Hugh Latimer (1485-1555), the English Reformer, often preached before Henry VIII, and on one occasion enraged the king with his boldness.  So he was commanded to preach the following weekend and make an apology.  On the next Sunday, after reading the text, he addressed himself as he began to preach:

“Hugh Latimer, do you know before whom you are this day to speak?  To the high and mighty monarch, the king’s most excellent majesty, who can take away your life if you offend him; therefore, take heed that you speak not a word that may displease; but then consider well, Hugh, don’t you know from where you came? Who it was that sent you out with a message?  You’re sent by the great and mighty God! Who is present everywhere, and who beholds all your ways, and is able to cast your soul into Hell.  Therefore, take care that you deliver your message faithfully!”

Latimer then gave King Henry the very same sermon he had preached the week before – only with more passion and more urgency!

“To me it is a very small thing that I should be examined by you, or by any human court . . . but the one who examines me is the Lord” (1 Corinthians 4:3-4).

By Detroit Free Press writer Jo-Ann Barnas

HOLLAND — He wanted to slip in quietly, like old times, but that was impossible.

Word was out — Kirk Cousins is in the building! — and before he found a vacant seat in Mark Hiskes’ sixth-hour AP English class, Cousins already had signed a handful of autographs and smiled for students capturing his photo on their cell phones.

The attention was more than enough to certify his celebrity: Five years ago, in his senior year of high school, a strong-armed Cousins led Holland Christian to its first berth in the football state playoffs.

Now a fifth-year senior at Michigan State, he’ll depart at season’s end as the Spartans’ winningest quarterback of all time. (He’ll try for victory No. 23 at noon Saturday against Minnesota at Spartan Stadium.)

Beginning in the seventh grade, after his family moved to west Michigan from Barrington, Ill., Cousins lived in a neighborhood across the street from Holland Christian. Although he had stopped by occasionally since graduation in 2007, his visits had been mostly cordial — saying hello to former teachers and coaches, maybe catching a football gamewhen his schedule allowed.

This was more than that.

Cousins said it was his faith that guided him home to the Christian-based private school Oct. 7 — during MSU’s bye week — following the Spartans’ victory over Ohio State. That faith fueled his desire to be an “HC” student again, even if it was for only two class periods.

As Hiskes distributed his discussion sheets to the students, Cousins asked for one. When he saw they were reading Frederick Buechner’s “Godric” — a narrative on the life of the medieval saint — Cousins exclaimed, “I love that book!”

When class was over, student and teacher embraced.

“I’m not sure why he was here, but a lot of him was grounded here,” Hiskes said this week. “I think he was coming back to make sure of that, that he’s the same Kirk to his core even though circumstances around him have changed.”

Told of Hiskes’ remark, Cousins smiled. This was Tuesday, and he was sitting in an empty and dark press box on the eighth floor of Spartan Stadium. Four floors below, MSU coach Mark Dantonio was holding his weekly news conference, answering questions about last Saturday’s 24-3 loss at Nebraska, which had followed the Spartans’ thrilling 37-31 win over Wisconsin on Cousins’ game-winning TD on a Hail Mary throw on the last play.

“Yes. It was sort of like a walk down memory lane for me,” Cousins said of his journey back to high school. “But it was more of a chance to get back to what was familiar to me.

“I am somebody who lives a certain way, and I want to be able to truly stand up to that and live that way so people who do get to know me say, ‘Everything I’ve read about him is true. It’s not a façade. It’s not a front. He’s not fake. He’s the real deal.’

“I hope to be the real deal.”

Cousins smiles again, finishing his thought with a quick addendum, as if anticipating the next question.

“And I also want to be known as a great quarterback,” he said. “That I was a great football player here — not just a nice guy, but for people to say, ‘He made a lot of plays on the football field.’ ”

Idolizes Tim Tebow

Thursday night, Cousins was scheduled to be the headliner at an event at MSU Auditorium that had been promoted aggressively on campus, including in a full-page advertisement earlier this week in the student newspaper, the State News.

As a member of a Christian group of college students called Cru — formerly called Campus Crusade for Christ International — Cousins said he allowed his name to be used in publicizing the event because he was asked to speak about his faith in Jesus Christ.

The slogan: “Do you agree with Kirk?”

“I was very supportive of it and wanted to step out and be as active as I can in my faith,” Cousins, 23, said of the pre-event campus publicity. “I’m excited to be able to have that platform and hopefully have a lot of people who haven’t heard about Jesus Christ before, or didn’t grow up in the church, or didn’t grow up with faith, to hear a little bit about it, and hopefully be stirred to pursue their faith a little further and to grow in it. We’ll see what happens.”

Cousins said faith is the guiding hand in life, including his decision five years ago to attend MSU even though he knew he wasn’t Dantonio’s top recruit when the coach replaced John L. Smith.

At the Big Ten media luncheon this summer in Chicago, Dantonio listened with pride as Cousins — the son of a minister — delivered the annual players speech with such conviction that it became the buzz of the Internet; it currently has nearly 150,000 views on YouTube. His message was how playing college football is a privilege that should never lead to entitlement.

“There’s an adage, ‘A leader sees farther than the normal person’ — that’s Kirk Cousins,” Dantonio told the Free Press during an interview Tuesday at his office.

On the refrigerator of the Cousins’ home in Holland, and in his apartment in East Lansing that he shares with his older brother, Kyle, and another roommate, is a handout that describes “21 rules” from Christian Life Workshops that he and his family — parents Don and MaryAnn, and siblings Kyle, 25, and Karalyne, 21 — adhere to.

No. 1: “We obey our Lord Jesus Christ.” No. 12: “When we have work to do, we do it without complaining.” No. 20: “When we go out, we act just as if we were in this house.”

Cousins said that although he’s not against attending parties or clubs, he avoids alcohol.

“I don’t want to put anything in my body that may alter my ability to make a good decision,” he said. “It’s something I just don’t need to have a good time.”

For the first few years after graduating from high school, Cousins attended an annual Man Party held each spring outside Holland. The picnic included the school’s male teachers and alumni playing games like Chicago-style softball (no gloves), fireworks wars and mud running in the soybean fields nearby.

The event was BYOM, as in, bring your own meat for grilling. There also were kegs — but they were filled with root beer, said Mike Dozeman, Cousins’ close friend and fellow Holland Christian grad.

Cousins said he idolizes Tim Tebow, the second-year Denver Broncos quarterback and outspoken Christian who has become a flashpoint for detractors and admirers alike.

“I would love to meet him,” Cousins said. “If I was mentioned in even the same sentence as Tim Tebow, that would be an honor. His character, his positive attitude, his leadership — he’s the best.”

Although Cousins has become more forthright about his convictions, he said he has never tried to push his beliefs on his teammates. He hosted about 15 at his apartment Monday night for Bible study.

“If you talk to my teammates, I think they would say I’ve been respectful and never been intruding or difficult,” he said. “The guys on the team have been very receptive to me being outspoken about my faith. I’ve talked to some guys who believe there’s not a God, and they’re teammates of mine, and we agree to disagree on that and we move forward as teammates. I have a lot of respect for those guys, and I feel they’re tremendous teammates.”

Spartans senior wide receiver B.J. Cunningham said: “People know that Kirk is very Christian-based. But he won’t come up to you and be like, ‘Do you know about the Lord?’ or anything. If you want the Word, he’ll give it to you. But if not, he’s not going to bug you about it. It’s not like he’s pushing people.”

Smallness of heart won’t minister, while largeness of heart will.

A large heart for ministry brings painful things, but glorious things.

Cultivate deafness and we will never hear discord, but neither will we hear the glorious strains of a great symphony.  Cultivate blindness and we will never see ugliness, but we also will never see the beauty of God’s creation.  Or, to put this in terms of our common experience, never play baseball and you will never strike out, but you will also never hit a home run in the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded to win the game!  Never climb a mountain and you will never get banged up on the mountain’s side, but you will also never stand on an alpine peak exulting in abundant natural beauty (Kent Hughes, Disciplines of a Godly Man, p 212).

A large heart for ministry wears a man out, but makes a life worth living.

Our Lord Jesus has the most colossal of all hearts that drove him to exhaustion.  In the boat on the Sea of Galilee, he was bone weary from ministry, sleeping in the stern (Mark 5:38).  He sat wearily beside the well in Sychar, but still mustered up energy to speak with the talkative Samaritan woman (John 4:6f).  He faced the sunrise on His crucifixion day with an exhausted body that hadn’t slept all night.  But He ministered all day, till IT WAS FINISHED (John 19:30).

The Christian world is ministered to by tired people.  Eastern Europe is being evangelized by tired missionaries who are making the most of the fleeting day of opportunity.  Show me a great church and I’ll show you some tired people, both up front and behind the scenes, because greatness depends on a core of people who are willing to put out as the situation demands.  Men, we have to understand that we will never do great things for God without the willingness to extend ourselves for the sake of the gospel even when bone-tired (Hughes, p 214).

And remember the joy at the peak, “the more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents . . .” (Luke 15:7), that will make you forget the weariness and pain on the way up.

In A Mother’s Grief Observed (Tyndale 1997, p. xiiif), Rebecca Faber recounts the moments surrounding the death of their precious 18-month-old son, William, who had recently acted like a little pirate, clenching fish-shaped crackers in his chubby hand:

I remember how tired I was, how the damp, plastic tents and wet, muddy clothing felt in my hands.  I remember going back into the kitchen; I can see the California sun through the huge windows, still hot and clear after 5pm, and the rich, green bushes lining the turquoise-colored pool.

I see Bob, with the long poles in his hands, down at the deep end of the pool.  He had come home briefly before leaving on a business trip, to clean the pool for me.  He’s practically standing still as he pushes first the nets and then the vacuum slowly back and forth, gathering debris, leaves, algae from the sides and top of the pool.  William is in his high chair, whining quietly.  I’m nearly frantic, with people arriving for a Bible study in a few hours and so much still to be done.  I rush back and forth down the hallway.

William has not finished eating, yet does not want to sit in his high chair and finish his supper.  No one else is in the kitchen, and he is bored all alone  Rather than listen to him whine and cry, I decide to take him out to Bob.  I figure I will sit down and finish feeding him later.

Bob objects, begging me not to leave William with him.  “I can’t watch him right now.”

But I overrule him.  “Honey, please!  I have so much to do.  Just keep him a minute while you finish vacuuming the pool.  I’m doing three different things at once.”

Against Bob’s wishes, I take William outside to him.  Bob pleads with me but I insist.  I move William from safety, in the house, to danger, out by the pool.

I thought William would be OK.  He hated deep water, even in the bathtub.  He preferred to take showers with me or two-inch-deep baths.  Even at the age of 18 months, he would not jump in when Bob and I swam, but had to be coaxed in slowly.  Bob tried to tell me William had gotten over his fear and would need more attention than he could give just then–but I refused to listen.

I did not think about how alluring the water toys down at the Jacuzzi end might appear to a young toddler.  Also, the greatest fun for William was doing something gorwn-up–perhaps he tried to push a stick around in the water, the way Daddy was doing, but lost his footing.

Perhaps he tried to cllimb the low wall beside the pool, the way Daddy does, and slipped and hit his head, falling in.  Later we found a small bmp on the front of his head.

I can still see Bob, with a small boy standing at his feet, in the bright sunshine of a color-studded and vibrant evening.  The last time I saw William alive.

Bobby was playing in the small yard beside the deck.  

Two rings at once: the phone and the doorbell.  I hand the phone to Amanda and go to the door.  A homeless man is seeking help–we had been glad to help others in the past, giving housing, transport, food.  He would later recall that as he and I spoke, he saw William go past the window at the back of the house.

Only moments later, I hear bob slamming up against the glass doors, trying to get in.

I had already locked up those doors, preparing for his leaving.  When alone I kept only one back door open to the yard–fewer doors to watch my kids’ passage in and out.

Seconds later he is in the house, William white and limp in his arms, Bobby crying, “Daddy, is he dead?”

Bob screams, “Phone 9-1-1!”

What guilt.  What regret.  What grief.  What introspection.  What if?  What nightmares.  What guilt.  What now?

Rebecca Faber explores it all.

“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21).

Josh Hamilton, center fielder for the Texas Rangers is now battling the St. Louis Cardinals for the World Series crown.  But not long ago, he was battling Satan for his never dying soul.

Alcohol and drugs became a noose around his neck, and the lights were going out for Josh.  But the Lord Jesus visited and saved.

Nolan Ryan, president of the Rangers: “Josh is one of the most talented baseball players I”ve ever seen but his life experiences transcend baseball.  His ability to be one of the best playes in The Game after all he’s been through is amazing–and inspiring for everyone who knows his story.”

It’s told in a book Hamilton penned with Tim Keown called Beyond Belief, Finding the Strength to Come Back.  I recommend it as a moving and worthy read.

Here’s a personal testimony video that condenses his story.

Consider the two interviews below — one by Christianity Today, and the other by The Christian Post:

In March of 2011, Christianity Today spoke with the Rev. Cain—he’s also an associate minister at Antioch Baptist Church North in Atlanta.  C. M. Alexander, Antoch’s senior pastor, strongly emphasizes civil rights in his ministry, and is a long time member of the NAACP (http://www.antiochnorth.org/ourpastor.htm).  It’s said that Alexander and Cain don’t share the same political philosophy.

Here are portions of the Christianity Today interview with Herman Cain:

How long have you been involved in active ministry?

I was licensed in 2002. Like most ministers, I felt called to preach the word of God and minister to the least, the last, and the lost, and minister to His people. In addition to delivering sermons, I’m very involved with the scholarship ministry. I believe, as you know, education is the key, and one of the reasons that I got involved with the scholarship ministry is that we need to encourage kids as well as assist them in getting off to a good educational start, and even going on to college.

In a recent speech at a church in Milner, Georgia, you talked about feeling a Jeremiah-like burden on your heart to run for President. Can you tell me more about that?

Jeremiah for a while refused to speak on God’s behalf. But as he watched the condition of his people, and he felt the burden that they needed to hear a word from God, he couldn’t stand not doing what he could do. That’s the burden of Jeremiah. That’s also the burden of Herman Cain.

I cannot sit still and watch the direction of this country towards radical socialism and not do what I can do. Is there somebody else who might be better at being President of the United States than Herman Cain? There might be. But the people are going to determine that. But I couldn’t sit back and hope that a great leader emerges, or hope that someone becomes President that would tackle the issues the way I would tackle them.

How important would evangelical Christians be in a coalition supporting Herman Cain for President?

How about critical? You see, evangelical Christians have the potential, if they vote in large numbers, to offset the union vote, to offset the gay vote, and to offset the vote of those that don’t particularly have any religion at all. And so that’s why it would be so critical. Some of these rank-and-file union members might vote for Herman Cain. But I know that the union leadership is going to be encouraging their members to vote for Barack Obama because he has not hidden his partiality toward unions in this country. But evangelicals can offset that in a big way.

Evangelicals can help offset the number of government workers who are enjoying the status quo. Most of the bureaucrats don’t want dramatic changes in Washington, D.C. It’s not just the people that we elect. It’s the ones that we don’t elect, that are there continuously until they finish their career. So I happen to believe that evangelical Christians can be the critical swing vote, along with independents, to elect Herman Cain for President.

For the full Christianity Today article, consult the link below:

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/marchweb-only/qahermancain.html?start=1

In April of 2011, The Christian Post interviewed Herman Cain regarding his faith.  Here is a selected portion of this interview:

CP: Talk briefly about your faith.

Cain: My faith plays a very big part in all the decisions that I make. Faith makes up a big part of most of my life. I’ve been involved with the church since I was young. As you get older, your faith gets stronger because of your own personal experiences where you know the only way you could have made it through some of those personal experiences was by the grace of God. Faith plays a very big part in my life, especially when I’m having to wrestle with some major decisions.

CP: Why are you considering a run for president?

Cain: I think it began with my thinking about the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. Throughout my life, I have been blessed to have had a successful career, a loving wife of 42 years, two adult children and now three grandkids. I’ve developed my problem-solving skills as a businessman, developed my leadership skills as a businessman, developed my communications skills as a businessman, developed my radio talk show. One day, I sat down and looked at all the talents I had been allowed to develop and after going through some other personal life-threatening things, I asked myself what should I do with these talents? Should I stay on cruise control for the rest of my life? Or should I do something truly significant with them? That led me to consider a presidential exploratory committee. I was inspired because of discomfort in the direction of the country. I was inspired by thinking about my grandkids’ generation and what they would inherit if we did not stop this rapid train to destruction for this country.

I was also inspired by the life-threatening experience I had with cancer nearly five years ago, when I was told I had a 30 percent chance of being alive today. I am totally cancer free. I believe that was God’s way of saying “Herman, not yet, I want you to do something with the talents that I have allowed you to develop.” I could go out and start another company and make some more money, play some more golf. But a year ago, I started to seriously consider putting together an exploratory committee, thinking that maybe my skill set could help this country. I didn’t have a lifelong aspiration to be president. It wasn’t until I saw the direction that President Obama and his administration were taking this country, that I really got concerned like a lot of people. That’s when God started to lay on my heart that maybe I needed to be one of the choices for the American people.

CP: How did your faith influence your decision to set up an exploratory presidential committee?

Cain: Very simply, prayer. I believe in prayer and I believe in the power of prayer. I pray multiple times a day. This is a constant part of how I assess and evaluate things. I look for that inspiration when I have to make a decision. I believe in God, I believe in his son Jesus Christ, and I believe in the Holy Spirit. If you are a believer and you know how to pray, and you understand how and when God is trying to talk to you, it is one of the most liberating feelings in the world.

For the full Christian Post interview, see the link below.

http://www.christianpost.com/news/herman-cain-talks-about-his-faith-possible-presidential-run-49761/

“Who satisfies your years with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle.” (Psalm 103:5)

Though a sparrow may live only two or three years, an eagle’s life may span over five decades.  He attains to a much greater age than most birds.  His aging is seemingly not accompanied by the signs of weakness and decay common to other creatures.  His feathers may age into ugly patches, but they’re soon replaced by his molting a new coat.  His proverbial eagle eyesight remains sharp.  He ever soars as the monarch of the skies.  He epitomizes the Fountain of Youth.

“You see that eagle up on that rocky crag?” says the 50ish year old rancher in Utah.  “He’s been around since I was a little boy.  Many times over last year I thought he was down-for-the-count, weak and low flying, looking crusty and ancient.  But then, he dumbfounded  me.  I saw him soaring a thousand feet up, scanning the earth below with his laser eagle eyes, then lightning bolt like he dove down to the prairie floor snatching up some mouse in mid sprint.  Man, he still looks like a million bucks.  He looks as if he’s been renewed, as if he were young again.”

In Psalm 103:5 David is blessing God for his fresh renewing influences.  Many times, David felt down for the count, like when his men spoke of stoning him at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30:1-6).  But the Lord often renewed David both physically and spiritually, like soon after when he was anointed as King over Judah (2 Samuel 2:4).

The Lord has promised to renew us like the eagle.  Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Every Christian has need that his soul should be restored, should be refreshed, reinvigorated, newly quickened.  As to those who are saved, there is a constant need for restoring them to their first love” (Revelation 2:4).

The truth is that we all must confess to the scourge of personal backslidings.  All too often, we succumb to the strong gravitational pull toward sinfulness.  What Christian hasn’t looked at himself in the mirror and said? “You’ve lost ground spiritually in the past few weeks.”  We all desperately need the Lord to visit us afresh with renewal.

And He does!  We all have stories to tell.  I was down for the count spiritually, having like Peter denied my Master due to some “servant-girl” temptation (Luke 22:54-62).  But He revived my soul again and enabled me to stand against a whole Sanhedrin of opposition and boldly declare, “I must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:28-29).

Take heart Christian.  He will again renew you like the eagle

Conrad Mbwe, pastor in Lusaka Zambia, has a blog entitled “A Letter from Kabwata”.  He is reviewing books that have “changed people’s lives”, and is including testimonies from changed readers.