Restoring hope. Transforming lives.
God Designed
You to Be
a Team Player.
By Dr. Tony Evans
I
f you know me at all, then you know that I love
football. One of the rules of football is to “do unto
others before they can do unto you.” And while that
rule may not always apply, the dynamics of the sport
keep players uniquely connected throughout the
game. Players often feed off of each other, rising to a
higher level of performance than they ever could on
their own.
One of the “winningest” coaches of all time, Bill
Belichick of the New England Patriots, recently shared,
in a documentary on his life, about one of his coaching
strategies. It involves teamwork.
Coach Belichick put together and played a film of his
team, showing them the times when someone had made a
great play and then just walked back to the huddle
without anyone ever saying anything to him at all. There
was no “good job.” There was no pat, high-five, or slap on
the helmet. The player had done his thing—and had
done it well—only to walk back to the huddle alone.
Play after play of these types of scenarios rolled on the
game-film in front of his team.
“Team,” Belichick said, addressing the players watching the
film, “we aren’t good enough to play that way.” In fact, no
one is good enough to play that way. Not in football. And
not in life.
God has designed you and me in such a way that we
benefit from and need each other’s encouragement,
involvement, and
accountability. Unlike in
We Want to Help
football, we have been
You Have Better
continued on next page
Relationships
with Others
—and with God!
See page 3 for details...
Inside:
Elohim Can Create
Something Out of Nothing
in Your Life
Woman to Woman
You Are Making a Difference
From Tony’s Heart
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page 4
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“God has both created and called us to live and work
with one another.”
commanded to do unto others as we would have them do
unto to us—and to love one another above all else. The
teachings in Scripture on the “one anothers” cover so
many topics and so many angles in our lives. Space does
not allow me to go into all of them here. But the
primary focus of the entirety of the teachings on the
“one anothers” always comes back to this one point: our
vertical relationship with God is often contingent upon
our horizontal relationship with one another.
In other words, if you harbor bitterness and
unforgiveness in your heart toward your sister or
brother in Christ, then God says you will not receive
the entirety of the forgiveness that He has to give you.
First John 4:20 says, “If anyone boasts, ‘I love God,’
and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking
nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won’t love the person
he can see, how can he love the God he can’t see?”
(The Message).
God has both created and called us to live and work
with one another. We are stronger together, and have
been commanded to encourage one another. It is in
doing this that you and I honor Him and find our
greatest, collective strength. And when we honor and
join with one another, we can advance His kingdom
down the field of life bringing Him glory in all that
we do.
Elohim Can Create Something Out of Nothing in Your Life
by Tony Evans
God identifies Himself as Elohim thirty-five times at the start of Scripture. In fact, it is the only name used for
God from Genesis 1:1 to Genesis 2:3. Other names come later in His personal revelation of His character
throughout His Word, but we find an emphatic referral to Elohim in the beginning.
One reason I believe such a focus is put on this particular name of God could be that He wants us to
understand first and foremost His power. The literal translation of the name Elohim means “strong one.” It has
to do with both God’s sovereignty and His authority, reflecting the greatness of His power.
Another interesting fact associated with the name
Elohim is its direct tie to God as the Creator God. “In the
beginning, Elohim (the strong One) created.” The term
“created” is only used of God in the Bible; it is not used of
men. This is because men reconfigure, recalibrate, or
reform things. We do not create out of nothing. We lack
the power, ingenuity, and ability to create from nothing.
God, on the other hand, creates from nothing—ex nihilo
(Hebrews 11:3). …
Friend, in whatever situation you are facing today in your life, I want to encourage you to remember the
name Elohim. The Strong One does not need raw material with which to work. He doesn’t need logic or
tangible solutions in order to accomplish His goal. All He needs is Himself, and all you need is faith in His
name that He can do all that He purposes to do.
Adapted from The Power of God’s Names by Dr.
Tony Evans, Harvest House Publishers (2014)
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1-800-800-3222
We Want to Help You Have Better Relationships with Others
—and with God!
Dear Friend,
The vertical relationship you and I have with God is intimately tied to our horizontal
relationship with our brothers and sisters inside and outside the church…which
means we cannot grow closer to God while ignoring the needs of
those around us.
That’s why I want to send you my new series called The One
Anothers, Volume 1, to help you grow your connectedness
with others and your relationship with God like never before! So
please request your copy below today. It’s our gift to thank you
for your help to restore hope and transform lives through The
Urban Alternative!
Woman to Woman
By Lois Evans
In Jeremiah 1:17, God tells
Jeremiah that he needs to be
dressed. I really like what The
Message version summarizes it
as saying: “But you—up on
your feet and get dressed for
work! Stand up and say your
piece.” Similarly, as women of
faith, you and I need to get
dressed for what God is calling
us to do as well—to work in
His might and His power.
Ephesians 6 talks about being
dressed for spiritual success so
you can fulfill God’s plan for
your life. You must have on the
belt of truth and the breastplate
of righteousness. That means
you must do what is right, not
what is popular.
Friend, let’s stop the
preoccupation with what is
popular and do what God
has called us to do. We need
to be dressed in the Lord and
ready to move when God
calls us into action.
TonyEvans.org
pg 3
You Are
Making a
Difference!
Thank you for
making the following
testimony possible
through your support of
The Urban Alternative!
“Last night after gymnastics
practice, I treated my 12- and
9-year-old daughters to an ice
cream. We were driving home
listening to your AMAZING
sermon “El-Shaddai – Mighty
Sufficient One” on the radio,
when my oldest daughter said,
“Mama, it doesn’t get any better
than this: ice cream and Dr.
Evans!” I said, “Amen!”
– W. B.
From
HEART
Dear Friend,
The late Dutch-born spiritualist Henri Nouwen was once frustrated by all the phone
calls and knocks on his door and prayed, “God, how can I get any work done with all
these interruptions?” The answer came, “Those interruptions are your work.”
How many times do we view one another as an intrusion in our day rather than a
welcome reminder of God’s purpose for us? It’s so easy to get caught up in crossing
things off our lists, making it to our meetings, and catching up on our rest, that we
forget why we were put here in the first place. Yet, God made it clear that the highest
commandment is to love Him, and the second highest is to love one another.
I recently had the privilege of teaching through an entire series dedicated to the
passages in Scripture that speak about the “one anothers.” It was a tremendous time
of growth in our church as eyes began to be opened concerning the importance of
our horizontal relationship with others. We experienced a boom in our small group
involvement and I noticed that far more people were taking the command seriously
to serve one another.
I wanted to make this series available to as many people as possible, as soon as I
could. That’s why we’ve chosen to play it on the radio this month and why we
are offering it to you as our gift for your gift to support the ministry at The
Urban Alternative.
As you may already know, radio airtime is our single largest monthly cost, and we
count on faithful friends and supporters like you to enable us to continue to take
God’s Word to a world in need. So thank you for standing with us to restore hope
and transform lives. And may He bless you as you daily live out His purpose for
your life.
For His kingdom
PO Box 4000
Dallas, TX 75208-0560
1-800-800-3222
TonyEvans.org
pastortonyevans
@drtonyevans
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