[For] I know that through your prayers and the help given by the Spirit of Jesus Christ, what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance. I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain, and I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith, so that through my being with you again your joy in Christ Jesus will overflow on account of me.
Character Check Is my confidence in the message of the gospel greater than in how I present it?
In Business Terms On July 15,1986, Roger Clemens, the sizzling right-hander for the Boston Red Sox, started his first All-Star game. In the second inning he came to bat, something he hadn’t done in years because of the American League’s designated-hitter rule. He took a few uncertain practice swings and then looked out at his forbidding opponent, Dwight Gooden, who the previous year had won the Cy Young award.
Gooden wound up and threw a white-hot fastball past Clemens. With an embarrassed smile on his face, Clemens stepped out of the box and asked catcher Gary Carter, “Is that what my pitches look like?”
“You bet it is!” replied Carter.
From that day on, Clemens later said, with a fresh reminder of how overpowering a good fastball is, he pitched with far greater boldness.
Sometimes we forget the Holy Spirit within us and how powerful our witness can be.
—Craig Brian Larson
Something to Think About Having thus chosen our course, let us renew our trust in God and go forward without fear and with manly hearts. – Abraham Lincoln
