Thursday, April 30, 2009
We've Moved!
Sunday, April 19, 2009
A Week From Now...
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Standing Before Your Enemies
"See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and the valiant warriors..."
Joshua 7:10-1310So the LORD said to Joshua, "Rise up! Why is it that you have fallen on your face?11"Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed My covenant which I commanded them. And they have even taken some of the things under the ban and have both stolen and deceived. Moreover, they have also put them among their own things.
12"Therefore the sons of Israel cannot stand before their enemies; they turn their backs before their enemies, for they have become accursed. I will not be with you anymore unless you destroy the things under the ban from your midst.
13"Rise up! Consecrate the people and say, 'Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, for thus the LORD, the God of Israel, has said, "There are things under the ban in your midst, O Israel. You cannot stand before your enemies until you have removed the things under the ban from your midst."
There are three things here that I want to share with you. First, God says "Get up"! It's simple really. Get up - stand tall. You're a child of God and you can rest in the knowledge that he'll take care of you.
The second thing God says is in verses 11 and 12 where he says "Look people, you're not living right. And as long as you don't live right I'm not going to be with you!" God was with them at Jericho and gave them the city. Yet, they disobeyed and kept plunder for themselves. When they went to Ai God was not with them and they got a good old fashioned whoopin'.
The last thing God says to Joshua is in verse 13. He says "You can fix this." The word consecrate means to purify - to make the dirty things clean. God told Joshua that if the people of Israel would purify themselves He would be with them again.
What this meant for Joshua and the people of Israel was survival. Being in the desert without God would mean the death and extinction of God's people. God was offering them an all-or-nothing proposition. If you're with me, I'll give you wonderful things. If you're not with me, you die. There was no settlement in the middle.
So, for us as men, when we get out of bed in the morning and face our enemies, we need to make sure that we go with God. It's very simple. Start each day with God and He will take your through your day with His protection and grace. Start each day on your own, using your own strength and your own resources, and your enemies are going to beat you up.
It says so in the Bible.
John 13:17 "If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
The Gift and the Celebration
Luke 24:38, 3938He said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? 39Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have."
Friday, April 3, 2009
The Gift and the Cost of the Gift
Luke 23:39 "One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"
Luke 23:40, 41 "But the other criminal rebuked him . 'Don't you fear God,' he said, 'since you are under the same sentence? we are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."
Luke 23:43 "Jesus answered him, 'I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Jesus Christ gave his life for us,
so that he could give his life to us,
in order to live his life through us
Think about how the gift of grace and what Jesus Christ did on the cross can affect you - and in turn, effect your relationship with your wife.
Thanks for stopping by.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
The Gift and the Gift Card.
In Mark's account of his time with Jesus he recounts the abuse that Jesus endured for me. In chapter 14 Mark tells how Jesus was before the Jewish ruling counsel and how they physically beat him with their fists, slapped his face, and spit on him. But this abuse just scratches the surface. Later, in chapter 15, Mark tells about how the roman soldiers scourged him. If you've ever seen the movie The Passion of the Christ, you now are aware of what a scourging is. Even as I write this I get queasy over the memory of that scene. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, a scourge is a handle with many leather cords attached to it. Today it's most commonly referred to as a cat o' nine tails. Often, metal objects were attached to the ends of the tails so that when it hit the skin it would tear it open. Even after the scourging, Mark tells us that the roman court pressed the crown on thorns into his head, spit on him some more, and beat him in the head with a stick.
My friend, you and I were separated from God by the sin in our lives. God saw this and he didn't like it. He wanted a way to have a relationship with us again. The only way He could do that was to have Jesus Christ endure this punishment and eventually die and go to hell - all so that you and I could have a relationship with God again. You and I should have been the one spit on, beaten up, and scourged - our skin ripped apart in searing pain. You and I are the ones who rightly deserve to die and go to hell for the sin in our lives. But God doesn't want us to go to hell. He doesn't want us to die. He loves us and wants a relationship with us. He wants us to be with Him.
Jesus Christ took our place in the beatings, the abuse, the death, and our place in hell so that we could go on living in community with God. He loved us that much. He gave us this gift - the gift of forgiving the wrong things we do and a seat with him in heaven forever. We don't have to pay for it - the price has already been paid. We can't earn it like a paycheck. It comes with no strings attached - it's free!
For Christan married men, this gift comes with a gift card attached. The card says just one thing on it:
Ephesians 5:25*If you haven't accepted Jesus Christ as the one who saves you from the wrongs you do in your life you're still separated from God. If you want to change this, send an e-mail to Info@4BetterOr4Worse.org and someone will contact you and help you make this happen in your life. We can't do it without him, and what's more is that we were never meant to.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her."
Saturday, March 21, 2009
Encouragement 101
My answer to most of these types of questions is to get back to basics. So, this morning I cracked open the Good Book and started thumbing my way through the New Testament. I wonder how many men are like me - plenty familiar with the front half of the New Testament but not so much with the back half. There's some great stuff back there! The Apostle Paul does a lot of encouraging through letters to pastors in the middle part of the New Testament. His letters to the Philippians, Titus, Timothy, and the Hebrews are all about encouragement and motivation. In my back to basics philosophy, you can not only receive encouragement from these books of the Bible but you can also take a lesson in the how to's of encouragement as well. If there's someone in your life that has really hit a rough stretch of road in life and needs some propping up, this is where you figure out how to do it. Most of these books are not a long read - some of them can be read in just a few minutes.
I am by no means an expert in encouragement. Yet, I think there's a right way and a wrong way to encourage someone. In my efforts to encourage my friend I'm taking some cues from the way Paul writes his letters and I've found a few things that might help you if you're in the same boat.
- The template.
I've been accused of being very analytical and left brained, rigidly conforming to templates for my actions and reactions to things in life. While that may be a valid criticism of my habits, I think there is some value in it. Paul's letters of encouragement all have similar elements. There's a greeting before he gets down to business. Paul uses the greeting to express his heartfelt love and concern for the people he's writing to. Then he gets down to business. He addresses issues with heartfelt sincerety and sound principles. Paul is a master at delivering love with accountability - truth with grace. In the end, he turns personal again, leaving the reader with a very heartfelt goodbye. - Grace and Peace
Frequently, in his letters, Paul starts out the letter by using the phrase "Grace and Peace be with you". I think it's important that those two elements become the goal of our encouragement. Grace and peace come from God - no where else. But we who are doing the encouragement are the hands and feet of God. We men, as brother's in Christ, are the method by which God delivers his grace and peace. I think it's really important that we keep this in the forefront of our minds when we set out to encourage and motivate another person. - Prayer.
Paul prayed a lot! Often, when we are in a position to encourage someone it happens over a peroid of time and not for just one point in time (i.e. death of a family member, loss of job, divorce, etc). Pray for the person you're encouraging consistantly. Yes, it's possible that this means doing something you're not used to. - Truth and Grace.
As I said before - Paul was a master at delivering accountability with a purpose. One of the venue pastors from my church said to me once "Grace always follows truth.". Accountabilty is important. At times, the reason why someone may need encouragement is because of consequences from poor choices they have made. When this is the case, as brothers in Christ, we need to shine the light on that and see it for what it is. However, grace needs to follow that truth. It has to be communicated in love and support - never with condemnation and condecention. Paul sometimes throws in references to his own failures in order to support his point of grace and to remind his reader that they're in the same boat. In other cases people are in bad spots through no fault of their own. A little different approach might be in order here. Remind them that God loves them and is in control of everything. This can be really difficult sometimes. I'm struggling with this myself. Sometimes it seems that the words "Jesus loves you" and $2 will buy you a coffee at Starbucks. My advice, for lack of anything better, is to acknowledge those feelings but continue to validate the truth. "I know that might be hard to believe right now, but it's true - God cares for you." - Teach - Don't Preach
Paul always manages to maintain an attitude of sincerity. Many times, as he writes, he explains how his teaching is in their best interest. He communicate that the motivation for his teaching is because he cares for them so much and wants the very best for them. This is another critical element anytime you set out to encourage someone. - Humor.
I often wonder why the writers of the contents of the Bible never included anything funny? I have been blessed by some very funny people in my life and I have recognized the asset that humor can be when encouraging someone. There are physical and emotional benefits to laughter and I think this can be an important part of encouragement - even if it's just to get someone's mind off their troubles for a few minutes. Just be careful to keep the humor appropriate. Racy or inappropriate jokes (not to be confused with bad jokes or groaners) can lead you down a path you're tying to avoid in the first place. - The wrap up.
I think it's important when you end your time with someone that you do two things - pray together and let them know you love them.
Thanks for tuning in.