Kurt Warner: Jesus Brought Me Here

CHRISTIAN POST

Outspoken Christian Quarterback Kurt Warner announced his retirement from the National Football League on Friday, thanking God for the opportunities he received both on and off the field.

“As always, as it started in 1999 when I was up on the podium holding up a trophy, the first thing I want to do is give thanks to God,” Warner said during a press conference in Tempe, Ariz., referring to his widely-heard shot out to the Almighty following his Super Bowl win with the St. Louis Rams.

“My Lord Jesus brought me here. I know he brought me here for a purpose. And it’s been an amazing ride,” he added.

Though Hall of Fame-bound Warner stands out as one of the top quarterbacks in NFL history – with an impressive list of achievements that includes three MVP awards, a Super Bowl win, and the second-highest completion percentage in NFL history – Warner is most noted for his King David-esque rise to stardom, which was twice witnessed.

Not only did Warner go from stocking shelves at a grocery store in 1994 to a winning a Super Bowl in 2000, he also returned to the spotlight after his time appeared to be up, leading the Arizona Cardinals to the franchises’ first-ever Super Bowl in 2009.

“I don’t think I could have dreamt out that it would have played out as it had. But I’ve been humbled everyday that I’ve woke up for the last 12 years and amazed that God would choose to use me to do what He’s given me the opportunity to do over 12 years,” Warner said Friday.

But the one-time Super Bowl MVP made it clear that the opportunities he was given were not only on the football field. For him, it’s not just about the successes and the Super Bowls and the wins and the losses.

“[I]t’s also been the opportunities that He (God)’s given to me off the football field,” Warner stated.

Since his rise to stardom, Warner has been a featured speaker across the country for numerous churches, non-profit organizations, men’s conferences, and corporate events.

Warner’s work both on and off the field, meanwhile, resulted in him being awarded the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2008 and the Muhammad Ali Sports Leadership Award in 2009. Warner was also selected by USA Weekend as the winner of its annual Most Caring Athlete Award for 2009 and, just last month, topped a Sports Illustrated poll of NFL players to name the best role model on and off the field in the NFL.

First Things First Foundation, a non-profit public charity that he and his wife established in 2001, has been involved with numerous projects for causes such as children’s hospitals, people with developmental disabilities and assisting single parents.

“So I hope that when people think back over my career – maybe it’s just over the next couple of weeks as they reflect on it or maybe it’s years to come – that that’s what they remember more than anything else,” Warner said Friday.

“Not the way I threw the football, not particular games that I won. But that they remember that here’s a guy that believed, that worked hard, and – although things didn’t always go in his favor – he continued to press through. And with his faith in himself and with his faith in God, he was able to accomplish great things,” he concluded.

As for his future plans, Warner said earlier at the press conference that he’s just as excited about the next 12 years as he has the past “12 unbelievable years – 12 of the best years of my life.”

“I’m excited about what lies in front of me. I’m excited about spending more time with my family and seeing what God’s going to do next,” he reported.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Warner will keep his charitable foundation going, perhaps do some speaking, writing, ministry work, and maybe some football analyst work on TV or radio.

First Things First Foundation, which draws its name from Warner’s famed post-Super Bowl response in 2000, is dedicated to impacting lives by promoting Christian values, sharing experiences and providing opportunities “to encourage everyone that all things are possible when people seek to put first things first.”

The charity’s guiding principle is Matthew 6:33, which states “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

Obama will lobby for Chicago 2016 bid at Olympic vote

President Obama said Monday he will travel to the IOC meeting in Copenhagen on Oct. 2 to support the Chicago 2016 bid.

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

President Obama and the organizers of the Chicago 2016 bid for the Summer Olympic Games announced that Mr. Obama will, after all, attend the Oct. 2 meeting of the International Olympic Committee at which the 2016 host city will be chosen.

The announcement is a tremendous boost for the Chicago but, perhaps saving it from what otherwise could have been likely failure.

The heads of state for the other three bid cities – Rio de Janeiro, Madrid, and Tokyo – had all announced their plans to be in Copenhagen for the Oct. 2 vote.

As a result, Obama’s initial decision not to attend could have been fatal for Chicago’s chances. It is likely that the IOC would not have looked favorably on Obama refusing to go the extra mile for a bid from his hometown, regardless of his hectic healthcare reform schedule in Washington.

Indeed, the potentially decisive role that heads of state can play in Olympic bids was underlined four years ago, when experts suggested Paris was a shoo-in as host city for the 2012 Summer Games.

The day before the vote, French President Jacques Chirac was mocking the competition, saying “the only worse food than British food is Finnish” and “the only thing the British have done for Europe’s agriculture is mad cow disease.” Meanwhile, British Prime Minister was at the IOC meeting in Singapore lobbying the IOC heavily on London’s behalf.

The combination of the two events turned the bidding in London’s favor. Mr. Blair’s lobbying effort was so aggressive, in fact, that French organizers complained to the IOC, saying it was illegal. The charges were dismissed.

This will be the first time that a US president has gone to the IOC vote. But London 2012 established a new bar for bid cities, and Obama initial unwillingness to commit to those obligations were a great concern to Chicago 2016 organizers.

At a press summit earlier this month, they made it clear that they were doing everything in their powerto persuade Obama to go, but that the decision was ultimately his.

“We could not be more pleased to welcome President Barack Obama to our delegation for the IOC selection of the host city for the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” the US Olympic Committee said in a statement.

Obama’s decision leaves Chicago well placed for the Oct. 2 vote. One of the top analysts of Olympic bids rates Chicago as the second favorite to win the IOC vote, just behind Rio.

In his Olympic Bid Power Index, Ed Hula of Around the Rings gives Rio 84 points compared with Chicago’s 83. Madrid and Tokyo tie at 80.

“Rio has been able to deliver an emotional edge to its appeal that the other bids haven’t matched,” said Mr. Hula in a press release. “Chicago slips to second from the June index, but still scores three points higher, helped by the addition of financial guarantees and government support.”

YOU CAN HELP KENYA

Dear readers,

I have met a man of God over the Short Wave Radio from Texas many years ago. I can assure you from my conversations with him that he is not a fake self righteous Evangelist but a true man on fire for God. It is through his radio program and cassettes which he sent to me free even though he was pressed financially all around that I truly came to know my Saviour Jesus Christ. He is my mentor and my spiritual father.He is doing a great but small ministry in Kenya setting the wild bushes on fire deep in the land of the Masai. He is not preaching in big churches or places where he’ll get pomp and honor but in shacks and small churches where no white man will ever visit.

He is a down to earth man and he’s not the handsome tele-evangilist you see on your television or who like to ask people to give money for a blessing or free books. He is just like you and me. He was on Full scholarship to Boston Universtiy,Honor Roll,Vice President of the Sophomore class (in a University of 40,000 undergraduates), National Merit Scholar, Nat’l honor Society etc.,etc. Life was presented to him on a silver platter. All he had to do was to finish the scholastic course that was laid out to him. It was a piece of cake, and he would be assured of all successful things in life that milions aspore to. Free of charge.

… and he walked out after his 2^nd year. 40 years later, he have never looked back and never regretted that decision. He left everything for saving the souls of Africa because he considered them more valuable than his own life.

This is his mission statement

Horizon Ministries PO Box 822 Waxahachie, TX 75168 (972) 938-8502

My Mission Statement

When I made my first trip to Africa, I did not know what to expect or what role I would play there. I went simply because the Lord had called me to go. At first, the whole prospect seemed that it would be a great adventure, but slowly the Lord began to piece together a picture of what His purpose really was.

I had spent over a decade on the radio in the United States, and although the broadcast was carried over several countries around the world, my main focus was to spur a hunger for revival in America. I began writing a weekly column for several newspapers, and although the column also went out to several countries, my vision was still limited to seeing a move of God in the U.S.

That all changed a few years ago when the Lord dealt with me to my radio broadcast. Not knowing what was next, I had no expectations on my first trip to Kenya. I wrote a book, the Kenya Diaries, that chronicled the exciting day-to-day experiences I had there, but still, I thought that the purpose for it was to show Christians back here how much they were missing. The people in Africa were so hungry, and we were not; the Spirit of the Lord was moving in great ways in Kenya, but we were bland by comparison. I thought that the churches at home would catch this excitement, but they did not.

Every time I returned to Africa, the Lord showed me more and more of a picture of His plan that included much more than even Africa and America. It was global in scope.

The people in Africa are, like a savanna of dry grass waiting for someone to strike a match and ignite them, but there are also many obstacles that need to be confronted and broken. I began to see how the corruption of the African church leadership was stifling the grassroots of the church there. They, like the Pharisees, were more interested in their own positions of leadership and prosperity than the true freedom of their people. The powers of darkness would not easily let go of the stranglehold they have had on Africa for centuries.

But the common people are so hungry! No matter how long or how hard it is preached, they want more. But they want the truth, not a sophisticated version of an American Gospel that they had been seeing in TV. In church after church, the message of the power of the Cross has been liberating, the excitement it has generated has been palpable, and the visitations of the Holy Ghost have been supernatural.

It was for the excitement that I kept returning to Africa, but the Lord began piecing together, like a jigsaw puzzle, a much bigger picture for me. As He showed me more and more pieces, I began to see that the Lord had turned His focus to these humble people who have an uncommon hunger for the things of God, and that it would be in Africa that the next supernatural move of God would come.

God has always had a people that held His focus. When the Jews rejected Christ, He turned to the Gentiles; when the Gentiles established a secular Church, He turned to others – the Waldesians, the Protestant Revolution, England, and finally America. But America’s thirst has waned, and we, like those before us, have settled into our established ways, and He is now turning to those who are desperate for revival.

A move of God is surely coming to Africa, and the countries of Kenya and Nigeria are the keys. It will come as surely as it is written that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. But there is also a sound of war coming over the horizon for these people. Throughout history, whenever there has been a move of God, there has also been a spiritual war, and it will be no different for Africa. A storm of darkness is coming because Satan knows what a true revival can do that rides upon the Spirit of God. He can’t stop it, but he will do all that he can to resist it.

This is what is coming for Kenya and Nigeria. I have seen it so clearly that it has galvanized me to drop all that I have to bring that old-fashioned message of the overcoming power of the Gospel to these people to strengthen them against what is coming, and inspire them to break the chains of ecclesiastical oppression and to reach to the heights of faith and accomplish the greatest revival of all time.

But this is not just about the African peoples. It is about us all. I believe that the fires of revival will burn that dry grass that the Lord showed me, and it will burn so hot and so fast that we will feel the heat around the world. My prayer is that we who are still hungry for something more from God will see this fire, feel the heat, and be provoked to a jealousy that will cause us to fall on our knees in repentance and cry out for God to visit us here once again.

My call is to Africa, but my heartfelt cry is for home.

Revive us again, O Lord. One more time, O God, let us experience the power of God in our land. Like Sampson, let us have one more visitation of God for our people who have fallen into a slumber which has blinded our eyes and stolen our fire.

Dale

dale@revivalfire.org

I’ll be posting his newsletter on my site.Check out his website and find out how simple he’s yet he’s 60 years of age.He does not want to burden anyone, but he sincerely believe that this is an opportunity for others to be a part of something that will have eternal results, not only for the people of Kenya, but ultimately for the world.

He never uses any single cent for his personal life but for for people of Africa. He also works in Nigeria. So he is not like any ministry which own a white Caddilac

You can help the Masai people through his minisrty by credit cards, ACH, and Paypal on his website at: www.revivalfire.org/support_page.htm

Or mail a check to him: Horizon Ministries, PO Box 822, Waxahachie, TX 75168,U.S.A

Atleast make a decision to pray for his ministry once a day or a week. Prayer can move mountains. It is more valuable than fine Gold.

Even though you are not anybody you still can help. He planning a trip back to Kenya and Nigeria. He still need some money. Its better if you could ask him how much. Nothing is impossible for God.

Click on icon to view the video

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