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NCCAA Game Plan 4 LIFE (GP4L) Devotionals
GP4L Info - Christian Character Program
We are also encouraging our coaches, student-athletes and administrators to send us examples from this year where love is witnessed or experienced within your schools and programs. This may be through structured times of spiritual team building or just moments witnessed by you where Christ inspired love was offered.
April 2012 Devotional
Sacrificial Love By Dr. Matt Hill, President, NCCAA; Vice President, Northwestern College (MN)
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” – John 15:13
David and Dawn Blackburn were newlyweds when he made the ultimate vow. "He said if it ever came down to it, 'I would die for you,' " his wife Dawn recalled. "And that's exactly what he did."
The Blackburns, who had been married for five years, were returning to their Spring Grove, Minnesota, home from dinner in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, early one Sunday when their car slid along a flooded road near La Crescent, Minnesota, into a ditch.
David, who had celebrated his 37th birthday two days earlier, helped Dawn and her friend climb a nearby tree to safety. But David was convinced the tree would not support three adults. "I begged him to get back into the tree," Dawn said. "He said there was no room. “ "I tried pulling his hand a couple of times. He said, 'I love you.' And then he was gone. I think he knew." David was later pronounced dead from drowning.
This is the ultimate example of love – the willingness to set aside everything you have, including your life, for someone else. Not only was Christ a great teacher, a healer, a comforter, a friend, he was a sacrificial giver. His life was the price for our salvation.
I believe David Blackburn acted in a Christ-like way. He knew that the tree could not hold all three of them with the water rising around, so he had to make a choice. His life, or his wife’s? He chose his, and his sacrifice saved her and her friend.
Mother Teresa said, “We can do no great things - only small things with great love.” Are we willing to sacrifice in the name of love? To the extent of something major happening/change in your life? The extent to which we love others is the extent to which we are willing to sacrifice.
What is God telling you right now? What small thing can you do in the name of love? Who do you need to show Christ’s love to? What are willing to do to demonstrate that love?
Matthew 22:37-38 (NIV): Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
Love like you never have this week – and watch what God can do! # # # # #
All rights reserved. Game Plan 4 LIFE property of the National Christian College Athletic Association.
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March 2012 Devotional
The Foundation of Love By Dan Wood, NCCAA Executive Director
Mark 12:29-31 - “The most important one, is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second one is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
We have never built a home or had one built just for us. However, I have served as a gopher for brick masons and watched the various types of foundations being poured or laid. As a college junior, I was always amazed at how precise and exact the builder was to the foundation process. Years later, having looked at homes to buy that had cracks in the outside walls or on the inside corners, I gained a whole new appreciation for the importance of a good foundation.
The art of Christian love is no different as it takes the proper foundation for us to love as Jesus loved. In Mark 12:28-31, Jesus poured the foundation for loving Him and others when asked which commandment was most important. “The most important one, is this: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second one is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no greater commandment than these.”
The foundation of true love is found in acknowledging that there is one true God. Until this happens, all attempts to love those around us will be a frustrating roller coaster ride filled with highs and lows and some twists along the way. However, if we truly make that truth our concrete foundation that our life will be built upon, then, and only then, can we complete the rest of the Greatest Commandment. Loving others and our neighbors as ourselves can become a reality when we see others from the ground up as God’s creation and not as things placed in our path for our enjoyment or benefit.
Most importantly, Christ’s singling out the parts of our being that we must engage to be able to complete this process cannot be missed. It will take all of my heart and all of my soul and all of my mind and all of my strength, both physical and emotional, to love as Christ commands. Notice that as Christ ends his answer to this question that he actually blends what seems like two commands into one. He states that no commandment is greater than these two commandments of acknowledging God as the One and then pouring all we have in loving others from that great foundation.
With only 8-10 weeks left in this academic year, how is your foundation? It is never too late to start afresh and build on a the truth of who God is. I challenge all of us to daily look down first (make sure we are on His foundation) and then look up for His guidance for the new day. Then and only then can we look out into this world of need and be His disciple.
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All rights reserved. Game Plan 4 LIFE property of the National Christian College Athletic Association.
February 2012 Devotional
The Love Factor By Pete Beers, Athletic Director, Men’s Basketball Coach, Lancaster Bible College, and NCCAA 1st Vice President
I John 4:18 (TM) – “There is no room in love for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.”
Often, we associate the emotion of love with positive aspects relating to sport. Whether we love our team or players, our feelings are usually expressed and expanded based on winning. Very seldom do we hear love associated with defeat. But you cannot have winning without losing and, in my opinion, losing is a great revealer of our true feelings towards each other. For coaches and teams that experience defeat, we get to see the impact losing on the scoreboard has on a team morale and chemistry. This negative feeling has caused me to reflect on two things: what a coach can control and what a team can demonstrate.
First, true love can eliminate fear. If we, as coaches, can express our love in a way that is accepted, then our teams can play fully and freely. I John 4:18 states, “There is no room for fear. Well-formed love banishes fear. Since fear is crippling, a fearful life—fear of death, fear of judgment—is one not yet fully formed in love.” So as a result of love, we just might get better results on the scoreboard or maybe improved performance in the playing arena. Furthermore, if we are able to get our players to play with the understanding of full acceptance of who they are, and our relationship is not based on their performance, then we have fulfilled our calling.
Second, if we as teammates do not love each other, then pulling together will be even more difficult. As institutions that try to represent Christ, we have a responsibility to love our teammates. I John 4:20-21 closes with these words, “If anyone boasts, ‘I love God,’ and goes right on hating his teammate, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both.”
So, maybe our focus on winning is wrapped up in a way that takes away from our players excelling. Just maybe true love is the missing ingredient. As the late Coach Wooden said, “If you prepare properly, you may be outscored but you will never lose.” May our hearts be pure and filled with love as we seek to guide and serve our teams.
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All rights reserved. Game Plan 4 LIFE property of the National Christian College Athletic Association.
January 2012 Devotional
Breaking Down the Basics By Jerry Malone, NCCAA Director of Member Relations
Matthew 22:37-38: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.”
Jesus says the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Sometimes our student-athletes (as well as all of us) overemphasize “heart and soul” and underestimate the “mind” part of their game as well as the “mind” part of their spiritual lives. What does it mean to love God with all our mind or to commit our minds to God?
We hear examples of coaches’ children that “think” the game so well that they become coaches on the field. Coaches’ kids benefit from “afterhours” teaching. After the practices and games are over, Dad or Mom continues to break the game down and talk about the intricacies and details that are very specific for success. He or she talks about what not to do as well as what to do----the truth of the game.
If we are interested in our student-athletes loving God with all their minds, we need to do the same with them. Become coaches (or players) that talk about the details of our faith with our players and teammates. Break down the basics for them. Teach them to commit their logic, rational, decision making, cognitive part to God. Sometimes our love for God is so much heart and soul but we forget the importance of loving God with our mind. ---------------------
December 2011 Devotional
In it to Win it…Quitting is Not an Option By Chris Williams, Athletics Director, Southern Wesleyan University and NCCAA Board Member
19 years ago we started a team called the Williams family. At that time the team was made up of just me and my beautiful bride, Lisa. Since that day however, we have added to our team and the roster is now full with seven members. Team Williams is made up of the following players: Nicole (15), Seth (13), Emma (11), Silas (8), Ian (5) and of course mom and dad (not listing ages)!
Team Williams has embarked on a great journey and this nineteenth anniversary year has stamped a new understanding of the word ‘love’. You see, I work in athletics, where the hours are endless, the expectations are high, and it can easily become all about me.
After coaching basketball for about 15 years I have come to the realization that my family and my basketball team(s) had a lot in common:
1) We have a complete squad – everyone important in their own way. 2) Each player is unique in their abilities and personalities. 3) We have issues that arise from time to time and need to be dealt with. 4) When we work together we not only get more done, but we have a better end result. 5) We have learned that by serving each other we bring strength to the whole. 6) Finally, we are in it to win it – quitting before the game is over is not an option!
Lisa and I have truly worked as a team over these last 19 years. Whether we were coaching student-athletes or our own kids, we made a decision that we would work together. Sometimes I would be the leader and she would be the support staff and at times our roles reverse and she takes the lead.
After 19 years of marriage and 15 years of coaching and working in the world of college athletics I still hear the well spoken words of my pastor at the front of the church on my wedding day:
1 Corinthians 13 3-5: “If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs”.
Wow, if we can keep all of that in perspective for our lives, marriages and our teams imagine how many success stories, championships and anniversaries we will all be celebrating!
So I want to say thank you to all of my teams for loving one another. Thank you to my kids for being patient with your dad as well as working together as a family of seven. Thank you to my teammate and wife for being patient, being kind, and supporting me through our work in athletics. Finally, thank you God for all of the above, not keeping record of all my wrongs, and most importantly for loving me just as I am!
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All rights reserved. Game Plan 4 LIFE property of the National Christian College Athletic Association.
November 2011 Devotional How to Love your Teammates (I Corinthians 13) By Paul Berry, NCCAA Board of Directors
Jesus tells us that the two greatest commandments are to “Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind,” and “love your neighbor as yourself.”
I Corinthians 13 gives a great description of what love looks like in everyday life. Love is “long suffering, kind, is not jealous, is not proud… and love never fails!” Let’s focus for a moment on “Love never fails,” as it relates to you and your team.
What does it mean to never fail a teammate? Does it mean you never miss a shot, never make an out, never drop a pass, and never commit a foul? No.
One longtime coach said, “I had one team-rule, NEVER LET YOUR TEAMMATES DOWN.”
You let your teammates down if you don’t work hard in practice and in games. You let your teammates down if you don’t do well in classes and are ineligible. You let your teammates down if you get in trouble at home or at school and are held out of games.
These actions show a lack of true love for and toward your teammates. A loving teammate will always strive to do their best in class, in practice, and in society to not let their teammates down. How about you?
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October 2011 Devotional How Does God Define Love? (I Corinthians 13) By Dr. Vickie Denny, Women’s Volleyball Coach, Clearwater Christian College
I Corinthians 13 1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. 13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
God’s Definition of Love LOVE IS PATIENT: This means it is “long suffering”. Longsuffering is the opposite of anger, and is associated with mercy, and is associated with the type of love God shows us. Since He is so patient with us; shouldn’t we in turn be patient with one another? This is what love is all about.
WAYS I CAN SHOW PATIENCE TOWARDS MY TEAM:
LOVE IS KIND Kindness is characteristic of God and should thus characterize the Christian as well. Kindness is also a fruit of the Spirit.
WAYS I CAN SHOW KINDNESS TOWARDS MY TEAM: Kindness is not the spirit which produces strife and divisions on a team. It is a spirit of giving to others regardless how they treat me. It is meeting the needs of others, over my own wants/desires. Speaking a kind word. Taking time with a teammate.
WHAT LOVE IS NOT: Love Does Not Envy
Love Is Not Arrogant/Does Not Boast Love does not have an inflated opinion of oneself. We are what we are by the grace of God and have nothing in ourselves to boast. True love is humble.
Love Does Not Behave Badly Love is not rude; it has good manners. Love demonstrates respect for others at all times. Rom 12:10
Love is Not Self-Centered Love is not self-seeking or self-serving.
Love is Not Easily Provoked Love can put up with a lot of stuff. It is “thick-skinned”
Love Does Not Keep Track of Past Offenses Paul tells us that love “does not take into account a wrong suffered; love does not go around with a little black book making a note of hurts. Love doesn’t keep score of wrongs.
Does Not Rejoice In Wickedness But Rejoices in the Truth True love never rejoices in the wickedness of others, nor does it make light of sin. True love sorrows when another person falls. We should also not make light of wickedness. Too often Christians want to fit in so we laugh at the wicked behavior of others. Unrighteousness should always grieve the true child of God but we should always rejoice when truth prevails.
DWELL ON THE RIGHT THINGS----DO RIGHT THINGS (Phil. 4:8) At the end of 1 Cor 13 we are told that LOVE bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. We can only truly demonstrate love to others, if we first experience the Love of God.
The Greatest Love of All John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
GOD’S LOVE ALWAYS WINS! ---------------
A Commanding Love (Exodus 20:1-12) Dan Wood, NCCAA Executive Director
This past May, our pastor shared a series symbolized by the old junior high love notes passed between classmates. Remember, the ones that had check boxes for “yes” or “no” and the question read, “Do you love me?”? Okay, I know all the coaches are remembering these while you student-athletes are clueless because you just sent text messages to each other J
However you attempt to get your answer, the reality is that we all desire the answer to that question to be, “yes, I do love you.” The sadness or rejection when told someone does not love us can be numbing at times.
One of the best reminders, but rarely used to confirm, of God’s love for all creation comes from Exodus 20. Yes, the Ten Commandments! This passage that some have positioned in opposition to God’s love is too often used to remind us of the concrete law that some see as a burden. However, it should be viewed based upon the personal nature of these verses and the intentional format God used when giving these to Moses.
Think about these truths from this passage:
God spoke ALL these words In verse 2, God establishes personal relationship based upon history “Thy” or “your” are used for the reader to take personal ownership Commandments 1-5 all deal with our personal relationship to God Verse 12 even has a prize attached and a place where the prize can be experienced
Scripture and the Christian walk prove to us that love can only be present within a relationship that both parties take ownership of. God was not trying to limit or restrict our boundaries with these commandments. Are they to be obeyed? Yes, but because we love the one who gave them not because we want to perform better than our fellow believer. These verses clearly display a Father God who loves His people and He desires for us to love Him as well. Therefore, He does guide, he does limit, and He does anxiously await our response to His guidance.
This passage so uniquely mirrors the key relationship within intercollegiate athletics that has and will be lived out over the next year. Coaches, is love the reason you will offer guidance to your players? Is love the reason you will train and require certain competencies within your sport? Is love the reason you are where you are today in relation to the young people who call you coach?
Student-athletes, is love the reason you are at the school you have chosen to matriculate and compete at? Is love the emotion and trait that you will respond to your coach with when required to do more? Will love be the delivery mechanism for how you treat your teammates, managers, officials, opponents?
For this year, I challenge us all to not view these questions as unrealistic but to seek to answer each of them by checking the “Yes” box. You see, every person you come in contact with is really offering you a note that ask the same question as our junior high love notes from years gone by. “Do you love me?” is the cry of your heart and my heart. God knew that and we can see that so clearly in Exodus 20:1-12. He made sure to remind Moses and the Israelites of that with each personal pronoun he used. He went further by reminding all mankind of that when he sent His son, Jesus Christ, to the cross centuries later.
A loving God's number one command is to LOVE! I wish you success in the pursuit! --------------------
All rights reserved. No part of the Game Plan 4 LIFE initiative may be copied or reproduced in any format without the expressed written permission of the National Christian College Athletic Association. |
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As the NCCAA begins the
2011-12 academic year, we have chosen LOVE as the Game Plan 4 Life
(GP4L) theme for this year. Each month, we will post online a
devotional created by various leaders within the NCCAA that
highlights the character trait of Christian love. Please share
this with your team, department, classes. 
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