“Thrust Into the Fire is one man's account of his redemption. We never tire of hearing even one story of how a non-believer came to Christ. How a life was transformed and our Savior counts one more soul in His column! And often, we know that's exactly how He works. One man at a time. One woman at a time. One soul that the enemy had already marked as being in “his” column has accepted our Lord Jesus as their Lord and Savior, will know eternal life, is forgiven of their sins and now has a personal relationship with God. But we also know too many stories in which the enemy has chalked up another lost brother or sister as belonging to the evil one. And when we hear the story of how one of these lost souls has come to Christ…when everyone in the “earthly realm” has given up on them as being too far gone to save…their sins were simply too egregious. And in a defiant voice, they may even publicly renounce our Savior with a blasphemous tongue! But when we hear the accounts – the testimonies – the confessions of one of these which many of us had frankly given up on – when we hear their stories of redemption, against all odds, we know that God has truly done something special and we are witnesses to nothing short of a miracle. And it encourages us. It reinvigorates us. It causes us to rejoice – for when we earthly beings had given up hope, our God reminds us that truly, through Him ALL things are possible. Thrust Into the Fire is one such story. It's a story of a man who was born a Jew. As a young adult, he became a traveling salesman who succumbed to all of the temptations which face everyone who travels for a living. Not only did he not accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he renounced Him. He rejected Him. And by his sinful acts, it was as though he spat on our Savior. And yet, as the author tells his story, the reader can't help but “root for him.” Beginning in his childhood, the deck was stacked against him. His lifestyle was reckless. He could have contracted an STD. He could have contracted AIDS. He could easily have gotten into an automobile accident. He could have consumed some “bad dope.” But as he tells his story, the reader feels that the writer is being protected. That someone is watching over him. And that his protection, because it is unseen, must be from the realm of the supernatural. When everyone else had given up on him, one had not. And it had to be someone with supernatural gifts. Someone who obviously loved him unconditionally, because nothing in his lifestyle was deserving of such supernatural protection. Yes, it is just one more story of redemption. But it's a redemption that was unpredictable and to many impossible. It's a story of a Jewish boy who grew up living a life of sin. It is someone whose redemption seemed highly improbable. Highly unlikely. But how was he to know..how are we as readers to know…how would anyone know: that He'd been THRUST INTO THE FIRE!”
Recent years have been among the most challenging in NFL history, culminating in the 2020-21 coronavirus and social justice issues. Yet a complete understanding of where the NFL is today begins with a five-year period that was the most transformative for the league. From 1957 to 1962, the NFL saw: the advent of unionization, with a landmark Supreme Court decision; the legendary 1958 title game, the first to go into sudden death overtime; a challenge from the American Football League that would have important consequences for decades; the introduction of computerization and statistical analysis; the first steps towards globalization; and the hiring of legends Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry, who both contributed to the league's growing mythology. This book describes in detail the key events that helped shape the modern NFL, and why this period was so momentous to the league and its fans.
For many football fans, the National Football League season of 1970 was a landmark year in the history of the game. The NFL and the American Football League finally began playing as a merged league--one that featured such legendary figures as George Blanda, Tom Dempsey, Vince Lombardi, George Allen, Sid Gillman, Lamar Hunt, and Al Davis. The NFL, Year One focuses on several key games throughout this thrilling initial season. One saw the Raiders and Browns play in Cleveland. This contest serves as the backdrop for the story of forty-three-year-old Oakland kicker Blanda, who went on that season to win or tie four consecutive games in the last seconds, becoming a hero to middle-aged American men. Among other notable games that Brad Schultz examines are the Browns-Jets game that marked the debut of Monday Night Football with commentators Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell, and "Dandy" Don Meredith; the Chiefs-Vikings game that served as a rematch for the Super Bowl IV competitors; and the Colts-Jets game that ultimately set the scene for the 1970 players' strike. Schultz also demonstrates how the season continues to influence the NFL today. Meticulously researched and thoroughly entertaining, The NFL, Year One is a riveting account of one of the most important and compelling seasons in NFL history. Any fan will surely enjoy Schultz's revisiting of the game's amazing 1970 season.
A tight, dramatic NFL playoff game is exciting on its own, but two of the most dramatic in the same afternoon might result in the most compelling day in football history. This book is the first to capture the excitement and tension of December 23, 1972, when Pittsburgh played Oakland and Dallas met San Francisco in a pair of first-round playoff games that captivated millions. One game saw Dallas rally from three scores down in the fourth quarter, while the other featured the most famous ending in league history--the Immaculate Reception. This book details both high-stakes games as well as the historic season that led each team to the 1972 playoffs. Also covered are the men behind the miracles--some captured the moment to become heroes and legends, while others let success slip through their grasp. Two games, one afternoon, countless memories.
The year 1970 was grim in the United States and worldwide. Vietnam, continuing civil and political divisions, a fear of growing lawlessness, all seemed to point to a bleak future. The 70s were also a time when traditional boundaries were being challenged, from the color of skin to the length of hair. Sports events, issues, and athletes from the very first year of this tumultuous decade reflect the dramatic changes that were taking place around the country. Nowhere was this more evident than in college football, where the University of Texas became the last all-white national champion in 1970, even as a freshman still ineligible to play was standing by to bring about integration. In Lombardi Dies, Orr Flies, Marshall Cries: The Sports Legacy of 1970, Brad Schultz covers the most significant and momentous sports stories from this single year in American history, reflecting on the deeper impact of these events both on the sporting world and on society as a whole. Integration, homosexuality, drugs, lawsuits, and tragedy all crossed the sporting landscape in 1970, including pivotal moments such as student-athlete protests against racism in college football, the debut of Monday Night Football, a challenge to baseball’s reserve clause, and the plane crash carrying Marshall University’s football team that killed everyone on board. Schultz tells these stories and more, thoughtfully placing them within the context of the political, social, and cultural events taking place across the country and around the world. Many of the athletes from 1970 may no longer be with us, their records may have been broken, and younger athletes may have taken their place, but forty-five years later, it is time to look back and reflect on the significance of the events that took place in this unforgettable sports year. Chronicling a remarkable time in the history of American sports, this book will interest historians, sports fans, and those wanting to learn more about the impact of sports on culture and society.
In a work that will be of interest to students and scholars of American Literature, Romanticism, Transcendentalism, the History of Ideas,and Religious Studies, Brad Bannon examines Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s engagement with the philosophical theology of Jonathan Edwards. A closer look at Coleridge’s response to Edwards clarifies the important influence that both thinkers had on seminal works of the nineteenth century, ranging from the antebellum period to the aftermath of the American Civil War—from Poe’s fiction and Emerson’s essays to Melville’s Billy Budd and Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. Similarly, Coleridge’s early espousal of an abolitionist theology that had evolved from Edwards and been shaped by John Woolman and Olaudah Equiano sheds light on the way that American Romantics later worked to affirm a philosophy of supernatural self-determination. Ultimately, what Coleridge offered the American Romantics was a supernatural modification of Edwards’ theological determinism, a compromise that provided Emerson and other nineteenth-century thinkers with an acceptable extension of an essentially Calvinist theology. Indeed, a thoroughgoing skepticism with respect to salvation, as well as a faith in the absolute inscrutability of Providence, led both the Transcendentalists and the Dark Romantics to speculate freely on the possibility of supernatural self-determination while doubting that anything other than God, or nature, could harness the power of causation.
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