People in the News
Miracle at the Super Bowl
By Chad Bonham
On February 3, more than 90 million people watched Super Bowl XLII. Some watched because they were legitimate fans of either New England or New York. But truthfully, most likely watched to see history made one way or another-either the Patriots were going to finish out a perfect season at 19-0 or the NFC's fifth-seeded Wild Card Giants were going to shock the world and play the ultimate role of spoiler.
Of those two scenarios, very few prognosticators, fans or casual bystanders gave much hope for the latter to happen. But when New York pulled off the historic 17-14 upset, at least one member of the team wasn't surprised.
"It felt like it was destiny," said David Tyree, a Giants wide receiver. "That's kind of how I felt going into it. I was never moved. My faith was never rocked. I knew God would do what He said He was going to do."
When New York started the season 0-2, Tyree wrote a letter to his team. In that letter, he encouraged the other players and coaches to keep the faith. Tyree was confident that God has a special plan for the Giants. This confidence for the born-again, spirit-filled believer came from prophetic words he was receiving from the Holy Spirit through various friends and spiritual confidantes.
Throughout the season, Tyree also benefited from his relationship with "spiritual mom" Apostle Kimberly Daniels, founder of Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Fla., whose son Michael Jennings also plays for the Giants. The night before the Super Bowl, Daniels and husband Ardell prayed with Tyree and received some very specific prophecies about his role in the game.
Daniels told Tyree that the Lord would "quicken" his feet and give him "hind's feet" which she later explained to him were like the feet of a kangaroo. She also told him that he would have "spiritual glue" on his hands and would make "the big play." Daniels' husband prophesied that the sports world would no longer know him as just a special teams player but as, "David Tyree, the receiver."
Earlier in the season, another friend prophesied that Tyree's platform would be enlarged.
"At that time, I had a broken wrist and I was out," Tyree recalls. "But trust me, I was receiving the Word and I was definitely not turning away the Word of the Lord. I just trusted God and we held on to the Word of God by faith. It was not a pretty year for me as a receiver. I had to hold on to that truth until this very last game."
After catching only four passes all season-none of which resulted in touchdowns-Tyree started to experience some amazing results in the Super Bowl, including a 5-yard touchdown reception from Eli Manning that put the Giants ahead 10-7 with 11:05 left in the fourth quarter. At that point, Tyree admits he assumed that was the fulfillment of the prophetic words that had been spoken into his life.
But late in the game, the Patriots responded with a touchdown and reclaimed the lead, 14-10. With just over two minutes to play, Tyree and the Giants offense took the field for one last shot at Super Bowl immortality.
At the 1:15 mark, New York faced a third down play needing five yards to keep the drive going. Manning narrowly averted multiple sack attempts, including one defender who had grabbed his jersey. The quarterback rolled to the right and launched a 32-yard pass down the middle of the field where Tyree-who admits he has the worst vertical leap among the team's receiving corps-jumped higher than ever before and trapped the ball on the back portion of his helmet. With Patriots defensive back Rodney Harrison draped on his right side like a "Siamese twin," he secured the ball and maintained possession despite landing squarely on his back.
"Obviously that catch was the Ephesians 3:20 catch," Tyree says. "You can do exceedingly and abundantly above all that you could ever ask or imagine."
Four plays later, Manning tossed a 13-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Tyree's good friend Plaxico Burress. But after the game, everyone was still talking about "the catch." In fact, many reporters and pro football historians are calling Tyree's acrobatic grab one of the greatest catches in Super Bowl-if not NFL-history.
Tyree says he is excited to see how God will use this moment in the spotlight not just for the public stage but within the ranks of his team as well. He plans to use the off-season as a time of preparation for what the Lord is planning to accomplish within the ranks of his own team.
And though many continue to be amazed by Tyree's individual Super Bowl achievement, the unlikely hero remains quick to deflect the praise elsewhere.
"I stand in awe of God," he says. "You have so many emotions throughout a game like that and an experience like that. But there was nothing but awe. I'm grateful to know a living God. He speaks. He walks. He talks. He's walking with me. He's dealing with me. He's moving in my life intimately to the point where I don't believe anybody can deny it."
(Source: Charisma Online)
Interview with NY GIANT David Tyree
George Whitefield
Helped bring about the Great Awakening in America and is possibly the greatest evangelical preacher to ever walk the face of the earth. Whitefield preached more than 18,000 sermons between 1736 and 1770 and his impact on America was profound.
A RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST
George Whitefield read voraciously. In his quest for a closer relationship with Christ, he was led to an obscure, slim volume, The Life of God in the Soul of Man, by a forgotten Scot named Henry Scougal. Whitefield was nonplused to discover that all of the good things which he had been doing to earn God's favor were of no account. What he needed, he learned, was to have Christ formed within him; in short, he needed to be "born again."
He thereupon embarked on a rigorous program of self-imposed asceticism, giving up everything he enjoyed, to bring himself closer to Christ. Nothing he tried seemed to work, yet he drove himself harder and harder until at last his health began to give away. His friends were deeply concerned, but nothing would dissuade him from his determined course. In the end, when nothing he could do, or pray, or think seemed to make any difference, he threw himself on his bed and cried out, "I thirst!" According to John Pollock, in his popular biography of George Whitefield, it was the first time in his life that he had ever called out in utter helplessness. Pollock goes on to describe what happened next:
He became aware that he was happy, as he had not been happy for nearly a year. Instinctively he knew why. He had thrown himself, at long last, blindfolded and without reserve, without struggle or claim, into God's almighty hands. And Someone...seemed to say, "George, you have what you asked! You ceased to struggle and simply believed-and you are born again!"
The sheer simplicity, almost absurdity, of being saved by such a prayer made George Whitefield laugh. At that laugh, the flood-gates burst. "Joy--Joy unspeakable--joy that's full of, big with glory!"
(The Light and the Glory, pages 243-244)
WHITEFIELD QUOTE AND COMMENTARY
My wonted vomitings have left me, and though I ride whole nights and have frequently been exposed to great thunders, violent lightnings, and heavy rains, yet i am rather better than usual, and as far as I can judge am not yet to die. O that I might at length begin to live! I am ashamed of my sloth and lukewarmness, and long to be on the stretch for God.
Commentary
It is a true mark of his spirit, that George Whitefield should be ashamed of his sloth and lukewarmness in the same year in which he preached a hundred times in six weeks, riding the main roads and throughout the backwoods of New England, covering nearly two thousand miles in five months! It is a miracle that he did feel so healthy, because, as any preacher knows, preaching two, three and sometimes four times a day(and usually for more than an hour or two per sermon) is a punishable schedule. And to do so, straight through for six weeks...
But this was the measure of how given to Christ George Whitefield was. He had cheerfully elected to go the Way of the Cross, and counted it nothing but gain to have the privilegeof picking up his cross daily. And he did pay a fearful toll in health. He drove himself unmercifully. No matter how sick he was, as long as he had the strength to stand and the breath to speak, he would preach, and trust God to sustain him through the sermon and to provide the power and the anointing.
(The Light and the Glory, page 250)
BEAUTIFUL DEATH
In 1770, his health now broken and his breathing tormented by asthma attacks, he drove himself as never before. He reached Boston on his last visit, on August 15, five months after British troops had fired on a mob of civilians, killing five, in what would come to be known as the Boston Massacre. Never had the crowds been larger, nor "the word recieved with greater eagerness than now. All opposition seems, as it were, for a while to cease."
The next month found him up in New Hampshire, where the ministers of Exeter begged him for a sermon. But when the time came, he could barely breath, and one of them said to him, "Sir, you are more fit to go to bed than to preach."
"True, sir," gasped Whitefield. Then Glancing heavenward he added, "Lord Jesus, I am very weary in Thy work, but not of it. If I have not finished my course, let me go and speak for Thee once more in the fields, and seal Thy truth, and come home and die!"
And the Lord granted his request. The entire district seemed to have converged on the Exeter green that saturday afternoon. At first Whitefield could hardly be heard, and his words were rambling, as if he could not focus his mind. He stopped and stood silent. Minutes passed. Then he said, "I will wait for the gracious assistance of God. For He will, I am certain, assist me once more to speak in His name."
Then, according to Jonathan Parsons, the minister of Newburyport, he seemed to be rekindled by an inner fire. His voice now strong and clear, for an hour he preached with such tremendous power that Parsons could write, "He had such a sense of the incomparable excellencies of Christ that he could never say enough of Him." On and on he went, into the second hour, seeming to look into heaven:"...he felt the pleasures of heaven in his raptured soul, which made his countenance shine like the unclouded sun."
Nearly two hours passed, when he cried out: "I go! I go to rest prepared. My sun has arisen and by the aid of heaven has given light to many. It is now about set...No! it is about to rise to the zenith of immortal glory...O thought divine! I shall soon be in a world where time, age, pain and sorrow are unknown. My body fails, my spirit expands. How willingly I would ever live to preach Christ! But I die to be with Him!"
That night he was put to bed in the Parsons' home and had a fitful sleep. In the early morning, despite a crushing pain in his chest, he nonetheless pulled himself out of bed and made his way over to the window, to see the dawn's early light. George Whitefield died, just as the first rays of the sun caught the waters of the bay below.
The Light and the Glory(pages 252-253)
George Washington
DAILY SACRIFICE a book of prayers written in his own handwriting
SUNDAY MORNING
Let my heart, therefore, gracious God, be so affected with the glory and majesty of(Thine honor) that I may not do mine own works, but wait on Thee, and discharge those weighty duties which Thou requirest of me...
SUNDAY EVENING
O most glorious God...I acknowledge and confess my faults; in the weak and imperfect performance of the duties of this day. I have called on Thee for pardon and forgiveness of sins, but so coldly and carelessly that my prayers are become my sin and stand in need of pardon. I have heard Thy holy word, but with such deadness of spirit that I have been and unprofitable and forgetful hearer...But, O God, who art rich in mercy and plenteous in redemption, mark not, I beseech Thee, what I have done amiss; remember that I am but dust, and remit my transgressions, negligences and ignorances, and cover them all with the absolute obedience of Thy dear Son , that those sacrifices(of sin, praise and thanksgiving) which I have offered may be accepted by Thee, in and for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ offered upon the Cross for me.
MONDAY MORNING
Direct my thoughts, words and work, wash away my sins in the immaculate Blood of the Lamb, and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit...daily frame me more and more into the likeness of Thy Son Jesus Christ.
MONDAY EVENING
Thou gavest Thy Son to die for me; and hast given me assurance of salvation, upon my repentence and sincerely endevoring to conform my life to His holy precepts and example.
The Light and The Glory(pages 284-285)
taken from the book George Washington, the Christian written by William Johnson, Yale Divinity School Library
PRIVATE PRAYER
Isaac Potts, a Quaker and a pacifist, noticed Washington's horse tethered by a secluded grove of trees, not far from his headquarters. Hearing a voice, he approached quietly and saw the General on his knees at prayer. Not wanting to be discovered, he stood motionless until washington finished and returned to his headquarters.
Pottes then hurried to return to the house himself to tell his wife Sarah, 'If George Washington be not a man of God, I am greatly decieved-and still more shall I be decieved, If God do not, through him, work out a great salvation for America.
The Light and the Glory(page 323)
PARDON
A turncoat collaborator named Michael Wittman was captured, and at his trial, it was proven that he had given the British invaluable assistance on numerous occasions. He was found guilty of spying and sentenced to death by hanging. On the evening before the execution, an old man with white hair asked to see Washington, giving his name as Peter Miller. He had a favor to ask of Washington, who nodded agreeably.
"I've come to ask you to pardon Michael Wittman." Washington was taken aback. "Impossible! Wittman has done all in his power to betray us, even offering to join the British and help destroy us. He shook his head. "In these times we cannot be lenient with traitors; and for that reason I cannot pardon your friend."
"Friend! He's no friend of mine. He is my bitterest enemy. He has persecuted me for years. He has even beaten me and spit in my face, knowing full well that I would not strike back. Michael Wittman is no friend of mine!"
Washington was puzzled. "And you still wish me to pardon him?"
"I do. I ask it as a personal favor."
"Why?"
"I ask it because Jesus did as much for me."
Washington turned away and walked into the next room. Soon he returned with a paper on which was written the pardon of Michael Wittman. "My dear friend," he said, placing the paper in the old man's hand, "I thank you for this."
The Light and the Glory(pages 323-324)
INDIAN CHIEF PROPHECY
I am a chief and ruler over my tribes. My influence extends to the waters of the great lakes, and to the far blue mountains. I have traveled a long and weary path, that I might see the young warrior of the great battle. It was on the day when the white man's blood mixed with the streams of our forest, that I first beheld this chief. I called to my young men and said, "Mark yon tall and daring warrior? He is not of the red-coat tribe-he hath an indian's wisdom, and his warriors fight like we do-himself alone is exposed. Quick let your aim be certain, and he dies." Our rifles were leveled, rifles which, but for him, knew not how to miss...'Twas all in vain; power mightier far than we shielded him from harm. He cannot die in battle. I am old, and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of shades, but ere I go, there is something that bids me speak in the voice of prophecy: Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man, and guides his destinies-he will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire.
Confirmation of this episode can be found in Bancroft's definitive nineteenth-century history of the United States. And in that same battle, according to other sources, as well as Washington's journal, the twenty- three-year old colonel had two horses shot out from under him and four musket balls pass through his coat.
"Death," wote Washington to his brother, Jack, "was leveling my companions on every side of me, but by the all-powerful dispensations of Providence, I have been protected."
The Light and the Glory(page 286)
Ben Franklin?
Speech given at the Constitutional Covention of 1787
In the beginning of the contest with Britian, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayers in this room for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending powerful friend? Or do we imagine we no longer need His assistance?
I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more proofs I see of this truth:"that God governs in the affairs of man." And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid?
We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this. I also believe that, without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel; we shall be divided by our little, partial local interests; our projects will be confounded; and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing government by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war, or conquest.
I therefore beg leave to move that, henceforth, prayers imploring the assistance of Heaven and its blessing on our deliberation be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business.
The light and the Glory(pages 342-343)
Charles Finney
Charles was then studying to be a lawyer. While reading the Blackstone's Law Commentaries, then the ultimate authority on the subject, he was struck by this Christian's constant reference to the Bible as the basis for all civil and moral law. He obtained a copy and began to study it seriously.
"The Spirit of God conducted me through the darkness and delivered me from the labyrinth and fog of a false philosophy, and set my feet upon the rock of truth--as I trust(Finney, from the Preface, Systematic Theology, p. x).
His conversion read like something from the book of Acts. Under deep conviction from the scripture, and dealt with by the Holy Spirit, he vowed one October Sunday evening in the fall of 1821, to "settle the question of my soul's salvation at once, that if it were possible I would make my peace with God" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 12).
For the next two days, his conviction increased , but he could not pray or weep; he felt if he could be alone and cry out loud to God something might happen. Tuesday evening, he became so nervous he felt if he did not cry out he would sink into hell, but he survived until morning. Setting out for work, he was suddenly confronted by an "inward voice" that riveted him to the spot in front of his office. "What are you waiting for? Did you not promise to give your heart to God? What are you trying to do--work out righteousness of your own?"
The whole essence of conversion opened to him there in what he called "a marvelous manner"; the finished work of Christ, the need to give up his sins and submit to His righteousness. The voice continued, "Will you accept it, now, today?" Finney vowed, "Yes; I will accept it today or I will die in the attempt" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 15).
Sneaking away over the hill to a small forest where he liked to take walks, avoiding anyone who might ask him what he was doing, the young lawyer fought a battle with his pride. Several times he tried to pray, but rustling leaves stopped him cold; he thought someone was coming and would see him trying to talk to God. Finally near despair, thinking he had rashly vowed and that his hard-heartedness had grieved away the Holy Spirit, he had a sudden revelation of his pride: "An overwhelming sense of my wickedness in being ashamed to have a human being see me on my knees before God took such powerful possession of me that I cried at the top of my voice...I would not leave that place if all men on earth and all devils in hell surrounded me...The sin appeared awful, infinite. It broke me down before the Lord" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 17).
Just then, a Scripture verse seemed to "drop into his mind with a flood of light": "Then shall you go and pray to Me and I will harken you. Then you shall seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:12-13). It came to Finney with the flood of revelation, though he did not recall ever having read it. It shifted faith for him from the intellect to the choice; he knew that a God who could not lie had spoken to him and that his vow would he heard. Quietly, walking back to the village, he was filled with such a sense of peace that it "seemed all nature listened." He realized it was noon; many hours had passed without any conscious sense of the passage of time.
Back at the office, his boss, Judge Wright, gone to lunch, Finney took down his bass viol and began to play and sing some hymns. "But as soon as I began to sing these sacred words, I began to weep. It seemed as if my heart were all liquid; my feelings were in such a state that I could not hear my own voice in singing without causing my sensibility to overflow...I tried to suppress my tears, but could not" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 20).
All that afternoon, filled with a profound sense of tenderness, sweetness, and peace, he helped Judge Wright relocate their office. The work finished, he bade his employer goodnight. "I had accompanied him to the door; and as I closed the door and turned around, my heart seemed to be liquid within me. All my feelings seemed to rise and flow out and the utterance of my heart was: 'I want to pour out my soul to God'" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 21). He rushed into a back room of the office to pray and then it happened:
"There was no fire, no light in the room; nevertheless it appeared to me as if it were perfectly light. As I went in and shut the door after me, it seemed as if I met the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. It did not occur to me then, nor did it for some time afterward, that it was a wholly mental state. On the contrary, it seemed to me that I saw Him as I would see any other man. He said nothing, but looked at me in such a manner as to break me down right at His feet...It seemed to me a reality that He stood before me and I fell down at His feet and poured out my soul to Him. I wept aloud like a child, and made such confessions as I could with a choked utterance. It seemed to me that I bathed His feet with my tears, and yet I had no distinct impression that I touched Him" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 21).
For a long time, Finney continued in this state; eventually he broke off the interview and returned to the front office where the fire in the fireplace had nearly burned out. As he was about to take a seat by the fire, he received, in his own words, "a mighty baptism of the Holy Ghost. Without any expectation of it, without ever having the thought in my mind that there was any such thing for me, without any recollection that I had ever heard the thing mentioned by any person in the world, the Holy Spirit descended on me in a manner that seemed to go through me, body and soul. I could feel the impression, like a wave of electricity, going through and through me. Indeed, I could not express it any other way. It seemed like the very breath of God. I can recall distinctly that it seemed to fan me like immense wings.
"No words can express the wonderful love that was shed abroad in my heart. I wept aloud with joy and love; and I do not know but I should say, I literally bellowed out the unutterable gushings of my heart. These waves came over me and over me and over me, one after the other until I recollect I cried out, "I shall die if these waves continue to pass over me.' Yet I had no fear of death" (Finney, Autobiography, p. 22).
Later, a church choir member, knocking on his door, found him loudly weeping and asked if he was sick or in pain. Eventually able to speak, Finney said, "No, but so happy that I cannot live."
The Keys to Wigglesworth's power(pages 82-87)