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Are You Saved?
Have you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life?
Here's how! Can you believe in your heart that Jesus is God - that He
became a man, was tempted in every way we are, yet He led a sinless life,
to become the Lamb of God, the perfect sacrifice for sin. He suffered and
died the death that we deserve for our sin, but on the third day He rose from
the dead - He conquered death for us - for you!!
Perhaps you have heard these words before, but have you accepted them
into your heart? "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe
in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved".
[Romans 10.9] Have you confessed your sin to Jesus? Asked Him to wash
away your sin with His blood? Have you accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and
Savior of of your life and been born again? Jesus can give you a brand new
start in life - He wants to heal you - and you can accept Him, right now -
wherever you are...
Accept Jesus Christ as your Savior by praying this simple prayer:
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner. But I believe that you died upon
the cross for me. That you shed your precious blood for the
forgiveness of my sin. And I believe that on the third day, you
rose from the dead, and went to Heaven to prepare a place
for me. I accept you now as my Savior, my Lord, my God,
my friend. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and set me free
from my sin. And, because you are my Savior, Jesus,
"I shall not die, but have everlasting life".
Thank you Jesus!
philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com
Fightin’ Phils are World Series champions
By Joe Juliano
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
After 28 years, and two days of waiting for the rain to stop so that Game 5 of the World Series could resume, the wait is over.
The Phillies are the champions.
Pedro Feliz singled in pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett with the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning, and Brad Lidge finished up a perfect year out of the bullpen by closing in the ninth to lift the Phillies to a 4-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays tonight at Citizens Bank Park.
The Phillies won all three games at the Bank to clinch the best-of-seven series, four games to one, and win their first World Series title since 1980. The fourth victory was the most difficult since the game had been suspended Monday night because of a cold, windblown rain after 51/2 innings with the score tied at 2.
J.C. Romero worked 11/3 innings to pick up the win. Lidge gave up a broken-bat single in the ninth to Dioner Navarro but struck out pinch-hitter Eric Hinske on three pitches amid a barrage of camera flashes to pick up the save, his 48th in 48 opportunities this season.
Lidge fell to his knees after the final out, and he was mobbed a split second later by his teammates.
Judging from the way the game progressed after it resumed at 8:40 p.m., the thought was that perhaps baseball should try more of these three-inning minigames.
Leading off the sixth, pinch-hitter Geoff Jenkins turned the revved-up crowd into a frenzied, howling throng by blasting a 3-2 pitch off the wall in right-center for a double. Jimmy Rollins sacrificed Jenkins to third.
Jayson Werth got Jenkins home when his bloop to center field against a drawn-in infield went off the glove of second baseman Akinori Iwamura, who went a long way and tried to make an over-the-shoulder catch but could not hold on.
The Rays got the run back in the seventh without too much trouble when, with one out, Rocco Baldelli lined the first pitch he saw off Ryan Madson over the left-field wall. Jason Bartlett followed with a single and was sacrificed to second by pitcher J.P. Howell.
Iwamura then shot a grounder up the middle that was gloved by Chase Utley, who faked a throw to first. However, Bartlett never stopped running as he rounded third and was thrown out at the plate by Utley, who made an off-line throw that was handled in fine fashion for the tag by catcher Carlos Ruiz.
The Phillies regained the lead in their half of the seventh. Pat Burrell, who was 0 for 13 in the World Series to that point, hit a drive off the wall in left-center that missed going out by about a foot. Burrell wound up with a double, and Shane Victorino's groundout moved pinch-runner Eric Bruntlett to third.
Pedro Feliz then cracked a solid single up the middle to score Bruntlett, putting the Phillies back up, 4-3.
In a surprise decision, Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon elected to have righthander Grant Balfour, his pitcher at the time of the suspension, remain in the game to face the lefthanded-hitting Jenkins. He appeared reluctant to put lefthanded phenom David Price in the game, in particular because Price would have been the fourth batter in the top of the seventh.
Phillies manager Charlie Manuel decided to start with Madson in the seventh, perhaps thinking he could be the bridge to Lidge if Manuel chose to have Lidge work for more than one inning. But Madson was lifted after Bartlett's single, and J.C. Romero got the next four outs.
Believe it, Phils are champs
By RICH HOFMANN
Philadelphia Daily News
hofmanr@phillynews.com
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS joined them all, fans and Phillies, young and old, diehards and cynics, as pitcher Brad Lidge dropped to his knees in front of the mound. History will record the final out was a strikeout of Tampa Bay's Eric Hinske. It was 9:58 p.m. The hour of redemption was upon them all.
Catcher Carlos Ruiz reached Lidge first as Citizens Bank Park erupted. So that's what it sounds like, after all? Ryan Howard rushed in from first base and bowled over both Lidge and Ruiz, and then the real pileup began. People hugged, jumped, danced in the seats. One guy held up a sign that said, "Yo Adrian, We Did It."
Twenty-five years. And Jimmy Rollins said, "It's over, man. It's over."
The ballpark was filled by proxies - 25 current Phillies players representing decades of a franchise filled mostly by despair; 45,000 fans standing and yelling on behalf of millions of their fellow citizens, some who had lost their voices, others who had lost all hope after a quarter-century without a major sports championship.
As Philadelphians, we seem to grow wary when things begin going too well. We fear success sometimes. We are frightened by perfection. It would take an hour and an advanced degree in sociology to explain it, but we all know it is true.
But we will know forever now that Lidge, the closer who never blew a save all season, led them in the end to a 4-3 victory, led the franchise to its first championship in 28 years. And teammate Ryan Madson said, "It's a good thing he was perfect because this is unbelievable. It was a lot of hard word and it's all for a reason now."
An hour beforehand, it was still hard to know. The seats at Citizens Bank Park, dark blue and mostly empty, sat unopened in the cold. You could imagine the ticketholders huddling elsewhere, in the concourse, around their cars and their coolers, trying to stay warm, stamping their feet, pondering their fate, waiting.
They had arrived here early Monday night filled with hope and departed a few hours later, wet and exhausted, sentenced to 2 more days. "Only in Philly," came the simple message from a buddy, and it was echoed a million-fold throughout the region. This is a place that has found comfort in misery over the last quarter-century. So, rain? Of course.
They came to see 3 1/2 innings, the resumption of a suspended World Series game, the final, labored sprint at the end of a 25-year marathon. And you wondered - what it would feel like when a Philadelphia team finally won?
It felt like sprayed champagne in your eyes and fans who didn't want to leave, who chanted for Phils manager Charlie Manuel to come back out of the clubhouse nearly 90 minutes after the game ended.
It looked like relief pitcher Chad Durbin, kneeling down on the pitching mound, scooping up a handful of dirt and sifting it into the tiny hand of one of his children.
It looked like 45-year-old pitcher Jamie Moyer, standing on the field, doing an interview and then excusing himself to run over and get into a picture with his wife and children. It will make one hell of a Christmas card.
Twenty-five years. "What can they say now that we're world champions?" Rollins said. "Twenty-five years they've waited. I was barely born."
It was so odd, the whole night. It will forever be a part of the lore. No one had ever seen what all of us just saw, a World Series game suspended by rain and resumed 46 hours later. The Phillies were leading the Rays by three games to one, and they needed only one more win, one more for the title, and no one had ever been a part of such a crownus interruptus - not here, not anywhere.
And this is how they took the lead: In the bottom of the seventh, Pedro Feliz singled, through a drawn-in infield, to score Eric Bruntlett. Bruntlett was pinch-running for Pat Burrell, who had doubled high off of the wall in left-center to lead off the inning. The batter before, Bruntlett had advanced to third on a groundout by Shane Victorino after Victorino failed twice to get down a bunt.
Look at that sequence. Feliz, brought here mostly for his glove. Bruntlett, a spare part. Burrell, a lifer here, maybe in his last Phillies at-bat. Victorino, part of the young, new energy on the roster.
Four players. One run. The end of an era that Philadelphia swore would not define us but very likely did.
Twenty-five years. So this is what it feels like. *
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