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Trait of a Champion

This past weekend I was blessed to get to go down to Orlando to meet with an advisory board for College Golf Fellowship.  CGF is a group that ministers to college golfers and being a past college golfer I certainly know the importance of having people around you in such a major time in your life to lead you spiritually and help you seek out the Lord.  I got to play golf with 2-time U.S. Open Champion Lee Janzen, and of course I asked him question upon question.  There is something about seeing someone in their "element" that I just truly love.  At dinner one evening I asked Lee: "What is the difference between a really good golfer and one who makes it?"  He told me that there is one major difference:  Great Self Image

Great Self Image

I am fortunate enough to have been teammates and roommates with Dustin Johnson in college.  I can tell you this, there is no one more positive in himself than that man.  In anything he does, he believes with 100% confidence that he can do it, and more often times than not he does.  As we just saw this past week, Brooks Koepka won the PGA Championship and in every press conference he commented that he was the one to beat.  He thought in his mind....frankly he knew in his mind that he was in fact the best player.  So how do we get this great self image?  Many people have what appears to be a great self image, but deep down they use that as a barrier to the outside world.  What I want to discuss is how obedience to God's word can lead to the greatest self image one can imagine.  We know that through God anything is possible, and on top of that we know that through His Son Jesus we have been saved from our bondage to sin.  To abide to His word means that we are truly connected to the vine.  We are in pure relationship to the breath of God.  To simplify it down, you were created in God's image.....so much like car runs on only gasoline, you can only run on the Holy Spirit.  To be one's true self, the one created in God's image, we must align ourselves with His Will for our lives.  If you don't know what this is, then I offer you this advice:  read the Gospels.  You are no more like Christ then when you are living and abiding in Him without any agenda!  When you are properly connected to the vine and feeding off of Him, then you will produce fruit that is unimaginable.  You will achieve your true self!

John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing"

How great is this verse?!  Jesus is telling us that we are the branches and that we cannot do anything unless we abide in Him.  Jesus goes a step further and states:  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples."

A great self image can only come when you recognize that you are NOT the vine.....but rather the branch.  Being the branch, you can either attach yourself to the vine of Jesus and prosper, or you can attach yourself to something else and wither away.  For me personally, I know that when I am living in obedience there is no greater joy and no greater source of energy.  Sin separates you from God.  Sin can break pieces of your branch off of the vine, but through the blood that was shed by Jesus you are saved and can have everlasting connection to God.  Sin can harm your branch, but through Jesus your branch will not break.  Sin can reap you of producing the fruit that God wants you to produce, but through Jesus your branch can produce much fruit!  Sin can deteriorate your self image because it puts you into shame and hiding, but through Jesus you are restored and brought into the peace that truth and light bring.  Through Jesus you find your true self.  Through the vine of Jesus you find the sweet nectar that produces fruit.  Through Him you are perfect, and there is no better self image than being perfectly immersed in Jesus.

Have a wonderful week and abide in Him!!!

Cameron

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