mood

Rain, rain go away and come back some other day! Do you ever remember saying that? Even this week with all the rain, it might be nice to say that. But what day would you want to get all that flooding rain? Like we can have a choice. For some of us this rain is just an inconvenience, for others harder work and for others maybe a disaster. Bring it on another day may make things worst…who knows. Well for us the rain is here and our life will go on and yes we may get wet or more. Hopefully none of us will suffer greatly.
Now as believers how does this rain affect you? How does bad weather…(other things that cause hardship) in your life affect you? Are you one to wake up, see the rain and there goes your countenance and your mood changes. Depending on the circumstances, how much of a change there will be and how much you will let the world know. Even some of us want everyone else to share some of this mood you are in or at least really know about it; and sometimes really to know about it. You know what I mean? There is a fine line about talking about, things, verses crossing the “line” where we are in a mood that is not becoming of our Christian walk.
There are 2 things I want to point out. The first would have to be with our looks, attitude and the second is our speech, complaining. You can affect people with just the way you look; you know that disgusted, not happy… look. Also we can affect people with our complaining, in various ways. You know sometimes we don’t even realize we are doing it, the look or complaining. It sometimes becomes natural in situations. The verse we need to make part of our lives is, Phil. 2:14 -15 “Do all things without grumbling or complaining; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as light in the world.” It deals with the verbal (beginning) and the so called, look, at the end. Let’s shine for our Lord.

Have you

Have you ever acted badly? Have you ever thought badly? Now we’re not talking only about the real bad things here; but the seemingly un-harmful things also. The deeds that are being done that most people are doing and you just fall right in or the thoughts that change your thinking about God and about men (persons). If you would just take a minute and ponder, you will know what we mean. All that bad stuff, have you ever said to yourself, “What am I doing?” or “What am I thinking? or down the road a while, the “What was I thinking?” Don’t you long for the day when you just act rightly? Now I’m not talking about never being wrong…but that deep down our motives were/are good. For me sometimes I wish that I could go back in time and correct those things where I was “bad”, wasn’t up to par…where I acted or thought in a sinful way. There I said it, sin! But we can’t go back in time and we have to deal with our actions and thoughts.
Dealing with these “bad” things is not easy. Well for me it isn’t easy but for us Christians the process is not that complicated. We need to humble our selves before God. That is when God, through the Spirit, convicts us we must listen. Like ask the question, “Did I do that Lord?” And we should already know the answer, yes, He’s convicting you. Now we need to repent, confess our bad actions, thoughts to God and ask forgiveness. Then sometimes you may need to take care of business with people also if needed, that is asking their forgiveness. Then there needs to be a change; we don’t want to be doing the same thing over and over. We need to ask God to help us to change that action, thought…and to replace it with the good. Now the verse would be Phil. 1:6 “ for I am confident of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ.” Aren’t you glad that God is working in our lives? He’s doing a good work!

New commitment

Are you a happy person or a sad person? What kind of disposition would mark you? Happy, sad, joyful, full of life, energetic, complainer, woe is me…You see as Christians we are different. We have a God who is mighty…and Who cares for us; more than we can imagine. But we live here on earth and with all the stuff that comes with it. One of them is called Satan (devil) and yes, he is real. Now what I want us to do, is to look at the book of Job this week, the first chapter. In chapter one we see Satan going before God and God says, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and up right man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing?” “Have you not made a hedge around him and all his house and all that he has…..” He continues telling God, to take away Jobs, let’s call it, wealth and he will curse you (God). So God allows Satan to touch Job’s wealth, which includes his family, which Satan does.
You see Satan is an accuser of God’s people , Rev.12:10. The word there in Job actually means, adversary. Look at what he says of Job; Job only follows you because you bless him and protect him. Then he asks God to take away those blessings. God takes down part of the protection and allows Satan to take away those blessing, wealth. A test/ trial of Job to see if he really follows God. Or maybe God proving to Satan that Job is the real deal. At the end of chapter one Job says this, “ Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Yes, Job is the real deal. Now in 2010 are we the real deal? Are you and I the real deal when things are taken away, with held, our life is in turmoil, when we hurt…? Will we bless the Lord in the hard times? Now don’t get me wrong that it’s not a struggle sometimes. Read on and you will see that Job had that struggle, but He did not fall. Sometimes we don’t understand why things happen, bad things, hurtful things…But no matter what comes our way will we continue to bless the Lord and to trust Him? Can we sing that song “Blessed be the name” with a renewed commitment to God? Can we continue to go to church and worship our Lord? Yes we can, we have a great God, worthy of praise.

A little change

A little bit of a change for the start of this years/ season of devotionals ( the title). Sometimes we need change in our lives. To mix things up a bit. That is true of us as Christians. The change that we are talking about is not the same as the world thinks, but the change as God will have for us. There he goes again, you maybe thinking, telling us about changing to be a better husband, father…well yes. But hold on a bit, hear me out on this issue. When we think of change as believers sometimes we only think of the on going work of Jesus, dealing with our sinful habits, ways; our wrong thinking…and yes we need to change in that regard.
The change that I’m talking about here is the one of getting out of a routine that is, same old…We have a schedule and we don’t break it or go out of order. Know I’m not talking about work schedules, school schedules…but the things we do with our free time schedules. Some things we do just characterize us and some times it keeps us from doing different things. Also sometimes we don’t do things because of a so called dislike, it’s takes a little effort, not to sure of the new ground and sometimes because of fear. So what we need to do as men is to not get stuck in the routine of life, we’re we start to be boring. Last week we talked about be excited about going to church and Sunday school. Which is a good routine to get in to. Now as Christians there are a lot of other things we can do also to spice up our Christian life. That is to reach out. What do I mean reach out? That is to do something different. O.K. Let’s just go to a list of things, this will help us with this topic. Go to a Faith groups, Pot luck supper, bible studies, invite a family for dinner, go help a brother, check out the youth ministries or other ministries (you don’t have to join but it’s o.k. to check them out), start doing things with friends….Sometimes we need to stop doing things, for me turn off the t.v. ,there is so much available to us in this modern day. Being a Christian should be fun. So a little change is good as long it is directed toward the good.

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

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!

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.

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.”

O.K. sometimes things seem not to go right! You do the thing….the good deed….and nothing or very little. Even sometimes it is hit or miss if it ever gets noticed. Even sometimes it may seem that things might have gotten a little worst….We start to think why bother? Does she really love me? What am I doing wrong…..all sort of stuff. But the key is to keep on doing! Remember in the movie that Caleb came to a point where he kept on doing; even when he faced all that terrible stuff…from his wife. Remember the scene when Katherine found the book and she asked Caleb what day he was on? I wonder what she thought when she realized he been doing this for over 40 days ands she really didn’t notice in the right way. But look at our selves how many times have we not noticed the things done for us.
Now so far our dares have been dealing with the so called physical side of life. The next set of dares will have to do with the spiritual side. We hope that you will continue with the previous 6 dares. Yah even if you didn’t get that good response or feeling…how do I know that those things happen? Well remember I’m just a man like you and my wife is just a girl like your wife and guess what; were not perfect…just like you. The next dares will have to do with prayer. The first would be to pray for your wife. Would like this to be daily, but I know some might need to just start slowly…What we are going to do is just to pray for our wives day. That is to pray that she could have a good day and some of her needs of the day. Now the second will be to ask God what does He want me to pray for my wife…The things us men don’t seem to notice and what if any does He want us to do for our wives. Now that will take a little more time than the quick 30 second prayer. It might be that through out the day you bring it before the father! Part of that pray without ceasing thing. Now the key is to start praying, even if it is only a one liner. Just start!

Can you believe it; I made a mistake. Should have said we would have 3 weeks to do those 2 dares. So here is the big question; did you do them? Now to an even bigger question; did you do them more than once…these past 3 weeks. So hopefully you have done these dares the last few weeks. It does take some work and thought. Now the next dare will take a little more work, time, thought and resources. As with the others it to will be a combination of 2 dares from the book. The first would be to yield to your spouses wishes. An example would be to go where she would like to go, have for supper what she would like to have….You see some times we get in a rut of not allowing our love ones to be them selves, because we don’t want to do or like….what they want to do or like. To love someone is to be interested in the things they are interested in. Now here are some suggestions; movies, shopping, points of interest(vacation…)food…
Now the second part of the dare has to do with the way we act. Sometimes as the days, weeks and years go by we get into a familiar type of rut. “Good morning dear, good morning honey”, we start saying in that monotone voice. We just lost the spark we had in our actions toward our wives. So this week spice up the way you greet your wife. Put that smile back on, that quick step as you walk into the house….remember this is the girl who took your breathe away. Have you ever came home from work and did this type of thing? Honey I’m home…..”What’s for supper?” and we do that day in and day out. Now let’s spice up our greetings through out the day.

Eph.5:28 “So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies, He who loves his wife loves himself;”

How did we do last week? Was it hard? So last week we started to work on our summer series, how to love better (using the “Love Dare”). The dare had to do with our speech and had two aspects. The first with holding our tongue, no negative talking… The second to say something positive, encouraging talking. Really how did you do? Did you do it just once to say you did it? Or did you try to practice it more and more. Now in James1:19 it says, “be quick to hear, slow to speak”, we need to think about what we say. A key to this would be quick to hear. So this next week we also will be doing the same as last week, our tongue, and adding the next dare.
Now the next dare will have to do with your hands. O.K. this will be a 2 week devotional to help us with the time factor that seems to get in our way. This dare is a combination of 2 dares. The first would be to buy your spouse (mother..) something to say I was thinking of you… The second will be to do something for your spouse out of the ordinary, wash dishes, clean…something that you need to use your hands. To come along side of our spouses during the day. Helping our help mate! Why do we do these things? Because of love. The verse, Romans 5:8 “ God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
The dares have to do with our mouths and hands; but another very important part is our mind. We need to think about doing these acts that show love. So we think then we do and do.

How did we do last week? Was it hard? So last week we started to work on our summer series, how to love better (using the “Love Dare”). The dare had to do with our speech and had two aspects. The first with holding our tongue, no negative talking… The second to say something positive, encouraging talking. Really how did you do? Did you do it just once to say you did it? Or did you try to practice it more and more. Now in James1:19 it says, “be quick to hear, slow to speak”, we need to think about what we say. A key to this would be quick to hear. So this next week we also will be doing the same as last week, our tongue, and adding the next dare.
Now the next dare will have to do with your hands. O.K. this will be a 2 week devotional to help us with the time factor that seems to get in our way. This dare is a combination of 2 dares. The first would be to buy your spouse (mother..) something to say I was thinking of you… The second will be to do something for your spouse out of the ordinary, wash dishes, clean…something that you need to use your hands. To come along side of our spouses during the day. Helping our help mate! Why do we do these things? Because of love. The verse, Romans 5:8 “ God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
The dares have to do with our mouths and hands; but another very important part is our mind. We need to think about doing these acts that show love. So we think then we do and do.

Well a few weeks ago I thought summer was here; the last few days, who knows what happened. So what direction will our devotional take for the summer? Well came up with an idea to use a resource that directs us men to love our wives more. So for the next few weeks we will be presenting ways for us to love our wives. Now if you are not married you still can do this; only we would like you to use your mother, sister, aunt…Now don’t think that doing this is for the marriages that are in trouble….it is good for all marriages. The strong ones, good ones, look warm ones, old ones, new ones and the ones in trouble. Sometimes we get in ruts, doing the same old, day after day; we need new ideas to help us, to spice up our marriage. So the resource that this is coming from is the book “The Love Dare”. We might expand a little on some of the suggestions in the book, also we might present more than one of the dares combining them into one or even giving you a choice of which to do.
Now to the first dare for the week. This dare will be the combination of 2 dares and has to do with our speech. The first is to not speak negatively(defensively) to our wives. The verse is Eph.4:6 “Be completely humble and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love.” The second part of the dare is to speak something positively(kind) to our wives, as to comment on her good looks…without expecting her to react, that is not expecting something in return. The verse is Eph.4:32 “Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.” Now guys let’s see if we can make a difference, not just doing it once so we can check off a box; but doing it out of love that we want to change. That we find ourselves doing these things more and more.

Memory Verse Eph.4:32 “ Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiving you.”

worship

He also commands us to celebrate certain feasts, even the one we Here we are or will be…Sunday morning; Sunday school, and or Sunday worship. Which is good. Not sure how to keep this short so to a the verse.
1Chronicles16:4 “And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of Jehovah, and to celebrate and to thank and praise Jehovah, the God of Israel.” So let’s look at these words, praise-to glorify, exalt…
Thank- to express gratitude, thankful. So far nothing new but the last word, (or the first) celebrate- to honor or mark by ceremonies or festivities. Now this last word is also translated record, commemorate, petition, invoke and offer prayers. A lot of different words here; one word that will help us is, remember. Through out the bible God tells us to remember. Who He is, what He did, what He will do(promises). As we did last Sunday, the Lord’s supper. The words of Jesus, “do this in remembrance of Me.”
So often we forget what God has done, will do, can do and Who He is. So we need to remember and sometimes record what He has done for us personally and corporately. Our God is still working in the present and it is us who need to be reminded of that, that is why it is so important to remember what God is doing now and what He has done and what He will do. To help us to understand this verse just continue reading verses 7-37, seriously take the time this week and read 1Chron.16:4-37.

Asking

What do we do, what do we say, where do we go…? These are questions of every day life. So many times I have done things, not thinking or just really not be prepared. Just going and doing! Even some times on a good day, I did think a little bit, then did. You know what,
some times that’s a good thing, but sometimes it still just doesn’t work out and I’m back thinking, “What was I thinking”. Or was I thinking at all. Please tell me that I’m not the only one and not just me and my boys. Well I think that girls might be struggling with the same thing.
As I was reading in the old testament, I became aware of an important principle all Christians should do; also it is affirmed in the new testament. When King David was telling his son Solomon, let’s call it fatherly advice, in 1 Chronicles 22:12 “Only the Lord give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the Lord thy God.” Wisdom and understanding from the Lord. Now most of us heard, read…about Solomon’s wisdom. But did we recognize where it came from? 2 Chronicles 1:7-12 tell us the story of Solomon’s great wisdom and knowledge. To some it up, God appeared to Solomon, asked him what He (God) can give Solomon. So Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge, which God gives and more.
Now let’s move ahead in time to the year 2010, 40 years ago couldn’t imagine being living in 2010. It was so far off. But here we are, the year 2010 and guess what? We still find ourselves in need of wisdom and knowledge; even for everyday life. So what do we do? O.K. can I be real (up front, honest) when I answer? A lot of times we fall into the ways of the world. There’s things acceptable today that 40 years ago, we would not even think of doing. That it just became part of society as o.k. in their/our thinking. But as believers God’s wisdom and knowledge is the way we should seek. But you ask, How do we seek it? How do we get it? Now the new testament verse, James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” We just need to ask! And ask God!