Going to Bed at 8:30

Tom Brady is one of the best quarterbacks in the National Football League. In an interview, he spoke of his focus. “I do go to bed very early because I'm up very early. I think that the decisions that I make always center around performance enhancement, if that makes sense. So whether that's what I eat or what decisions I make or whether I drink or don't drink, it's always football-centric. I want to be the best I can be every day. … I love the game and I want to do it for a long time. …I have to take a different approach. Strength training and conditioning and how I really treat my body is important to me, because there's really nothing else that I enjoy like playing football. I want to do it as long as I can.”  - http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-brady-sleep-2014-11#ixzz3JKQJCmjI

Football-centric is Brady’s life and it shows in how he plays the game.

A passion for ONE thing, a single-minded focus on ONE goal, a vision that is shaped by ONE aim – these are powerful things in life.  You can see the results in Brady’s career. If you read stories of men and women with amazing accomplishments you almost always find the same kind of determination.

Lives shaped around building a great gadget, a great football team, a great family, a great church, or a great company may catch our attention, but they are focused short of the best and highest aim. Someone will come along who will do it better.  Tom Brady will eventually find his body just cannot meet the challenges of the field. 

Do you want to live today in a way that leads you to a forever joy, to a place where no one can take away your rewards?  Check out this man’s mission statement! "Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:6-14, NIV)

Paul’s life was Christ-centric! Go back and re-read that declaration. It is magnificent!  Knowing Christ eclipsed all other things in his life.  By comparison everything else was rubbish (Literally the Greek text says ‘skabalon,’ meaning excrement).

Jesus invites us to a life of great purpose and promise.  This life is not available to dabblers and wanna-be’s.  It for the company of the committed, those who shape all of life – marriage, family, career, financial decisions, pleasure – around Him.  Here’s the word from the Word.

"Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who ‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?” …

Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God do it.”

Peter tried another angle: “We left everything and followed you.”

Jesus said, “Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children, land—whatever—because of me and the Message will lose out.
They’ll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal life! This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up last, and the last first.”  (Mark 10:22-31, The Message)

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One Pure And Holy Passion

Give me one pure and holy passion,

Give me one magnificent obsession,

Jesus give me one glorious ambition for my life,

To know and follow hard after You.

To know and follow hard after You,

To grow as Your disciple in the truth,

This world is empty pale and poor,

Compared to knowing You, my Lord.

Lead me on and I will run after You!

Mark Altrogge

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