Every year and every time the UFC comes to Ohio, my brother and I have a tradition of putting down whatever money we can and we go. We love going to watch mixed martial arts and its usually our big bonding time of the year. This year was a little bit different because we decided to go all out and get floor seats. I thought it was a waste of money because there wasn't a title fight on this card and I didn't want to spend that kind of money for a card without a title fight. However, the entire thing proved us wrong. Our seats were by the fighter's entrance and exit and believe it or not, at one point we were on TV as one of the camera guys came and got footage of us cheering. One of the guys we were hanging out with confirmed we were on TV! We had such a blast!!!! We met numerous fighters from Junie Browning to Randy Couture. It was such a great time.
However, it was also a sad time. At every other UFC I've ever been to I've noticed some of the wrong things that surround the sport, alcohol, sex, and vanity included. However, last night with the Arnold Classic in town, it really hit me hard at how many people in that arena were lost or maybe even confused. I realized that if the world were to end today a large portion of the people in that arena would spend their eternity in Hell and not with Jesus. It broke my heart. The Lord is beginning to form more of a heart for the lost. It's not to judge but to love and let God do the rest. My prayer is that God continues to each day give me a bigger heart for Jesus.
Also I saw LifeChange today at church. It happened with my brother upon hearing Konan preach this morning. The funny thing is Jimmy told me last night that he did not want to go to church this morning. I stood my ground and told him, "You know the rules, if you stay under my roof, when Sunday comes around, you are going to church." He hushed his mouth and this morning with very little resistance he went to church. Now my brother is very outgoing and has a very commanding presence, but when he walked into my church, I saw him shrink. Something within his heart was humbled and all the bravado went away. When Keri came up to do the frisbee thing with the new visitors, he shied away and I actually had to point at him to get him to take a frisbee. I laughed and said, "Come on Jimmy, you're the same person that can go to all these public places and light it up, but you're going to back away in church." He looked away from me and I backed off not wanting to push him away, but it was very noticeable how different he was behaving. Then Pastor started his message and Jimmy, being HDAD as he is, sat and listened to everything Konan said. He didn't just listen but he laughed with, studied, and digested everything that was said. The message that Konan spoke today was a message that was designed for my brother even though the point of the message was for something else.
When we left church I asked Jimmy how it was and he said it was great and then he proceeded to actually go through the scriptures and the message with me. At this point, I saw an opening and reminded him that God has a plan for his life. He said he doubted that, but I said he did. Jimmy then pointed out a house and sat maybe its that house. I replied with: "No Jimmy, he has a plan for you." At this point he expressed doubt before going back into talking about the message some more! I was absolutely stunned at the sudden change in my brother! What was going on? Well, God was going on. Before Jimmy left I ended up giving him my Bible and reminded him of God's plan. He also wanted C3's website and requested to know where to get the podcast of the message. Man, I hope our guys upload it soon to the site because my brother is hungry. Today is the day I truly realized that Jimmy will one day walk with Jesus again and I believe its going to happen sooner rather then later. Praise God.
No comments:
Post a Comment