For many kids, summer means a break from endless tests and homework assignments. For me it meant the start of baseball season, the hope of the Mariners making the playoffs, and a chance to spend quality time with my dad.

I was a huge baseball nerd. I knew the all recent stats and everything about the ballparks and teams. I watched Griffey, McGuire, and Sosa battle for the homerun record, and hoped I would one day round the bases of a professional baseball diamond. Even though my dream of becoming a Major League player may never be realized, I still look forward to long summer days immersed in America’s pastime.

Men like Albert Pujols, Mark Teixeria, and Josh Hamilton encourage me. By reading Playing with Purpose I have gained a better understanding of these player’s faith and passion for the sport. Here are three Major Leaguers I admire:

1. Albert Pujols:

I admire Pujols’ conviction to give back to others. Instead of using his success as a means of escape from his background, Pujols enriches his hometown of Santo Domingo by providing medical care, food, clothing, and other necessities through the Pujols Family Foundation. He also hosts a formal dance every year for teenagers with Down’s syndrome. Pujols has said, “One thing I have learned is that it’s not about me; it’s about serving the Lord Jesus Christ.”  His continued devotion and service always leaves me rooting for him, no matter who is playing for or against.

2. Mark Teixeria:

As a child, Mark Teixeria (pronounced Te-share-ah) found himself in church developing a faith that would guide him throughout his life. His generous spirit impacts lives—he gave a million-dollar donation to his former high school. Wherever Teixeria has played he has donated, helped, and cared for the less fortunate. For example, following his recent move to the New York Yankees, Teixeria has become involved with the Harlem RBI and DREAM charter school. Through his donations—and the donations of others—Harlem RBI has provided year-round enrichment programs in academics and sports to thousands of children. Teixeria says, “My faith keeps me grounded; I know no matter my success or failure on the field that there’s a higher thing for me with God and with Jesus.”

3. Josh Hamilton:

The number-one pick of the 1999 MLB draft, Josh Hamilton was on track to be a Major League superstar. After two promising years in the minors, Hamilton was injured in a car crash; he spiraled into drug addiction and was eventually suspended from baseball. He hit rock bottom in October 2005. Following visits to eight rehab centers, as well as days of counseling and hours of talking with family, Hamilton recommitted his life to Christ. Hamilton’s story is truly one of redemption and restoration.  Over a period of eight months he reconciled with his wife, committed to a healthier lifestyle, and started working. On Opening Day 2007, Hamilton realized his dream of becoming a Major League player. Though his path has had its ups and downs since, Hamilton has continued to put God first.

If you’d like to read more about these player’s stories or about other Major League players that have a deep faith, check out Playing with Purpose by Mike Yorkey.

Today’s guest post is by Jessica Thompson, author of  Give Them Grace: Dazzling Your Kids with the Love of Jesus, which is available from Vyrso.

The Freedom of Love

You are free to love your children without expectations because you have been loved immeasurably. You have a heavenly Father who rejoices over you with singing, who calls you His beloved, whose pet name for you is “My delight.” Your Father loves you this way because He sees you as He sees His most precious Son. The One who came to live the life we are called to live, to love the way we are called to love, and to pay the price for the sins we have committed.

You can love your children without regret or guilt. You have been forgiven for all the times you have failed as a parent. You have been forgiven for the times you have ignored or been angry and selfish with the children in your home. You are forgiven for the mistakes. You are completely clean before your Maker.

You can love your children that have gone on to be with the Lord. He cares gently and deeply for you in the loss of your sons and daughters. He understands the pain of losing a precious child.

You can love your children as a single mom who feels like she just can’t do it another day. Your heavenly Father carries you close to His heart. His thoughts towards you are continual, and His love for you is unending. In your weakness He is strong.

You can love your children without feeling the need to save them. You are not strong enough to save them; you can’t always say the right words, be consistent enough, or use the right methods. Only One is powerful enough to save, and you can entrust your children’s souls to His nail-scarred hands.

You can love your children without needing them to build your identity. You can be free to stop using their goodness to make you feel like a good mom. You can stop using their athletic ability, their musical talents, or their academic achievements to cover your flaws as a mom. You are a flawed, sinful mother, but you have been given a new identity in Christ. He has taken the old, worn-out wardrobe of your children’s accomplishments and has clothed you in the righteousness of Christ.

Most importantly you are free to love your God whose love for you is without bounds. There is no height, no depth, no length, no width to His affection for you. You can love Him because He first loved you. You can love Him because He has freely taken all of the guilt and the regrets and has thrown them into the depths of the sea. You can love Him because He walked through all the pain and rejection that you walk through as a mother. Not only does He understand; He sympathizes with you. He is with you and will never leave you. Because of His unfailing love, you are free to love.

Praying with your child is a valuable and precious responsibility. Both of my kids are teenagers now, and some of my favorite memories of when they were small come from prayer time. Here are five tips to get the most out of praying with your little one:

1. Plan Your Prayer Time

If you don’t plan for prayer time with your kids, it just isn’t going to happen regularly. It is amazing how kids can make anything take five times longer than it should. By the time you get dinner, bath time, and all of the other daily details taken care of, an evening can really get away from you. Make a plan for prayer time and stick to it.

2. Take Advantage of Impromptu Prayer Opportunities

Don’t compartmentalize prayer. The more we can communicate that prayer is something we set aside time for and a natural reaction to daily events, the better they will understand their relationship with God. So when you are on the way to Grandma’s and you pass by an ambulance with its lights on, take a moment to pray for the people involved. When your child is having a hard time with another kid at school, take a moment to pray about the situation.

3. Make a List of Things You Can Pray For

This was one of my favorite parts of praying with my kids. Get a little notebook and ask your child what you should pray for. Not only will it help them keep focused, it makes a wonderful keepsake. It’s amazing to look back now and see how much prayer time with my daughter was spent praying for neighborhood cats.

4. Discuss Answers to Prayers

When you keep a regular list of things you are praying about, you see God at work. Going over things you have been praying about regularly enables children to see the different ways God answers prayer. The point isn’t to tell your child how God is answering prayers, but for them to tell you. My son would often tell me how God answered prayers in ways that I was completely unaware of. It’s spectacular to see your kids growing more aware of God’s hand in their lives.

5. Teach Your Child to Incorporate Scripture into Their Prayers

Does your child have a memory verse this week? Are there some verses from your devotions that you can pray about? Help your child internalize God’s promises and character by praying those things back to Him. Teaching your kids to pray the Scriptures is a powerful way to make the Bible come alive for them.

If you are looking for ebooks to help teach your child about prayer, check out these wonderful titles from Vyrso:

• My Little Prayers
• My First Prayer Journal
• The Power of a Praying Kid
• Lord, Teach Me to Pray for Kids
• If I Could Ask God Anything: Awesome Bible Answers for Curious Kids

The National Day of Prayer has been getting a lot of press this year in conjunction with the National Day of Reason.

Created in 2003 by an alliance of atheist and secular humanist organizations, the National Day of Reason offered an alternative perspective to a nationally recognized day that many feel violates the separation of church and state.

Where the National Day of Reason would set itself up as an alternative to the National Day of Prayer, we at Vyrso would contend that reason isn’t the opposite of prayer. An argument could be made that, in light of many complex and troubling issues nationally and worldwide, prayer might be the most reasonable response.

You don’t have to choose between faith and reason; God wants you to use both. You can be assured of the validity of your beliefs, and Vyrso can help! Check out some of the resources we have to help you give a reason for the hope you have.

On the Importance of Prayer

• No Atheists in Foxholes: Reflections and Prayers From the Front
• The Front Line: A Prayer Warrior’s Guide to Spiritual Battle
• Gray Matter: A Neurosurgeon Discovers the Power of Prayer . . . One Patient at a Time
• Penetrating the Darkness: Discovering the Power of the Cross Against Unseen Evil
• Strategic Prayer: Applying the Power of Targeted Prayer

On the Veracity of the Christian Faith

• Hard Questions, Real Answers
• Christian Apologetics
• Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics
• Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer
• Reasons for Faith: Making a Case for the Christian Faith

George Washington planted the seeds for what would become the National Day of Prayer in 1775:

“The Honorable the Congress having recommended it to the United States to set apart Thursday the 6th of May next to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to acknowledge the gracious interpositions of Providence; to deprecate [to pray or entreat that a present evil may be removed] deserved punishment for our Sins and Ingratitiude, to unitedly implore the Protection of Heaven; Success to our Arms and the Arms of our Ally: The Commander in Chief enjoins a religious observance of said day and directs the Chaplains to prepare discourses proper for the occasion; strictly forbidding all recreations and unnecessary labor.”

Since that time, national conflicts have often encouraged presidents to request a day for prayer and fasting. John Adams called on Americans to pray at the beginning of the Quasi-War with France. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln encouraged prayer for a war-torn republic saying:

“It is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.”

On April 17, 1952, President Harry Truman signed a bill proclaiming the National Day of Prayer into law:

“Now, Therefore, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Friday, July 4, 1952, as a National Day of Prayer, on which all of us, in our churches, in our homes, and in our hearts, may beseech God to grant us wisdom to know the course which we should follow, and strength and patience to pursue that course steadfastly. May we also give thanks to Him for His constant watchfulness over us in every hour of national prosperity and national peril.”

In 1988, President Reagan amended the law, designating the first Thursday in May as the a day to focus on prayer.

Thursday, May 3, is this year’s National Day of Prayer. Vyrso Voice will focus on prayer week by suggesting helpful literature to enrich your prayer time.

All week long, you can pick up Vice Chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force and Executive Member of the National Prayer Committee John Bornschein’s new ebook The Front Line: A Prayer Warrior’s Guide to Spiritual Battle from Vyrso for just $4.25. Bornschein explores prayer’s basic elements, obstacles, and import in this critical offering. If you only download one ebook on prayer this week, make it The Front Line. 

“Behold I make all things new.“—Revelation 21:5

The gospel message is one of rebirth and renewal; God reconciling the world through Christ. Sometimes this reconciliation is dramatic and powerful, such as when a high-profile and unlikely figure is touched by God, responds in repentance, and is reborn.

Chuck Colson is a perfect example of this kind of electrifying transformation.

Colson, known as Richard Nixon’s most ruthless White House aide, was famous for saying he’d “walk over my own grandmother” to get Nixon a second term. Nixon’s “hatchet man” was responsible for many of the malicious tactics leading to the implosion of the president’s administration. Colson was the first of the administration incarcerated for the Watergate scandal, serving seven months in an Alabama federal prison.

Critics were skeptical when, prior to his incarceration, Colson had a sudden conversion to Christianity, but many were eventually silenced. His integrity and tireless work with Prison Fellowship in the following 39 years proved his faith genuine. Even those most critical of Colson’s politics, never questioned his life-changing transformation in 1973.

Evangelical Christianity lost one of its most dynamic voices on April 21, 2012. Colson, the winner of many humanitarian and civic awards, will be remembered as an insightful and influential man mightily changed by Christ’s redeeming work.

Here are 5 of my favorite Charles Colson quotes:

1. “And so early that Friday morning, while I sat alone staring at the sea I love, words I had not been certain I could understand or say fell naturally from my lips: ‘Lord Jesus, I believe You. I accept You. Please come into my life. I commit it to You.’ ”—from Born Again

2. “ . . . the Christian worldview is more consistent, more rational, and more workable than any other belief system. It beats out all other contenders in giving credible answers to the great questions that any worldview must answer: Where did we come from? (creation); What is the human dilemma? (fall); and What can we do to solve the dilemma? (redemption). And the way we see the world guides the way we work to change the world (restoration).”— from How Now Shall We Live?

3. “As we give away our lives in service—as we lose our lives in order to save them—we discover the true meaning of our lives in the midst of fellowship and community.”—from The Good Life

4. “If faith is at war with fear, if catastrophe can turn from death to resurrection, if hope can triumph over despair . . . if there was ever a time for the church to be the church, it is now.”—from Being the Body

5. “We will not always proclaim the gospel in words. Usually, in order to be heard, we must first be seen. We must be his witnesses, right where we live.”—from Being the Body

From all of us at Vyrso, thank you Mr. Colson.

“Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears combine profound understanding of modern culture with weighty Christian doctrine that is faithful to the Bible, and it’s written in such an interesting style that it’s hard to put down. I strongly recommend it!”—Wayne Grudem, author, Systematic Theology

Vintage Jesus is a book of collaborative theology written by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. Driscoll was named one of the 25 most influential pastors of the past 25 years by Preaching Magazine, and his audio sermon podcasts are regularly #1 on iTunes’ Religion and Spirituality chart. Breshears has been professor of theology at Western Seminary since 1980. He also teaches and lectures at a number of colleges and seminaries around the world. Mark and Gerry have co-written several books, such as Vintage Church, Death by Love, and Doctrine: What the Church Should Believe.

What is the truth about Jesus Christ? That’s the question that the authors answer throughout Vintage Jesus. The book is broken into sections like:

• Why did Jesus come to earth?
• Why did Jesus’ mom need to be a virgin?
• What makes Jesus superior to other saviors?
• Where is Jesus today?
• and many others.

People looking to explore the topic of Jesus will find solid biblical answers to their toughest questions.

Vintage Jesus is on sale for just $2.99 during the month of April—that’s 70% off the retail price! So pick up Vintage Jesus today and take your understanding of Jesus to a deeper level.

“Backed by good scholarship yet accessible to all Christians, this book brims with great stories of redemption and keen insights into the souls of broken sinners, challenging reads to follow the Christ who can set people free.”—Eric Johnson, professor of pastoral care, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Pastor Mark Driscoll asked Mike Wilkerson, counseling pastor at Mars Hill, to write Redemption: Freed by Jesus from the Idols We Worship and the Wounds We Carry for those who have experienced abuse, addiction, or struggle with habitual sins.

In Redemption, Wilkerson uses the Exodus story as a metaphor for our slavery to sin and suffering. Using biblical passages to illustrate how God redeemed the Israelites from slavery, this book confronts our entrenched sins, while providing healing through the freedom in the redemption of Christ. 

Chapters in Redemption include titles like:

• When You Suffer, God is Near
• The Passover: How Long, Oh Lord?
• Crossing the Red Sea: Into a New Life Free From Shame
• The Covenant–keeping God: Our Only Hope for Lasting Change
• And many more!

Pick up Redemption while it’s on sale for just $3.74 from Vyrso, and take a look at all the other April deals.

April showers bring marvelous deals from Vyrso!

In case you haven’t noticed, Vyrso’s offering incredible deals during the month of April. Not only are we offering some great savings on ebooks, but we also have numerous freebies all month long.

Titles under $5:

• Vintage Jesus ($2.99)
• Redemption ($3.74)
• Earthen Vessels ($4.49)

Freebies:

• A Lady of High Regard
• Paper Roses

Discounts and freebies will be added daily to the April sales page, so take advantage of the showers of savings here at Vyrso.

Get your free copies of Francis Chan’s Crazy Love, Forgotten God, and Erasing Hell from Vyrso today. This very special offer is only available until Saturday, April 07, at 11:59 p.m. (PST), so get your free ebooks and share this opportunity with your friends!

Francis Chan, founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA, released Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God in 2008. This powerful book about falling in love with God shot to the top of the New York Times Bestseller list, selling over 175,000 copies in its first year.

Giving all of Crazy Love’s royalties away to the charitable Isaiah 58 Fund, he began work on Forgotten God: Reversing Our Neglect of the Holy Spirit. This message of embracing a life led by the Holy Spirit also resonated with readers, and Forgotten God made many bestseller lists as well.

In 2011, Chan released his third book, Erasing Hell, wherein he tackles the reality of hell, an issue Chan says, “we can’t afford to get wrong.”

You can read these ebooks practically anywhere on these platforms:

• the free Vyrso ereader app for your iPhone or Android device
• the free Logos app for your iPhone or Android device
• Logos 4
• any internet browser at Biblia.com

Don’t wait! This amazing offer is only available through Saturday, April 07. Jump over to Vyrso’s special Francis Chan page and get your free ebooks now!