Fathers Day - Celebrate Champion Fathers

G.H. "Dick" Law, George Law, J.B. Johnson -Champions provide for their families

Father Fletcher Law, son Graham Law, Grandfather George Law got to celebrate a state championship together

We are approaching Father’s Day.

Mother’s Day is almost a sacred day in the church calendar.   People wax poetic for Mother’s Day.

People are quick to point out the sorry Fathers on Father’s Day.

This blog is about GOOD FATHERS.

George Law my champion

Other blogs will talk about the dreadful state of father’s.  I am sympathetic to that.  Today only about 30% of school kid’s live with both parents.  Many children we find are by necessity being raised by grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts uncles or friends.  These children might not have the  ideal family situation but they have people pulling and supporting them, thank the Lord, anyway. Many times kids children with poor home lives today do not even have a good model family with a father in the neighborhood to observe.

Once at a conference about youth I heard the speaker say deridingly that a neighborhood of traditional intact families was not true; “There is no such thing as a ‘Leave It To Beaver’ family-never was. That is a myth. Nobody had that!”

My friend (Cason Farr) from my childhood from church, elementary school, and my high school football team whispered out loud “We did”.  And my friend was right.

We had great families and it was not by accident, luck, societal standing or ethnic group.

We had “Champions”.

What is a champion?  Isn't this a sports metaphor? No it’s biblical.

champions have a heart to compete

And as I said when I preached my Father’s funeral my family had one - a great champion - our father George Law.

What is a champion in biblical talk?

A champion represents, protects, provides and leads a people in the way they should go.  Yes there are good and bad champions.  

My adult son’s favorite childhood bed-time story was David and Goliath.

Goliath the giant Philistine was the champion for evil.

David the very young man (probably in his early teens)

was the champion for God’s people of Israel.

Worlds collided.  You know the story.

The giant Goliath was slain by a slingshot and beheaded by the small youth who had no chance.

No, the youth David was not helped by The Almighty because of the misguided notion that “God helps those who help themselves”.

The greater champion was David’s champion who delivered the victory for young David.

The champion David was a man “a man after the Lord’s own heart” as we read about  David and the Lord's relationship in Acts 13:22.

This boy man David was a champion because  he knew to serve the God of Israel.  Was David flawed? Sure he was.  But as the old time Methodist evangelist Sam P. Jones said “David was a great sinner, but he was a first-class repenter.”

David knew there there was a God in Israel and trusted and followed Him.

If you will read Psalm 51 David knew he had a Redeemer-Savior.

David’s champion was the Lord and a trust in a coming Messiah.

At a Fellowship of Christian Athlete’s meeting I once heard the University of Georgia football strength coach Dave Van Halanger talk about his young son’s anxiety in hearing the often repeated command "to follow Jesus".  The boy asked his father with a worried face and tears how could he follow a Jesus he could not see as that was taught in Sunday School.

Dave told him from the Good Book in 1 Corinthians 11:1(NIV)

"Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ."

Dave then put it in other words to be understood by his troubled young son.

 “Son, you follow me, I’ll follow Jesus.”        

You have a champion no matter your gender, race, income or status.  We all have a champion who defeated death, hell and the grave for you.

His Name is Jesus Christ.

Lord send a revival now we plead.

Lift Jesus Up!

Fletcher