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TeacherAide Common Unity SESSION 11 ILLUSTRATING THE POINT Baseball All-Star Ozzie Smith: Wrapped in Encouragement Ozzie Smith, a 15-time National League All-Star, is considered by many to be the greatest shortstop of all time. On July 28, 2002, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and in his acceptance speech compared his journey to the construction of a baseball: “Protecting the cork center of this ball and reinforcing it are two distinct rubber shells. For me these two layers reflect two vital and affirming shells of my core dream. The first shell is my faith in God. With him, I have everything. Without him, I have nothing. The second shell is the faith I had in myself which came through my mother's love and encouragement. The second part of the construction of this baseball is manufactured by the wrapping of over 200 yards of wool around the core. I see that this is the second critical part of my journey. I refer to it as the strands of love and faith strands of love and faith that so many other people have wrapped around Ozzie Smith as a person and wrapped around my dream through their love and faith in me. I will never forget the faith that my high school coach, Art Webb had in me. Just about the time I was questioning my ability and expressed thoughts of going home, Art got wind of my feelings, called me up, and sternly told me, "Oz, you're not going to quit. You're going to hang in there and weather the storm!" And because of that call and his faith in me, I stayed.” www.baseballhalloffame.org/hof_weekend/2002/speeches/smith_ozzie.htm
THE MORE YOU KNOW "Barnabas" was actually his nickname, given him by the apostles. It meant "Son of Encouragement," and it was most appropriate. He was actually born Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus. He was probably one of many Jews who migrated back to Jerusalem, where he became one of the earliest converts to Christianity. He sold a field shortly afterwards and gave the money to the Jerusalem church. Unlike most Christians, Barnabas believed Paul's conversion story, and he smoothed the way for the former persecutor to be accepted by the Jerusalem church. Barnabas then went to pastor the growing church in Antioch, and Paul returned to Tarsus. Barnabas later invited Paul to come and co-pastor the Antioch church. In 48, Barnabas set off with his cousin Mark and Paul to evangelize cities in Asia Minor. Though Mark deserted the party early on, Barnabas and Paul preached, performed miracles, and endured persecution together. One early tradition, recorded by Clement of Alexandria, says Barnabas worked briefly with Jesus, being one of the 70 sent out to evangelize Palestine. Another tradition says he preached in Alexandria and Rome after leaving Paul, founded the church on Cyprus, and was finally stoned and then burned to death in about 61 in Syria. Though three early church works claim his name--The Epistle of Barnabas, the Gospel of Barnabas, and the Acts of Barnabas--none are considered to be written by him. "Paul and His Times," Christian History, no. 47.
I THOUGHT I HEARD YOU SAY “The minister is constantly tempted to reductionist strategy for making the Christian gospel intelligible, rather than helping strangers to discover through the gospel why their lives are unintelligible” - Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 2 “Not a little preaching is much more imposition than exposition.” W. Graham Scroggie “I fear preaching in such a way that when people hear about God, they’ll want only to yawn.” Haddon Robinson “The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion.” John Wesley “One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do no constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.” - A. W. Tozer “The Church is the one institution that exists for those outside it.” - William Tyndale
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