FEATURE
Chris Singleton: Center Field with Jesus
By Andrew Knox
The 700 Club
CBN.com -
Chris Singleton never saw it coming. Ironic for a man whose anticipation
and quick reactions make baseball plays look easy.
Chris: "It wasn't my choosing. It wasn't like I was at a time in my life
where I said 'OK God, I'm ready for you.' God just really put His hand
upon me, and it was really like no escape."
But it was back in college, when a crisis halfway around the world suddenly
got his attention.
Chris: "Everything was great. You know there was everything to look forward
to, and when I went home that off-season, that was the year we had gone
to war in Desert Storm.
"I remember turning on the television and seeing the news during this
time and it was as if scales dropped from my eyes. God spoke to my heart
and said, 'You know this world is perishing, it's passing away and posed
the question very directly to me, 'Do you want to perish with this world?'
"And that to me was as if there was a gun pointed to my head. And it
was like you need to choose if you're going to serve God or if you're
going to perish with this world."
After this dramatic encounter, Chris wanted to live for God. But he wasn't
sure how to do it by himself.
Chris: "I didn't know anything about living a Christian life, how it
could be practical. I didn't know anyone that was a Christian that was
my age that was playing sports, that was in college that was a cool person
that loved God.
"But the burden stayed so heavy over the course of about 10 days that
finally I just said 'Lord if you'll save me then I'll live for you. I
don't know how but I'll live for you,' and when I said that peace came."
The man we see in uniform today hasn't forgotten how God changed his
life.
Chris: "Music that I listened to, I didn't have peace listening to it
any longer, and there was no one there telling me with a religious attitude
'Hey, you can't do this, you can't listen to that.' It was the work of
the Holy Spirit that changed me on the inside so that I was uncomfortable
with the things that I used to be so comfortable with."
Chris: "You want to be out there and you want to do well. I think everyone
does, but I think God gives you the perspective to say what's the most
important thing? And it's the Kingdom of God. It's guys being saved because
so many people are affected when a man chooses to live for God. His wife
is affected, his children are affected, his children's children, his children's
friends. So there's such a spread of truth and of the Gospel just by one
man being obedient."
This one man recently took a major step in spreading his message. The
family moved to Atlanta in the off season where he and his wife serve
as associate pastors at Rock Bridge church.
Chris: "I believe it was time for us to kind of step out and take on
that next responsibility of ministry because I feel like that's the call
that's on my life. Even though I'm playing baseball, I still think I need
to accept that responsibility and prepare myself because baseball will
be over one day."
Chris: "God's love for each person is so incredible. We can't even grasp
his love for us.
"The God that people are rejecting out there is a God that religion has
painted a picture of or the world's system has painted a picture of. I
don't think anyone who's really seen a clear picture of who God is can
reject Him because He's everything that you want."
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