"Seven-footer Sam Randolph prays -- but won't play -- on his Sabbath," wrote Jeff Pearlman in Sports Illustrated. "For a practicing Seventh-Day Adventist, this means no keg parties. No premarital sex. It also means no work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. Seriously, none."Randolph, despite his size and talent, avoided big-time college basketball and its Saturday games. He chose God, and joined the team at Columbia Union College, a 1,200-student Adventist school. If he does not get a shot at the NBA (average salary $2+ million per year), he hopes to study medicine. "I'm okay with not making a career of basketball," he says. "I mean, it would be great. But I have higher aspirations." **
Beware of religion that isn’t sometimes hard. Jesus didn’t call us to carry gold and finery, he didn’t call us to come to worship when it was convenient, he didn’t call us to give what was easy, he didn’t call us to speak only the words that make folks feel good, he didn’t say that if we follow Him our lives will be “no work all ease, all honey no bees.”
He called us to love one another. He called us to love Him wholeheartedly. And He called us to bear a cross, daily. That may be hard, it’s also a privilege. Our message today is about discipleship, and the lesson we learn from Jesus’ relationship with His disciples and their trust in Him.
**Jeff Pearlman, "Never on Saturday,"Sports Illustrated, March 9, 1998.
David Bryan is in Washington, DC, the week of the 25th to receive the “Above and Beyond Citizen Medal,” one of the highest medals offered to a citizen of our country. The place will be close to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. You’ll be able to catch this local “aw shucks” hero on the Today show at the time of the event.
Last Friday, Will Tinsley and Chris Shultz treated donated dental work for a couple hundred plus folk. The boys have done this every year since I’ve been here. I thought you’d like to know.
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