“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)
The Master’s Golf Tournament was just held April 10-13. My wife asked me if the Master’s was like the Super Bowl of Golf. I told her that over 4 million people tuned in to watch it!
It’s always a great tournament to watch. But this year was so up and down, the game had a tie breaker at the end! Rory McIlroy played so well and won the elusive Green Jacket. He has played in the tournament 16 times before. However, he had never won it until this year!!
Watching it brought back memories of watching Payne Stewart attempt his hand at a victory in Augusta. However, it was one that eluded him during his shortened career. For those who might not be aware, Stewart was killed on October 25, 1999, when his chartered Lear 35 jet crashed in a South Dakota pasture.
Stewart won three major championships and 15 other titles during his twenty years of professional golf. His victory at the U.S. Open in Pinehurst in June 1999,was as memorable as any national championship I’dever watched.
It was great to see and hear a man who was revered by millions give his faith the credit for helping to produce his final victory. Stewart said, “I’m so much more at peace with myself than I’ve ever been in my life. Where I was with my faith last year and where I am now is leaps and bounds.”
Perhaps the saddest thing about his death was how much the national media ignored the change Payne Stewart wanted everyone to know about in his life. I couldn’t help but shake my head in disappointment after I read accounts of the family’s statement that was read by a friend to the media that had swarmed around his home following his death.
“We appreciate the heartfelt love and kindness shown by our friends and loved ones in our loss of Payne. Please keep the Stewart family in your prayers, along with the families of Robert Fraley, Van Ardan, and the two pilots.”
Sadly, most television and print media reporters left out the middle sentence – “We know he is with the Lord and in that we take comfort”.
The truth is the WWJD bracelet that Stewart
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes.” (Romans 1:16)
The Master’s Golf Tournament was just held April 10-13. My wife asked me if the Master’s was like the Super Bowl of Golf. I told her that over 4 million people tuned in to watch it!
It’s always a great tournament to watch. But this year was so up and down, the game had a tie breaker at the end! Rory McIlroy played so well and won the elusive Green Jacket. He has played in the tournament 16 times before. However, he had never won it until this year!!
Watching it brought back memories of watching Payne Stewart attempt his hand at a victory in Augusta. However, it was one that eluded him during his shortened career. For those who might not be aware, Stewart was killed on October 25, 1999, when his chartered Lear 35 jet crashed in a South Dakota pasture.
Stewart won three major championships and 15 other titles during his twenty years of professional golf. His victory at the U.S. Open in Pinehurst in June 1999,was as memorable as any national championship I’dever watched.
It was great to see and hear a man who was revered by millions give his faith the credit for helping to produce his final victory. Stewart said, “I’m so much more at peace with myself than I’ve ever been in my life. Where I was with my faith last year and where I am now is leaps and bounds.”
Perhaps the saddest thing about his death was how much the national media ignored the change Payne Stewart wanted everyone to know about in his life. I couldn’t help but shake my head in disappointment after I read accounts of the family’s statement that was read by a friend to the media that had swarmed around his home following his death.
“We appreciate the heartfelt love and kindness shown by our friends and loved ones in our loss of Payne. Please keep the Stewart family in your prayers, along with the families of Robert Fraley, Van Ardan, and the two pilots.”
Sadly, most television and print media reporters left out the middle sentence – “We know he is with the Lord and in that we take comfort”.
The truth is the WWJD bracelet that Stewart wore on his wrist during his last Open Championship represented a major change in the way this man now looked at life. He once told a USA Today reporter that the change in his life began when he watched how fellow golfer, good friend, and born-again believer,Paul Azinger, had responded to cancer in 1994. “I started talking to Paul about it and saw that he had this unbelievable faith”, Stewart recalled. “That started me going in a more spiritual direction.”
In May 2000, Jim Sheard and Wally Armstrong published the book, “Finishing the Course: Strategies for the Back Nine of Your Life”. The week before his passing, Stewart read and personally approved their observation of him. It reads: “For Payne Stewart, this was not some hackneyed cliché. It was a revelation of his newfound faith in Christ as his Savior. He now trusts God for the provision of his strength and for the needed balance in his life.”
Well you might fool a couple of authors about where you are in your walk with Jesus, but you’ll rarely fool your own mother. Bee Stewart once described her outspoken son as “rude”. Before Payne passed away, his mother told a Sports Illustrated reporter, “Payne talks with God now. He’s a different man, and a better son.”
You bet he was a different man. For the five years prior to his passing, Stewart lent his name and energies for charity golf tournaments. The last one he helped was the Orlando Children’s Charities. With his help for those five years, they raised nearly $500,000 for children’s organizations.
But Stewart also put his own money where his mouth was. Two weeks before his death, he gave $500,000 to the First Foundation. This was a fund-raising arm of his home church. Stewart was quoted as saying, “Tracey and our kids have more than we deserve. That’s just the way it is. So it’s not hard to give something back.”
Stewart’s pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jim Henry, said Stewart “was a wonderful Christian who had Christ in his life and somehow in his death. That brought a great sense of peace to his family in a difficult and tragic time.”
So you can see how Payne Stewart’s family was able to find comfort in the middle of tragedy. They know that their husband and dad knew Jesus and they know that Jesus once said, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)
Payne Stewart heard that voice LOUD and CLEAR!
Wore on his wrist during his last Open Championship represented a major change in the way this man now looked at life. He once told a USA Today reporter that the change in his life began when he watched how fellow golfer, good friend, and born-again believer,Paul Azinger, had responded to cancer in 1994. “I started talking to Paul about it and saw that he had this unbelievable faith”, Stewart recalled. “That started me going in a more spiritual direction.”
In May 2000, Jim Sheard and Wally Armstrong published the book, “Finishing the Course: Strategies for the Back Nine of Your Life”. The week before his passing, Stewart read and personally approved their observation of him. It reads: “For Payne Stewart, this was not some hackneyed cliché. It was a revelation of his newfound faith in Christ as his Savior. He now trusts God for the provision of his strength and for the needed balance in his life.”
Well you might fool a couple of authors about where you are in your walk with Jesus, but you’ll rarely fool your own mother. Bee Stewart once described her outspoken son as “rude”. Before Payne passed away, his mother told a Sports Illustrated reporter, “Payne talks with God now. He’s a different man, and a better son.”
You bet he was a different man. For the five years prior to his passing, Stewart lent his name and energies for charity golf tournaments. The last one he helped was the Orlando Children’s Charities. With his help for those five years, they raised nearly $500,000 for children’s organizations.
But Stewart also put his own money where his mouth was. Two weeks before his death, he gave $500,000 to the First Foundation. This was a fund-raising arm of his home church. Stewart was quoted as saying, “Tracey and our kids have more than we deserve. That’s just the way it is. So it’s not hard to give something back.”
Stewart’s pastor and former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Jim Henry, said Stewart “was a wonderful Christian who had Christ in his life and somehow in his death. That brought a great sense of peace to his family in a difficult and tragic time.”
So you can see how Payne Stewart’s family was able to find comfort in the middle of tragedy. They know that their husband and dad knew Jesus and they know that Jesus once said, “I tell you the truth, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live.” (John 5:25)
Payne Stewart heard that voice LOUD and CLEAR!
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