
The Catholic woman claimed that a streak of oil formed on the wall, but eventually it spread across the room, reaching the carpet and the mirror.
(Photo: Reuters/Damir Sagolj)Catholics gather at the site where the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared in an apparition in Medjugorje, 120km (75 miles) south of Sarajevo, June 25, 2009. Millions of pilgrims from all over the world have visited the small Bosnian town after six Bosnian youngsters claimed that the Holy Mary appeared to them there 28 years ago.Lona’s son, Salwan Alyais, claims that Mary also gave his mother instructions about the oil, which the family believes is the tears of the mother of Christ.
“Mary said don’t let anyone touch the wall because they’re touching her face, and she doesn’t want people to touch her face,” Alyais said.
The bedroom, which is now filled with images of Mary, is being kept open for people who want to come and pray.
“[My mother] feels okay and happy, and she says the Mary mother told her the people come, the door is open, she don’t close, they will visit here and pray,” Lona’s daughter added.
There were several alleged Virgin Mary miracles reported around the world last year. In October, a church in Malaysia asked the Vatican to officially declare a miracle in the form of a statue of Mary that parishioners said has been documented at various times growing taller, smiling, and crying.
The alleged miracle was captured on video during service, with one parishioner describing: “Her eyes were moving very slowly, all of us were there and we saw it.”
“The father (the priest) was saying, ‘look at her, she’s looking at us. She was full of life, she had a lot of tears in her eyes,'” he continued.
“When we started singing ‘Ave Maria,’ she started smiling and her lips were moving.”
Another miracle was reported in September in Sicily, Italy, after a Catholic priest led church members to drink from a “secret” water spring that he believed Mary led him to.
“She doesn’t speak to me or for me — but she speaks through me to everybody, inviting them to pray, confess and return to God,” Father Alessandro Minutella from the parish of San Giovanni Bosco in Carini said at the time.
Source : Christian Post
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(Photo: Reuters/Ben Nelms)