A group of pastors were...
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A group of pastors were discussing the subject, "How do you motivate people? How do you get people to pray? To read the Bible? To attend church and Sunday School? To give? To love? To witness? How do you get people on fire for the Lord?" Motivating people is a perennial problem. Everybody is asking how it is done: teachers, parents, employers. Many coaches and managers believe in motivational pep talks. The most famous pep talk was given by Knute Rockne, the coach of Notre Dame. Tradition has it that at halftime of a game in which the Irish were losing, Rockne said to his players, "Win one for the Gipper." The "Gipper" was a young man on the football team who had died. On his deathbed the young man told the coach that during a difficult game when the team was losing, he could ask the players if they wanted to do something for him. He could tell them, "You can win one for the Gipper." A movie was made about this story, starring Pat O'Brien as Knute Rockne and Ronald Reagan as George Gipp. By the way, the inspirational pep talk worked, as Notre Dame won that game. In the book of Acts we find the early disciples on fire for the Lord. Had they just listened to a motivational pep talk? What had motivated them to go out into the streets of Jerusalem speaking in tongues? The early disciples were on fire, not because of some inspiring speech, but because Someone had come over them -- God in the person of the Holy Spirit. -- Frank
