Gaining Perspective - A Glimpse of God's Power, Protection and Presence

On Wednesday, work at the office was interrupted by what on most counts would’ve been considered a routine mid-west thunderstorm.  Work stopped and about a dozen or so coworkers and guys from the office took to the parking lot, eyes skyward.  It was dark and clouds were spinning and crossing paths.  Sirens were blaring all over the city.  Those who weren’t in the parking lot were glued to weather websites at their desks.  A local news station later reported that during that 2-hour period on Wednesday afternoon their website traffic was the highest ever recorded as people linked up looking for a tornado, and hoping for just enough warning to prevent a scenario like Joplin, MO experienced a few days earlier.  Over this past week it’s been difficult to get the images from Joplin out of my mind.  Details are still coming in, but what can be pieced together is that in mere seconds, and without much warning a mega-tornado that spawned several vortices touched down and wiped out a large part of that city, killing 139 so far with over 100 people still unaccounted for.

As I stood there in the parking lot Wednesday, I was reminded of a famous reference to a tornado found in Job 38-42 where God visits the earth and has a conversation with Job and a few onlookers out of the whirlwind.  As a quick summary, Job had experienced excruciating Satanic attacks in his life on his career, family, marriage and even his physical and mental health, all at the same time!  From the onset several of his friends, in self-righteous grandeur begin “counseling” Job on how to fix his problems by acknowledging and repenting from what they perceived were hidden sins that brought on Job’s affliction.  Job, albeit firm in his piety and attempt at blamelessness, was just short of wearing down and began showing hints of his spiritual frailty in the face of the enemy.   Standing there just in awe of the weather, I wondered what Job and his critics must have been doing when God showed up!

I sat down later and wrote out a few things about the whirlwind and how God was often associated with the appearance of a whirlwind in scripture.  Here are some general thoughts

• Whirlwind appears numerous times in the Bible and is often associated with God’s power, protection and presence.
• God’s power is evident in his ability to control the environment seen by witnessing his command of a devastating storm as his personal chariot.
• I am reminded of Jesus’ famous words in Matthew 8, “Peace, be still” that calmed the stormy seas in a moment.
• In Job and Ezekiel the whirlwind is God’s instrument of protection as God judges in order to preserve life.  God even reveals that Elijah’s promotion to heaven was through a whirlwind via heavenly chariot in 2 Kings 2.  This got me thinking of the many lives that were spared by the storm in Joplin.  We are quick to think of the devastation, but were it not for God who wills that none perish, what other destruction would the god of this world (Satan - John 8) work against mankind?  To those that for some reason by the grace of God were spared, I wonder for what purpose do they now owe a Christ-centered life for their ability to still live?  What about my own ability to still live and walk after Christ?!?  God’s grace is good.

A meteorologist I listened to later in the week was explaining some of the physics that operate in a tornado.  Even though I was only ½ paying attention I remember looking up when he began talking about the low air pressure that occurs when a tornado takes place.  As the air particles become more and more unstable, the air is literally sucked towards a dynamic point in space causing a vortex that we know of to be a tornado.  It’s the same thing that occurs in a hurricane, but much more concentrated.  Literally a vacuum is created.

He went on to explain how a person caught inside a tornado (see Wizard of Oz) would most likely experience the same feeling as a drowning man with the air sucked right out of their vacuum imploded lungs and with no ability to inhale the needed breath of life.  Whoa!  That is take-your-breath-away power.  Literally.  It is no wonder we see men freeze, fall down dead and go speechless when God’s shows up in the Bible.

How powerful is God!  And how much do we need him to sustain life!  This week I purposed to walk in the thankfulness of his grace that I have life.  This week I purposed to remember the awe inspiring, take your breath away presence of God that we see many times in the Bible when men came in to His presence.  I encourage you to join me in those purposes. 

Consistency, who's got it?

     Consistency.  Easy to say, not so easy to follow.  I'm not talking about the consistency of your cooking of the consistency of your paycheck.  Those things pail in comparison to the consistency of our daily walk and our daily praise, love, thoughts, actions, and THANKFULNESS for GOD. 

     I've been haunted this whole week by my thoughts and attitude that I had earlier this week.  I was at work and not having a good day.  I started feeling sorry for myself.  I wasn't making money, the bar was slow (I work at a hotel, I'm a bartender, not the most encouraging job) and I was really starting to get down on myself.  I need a new job, the hours aren't good, business is slow, I just dumped my motorcycle, my knee hurts, my bike is hurt, me me me......   YUCK.
    I got away for a bit and just got on my knees in the middle of a hallway on the 12th floor of the hotel and had some quiet time with GOD.  It didn't take but a half second and I was thanking GOD.  Thank you God for the air I breath, and that's all it took.  Nothing else matters with every breath I take and every second I am here, to GOD be the glory and I have no right to get down about anything.  With that thanks it turned into about 20 others and I could of went on all night.  One of the thanks even turned into thanking GOD for my job, the very job I was just so frustrated with and that I was ready to quit.  GOD has given me so much and he has been so faithful to me.  He has pulled me out of a life that was immersed in sin and going no where but down.  GOD had that consistent attitude and never gave up on me in all those years of my failing to serve and love him.  Why, why in a small time when things that don't matter would I even think of not loving on GOD and giving him glory for that moment and all others.
CONSISTENCY, Who's GOT it?
Psalms 34. (take a minute to read it)
   I was reading it earlier in the week and I wrote it down so I would remember to go back and read it again and again.  It really spoke to me and encouraged me earlier in the week, but here I was feeling down and out so quick in my troubles.
Psalms 34: 1. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2.  My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.
6.  This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.
9.  O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
10. The Young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.
12. What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? 
13.  Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking guile.
14. Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
15. The eyes of the LORD are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry. 

Of course the whole chapter is great but those are just a few highlights.
CONSISTENCY who's got it?
    As you can read in Psalms 34 we are to strive and continually have GOD's praise in our mouth and GOD will continue to bless us and carry us through our troubles in life.  CONSISTENCY.  easy to say, not so easy to do. 
    On Saturday, in the Everyman meeting we talked about conviction.  How everyone has to have convictions and the absence of conviction always leads to the presence of compromise.  And might I suggest that you use baby-steps in this process of your life.  Sure everyone needs to have the big convictions in place in your life but I also think that the little things are often overlooked and they compound and make it easier to let bigger things slide, down the road.
    Big convictions like not denying that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.
Matt 10:33  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father is in heaven. 
That's kind of a big deal.  Don't wanna slip up on that one.
   Those are things that without question should be in place already.  I'm talking about the little things we let slide everyday.  Wait did I say little things.  GOD views them as big things and so should we.  From the movies we watch to the company we keep.  The things that you look at and see everyday.  Books we read, things hanging on our wall.  These are the things that will build and build in our lives until we are living in sin and finding it to be okay with us.  If you watch a distasteful movie today what's to say that a slightly more distasteful movie won't be okay tomorrow.  Just look at society in general.  Look at how the movies have gotten worse, the teenagers are dressing worse, the commercials have gotten worse.  I could go on and on but compare these things to 10, 20 yrs ago you'll see that they weren't around, and it has nowhere to go but worse.  Same with our lives, if we continue to be okay with these things and not hold strong to our Convictions and be Consistent about them, we too will be worse and worse off. 
SO CONVICTIONS and CONSISTENCY Who's got it?
   I'm not bragging, because I have absolutely nothing to brag about, but I just wanna show you how GOD has worked in my life in these area's.   I talked earlier how GOD was consistent and was always there for me even in my failings, so when it finally clicked for me and I realized I needed to do that proverbial 180 I instantly realized I need to take some things out of my life.  I need to have some convictions and never let them be broken.  Baby-steps.  First off I had to stop hanging out with my secular friends all the time.  That was hard.  But when you hang around people and all they wanna do is live in the world and destroy the temple that GOD has given to you, you realize you can't be immersed in that and stay strong in GOD.  So I had to give up on hanging out with these friends that I had know for years and years.  But GOD is good.  He has given me a new family and it is good.  I threw away all my alcohol related apparel and signage.  (working at the bars and restaurants all my life I had accrued quite a bit).  Too make a long story short, I started small and I continually work toward the end goal and that's Consistency in my walk with god, from attitude, to words, to the company I keep.
   Guys I know I'm rambling on here so I'm gonna wrap it up with this. 
Latch onto your convictions, hold strong and continue to grow from them.  Cause if your not growing, your dead, and no one wants to be dead in their walk with the Lord. 
And there is only one I know that is always consistent, and that is GOD.  So continue to strive to be Christ like and have comfort that GOD will consistently be there when we fail.
Love you all

Lessons from a Desperate Man

Over the years, the Lord has been faithful to remind me that a teachable spirit is a great trait in the life of the believer. If my heart is in the right place, I can learn an invaluable lesson from a toddler.

I was reminded of this recently during a family devotion. I was walking my family through the narrative of Matthew 8 where Jesus heals the leper. Approaching this, my aim was to obviously explain everything as clearly as I knew how as well as provide clear outlets of application for everyone. But the Spirit of God really began to deal with me regarding the immensity of what was before me in the text. Like my wife and children, I became a student of the lesson and find that as I continue to meditate on the text, I’m still fascinated at what the Lord is teaching me through this desperate man.

Matthew 8:1-4 records the narrative of the leper who came to Jesus as Jesus was coming down from the mountain at the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount. Leprosy was a debilitating and extremely painful skin disease. It would start gradually but eventually spread over the body and even work its way down to the bones. One would be covered with ulcers and sores. In the Old Testament, until pronounced clean by the priest, lepers had to be removed from the camp/city and were prohibited from the sanctuary. During the ministry of Christ, if a city was not enclosed, lepers were allowed but had to abide by the law of Leviticus 13:45 which called for the renting of the clothes, a head that was bare, a covering of the upper lip, and as they walked by others, they were to say, “Unclean, unclean.” Can you imagine? In the words of a wise man, lepers were a “walking tomb and a hopeless wreck.”

Leprosy is as clear a type of sin as you’ll find in the Scriptures. Like leprosy, sin starts small but grows in intensity. At the toddler stage, it’s fighting over toys or touching something that has been clearly defined as forbidden by mommy and daddy. But by adulthood, sin becomes much more widespread and more mature and elaborate in its application doesn’t it? We realize that at every turn sin is looking for an opportunity to express itself.

As I studied Matthew 8:1-4, I could clearly see myself in the leper and there are three lessons that I learned from him that I think are invaluable:

Lesson 1:         We Must Bow

Matthew 8:2 And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him,

Did the leper break out in the singing of Amazing Grace or How Great is our God? The word worshipped means that he fell to the ground in homage. He recognized that he was desperate! So often, we find ourselves frustrated or disappointed with God but what we overlook is that our approach is off. There’s really only one way to approach the Lord and that is ON OUR FACE. This could be as literal is we see in Matthew 8 or an inward heart attitude in prayer and communion with God.

Lesson 2:         We Must Believe

Matthew 8:2 saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

If you’re looking for one of the clearest examples of unadulterated faith, look no further than the leper in Matthew 8. Notice that the leper does not ASK to be healed. Instead, he speaks to the Sovereignty of the Lord by declaring that if Jesus so desires, He could make him clean. For the leper, it was not about IF Jesus could make him clean, it was WOULD Jesus do it? This is huge when it comes to faith. Faith is not prayerfully rushing into the presence of God with a “God owes me mentality.” The leper understood that the Jesus could heal him but as important, he did not believe that Jesus HAD to. We must be so careful here as we tend to view God’s Mercy, Love, & Grace as debts that God owes us and this is very twisted. Our faith should be that God can do anything BUT, God does what He deems best and I believe that whatever that is, is truly the best.

Lesson 3:         We Must Be a Witness

Matthew 8:3 And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. 8:4 And Jesus saith unto him, See thou tell no man; but go thy way, shew thyself to the priest, and offer the gift that Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

Jesus touched him! How do you think that must have felt to the leper? Jesus in His grace rewarded the leper’s faith and cleansed him. According to Mark’s account (Mark 1:45), the leper went out and published and blazed abroad the matter. I’m sure he eventually got around to the priest to show himself clean, but for now, this man had a story to tell and so do we!

A Man’s Heart – Let’s talk about it.

For some of us, the idea of sharing our heart ranks right up there with public speaking or going to the dentist.  I’m not talking about that fist-sized muscle beneath your sternum.  The heart I’m talking about is the inner-you, the real you that drives your life.  Sometimes we blame our environment, or sometimes we just accept it as natural that it’s ok not to talk about what’s in our heart, or where it’s at, or even admit that we have one.  But for whatever reason, we men, especially men, have difficulty talking about our hearts.  Before you stop reading, let me clarify that I’m not writing about a superficial, fabrication of feelings.  Nor am I talking about men becoming more effeminate or emasculated.  My thoughts have to do with a very real and very manly expression of your heart as a man.

How would a man even begin to understand how to relate his heart to others with so many ideas and emphases out there?  Every time I turn around I’m hearing some educator, or author, or recent study tell me ‘Men should control their heart.’ ‘Men should be more open.’  ‘Men should be more transparent.’ ‘Men should be more wild.’ ‘Men should be more stoic.’  Certainly there are important truths that can be gleaned from these ideas.

Did you know that the bible mentions “heart” in over 750 verses? It begins in Genesis 6 with evil and ends in Revelation 18 with evil.  It’s no wonder men don’t want to share their hearts with others!  In our natural state it can be down right embarrassing to let others see what’s in there. Fortunately, God made a way to regenerate our cursed hearts with the pure blood of His Son.  See Romans 3:23; 6:23; John 3:16; and Romans 10:9-10.  And it’s in that state, as regenerate men of God that I want to encourage you.

A couple of weeks ago I was reminded of a few ideas that Jesus had about the heart.  Look at what Christ told the disciples:

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh. Luke 6:45; see also Matthew 12:34

…where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  Matthew 6:21

Here’s what God showed me –

I need to remember that I have a God filled heart that is to be used.

That’s a fairly simple gleaning from the passages; I have a heart.  Obvious right?  Not always. Stony stoicism can be the natural reaction for many men in the warzone of Christianity.  Instead of engaging other men on the field of battle who need their brother’s hand, or engaging their own calling to obey God in one way or another, often men sit, frozen and emotionless through life.  Maybe it’s a defense mechanism for not knowing what to do.  Or maybe it’s due to fear, or something else entirely.  Either way, God made me to harness the power of my heart and share it with others. In the regenerate state as his child, I have all power given from on high to live in the victory and confidence that following after his unfailing plans gives me. You do too.

I need to pay attention to what is in my heart.

In both Luke 6 and Matthew 12, the contents of the heart are revealed by what comes out of my mouth.  Uh oh!  Lashing out.  Sharing of the gospel.  Spiteful words.  Encouraging a brother with scripture.  Cynical sarcasm.  I remember an old preacher describing the passages in Luke 6 and Matthew 12 this way: ‘your heart fills up like a cup and when it can contain no more, it overflows with whatever is inside – emptying out onto everyone and everything around.’  These passages remind me to mind what is in my heart.  Yes I have a heart.  But what is in it?  What does my speech reveal about my desires for others, myself and my relationship with God?

Be prepared to make adjustments accordingly.

Once I know the contents of my heart, it’s time to adjust accordingly.  The passage in Matthew 6 reveals that the things I value will attract my heart.  My heart will follow after what I treasure and bring those things out into the open.  Yet often, as the passage reveals, what I bring forth into the open through my speech can be the difference between that which is good and that which is evil.  Sometimes it’s ignorant.  Sometimes it’s wise.  Sometimes it’s wasteful.  What makes the difference?  The simple fact is that what I treasure affects the scenery of my life.  I must decide to change my values and therefore the scenery that I expose my heart unto.  What better scenery then the Word of God and fellowship with like-minded men at your local church.

We as men should remember that our heart through Christ is now worth sharing.  Because of the valuable treasure of the gospel, we should take care that the things of God are what fills our heart. By doing so, we can be sure that those good treasures will overflow onto everyone and everything around us as blessing.  Whether it's our relationship with others, with God, or how we view ourselves, our hearts need to be in the right place, treasuring and overflowing with the right things. 

If you have questions about what it means to share your heart, or how to have a clean heart based on what the Bible says, please drop us a line -- everymanmbt@gmail.com

Only One Way. The Choice is Yours

 
      As I read in Mark, and think of the previous blog and Which Way Lord.  I can't help but think of only one thing.  I read Mark 10:52, which says:  'And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole.  And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.'  Here's a guy that was blind but had the faith of a child and enough wisdom to put his faith into someone that could change his life.

          I don't know what you've been through or what has brought you to where you are.  But I know we have all been stricken with the complete and all encompassing feeling of overwhelming sin in our lives.  Like a blindness that closes our eyes to what’s important and consumes our every thought.  Of course like any good motivational movie about some sport and winning, it always comes down to the speech.  And in that speech it always comes down to the decision to be made, not how you got there, but where you're gonna go.  Whether you’re actually blind or you are struggling with your everyday life, a sinful habit or action that you just can't break.  It's about who you’re gonna put the faith in and which way you’re gonna go with that faith.

         If you read mark 10:52 again......Go ahead read it.  You'll see that Jesus gives the blind man, now cured of his sin, free will and tells him to go his way.  But with this life changing miracle he is inspired to Go Jesus’ way, therefore making Jesus and his way one, and in turn there is only one way. 

Think of your life before you were saved, you were blind weren't you?  Blind to the fact that you are a sinner and should repent, rely on Jesus and put all hope, sense of responsibility and effort into His will.  Once you were unblinded, you put your faith in Him like the man in Mark 10, healed and shown the light.  God also gave you free will.  The big question is which way did you go?  Did you take your own path or did you follow Jesus in The Way?  Shouldn't that be us all?  Shouldn't we all be giving everything up and following Jesus in The Way? 

All too often life gets in The Way.  Things that we hold dear to us, cars, sports, or careers become The Way and we are once again blinded to the fact that they are not The Way but just in The Way.  I challenge Every Man to self evaluate and look into what might be in The Way and not part of The Way.  I pray daily that I might have my eyes and heart open to God and His Way.  That is also my prayer for you Men.  I know that if we continue to grow and become closer to God that His Will and way will be evident in everything that we do.  And what better way to witness and speak the truth to our non-believer friends, family, and that random person in our life that will be forever changed by your Christian walk.   So as I read Mark and I look at my life I see that there is only one way to live.  And if I don't make my way His Way I will surely fail.