Manute Bol, a fool for Christ

Manute Bol, who died last week at the age of 47, is one player who never achieved redemption in the eyes of sports journalists, according to the Wall Street Journal.

His life embodied an older, Christian conception of redemption that has been badly obscured by its current usage.

Bol, a Christian Sudanese immigrant, believed his life was a gift from God to be used in the service of others. As he put it to Sports Illustrated in 2004: "God guided me to America and gave me a good job. But he also gave me a heart so I would look back."

He was not blessed, however, with great athletic gifts. As a center for the Washington Bullets, Bol was more spectacle than superstar. At 7 feet, 7 inches tall and 225 pounds, he was both the tallest and thinnest player in the league. He averaged a mere 2.6 points per game over the course of his career, though he was a successful shot blocker given that he towered over most NBA players.

Bol reportedly gave most of his fortune, estimated at $6 million, to aid Sudanese refugees. As one twitter feed aptly put it: "Most NBA cats go broke on cars, jewelry & groupies.  

Manute Bol went broke building hospitals.

When his fortune dried up, Bol raised more money for charity by doing what most athletes would find humiliating: He turned himself into a humorous spectacle. Bol was hired, for example, as a horse jockey, hockey player and celebrity boxer. Some Americans simply found amusement in the absurdity of him on a horse or skates. And who could deny the comic potential of Bol boxing William "the Refrigerator" Perry, the 335-pound former defensive linemen of the Chicago Bears?

Bol agreed to be a clown. But he was not willing to be mocked for his own personal gain as so many reality-television stars are. Bol let himself be ridiculed on behalf of suffering strangers in the Sudan; he was a fool for Christ.

During his final years, Bol suffered more than mere mockery in the service of others. While he was doing relief work in the Sudan, he contracted a painful skin disease that ultimately contributed to his death.

Bol reminds us, the Christian understanding of redemption has always involved lowering and humbling oneself. It leads to suffering and even death.

Touch of the Master's hand

 
 The Touch of the Master's Hand
Myra Brooks Welch
It was battered and scarred,
And the auctioneer thought it
hardly worth his while
To waste his time on the old violin,
but he held it up with a smile.
"What am I bid, good people", he cried,
"Who starts the bidding for me?"
"One dollar, one dollar, Do I hear two?"
"Two dollars, who makes it three?"
"Three dollars once, three dollars twice, going for three,"
But, No,
From the room far back a gray bearded man
Came forward and picked up the bow,
Then wiping the dust from the old violin
And tightening up the strings,
He played a melody, pure and sweet
As sweet as the angel sings.
The music ceased and the auctioneer
With a voice that was quiet and low,
Said "What now am I bid for this old violin?"
As he held it aloft with its' bow.
"One thousand, one thousand, Do I hear two?"
"Two thousand, Who makes it three?"
"Three thousand once, three thousand twice,
Going and gone", said he.
The audience cheered,
But some of them cried,
"We just don't understand."
"What changed its' worth?"
Swift came the reply.
"The Touch of the Master's Hand."
And many a man with life out of tune
All battered with bourbon and gin
Is auctioned cheap to a thoughtless crowd
Much like that old violin
A mess of pottage, a glass of wine,
A game and he travels on.
He is going once, he is going twice,
He is going and almost gone.
But the Master comes,
And the foolish crowd never can quite understand,
The worth of a soul and the change that is wrought
By the Touch of the Master's Hand.

"Touch Of The Masters Hand" By JD Sumner (FULL)

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Falling in love with Jesus

Over the past couple of months, the Lord has taken me on an incredible journey, or real experience, in growing deeper with Him.  It started back in April with a really remarkable intercessory prayer time for Greg Von Tobel when I experienced the very real presence of God as we prayed in the hallway at our Prisoners for Christ University for Greg's deliverance.

My Bible reading is rich and rewarding especially as I read through five Psalms daily.

I read "The glory of Christ," by Puritan John Owen, and "Signs of the Spirit," (an interpretative reflection on "Religious Affections," by Jonathan Edwards) by Sam Storms.  During this ongoing experience, I sense His presence in terms of virtually hearing His voice and seeing Him.

I am now in the midst of "Pleasures evermore," by Sam Storms, and George Marsden's biography on Jonathan Edwards.

Falling in love with Jesus

 "I want to be attuned to God's heart, to be of one mind, one spirit, one disposition with Him. If this occurs, it will only occur as the fruit of fascination with all that God is in Himself and all that He is for me in Jesus. The ability to walk with consistency in the things you know please God ultimately will only be overcome when your heart, soul, mind, spirit, and will are captivated by the majesty, mercy, splendor, beauty, and magnificence of who God is and what He has and will do for you in Jesus," Sam Storms writes.

"I must confess that I have ransacked the dictionary for words to describe what I have in mind. Here is what I mean by falling in love with Jesus. I, you, we were made to be enchanted, enamored, and engrossed with God; enthralled, enraptured, and entranced with God; enravished, excited, and enticed by God; astonished, amazed, and awed by God; astounded, absorbed, and agog with God; beguiled and bedazzled; startled and staggered; smitten and stunned; stupefied and spellbound; charmed and consumed; thrilled and thunderstruck; obsessed and preoccupied; intrigued and impassioned; overwhelmed and overwrought; gripped and rapt; enthused and electrified; tantalized, mesmerized, and monopolized; fascinated, captivated, and exhilarated by God; intoxicated and infatuated with God!"

Sam concludes, "Does that sound like your life? Do you want it to? Do you realize how difficult it would be to sin if this were true of you? This is what God made you for. There is an eradicable, inescapable impulse in your spirit to experience the fullness of God in precisely this way and God put it there!"

Watching the Lord change men and revisiting "The Shack"

I met with two very unusual men at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent these past two weeks.  One is Ben, an 18 year-old self-proclaimed Kent gang member.  The other is Alex, a 33 year-old cocaine addict.  I was privileged to share "the greatest news they will ever hear," the gospel good news, with both.

Ben even wrote out several gang signs with his name and identity for me.  As we shared the Romans Road and related Scripture texts together, I witnessed a clearly visible transformation of his spirit.  I will be visiting with him later this week to see how he is progressing with the verses I asked him to read and answer his questions.

Approaching me as I was leaving the unit, Alex begged me to talk to him about needing the Lord and straightening out his life. 

He said, "I want to do what is right but I lie, cheat, swear, and steal.  I just get into trouble all the time.  Can you help me?"

As so often I experience, despite his reading and spelling level being very low, he was really working hard at it.  When we got to 1 John 5:11-12 and 2 Corinthians 6:1-2 he was marking his Bible carefully and was in tears. 

Both men took the first steps in receiving Christ, or made positive responses to the gospel. Chaplain Dick met with Alex later in the day to follow-up.  I often follow-up with men he has shared with.  Then, we debrief together.

About two years ago, I read "The Shack," and enjoyed it as fiction although I was deeply troubled with several theological issues.  While it has several really great scenes, I've become more alert to significant troubling issues other bloggers helped me clarify. 

This mass adoration for this novel has helped seemingly cement William Paul Young's "The Shack" to the stratosphere of numerous best-sellers list--where it's remained for more than 100 weeks--a claim no other book can make.

Yet it is infused with counterfeit Christianity, says author Dr. James De Young in his new book, "Burning Down 'The Shack': How the 'Christian' Bestseller is Deceiving Millions," and its depiction of God the Father as an African woman who bore the scars of Calvary with Jesus Christ is just one example of its many dangerous deceptions.

Dr. De Young was my New Testament Language and Literature professor at Western Seminary in Portland, Ore., and a former longtime colleague of Paul Young, and was his Portland-area neighbor when Young wrote The Shack.
 

From Tim Challies’s review of Professor James De Young’s book-length review, entitled Burning Down the Shack:

In April of 2004, De Young attended a Christian think tank and there Young presented a 103-page paper which presented a defense of universal reconciliation, a Christian form of universalism—the view that at some point every person will come to a right relationship with God.

If they do not do this before they die, God will use the fires of hell to purge away (not punish, mind you) any unbelief. Eventually even Satan and his fallen angels will be purged of sin and all of creation will be fully and finally restored. This is to say that after death there is a second chance, and more than that, a complete inevitability, that all people will eventually repent and come to full relationship with God.

De Young believes that Young’s belief in universal reconciliation is absolutely crucial to anyone who would truly wish to understand The Shack. It is the key that makes sense of the book and the theology it contains. Though far from the only theological problem with the book, it is the one that makes sense of the others.

John Wooden as a Christian

At the passing of John Wooden, here is a reflection on his religious or spiritual life.  These are the things related to his faith that were the most meaningful to him.  I will never forget when his UCLA dynasty teams came to Pullman to play in the old Bohler Gym and the Performing Arts Center in 1973 and 1974.

I hold John Wooden up as a genuine American hero.  I always wondered why he didn't take a more active role or speak out as a Christian about Christ.   I have several books about basketball and life by him and I've read them carefully.

Another influence on Wooden was the religion of his youth – and the girl he shared it with, Nell Riley. “I was baptized with the young woman who was to be my wife later on, the only girl I ever dated, in 1927,” Wooden says. “We were juniors in high school and she was the only girl I ever went with and we had a relationship and she suggested that we join at the same time. 

"I don’t want to say that I accepted Christ at that particular time because of the fact that I did this primarily because she wanted me to. But my acceptance came gradually as time went by.”

Wooden took great solace from the Bible, a copy of which sits in each room of his home today. His favorite passage, 1 Corinthians 13, reads in part: “Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

It is yet another theme that marks his life: “I do believe that adversity makes you stronger,” he says, “And I do believe in many ways, perhaps not in financial ways, that adversity from hard work does make you able to accept the more difficult things as they would come along later in your life.”

Religion continued to be major factor in Wooden’s life. He read Scripture daily, attended the First Christian Church of his childhood, and professed deep admiration for evangelist Billy Graham, who is a personal friend.