Joe Gibbs Video: Christmas is here!

Posted on Dec 24, 2010 in Blog | 7 comments

With our ministry update, I want to talk to you first about our website.  We’ve rolled out a new design and it’s something we are excited about.  We have some new material in the form of short stories.  For example, one of the stories is the ‘Top 10 Most Dangerous Occupations in America.’  These stories are interesting to read but segue into a chapter from the Game Plan For Life book.  I would encourage you to check out the website and would love your feedback.

We’ve been excited here lately because over the last two days we’ve been filming part two of the Game Plan For Life small group study with LifeWay.  We filmed part one of the study in the past and you can purchase it at any LifeWay store or online through our website.  The first installment were video introductions to the first six chapters for the small group study.  We filmed a number of the introductions here at the race shop as well as at the football stadium.  Things went so well with the first six video introductions that they wanted to finish and do the last five topics with video introductions.  We just finished filming these last five video introductions yesterday and in a couple of months, you can get the complete set.

An update on speaking: we just had an event in Asheville and I thought it went very well.  With our speaking engagements, we go to a city and recruit a team that will recruit 100 table hosts.  This puts the whole event on a grassroots level where the table hosts can invite nine friends to come and listen to me speak.  Hopefully the nine friends are unsaved and the table hosts can then follow-up with those folks after I speak.  We’ve done this in 9 cities thus far and it has gone really well.  And whenever I do a speaking engagement like this, I try to go and speak at a local prison as well.  If anyone out there has an interest in this and having me come speak in your city, you can contact us at Joe Gibbs Racing at 704-944-5000 and you can ask for Phyllis Blair.

We are also involved with Zondervan right now and that publisher is going to come out with a GPFL devotional, New Testament Study Bible, and Bible.  In that Bible, there will be excerpts from the GPFL book inserted throughout the Bible.  For example, if you were reading about creation, there would be excerpts from John Lennox’s chapter on creation sprinkled in from the book.

To finish up, lets talk about Christmas.  At this time of year, everyone is focused on it.  When you think about Christmas, you think about how God loved us so much that He was willing to send his only Son to Earth.  And God knew when He sent him that he was not just going to live a perfect life here on Earth but that he was going to die a dreadful death on the cross for you and I and our sins.  Isn’t it great that we have a God who loves us that much?  We know the story of how Judas betrayed him to those who wanted him crucified on the cross.  As I thought about this, it reminded me of Luke 22:44 where Jesus is in the garden thinking about what he was going to go through.  He was thinking about how he was going to be crucified and be the substitute for our sins on the cross and as he thought about this–he literally sweat blood.  We know through studying that when human beings are threatened, we protect the inside of our body.  That means that all the blood in our body will move from our extremities into our core.  This shows us that Christ wasn’t thinking of himself, rather he cared so much for you and I and what he was going to go through that his body did the opposite.  Instead of the blood rushing to his core, the blood when to his extremities and he literally sweated blood.  Can you imagine the agony of what he was going through?  We have a God who is so powerful and who wants a relationships with you and I.  So when we sinned and created separation between us and God, God made a way to get back to Him.  The only way that He could do that was to send His only son to Earth.

It’s hard for me to understand this sometimes because for those of us who have kids or grandchildren, it’s hard to think of sacrificing our kids for anyone.  To think of willingly sacrificing my son or grandson for anyone is really difficult.  So, think about this especially at this time of year.  This is what we celebrate at Christmas.  Now think about Judas for a moment.  Judas betrayed Jesus and then went back and tried to give the money back to the men who gave it to him.  Peter, on the other hand, denied Christ three times.  The difference though between Judas and Peter is that Peter asked for forgiveness.  And God said that he would forgive Peter just as had with other great men in the Bible.  So when you and I ask for forgiveness, we know that we have a God who will forgive us because of Jesus did on the cross.

We have a loving God who cares for us and it doesn’t matter what sins we’ve committed–if we throw ourselves at God’s feet, He will forgive us.  What a great message at Christmas time.  I pray that everyone out there has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and that happens when you ask Christ to come into your life, forgive your sins, and be your personal Lord and Savior.