If lying is a pervasive issue of humanity’s sinful nature, and people are saying more things publically now than ever, then we probably shouldn’t believe everything we hear. And most don’t. Partial-truth, spinned-truth, no-truth — it’s expected, and almost tolerated. Almost. Faking a bomb threat to dodge a final exam will still get you into trouble. And at least some of the baseball players who lied about steroids have faced consequences. Retired professional footballer Linvoy Primus, who played for Portsmouth, Reading and Charlton Athletic, saw a change in his career after he converted to Christianity.“Playing football was my dream, but at 27 or 28 I realised it wasn’t giving me everything I hoped it would give me,” he said. All you have is you. Nothing more; nothing less. Take what God has generously given you and be the best you by unleashing those gifts and talents right where God has placed you. Do it right now…and watch Him do an amazing work through you! He added: “The Corinthians refused to take penalties because they believed that if you take a penalty, you accept that cheating is part of football.” Strong affiliations in football have sometimes been linked to religious rivalries, but Ms Pepinster hopes such sectarianism is disappearing.

In “Any Given Sunday”, Al Pacino plays an aging NFL coach. Toward the end of the movie, he gives a monologue about how football, like life, is a game of inches: We shouldn’t see these as three unrelated illustrations, but as one total, connected picture of what it means to be a good soldier of Christ Jesus. In a similar way, Doug Wilson notes that all the “overwhelmingly positive” metaphors of sports and war in the Bible point to the same characteristics of “discipline, sacrifice, hard work, focus, intensity, and so on” (“Empire, Sports, and War,” 292). BYU officially joins the conference on July 1, 2023, and all of the festivities leading up to Saturday’s big day are deemed “Big Week.” It started Sunday night with players and coaches from BYU’s athletic department speaking inside the Marriott Center for a devotional. Why? Because while “warrior culture” is dangerous, warrior instinct is endangered, and football stands as one of the last bastions of its enduring good. What Is Warrior Instinct? Legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was reported to tell his teams, “It is not the will to win the matters—everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that matters.” I have heard another coach say that growth comes from making yourself do what you need to do when you do not want to do it, and to do so consistently enough that you want to do it. Walking in line with the gospel does not come to us naturally or intuitively. Rather, we are involved in the daily process of becoming who we are in Christ. Jesus is Lord! Our natural desires are not Lord. In Ephesians, Paul exhorts the believer, “put off the old self” and “put on the new self” (Eph. 4:22, 24). This process of learning to live in accordance to our new identity in Christ is a daily and progressive struggle. I heard a sports psychologist say, “We don’t rise to the occasion, we sink to the level of our daily habits.” That is good counsel for athletes and Christians who want to grow.

FOLLOW SPORTS SPECTRUM

Undivided, straightforward, sacrificial focus for good. That is what I mean by warrior instinct. It’s a summary of the character Paul refers to beginning in 2 Timothy 2:3 — the character of a “good soldier of Christ Jesus.” Elaborating on the soldier metaphor, Paul tells Timothy, “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” Get this: Paul, the experienced missionary, encourages Timothy, the young pastor, with the example of a warrior. What exactly is that example? It’s focus. Warriors don’t get distracted. They don’t get caught up with the wrong things. They are clear about their aim. Life and death are on the line. This passage in 2 Timothy, serving as a sort of snapshot of these combined metaphors, can be summed up as undivided, straightforward, sacrificial focus for good — what I’m calling warrior instinct. Why We Need It In the coaching ranks, ESPN and other networks will often televise the introduction of a new head coach in the college ranks or NFL. This moment is not possible without the roles that prepared the coach to be a head coach, like the hours as a low paid graduate assistant or living behind the scenes as a special teams coordinator. Leading From Your Strengths (LFYS) Profiles empower Christian leaders, churches, and ministries to discover and use your God-given strengths and be stronger for it individually and together.

does care about our lives, and in his infinite wisdom he may cause one outcome or another. As a paraphrase of Proverbs reads, “We toss the coin, but it is the Lord who controls its decision” (Proverbs 16:33 LB). Yet, even beyond the coin toss, a football victory isn’t necessarily an indication that one team lived better or prayed harder. The FA’s Faith and Football programme will see special events take place with other faith communities in the coming months. As part of the initiative, it held an online webinar with the Religion Media Centre to discuss the links between football and Christianity. Along with Sitake, wide receiver Chase Roberts and defensive end Tyler Batty represented the BYU football program. From BYU basketball, guard Trey Stewart conducted the devotional. Plus volleyball setter Whitney Bower and in soccer, Olivia Katoa, nee Wade.

In Jesus name, Amen. Ministry Insights Exercises offer best practices to put profile data into practice in the workplace, home, ministry, and relationships. How was this team devotional a meaningful interaction for you? Share your story with us here.

Paul also explains that believers are called to a personal and passionate commitment to their shared gospel mission. The believer’s life represents their unique and strategic ministry opportunity to serve and grow by making much of Jesus in every circumstance. No one else can do your job of glorifying Jesus with your life. Sanctification depends on humble faith that embraces the actual life that God has given us. After all, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (1 Pet. 5:5). For if anything is clear in Scripture, it is that in sanctification is a community project and there is never any room for pride. If we want to win the World Cup, we need to get more young people playing football on the streets, then playing football on the pitch, then playing football up the levels,” he said. “And the only way of doing that is actually working with communities because they have a great organising power. What is the heart of the Christian faith? Our central mission? Today we meet Jesus at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel. A lot has happened in 28 chapters. Jesus was born. He lived an incredible life. Then he died. Three days later, he rose from the grave. He was healed and whole and every inch the Savior his disciples hoped he was—and then he told them to go to Galilee and wait for him there. I found that something like a quarter of all clubs that have played in English football over the past five years have a close connection with the church.” When the church began and a man named Paul traveled around to help churches get started, he worked with a variety of people to share the message of Jesus. Paul describes one person, Titus, not just as another person on the team, but as someone he could trust: “As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker among you; as for our brothers, they are representatives of the churches and an honor to Christ” ( 2 Corinthians 8:23).Making disciples takes risk. Relationships are risky. But do you know what? Jesus has given you the authority. And Jesus himself will be with you. The kingdom is coming. As N T Wright notes, “Every time we say the words ‘Our father…’ we are pleading for that day to be soon, and pledging ourselves to work to bring it closer.” Be Disciplined! If integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching, then competitive greatness is working hard when no one is watching. Competitive greatness is a disciplined life. God loves good, hard, clean competition. Disciplined athletes have great awareness of the abilities God has blessed them with, and they use those gifts to their full potential to please Jesus. They understand there is a merging of self-discipline and God-provision. The word “encourage” used here implies coming alongside another to urge them on. Think of a situation in which a team member encouraged you. How did you feel? He said the book stemmed from his own efforts to set up a church team in Merseyside.“A lot of the boys were being ridiculed for playing for a church club and many left because they couldn’t cope with those comments,” he added.“So, I wrote Thank God for Football to tell the boys in the club, ‘look, you’re not freaks, you’re part of a rich tradition’. This eye on eternity becomes important, then, no matter what we’re doing—playing football or watching it, or driving the kids to practice. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23-24). This is the real game. This is the real goal.

Mr Primus believes the Christian message of ‘love thy neighbour’ can help to stamp out racism in the stands.“How about finding out about that person next to you and understanding that shouting out racist terms or to discriminate isn’t right?”The following attachments are devotionals created by Sportsfaith writer Shawn Leibegott to help coaches teach athletes not only about Christ but about important characteristics all athletes should develop. Legendary basketball coach John Wooden coined the phrase “Competitive Greatness.” But as a competitive athlete, I sometimes get it mixed up with “Being Great.” Competitive greatness is not being the best, but being the best you can be. There can only be one best, but everyone can achieve being the best they can be. Sure, the long pass to the end zone is exciting. But in between the big plays are a lot of short ones, and those short plays are often decided by a matter of inches.