He is a professional baseball relief pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. He also played for the Kansas City Royals, the Colorado Rockies, and the Cincinnati Reds. He is left-handed and throws three pitches: a fastball, a curveball, and a sinker. In 2009, he won Baseball’s “Set-Up Man of the Year Award.” He helped his team, the San Francisco Giants, win the World Series twice in 2010 and in 2012. When not playing baseball, he is a strong advocate for ending child poverty. He also founded an organization known as Generation Alive that works to let people know of the world’s social justice issues.
In an interview with CBN, he said when he is on the mound, he prays to help him focus. “I’m in my own little world out there. There’s nobody coaching me. I’m focused on what I’m doing. I’ll be asking God for help but other times I’m having a conversation ’cause He gives me peace when I’m talking to Him.”
He went on to say, “When it comes to worship, a lot of people have gifts. In church it’s fun to sing — the only thing is I’m not good at it. I believe God gave me a gift to pitch. That’s where I ‘feel His pleasure’ a lot.”
He is the current head men’s basketball coach at the University of Washington. He also played basketball for the University of Washington from 1978 to 1980. After college, he was drafted by the Golden State Warriors and spent five years in the NBA. He was the assistant coach at UCLA from 1992–1996, head coach at Pepperdine University from 1996–1999, and then head coach at St. Louis from 1999–2002. He is often credited for turning around the faltering state of the University of Washington basketball program. He is known by his fellow coaches as one of the top basketball recruiters in the country. In March 2006, he was given the prestigious Coach Wooden “Keys to Life” award for outstanding character. In March 2009, he was named coach of the year by the Pac 10 conference for leading the Huskies to their first outright conference title since 1953. He and his wife, Leona, founded the Lorenzo Romar Foundation to provide educational assistance for disadvantaged youth as well as support other charitable causes.
In an interview with CBN, he said of his faith and salvation experience, “Getting closer to God was like a sporting event. The one with the most points wins. The more good deeds I could do, the more they could add up and I could score points with God. And that’s just kind of how I saw it. I believed the Bible was the Word of God so I read through it. It was great until I realized that, as I kept reading, points don’t get you to heaven. The points don’t give you a relationship with God, that there weren’t enough points that you could score, as a human down here, because God’s standard was above, it was out of reach. He made a way for it to work. He himself came down to this earth in the person of Jesus Christ. He had already scored all the points, basically, for me. I realized something else, this deal didn’t start when I died. It started immediately. If I accepted what Jesus did on the cross, believed He rose from the dead and He was alive today to save me from my sin, asked Him to come in my life, then I would cease to be just a creation of God. But I would then become a child of God.”
After getting cut by the NBA, he said, “God had a plan for me. I learned a lot of ministry, how to deal with athletes. It was as if God trained me to go out and use those same biblical concepts to try and affect people’s lives. For what appeared to be failure in the NBA was not in God’s eyes, God just used that as a little credibility here to do another job in another place. And with God you’re always going through on the job training.”
“You get a scholarship, you’re on the team, they’re paying your way to school. But to make an impact, you’re in the weight room, you’re running extra sprints, doing all kinds of stuff to make an impact at that high level. To become a Christian, it’s been taken care of. You just have to agree to accept a gift. But to be an impact player for God, you got to work.”
He is a running back for the Atlanta Falcons. He played college football for Oregon State University, and was drafted by the St. Louis Rams in the first round with the 24th overall pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. He holds the Rams’ franchise record for most career rushing yards. He was selected to the Pro Bowl three times, named to the AP Second Team All-Pro two times, and was the NFC’s rushing leader in 2009. He was also awarded the MVP with the St. Louis Rams three times in 2006, 2009, and 2010.
In an interview with CBN, he said that he became a Christian at an early age. He said of his faith, “It was so much a part of my life. It was so embedded in me and I watched my mom and dad, through thick and thin, at every night and every morning, I saw them get on their knees and pray to God. So it was a part of our life that I understood that it was eventually going to be my life as well.”
It wasn’t until he got into college that he started to struggle with his faith. He said, “When I got on my own in college, I started venturing out and trying to find out who I was as a young man, that is when I kind of ran into the pitfalls and temptations — a lot of it, most of it was partying.” But he found out that such a life was not good for him so he decided to make an adjustment and live his life as a Christian.
He said, “I always say that whatever city I stop in, I want to leave a positive imprint on that city. And football is just a platform for me to grab the attention of the masses. But being successful and then being positive with it, you influence so many people. I always go around, do motivational talks, to not only young people, but actually to adults as well about my faith in Christ, about motivating them through hardship and how to achieve goals and how to deal with success.”
“Jesus Christ actually means a lot of things to me,” He said. “One, He’s my heavenly Father. He loves me wholeheartedly. He’s the true definition of unconditional love. Where a lot of times I can get frustrated with myself or with other people, I remind myself that God—He died and laid on the cross for us in my sins that one day I could come to meet Him. Love is just more powerful than anything on this earth. And, the more I try to remind myself of that, the more I try to walk in that, I find peace in myself, in my heart.”
She is an actress who has appeared in numerous movies and plays. She is well-known for her role as Angela Williams in the Tyler Perry films “Why Did I Get Married?” and “Why Did I Get Married Too?” She also stars as Angela on the OWN comedy-drama television series Tyler Perry’s “For Better or Worse”. She launched an organic perfume line titled “US” with her husband in 2011. And she coaches many aspiring actors through her acting workshop. She has appeared on America’s Next Top Model as an acting coach, helping the models with different scenes. Her TV credits include: “The Parkers”, “Girlfriends”, “All of Us” and “The Game”. Her other film credits include “Miles from Home”, “Couples Retreat”, “Something Like a Business”, and “Jumping the Broom”.
In an interview with EURweb.com, she discussed her conversion from atheism to Christianity. She said, “When I was 25 I had an encounter with God because my father had gotten sick. I had a time where I really challenged God, like, if you’re really God you’ll show me such-and-such’. I was going through this whole thing where I questioned whether God was real or not. I really needed God to be real because I was feeling so depressed and so unhappy, I felt like if there isn’t a God [then] I have no reason to live. It was just a bad time in my life and God really showed up and met me where I was.”
In an interview with Da Gospel Truth, she said of her faith, “There was definitely a time where I did not believe in the Lord. I needed to understand the love of God. You hear so many people always telling you what you should or shouldn’t do, telling you you’re a sinner, telling you how bad you are, all those things about yourself. I was lacking the understanding of the love of God. I didn’t know there was a God that loved me. I think that it’s the love of God that brings man into repentance. Once you embrace that love and have that fellowship with God, all those things that you shouldn’t be doing will go away. He said no flesh is going to glory in His presence. Once we spend time in the presence of God and fellowship with him, all that stuff that we thought was so great, that we idolized, that we made so big in our lives become so small and insignificant in the presence of God. I strongly encourage people to fellowship with God and show them in the Word how much He loves them.”
When asked how she stays motivated in her work, she replied, “I know God has a purpose for my life. I know that every opportunity I have in my life, whether good or bad, is another journey that I’m going to have with God. To be honest, I am so grateful about where I am in my life right now. Based on where I’ve come from, every day is a blessing. I’m human and there are definitely times when I get down, but I try not to focus on that. I try to stay in the Word and stay in fellowship with God. I get excited when I’m doing something for somebody like teaching my classes, working on a script and just staying creative, focused and prayerful! That’s it.”
She is an actress and singer. She is well-known for her roles as Yvette in “Baby Boy”, Shug in “Hustle and Flow”, and Queenie in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2009 for her role in “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. She also starred in the CBS drama “Person of Interest” from 2011 to 2013. Her other film and TV credits include, “Boston Legal”, “The Family That Preys”, “I Can Do Bad All By Myself”, “The Karate Kid”, “Think Like a Man” and “Think Like a Man Too” among many others. In 2011, she won the BET Award for Best Actress and the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for the film “Taken from Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story.”
In an interview with Beliefnet, she said of her faith, “It is everything. That’s who I am. God lives within me. I meditate, I pray. I’m nothing without God. So, I just ask that He use me in my work. There’s always somebody who can identify with the characters that I portray.”
In an interview with the Christian Post, she spoke of her new role as the host of the annual Celebration of Gospel. She said, “I’m funny, but a lot of times they get comedians or personalities. So I was just very, very honored. And then when I met with the executives I got goosebumps. We all did because it just felt like the perfect marriage. Anybody that follows me, that knows me — knows that I love the Lord and I’m not afraid to say it. I’m not afraid to tweet it, I’m not afraid to talk about it in the interviews. So it just made sense. I wasn’t trying to fill steve Harvey’s shoes, they’re too big. I like my shoes. I just was myself. Somebody might get saved [from watching the show], somebody might be touched by a story that someone tells. I think this show can definitely change a person’s life. You never know.”
In an interview with Madame Noire, she also spoke of her new role as the host of the annual Celebration of Gospel. She said, “I almost dropped the phone [when I heard they wanted me to be the host]. I know the history of that. They’re trusting me with something that’s been around. Celebration of Gospel, that’s 14 years strong. It’s not new, but I think it’s a great marriage because a lot of the people who watch that show follow me so I was honored to do that. I’m very spiritual. I believe in God. I don’t do anything without praying first and listening to God’s voice. I do go to church. Church is in me. When you’re a God-fearing person, you recognize someone who has God in their heart. So I needed that at that moment. Just as I was about to go off and do all of these things, I had to host that show and it just gave me the spiritual soundness that I needed to stay grounded and focused. Everything happens for a reason and I truly believe it.”
When asked about her favorite Bible verse in an interview with HelloBeautiful, she said, “You know what it is, whenever I have an issue or problem in my life, I always go to the book of Psalms. There’s always something there that speaks to my issues, to my problems. The book of Psalms is where my head is all the time.”
In the same interview, she said, “My faith is tested everyday in small ways. It doesn’t have to be in big ways. My faith is tested everyday and that’s when I go to, ‘God is.’ I went all day yesterday thinking I was having a great day, but then that Devil likes to rear his head when you get comfortable, doesn’t he? I let him know, I see you and I say, ‘God is.'”
She is a media mogul, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. Her multi-award winning talk show was the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. Known as the “Queen of All Media”, she has been ranked as the richest African-American of the 20th century by Forbes, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and is currently North America’s only black billionaire. CNN and TIME called her “arguably the world’s most powerful woman” and TIME named her “one of the most influential people” from 2004 to 2011. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and received an honorary doctorate degree from Harvard University. In fact, Barack Obama would not be president of the United States without this woman.
On April 23, 2012, while introducing her “Lifeclass Tour” to a Radio City Music Hall audience in New York City she made a public profession of her faith. She said, “I am not talking about religion. I am a Christian. That is my faith. I’m not asking you to be a Christian. If you want to be one I can show you how. But it is not required. I have respect for all faiths… My favorite Bible verse, because I am a Christian, is Acts 17:28. It says, ‘In God I live, and move, and have my being.’ And you want to know why I’m so successful? Because I knew that at four-years-old, I wouldn’t be who I am today without that.”
On June 1, 2011, after Oprah delivered her public farewell from her talk show, I wrote the following on a news site that our organization runs: “Evidently, Oprah got saved recently, now she needs to make that clear to her millions of fans. Based upon statements that Oprah made throughout last week regarding God and Jesus Christ, we believe that Oprah has recently truly accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour and has been born again this year.”
Now, I took a lot of heat for making that statement, but as I explained in my article, “some people are going to doubt Oprah’s profession of faith in Christ and some are going to say negative things about this because she has people of different faiths on her show and so forth. However, please understand that OWN is not a Christian network. It is a network for all people. OWN is Oprah’s business, and we as Christians know what that is like when you’re doing business in a secular world. So Oprah’s business side is going to be different, but it does not take anything away from her faith in Christ.”
For example, Mark Burnett, is the producer behind the popular “Bible” mini-series and the “Son of God” movie. However, before he produced those Christian-based works, he produced such popular shows as Survivor, The Apprentice, The Voice, Shark Tank, The Sing Off, and the People’s Choice Awards which have nothing to do with his Christian faith. Yet, based on his own words and on his life, I believe Mark Burnett is saved just as I am.
In fact, in the Bible, we see examples of these types of believers. Jesus had His public disciples, the Peters, Jameses, and Johns, but He also had his secret disciples, the Nicodemuses and Josephs of Arimathea. When His public disciples, Peter and the other disciples, forsook Him at His trial and His crucifixion, it was His secret disciples, such as Joseph of Arimathea, that stood with Him until the end. This Joseph took His body off the cross and placed Him in his own grave. All of Jesus’ followers are not out front; some are behind the scenes, but they are doing just as much for Him.
Based upon Oprah’s public profession of faith in Jesus Christ, she is saved by the grace of God through faith by believing in God’s Son, Jesus Christ, according to the Word of God. So instead of worrying about what she is doing or not doing, how about you? Are you saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ?
She is the wife of Duck Dynasty star, Willie Robertson, and mother to five children. As a business partner, she helped her husband and family grow the Duck Commander company into an ever-expanding and very successful enterprise in Louisiana. She serves as the Duck Commander office manager. Along with her husband, she is the author of the New York Times bestseller, “The Duck Commander Family Book” in which they detail their life, family, business, popular TV show, and faith. She most recently made an appearance in the movie, “God’s Not Dead”. And her newest book and accompanying five-week church curriculum, “Faith Commander: Living Five Values from the Parables of Jesus” will be released in May.
She says that she is proud of her Christian faith and often encourages other Christians to stand up for their beliefs. She said in an interview, “God and our faith is what sustains us. It’s what makes our life good. This faith is behind who we are as a family and what keeps us together and strong. Don’t let someone bully you into not standing up for your beliefs.”
She is a singer, songwriter, record producer and actress. She has sold more than 50 million albums and 15 million singles worldwide. She has received nine Grammy Awards as well as thirty Grammy nominations, and she is the only artist to have won Grammys in the R&B, Rap, Pop, and Gospel fields. Eight of her albums have reached multi-platinum status in the United States. According to Rolling Stone, Time, and Vibe Magazines, her album “My Life” is considered among the greatest albums ever recorded. In 2007, she was named to TIME Magazine’s 100 list of influential individuals around the world. Alongside her success in music, she has earned high remarks for her work in film. In 2007, she starred in “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” and “Rock of Ages.” She received two Golden Globe Awards for her musical contributions to the films “Bobby” and “The Help.”
Although she grew up in Pentecostal churches and got her singing start there, she says, “I wasn’t a Christian when I was a child, I just went to church. I understood from childhood that there was something really big watching over me and it was God. And I was afraid to steal and lie. I was afraid to do anything that was wrong. I always got this feeling like, ‘Uh oh.’ But I understand better now who God is now that I’ve become a woman and a Christian.”
She went on to say, “It was later [in life], when I gave my life to Jesus Christ, that I found out who I am. I’m a child of God. God is my mommy, my daddy. That’s the only thing that’ll keep my head up. If I don’t remember who I am in him, I’m done….When I became a Christian, it was something I had to do because my whole life as a young adult was so bad. Things were just so bad that when I decided to make a change in my life, I went to God about my life. And he led me to other Christians, like my husband, like my pastor. And I started studying the Word. Now I get it. I understand it more, through the Word. That’s why I know God is love.”
He is one of the longest continuously employed artists at Disney. In over 30 years, his contributions to animation have included several leading Disney characters, mostly heroines. His work includes: Princess Jasmine in “Aladdin,” Belle in “Beauty and the Beast,” Ariel in “Little Mermaid,” Young Simba in “The Lion King” and Mulan in “Mulan”. He was also the animator of the 2007 film “Enchanted”, and he directed the award-winning short film, “John Henry.” Additionally, he was the supervising animator of Princess Tiana in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog.” He has been nominated for an Annie award four times: three times for Character Animation for “The Lion King,” “Mulan,” and “Winnie the Pooh,” and once for Short Animated Film Direction for “John Henry.” Recently, he served as one of the lead animators, overseeing the development of all of the characters on the Oscar-winning film “Frozen”.
Emily Belz of World Magazine says that he is a Christian. In an interview, she asked him, “How does your faith play into your work, into character development and storytelling?” He said, “It’s a global impact as well as day-to-day and scene-to-scene. I’m very blessed. … This has been my boyhood dream to be a Disney animator. I’ve seen a lot of change and a lot of ups and downs. I was almost fired at one point. God has been incredibly gracious to allow me to be here, and I feel like this is where I’m supposed to be… God has gotten me through many a tough day and tough scene and tough production schedule. It’s nice to work for a company where the basic values we want to put across in our films are right in line with my faith.”
He is an Irish singer, songwriter, musician, and philanthropist. He is best known as the frontman for the rock band U2. He is responsible for writing almost all U2 lyrics which often consist of religious, social, and political themes. Outside of music, he is widely known for his activism concerning Africa, for which he co-founded DATA, EDUN, the ONE Campaign and Product Red. Among many awards, nominations, and mentions, he was granted a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, was given the Man of Peace award in 2008, the NAACP Image Award’s Chairman’s Award in 2007, and was named a Time Person of the Year alongside Bill and Melinda Gates in 2005. In 2013, he was made a Commander of the French Order of Arts and Letters. He was also named the most politically effective celebrity of all time by the National Journal. He has been married for over 30 years and he and his wife have four children.
In an interview with Focus on the Family, he spoke about his faith in Jesus Christ. He said, “For people who have a hard time with Jesus being the Messiah, Jesus isn’t letting you off the hook. The Scriptures don’t let you off the hook so easily. When people say [Jesus is a] ‘Good teacher’, ‘Prophet’, ‘Really nice guy’, this is not how Jesus thought of Himself. So you’re left with a challenge, which is either Jesus was who He said He was or a complete and utter nut case. You have to make a choice on that. And I believe that Jesus was, you know, the Son of God.”
Making a connection between his faith and his activist work, he said, “It’s very annoying following this person of Christ around, because he’s very demanding of your life. You don’t have to go to university and get a Ph.D. to understand this stuff. You just go to the person of Christ… We have a pastor who said to us, ‘Stop asking God to bless what you’re doing. Find out what God is doing, because it’s already blessed.’ And when you align yourself with God’s purpose as described in the Scriptures, something special happens to your life. You’re in alignment.”
In an interview with Michka Assayas, he said, “The point of the death of Christ is that Christ took on the sins of the world so that what we put out did not come back to us, and that our sinful nature does not reap the obvious death. That’s the point. It should keep us humbled… it’s not our own good works that get through the gates of heaven… If only we could be a bit more like Him, the world would be transformed.”
His name is Paul David Hewson, better known as Bono.
He is an American freestyle skier. He won the gold medal at the Winter X Games #16 in the SuperPipe in 2012, 2013, and 2014. He also won gold at the 2013 FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships. Most recently, at 23-years-old, he went to the winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and returned home with a gold medal in Men’s Halfpipe.
He became a Christian as a teenager and his faith is an important part of how he sees himself as a competitor and athlete. He said, “For me, if you’re going to go so far as to believe something, then it really should be a big part of whom you are. So, whenever I’m out there skiing, I try to be the same person as a skier as I am in church on Sundays. I try to be the same in everything that I do. I really feel blessed and fortunate to be a part of such a cool sport.” He added that his dream is to “take what I love to do and inspire other people…Show people that the world is beautiful. Yes, there’s ugliness mixed in, but God created us all with the potential of enjoying this place.”
He and his wife run the youth group at their church in Nevada and he said he could even see himself as “a pastor of a church at some point.” “If that’s the way it works out, or if that’s God’s plan for my life, then that’s something I’d be totally okay with, but if not, then I’ll do whatever else comes.” In the meantime, he runs a non-profit fund called the Clean Water Project, which aims to provide clean drinking water to people in Malawi.
She is an American speed skater who has competed in the sport since 2006. She was named to the U.S. team for the 2010 Winter Olympics and reached 12th place in the 3000 meter competition and 8th place in the 5000 meter competition. She won the 3,000-meter women’s speedskating event at the Olympic Trials in Salt Lake City, Utah, on December 27, 2013. She is currently competing with the U.S. Olympic team in Sochi, Russia, at the 2014 Winter Olympics.
When she started training for the Olympics in 2006, she had every reason to give up. For two years, she had to search for the right coach, had very little financial support, and had to work to pay for groceries, rent, and coaching. On top of that, her father passed away in 2001, and her mother began undergoing chemo treatments before passing away soon after. Many people around her expected her to quit and give up on her dreams, but she had her faith in God to rely on.
She said, “I had accepted Christ just before I made the decision to train for the Olympics in ice speed skating in 2006. I was training at a gym and I started pouring out some of my troubles to a woman. Without hesitation, she asked me if I would like to pray. We prayed right then and there on the floor at the gym. I said yes, and that is when the magic started to happen. It goes to show that God is everywhere! God is on the floor of my local gym and He is in my bedroom at 3 a.m. when I am pouring my life out to Him!”
Her faith is a source of strength and inspiration for the times when she feels like giving up. She said, “it was strange that God didn’t solve all of my problems. But it seemed as though He was giving me the strength to handle more!” She had to remind herself every day why she was pursuing her dream. She told herself that whether she succeeded or failed, she would learn something. She said, “I realize that it’s not about me at all. It’s about finishing what I started… I’ve just kept growing since the time I accepted Christ, and it’s not anything sudden. I realize now that I’m never going to stop learning.” She thanks God every day for the lessons He has taught her in her journey. Even with the risks of moving, training, and uncertain outcomes, she says there is one thing she has learned, and that is: “Success is not defined by the outcome, but by the courage it takes to chase God-sized dreams.”
She is an American bobsledder who has competed in the sport since 2007. She won the silver in the bobsled two-woman event with Shauna Rohbock at the 2009 FIBT World Championships in Lake Placid, New York. Named to the U.S. team in 2010, she along with Erin Pac won the bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. In 2013, she and brake-woman Katie Eberling won the silver at the FIBT World Championships in St. Moritz. She is currently competing in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Though she always dreamed of being an Olympian, it wasn’t an easy road to get there. Before taking up bobsledding, she was the first softball recruit at George Washington University and quickly set nearly every offensive record. However, she said, “My sophomore year, our softball team was doing really badly and our season ended up getting canceled. So, that being the center of my life, I got really depressed. I didn’t know what to do and I didn’t know what my purpose was. I just started researching religions. Something inside of me told me I needed more than this.” While reading a book about spiritual things over Christmas break, she became overwhelmed with emotion, and said of that time, “It hit me that Jesus is the way. I can’t explain it by anything other than that. It was so strong and powerful; I knew that I needed to change my life.” When she returned to George Washington University, she began to understand what it means to be a Christ-follower. She joined Athletes in Action, began studying the Word, and growing in her faith.
In 2003, she was invited to try out for the 2004 Olympic softball team but the experience did not go well; she says she “crashed and burned.” After retiring in 2007, she took up bobsledding and she has worked hard to become one of the top female bobsledders in the country. After winning the bronze in 2010, she said, “To walk away with a medal was the accomplishment of a lifelong dream. It’s hard to put into words how incredible that experience was. That’s one of those moments when you know how real God is. I think I won that medal to glorify Him. One of the big reasons I was put in bobsled is to help people not only reach their goals, but come to Christ. God put me here for a specific reason and I don’t think it’s just to win medals. At the end of the day, I’m in this sport to glorify God, so if that means I come in last place or I win the gold medal, that’s what I’m going to do.”
He is a tight end for the Denver Broncos. Before going to the Broncos in 2012, he was drafted in the fourth round of the 2008 NFL Draft by the Indianapolis Colts. He played college football for the University of Kentucky, and as a senior, he earned first-team All-SEC honors from both the Associated Press and the coaches polls.
In 2007, he was named the SEC Scholar Athlete of the Year and elected to the first-team Academic All-America squad by the College Sports Information Directors of America. He was the 2007 recipient of the Bobby Bowden Award, a national honor presented by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
He helped his teams, the Colts and the Broncos, win the AFC Championship, the Colts in 2009 and the Broncos 2013. He recently helped to lead his team, the Denver Broncos, to a Super Bowl berth in the January 19th’s AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots. His team played the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48 on February 2, 2014.
He said of his faith, “I’ve been blessed with two great parents who taught me how to do things the right way and that provided a great foundation for my spiritual life. Today, I am very thankful to have a life partner in my wife and a son. This has given me a great responsibility to lead my family in our faith, relationship with Christ, and provide the same foundation that my parents provided for me. To me, this is the thing that matters most in life.”
“My faith is important because it’s the core of why I believe we exist as humans. Faith allows us to spend an eternity with God and it fuels my every day actions. I’ve seen how having faith in God can change lives and it certainly has changed mine….God has to come first in all of our lives, then family second. Everything else that we chose in life comes after. Football is very consuming and I love being able to go out and compete week in and week out, but you have to elevate the other two (faith and family) because they are most important and the cornerstones of our lives.”
He is the quarterback for the Denver Broncos. Before playing for the Broncos, he was selected by the Indianapolis Colts as the first overall pick in the 1998 NFL Draft. He played 14 seasons from 1998 to 2011 for the Colts. He led the Colts to eight division championships, two AFC championships, and one Super Bowl championship in 2007.
His statistics throughout his playing career have ranked him among the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. He has been awarded four NFL MVPs — a league record. He has also been named to 13 Pro Bowls and 7 AP All-Pro teams. He has thirteen 4000-yard passing seasons, and is the all-time leader in passing yards and touchdown passes for the Indianapolis Colts. Fox Sports and Sports Illustrated named him the NFL “player of the decade” for the 2000s. And in 2013, Sports Illustrated named him “Sportsman of the Year.”
Also in 2013: He broke the record for most passing touchdowns in a season with 55 of his own; he joined Brett Favre and Dan Marino as the only NFL players in history to throw for over 60,000 yards; and he broke the NFL’s passing yardage record by exactly one yard in the final game of the regular season.
He led his team, the Denver Broncos, to a Super Bowl berth by throwing for 400 yards and two touchdowns in the January 19th AFC Championship Game against the New England Patriots. His team plays the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl 48 on February 2, 2014.
He said of his faith, “At age 13, I committed my life to Christ, and that faith has been most important to me ever since….For me generally it had always been the big four: faith, family, friends, and football. As important as football is to me, it can never be higher than fourth. My faith has been number one since I was thirteen years old.”
He said further, “Some players get more vocal about their faith, and some point to Heaven after scoring a touchdown and praise God after games. I have no problem with that. But I don’t do it, and I don’t think it makes me any less a Christian. I just want my actions to speak louder, and I don’t want to be more of a target for criticism…My faith doesn’t make me perfect, it makes me forgiven, and provides me the assurance I once looked for. I’ve been blessed—having so little go wrong in my life, and being given so much. I pray every night, sometimes long prayers about a lot of things and a lot of people, but I don’t talk about it or brag about it because that’s between God and me, and I’m no better than anybody else in God’s sight. But I consider myself fortunate to be able to go to Him for guidance, and I hope (and pray) I don’t do too many things that displease Him. I believe, too, that life is much better and freer when you’re committed to God in that way.”
The Gospel Light Minute 