Champion Of The Champions
Dr. Thamsing Lamkang *
BALTAZER was the winner of the 'Golden Boot' as the best South American goal-scorer in the early 1980s, and leading goal-scorer in Spain (Bronze boot in Europe) in the 1988-89 leagues. Dedicated supporters will also know that Baltazer was not only famous for his great capacity to score goals, but also for his fervent Christian witness.
His testimony was so obvious that one popular sports reporter, every time he commented on games in which Baltazer participated, stopped, mentioning him by name, instead saying "The Evangelist has taken the ball and "…shot at the goal from the Evangelist." And "The Evangelist Baltazer has scored!" Yes, Baltazer made it clear to everyone that he was a preacher of the Good News first and foremost!
It is right that we live as God wants us to live, but it is also important that we share the message of the Gospel. There is power in the gospel, but it's more powerful only when you share to others. I was deeply touched by the life of a sports person and the Evangelist himself, Evander Holy Field; He was 8 times World Heavyweight Boxing Champions, he answered to a journalist, when he came to Delhi In 2005 for a promotional work.
A journalist asked Mr. Evander, we are informed your retirement from the professional boxing to become a full-time Evangelist, is it true? Evander replied, who said that? Why should I retire to become an Evangelist? 'I am already an Evangelist' since the day I gave my life to Jesus, even today I am a missionary, and I will always be a missionary till my last breathe.
His answered could be a great challenge to all the believers, because you're to preach the gospel from the day you believed and accepted Jesus as your personal Savior, once and for all!
Founder of One Challenge International (OCI) ministry, Dick Hallis once said "Every heart with Christ is a Missionary, and every heart without Christ is a Mission Field". It was truly said, we are suppose to be always engaged to the works of evangelization.
People are going to identify us by who we are, what we do and what we say! The days and even months often pass by without our talking to a single person about what God has done for us. And we really ought to be constantly speaking about Him! It is vital that people should know what God can do for them.
Everyday thousands of people die, without knowing the message of God's love, and all these people are lost for eternity. Many of these have lives around us, have good friends! Spoken with us and sometimes (and this is the saddest thing) they were our good friends! It is our responsibility to speak to others about the Lord, so that they too can find him and be alive.
People around us judge us for the way we are: if we live as if we have no hope, they will think we have none; if we have no personal relationship with God, they won't see anything supernatural in our example. So, you see the extreme importance of communicating all that God had done for us, so that people realize that God loves them, and they know this from watching us!
Think for a moment-how are you going to live? Will it be 'normal' working, studying, forming friendships etc? Or are you going to make the decision to live as an Evangelist? Don't forget that the lives of those around you could depend on you.
Whoever is ashamed of God is ashamed of him-self! Apostle Paul said, 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel' Rom. 1:16
* Dr. Thamsing Lamkang (from Youth Sports Resource Center, Dimapur, Nagaland) contributes regularly to e-pao.net
The writer can be reached at thams2000(at)yahoo(dot)co(dot)uk
This article was webcasted on June 08, 2011.
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