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Monday, September 20, 2010

Renew commitment

What a busy summer! It seems that business/fun …marked this summer and can you believe it, Sept. is here. Even with this great weather I still have the urge to go away again, fun, fun, fun. Things are different in the summer. So this weekend, Labor day, the signal that we are done with the summer schedule and back to the grind of life; that is work, school….and with that the change, the change of our church services(Sunday school again). Are you like me? That it even seems easier to be back in routine of going to church and all the activities that start up. Let’s be honest, during the summer, it seems easy to do less of those activities. Also let’s be honest, during the summer, it seems that we even get lacks on our, let’s call it “devotions”. We forget, get busy… do the quick prayer thing….well it’s summer.
You want to know something? Some of us will struggle with getting back into the routine of going to church and those activities (good activities). How do I know? Well being almost well rounded, I have had my struggles with this through out the years. In James 4:8 “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”( I know there is more to that verse) What we need to do as men is to be excited about going to church….Seeking that part of drawing near to God, and more and more in other areas too. Guess what guys? It’s football season! Remember what “Super Sunday” means for us. Yes, we should look forward to every Sunday, to draw near to God.
So this week as men let’s get excited about going to church, that is to worship, seek…our Lord. Let’s be the examples for our families. Be the guys who are up early, helping to get the family ready, breakfast…planning the day before, excited. One more thing let’s start up that memory verse thing. So the first verves will be what Pastor Paul asked us to do.

Eph. 2:4-8 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show us the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of god; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before hand so that we would walk in them

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

importance

This week we will take a little bit of a turn in our men’s devotional; but at the same time it will be right in line, that is with our love dare. Sometimes you don’t know the importance of something, or the importance of some one until their not here. Sometimes we take things for granted, we even take for granted the things others are doing for us; even though we might not realize they are being done. And sometimes some of those things are the things we should be doing our selves. But if you are like me, sadly we forget or say we are too busy. We do this about so many things! We are busy even when we are not busy; just stop and think about it. Do you waste time just doing nothing, relaxing….that is a little to much.
So this weak I want to focus back on prayer. Yes, prayer! It is so important and vital in the Christians life; but it is also the most neglected area of a Christians life. Why am I going back to prayer? Did you realize a mighty prayer warrior of our Lord passed away this week and went home? When my wife and I heard about her passing, this question arose from us “Who will be praying for us now?” You see she was a small lady who sat in the back, older in years and frail. But she was mighty, you see she was used of God as prayer warrior, a mighty prayer warrior. She wasn’t around for many church special events….but she was faithful. And when we talked about prayer, she always came to mind. You see, she was the real deal, she prayed to the father on my behalf and others. How did I know ? She told me, and she even told me she was when I was going through some trials… I wonder how many trials… she prayed me through? I never asked, but was glad she did pray for my family and me.
So who will pray for my family and me now? Who will pray for all of us now? Well the answer is that I should be praying, it’s my responsibility. So this next dare is for us to expand our prayer life. To pray more for our wives (that includes the listening part) and our children. Also for our extended family. Pray for them all, bring them before the Father. Get on your knees….it’s not foolish, it’s important. You know when she told me she was praying for me, I was embarrassed at first, but you know it made me glad inside. Every one needs prayer, so let’s pray even more. So let’s start, nothing is foolish to our God; bring your family before the throne of God. They need it!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Oh NO

Were you aware? Did you not recognize? Well let me tell you, I was not aware or did I recognize. What am I talking about? I’m talking about our enemy or enemies, Satan and His demons. Even though we can’t see them, they are there. In 1 Peter 5:8 the apostle Peter tell us about our enemy, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Yes, we have an adversary (enemy) and yes the devil is real. Yes, He is at work, He is prowling around like a roaring lion. You see he is on the prowl, he sees you, he sees me! He’s roaring, confusing us and getting us disoriented. He has us looking around in the wrong direction getting us so we are alone. So we are helpless, wore out, defeated and then He tries for the kill.
If I remember correctly lions work like this. They spot there pray, then they start to surround him, then starts the lion roaring. The roaring is to trick you to run toward the waiting other lions. Isn’t it so true we start believing the roar and our thinking goes and then the next thing we are running closer to the trap. Oh by the way those lions surrounding are lionesses. Had to say that because of our study, now don’t take it out of context and read into or think all kinds of things. Oh how easy it is to run toward the trap. Instead of taking a step back or pausing to think. To think and to start running back to Jesus. If we continue to read in 1 Peter 5:10 “After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.” Well when the attacks come it might hurt, might hurt? It hurts; but God will do those 4 things. By the way in verse 9 “resist him”, resist the devil. For us that means to keep on doing the things for our wives that we learned and more; doing righteousness. Now that more would be that studying of our wives; to learn here likes….and doing things to meet those needs and likes. That is the next part of our dare. To take it to next level for our Lord and our wives. To learn more about her; her likes, interests, …. Also being alert, sober-minded will be our next area in our spiritual side of loving our wives, the spiritual battle. We need to be aware when the attack comes, alert. Recognizing it when it starts, not after the battle begun and the damage is started…and the wounds are hurting. Sober minded, not only not addicted to things, but also not being hurried, taking the time to think. Boy doesn’t that hit me hard, I’m the just the doing type- jump right in and go. So let’s all of us continue the good fight.

Friday, September 3, 2010

Prayer

Prayer a very important part of a Christians life. To be able to go before the Almighty God with our requests, concerns, troubles, and also to uplift people…and with all kinds of other things. The last few weeks we as men have had the privilege to bring before the Father our wives. If we really think about it, how awesome is that! We started out with just to begin to pray; then we took more time to pray. By asking God, what to pray for our wives. You see this might seem foolish to some; but it is a very important part of prayer. We go before the Father, because we need His help….so we go before Him for His wisdom; wisdom to pray for our wives. Thanks be to God that He welcomes our requests.
Now in the “Love Dare” book the dares turn to an inward, so called, toward us as men. The first part of this would be to look inside of our selves to see if we are Christians and/or following God. Did we take the steps of receiving Jesus as our savior…Without Him we are not able to love, we don’t know how to love. We might think we know, but if we really stop and think about it; we lack in the area of true love and what it means. So this next dare is for us as men to draw nearer to God. To get into His word….more. To listen to Him, wait on Him, follow Him…To let Him teach us how to love our wives…So many times we fall into that “trap”, she does something then I do in return or we do something and we expect something in return. Rather just being happy to do for our wives, repeatedly, because we love her. Now here’s the new question, how has it been the last few weeks doing these dares? Hard, unnoticed, not good enough, hit or miss……Now let’s try a different approach, by asking our Lord to help us to do these for our wives, and doing it not only for her pleasure, but also for the joy of our Lord, Jesus. His good pleasure! Let’s face it, we need His help.
1John4:7 “Let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
Proverbs 3:13 “How blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gains understanding.”