For the fourth consecutive year, I have the blessing of coaching Trae's softball team. The Marble Falls Youth Softball Association divides the 6-8 year olds (Trae is seven) into a coach-pitch league.

Last night, our team, the Rangers, knocked off the Tigers who were previously unbeaten by the score of 15-11. The Tigers are coached by Brent Dalton who worships with us the Marble Falls Church of Christ.

We are now tied with Brent's team for first place in the league and will have showdown game on Tuesday, May 23rd for the league championship!

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Speaking of Rangers teams that are playing well, how bout the "real" Rangers? Last night, Texas finished off a two-game sweep of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Rangers finished up a two-city road swing through Cleveland and Tampa with a 4-1 record, marking the second road trip in which the Rangers have returned home with a winning record.

Now comes a tricky part in the schedule, with 10 of the next 15 games against the Red Sox and Yankees. The next 15 will provide a real barometer of where the Rangers really are. Are they contenders this year or just pretenders? Stay tuned.

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"My beloved friends, let us continue to love each other since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love doesn't know the first thing about God, because God is love -- so you can't know him if you don't love. This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. This is the kind of love we are talking about -- not that we once upon a time loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to clear away our sins and the damage they've done to our relationship with God.

My dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us -- perfect love.

If anyone boasts, 'I love God,' and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both" (1 John 4.7-12, 20-21 from The Message).