Master's Winner...Loves THE Master...
This is a wonderful short article about the winner of the Master's golf tournament. It warms my heart. So thankful this young man won. He is a nice breath of fresh air...
From Jim Denison's blog "God Issues" Monday, April 11
As you know, South Africa's Charl Schwartzel won yesterday's Masters. He began Sunday's final round four strokes off the lead, but birdied the last four holes to win the world's most famous golf tournament by two strokes. After his historic victory, he was asked how he did it. His immediate response: "Playing with K. J. Choi kept me calm."
That was my first clue. I had never heard of Mr. Schwartzel before the Masters, but I knew something of Mr. Choi. He is the best golfer South Korea has ever produced and a passionate Christian. He was introduced to Christ in December of 1992 when he started dating his wife. He states: "My belief and faith in God is very strong now." His charitable foundation has helped victims of Hurricane Ike, visually impaired children, survivors of the Haitian earthquake, and recently gave $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist the victims of Japan's disaster.
When Mr. Schwartzel credited Mr. Choi for his serenity, I wondered if the South African is a believer. It seems he is. I found the Twitter account of a youth pastor in Johannesburg who calls Mr. Schwartzel "one of my oldest and best friends in the world." Then I read the new Masters champion's PGA Media Guide entry, where he states that his idol is Angus Buchan, a farmer "who gave his life to God."
I had never heard of Mr. Buchan, so I investigated some more. It turns out Mr. Buchan was a farmer who was displaced by fighting in his native Zambia and forced to move to South Africa. There he began Shalom Ministries in 1980; he has become a full time evangelist in his adopted country. He wrote a book about his life, titled Faith Like Potatoes (it was made into a feature-length movie in 2006).
The point of the title: faith in God, like potatoes, grows unseen until the harvest. They didn't grow potatoes in Jesus' homeland, so he used a similar agricultural metaphor to make the same point: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches" (Matthew 13:31-32).
Angus Buchan began his ministry four years before Charl Schwartzel was born. K. J. Choi became a Christian when Mr. Schwartzel was eight years old. But the seeds they planted in the new Masters' champion have now reached your soul and mine. Can you measure the eternal significance of the seeds you plant for Jesus today?
From Jim Denison's blog "God Issues" Monday, April 11
As you know, South Africa's Charl Schwartzel won yesterday's Masters. He began Sunday's final round four strokes off the lead, but birdied the last four holes to win the world's most famous golf tournament by two strokes. After his historic victory, he was asked how he did it. His immediate response: "Playing with K. J. Choi kept me calm."
That was my first clue. I had never heard of Mr. Schwartzel before the Masters, but I knew something of Mr. Choi. He is the best golfer South Korea has ever produced and a passionate Christian. He was introduced to Christ in December of 1992 when he started dating his wife. He states: "My belief and faith in God is very strong now." His charitable foundation has helped victims of Hurricane Ike, visually impaired children, survivors of the Haitian earthquake, and recently gave $100,000 to the American Red Cross to assist the victims of Japan's disaster.
When Mr. Schwartzel credited Mr. Choi for his serenity, I wondered if the South African is a believer. It seems he is. I found the Twitter account of a youth pastor in Johannesburg who calls Mr. Schwartzel "one of my oldest and best friends in the world." Then I read the new Masters champion's PGA Media Guide entry, where he states that his idol is Angus Buchan, a farmer "who gave his life to God."
I had never heard of Mr. Buchan, so I investigated some more. It turns out Mr. Buchan was a farmer who was displaced by fighting in his native Zambia and forced to move to South Africa. There he began Shalom Ministries in 1980; he has become a full time evangelist in his adopted country. He wrote a book about his life, titled Faith Like Potatoes (it was made into a feature-length movie in 2006).
The point of the title: faith in God, like potatoes, grows unseen until the harvest. They didn't grow potatoes in Jesus' homeland, so he used a similar agricultural metaphor to make the same point: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches" (Matthew 13:31-32).
Angus Buchan began his ministry four years before Charl Schwartzel was born. K. J. Choi became a Christian when Mr. Schwartzel was eight years old. But the seeds they planted in the new Masters' champion have now reached your soul and mine. Can you measure the eternal significance of the seeds you plant for Jesus today?
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