The Power of Team

The closing ceremony for the Sochi Olympic Games were held last night and so we conclude our short series from The Heart of a Champion with the chapter on the famous "Miracle on Ice."

Team USA, Hockey, 1980 Olympic Games

When Coach Herb Brooks envisioned the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, he did not see the world’s best individual hockey players. He saw team. He had only seven months to forge that team.

Many Olympic hockey teams, most notably the 1980 Soviet team, had been playing together for years. Described by sports writers as a “machine,” the Soviet team had dominated Olympic hockey for 16 years, even defeating the National Hockey League All-Stars in a 1979 exhibition.

Determination That Defeats Discouragement

With the Winter Olympics going on in Sochi, Russia, we are running chapters from the 1996 DPI book The Heart of a Champion. Here is the second of these. We will conclude next week with the famous "Miracle on Ice" in Lake Placid in 1980.

Lis Hartel , Equestrian, Denmark

 It was 1944. Lis Hartel, a 23-year-old equestrian, was pregnant when she received devastating news: She had polio, a feared crippler. As a result, this young woman with great ambitions was left almost entirely paralyzed. Who, in her shoes, would not have felt discouraged? But Lis Hartel was a determined woman. She refused to surrender to this cruel disease and began an intense physical therapy program. Slowly, through tedious training she began to regain use of her arms and, later, her legs.

The Race Marked Out for Us

Eighteen years ago with the Olympics about to be held in Atlanta,  DPI published a book of devotions based on twenty-eight people or events in Olympic history. With the Winter Olympics being held now in Sochi, Russia, we will reprint two complete chapters from that book, The Heart of a Champion. Here, this week, is the first.

Soul Security

I recently completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

“We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where our forerunner, Jesus, has entered on our behalf.” (Hebrews 6:19-20).

Security is a human need. We make a good many moves trying to find it. We act in various ways because we do not have it.  We look for it in social approval, as in having lots of people like us.  Some look for it in fame... in athletics, music, the arts. People who are my age tend to put a lot of emphasis on finances and wealth accumulation as they move into the retirement years.

Receiving Challenge

"We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised." Hebrews 6:12 (NIV)

I am rereading a book that a friend and I wrote more than 15 years ago on pride and humility. I am often being convicted by my own words (and his). I just read there how pride and humility respond so differently to correction or admonishment. And then I look at this statement: “We don’t want you to become lazy…” And I ask, how did “the Hebrews” respond to this? How do we respond to it?

God's Good and Gracious Memory

I recently completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

“God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them.” (Hebrews 6:10)

We decide to be followers of Jesus. We experience some joys and blessings mixed with some promised challenges.  We stay faithful over the years, but then experience some really severe trials, and we wonder. We wonder where God is or if God has forgotten our commitment and service. Our confidence is shaken a bit. That must have been the experience of those receiving the Letter to the Hebrews, and so much so that they were thinking about leaving Jesus.

Because We Have Jesus

I recently completed teaching an online class on the Letter to the Hebrews. For a few weeks I am sharing thoughts that came from this study.

"It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age and who have fallen away, to be brought back to repentance..."(Hebrews 6:4-6).

Within this passage is a most positive message that we often overlook because it includes some troubling and disturbing words that we wrestle with. While there  is no doubt that the author means this as sober warning to readers who may have been in danger of leaving Jesus, he sets up his comments by reminding them of what we have because we have Jesus, and these are powerful thoughts that need our attention.