“God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.” ~ John 3:16 CEV

Mike is a long-time Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  The Schmitts are also University of Florida Gators fans; we especially enjoyed watching the football games when Tim Tebow was the quarterback.  Josh saw every game in “The Swamp” his last year at UF.  (Also Tim’s last year.)

Many of you know the Steelers lost to the Broncos Sunday 29 to 23 in “the fastest overtime win in NFL history”.  You may not know that the statistics from that game have caused an eruption of sorts on the internet. (See first point in “notes” below.)  Here’s some of the numbers:

• Tim had 316 total passing yards
• Tim averaged 31.6 yards per pass
• and the final quarter-hour TV rating for the game was 31.6, “the highest-rated wild card game for CBS in 24 years” (see point one in “notes”)

Millions of fans searched the internet for John 3:16 after learning  of Tim’s unusual stats.  In his college days, when Tim wore John 3:16 on his eye black for one game, Google recorded 93 million hits that day. (Read more on my post about Tim: Reaching Millions with Bible Verses… and a Dedicated Life.)

Because of Tim’s habit of writing Scripture verses on his eye black, NCAA voted to ban words and other items on eye black (referred to as the “Tim Tebow Rule.”)  The NFL had already banned this before Tim became a professional athlete, so he had not been displaying his favorite verses as the Broncos’ quarterback, but God seems to have brought the verse to fans’ attention anyway.  I couldn’t help but think of Acts 4: 19 – 20 CEV when Peter and John were ordered by the priests not to talk of Jesus Christ.  Their answer was: “Do you think God wants us to obey you or to obey him? We cannot keep quiet about what we have seen and heard.”

We pray for Tim and are grateful for his bold stand for Christ.

NOTES:

• Read a full report on these statistics on this blog post.
• Check out the Google Trends for John 3:16.  This verse has increasingly been in the news since 2007 and in internet searches since 2008.
• My posts on Tim Tebow and the remarkable witness of his family.  Tim won the Heisman trophy while at UF and is now with the Denver Broncos.
• The image of the UF mascots, Albert and Alberta, are in the public domain.