Devotion 5.13.15

That boy needs to man up.  The first time I heard that was here in West Texas, and that's not a negative slight against West Texas.  It is just that I had not heard this matter of fact phrase about how a guy responds to something.  Man up.  I had heard it posed as a question in my life, "You are a man aren't you?"  Working on the Port of Houston, I had heard it put bluntly in words not proper for a devotion.  These weren't and aren't words of encouragement.  They are usually words meant to let the hearer know that his actions toward something aren't necessarily "manly."

The fact is that Christians are not to be fearful.  We are to be of courage.  We hear it throughout scripture.  God doesn't tell us to "man up," but he does remind us to be of courage.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.  Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go?" (Joshua 1:9)  What he tells Joshua he shares with us.  In fact, he commands us to be strong and courageous for He is with us.

The fact is that we forget, as Peter did when he joined Christ on the water, to keep our eyes on Christ.  We begin to sink.  It isn't necessarily a matter of how strong or weak our faith is.  It is a matter of knowing we are frail, regardless of what we believe about our faith lives, and that our command (the First Commandment), is to know that God is our only God.

Christ reiterates the command in Joshua this way:  "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age." (Matthew 28:19 - 20)  Teach everyone all Christ has commanded us, and know He is with us, to the end of the age.  Christ is with us.  We need not fear or dismay.

Our prayer needs to be that we are faithful to God, and that the measure of "manning up" is that of keeping our eyes on Christ, the author of our faith.

Hope Men's Ministry

Devotion 5.12.15

What is our typical response when called upon to do something?  "Please give me some time to think about it."  In fact, it was a common joke in my profession that we would go through three interviews with a candidate, and in the final interview (if you get that far, you really do have to think you have the job), the response was almost universally, "Let me go home, talk to my spouse, pray about it.  Can I let you know my answer to your offer tomorrow?"

Isaiah is called by God when he hears God's voice, "'Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?'  Then I said, 'Here am I!  Send me!'" (6:8)  We've seen prophets in the past offer up answers much like our job candidates (give me a day or two).  Many attempted to get out of the call from God, but Isaiah is different.  Isaiah willingly and apparently gladly accepts.

Christ calls his first disciples as he walks by them fishing, saying to Peter and Andrew, "'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.'  Immediately they left their nets and followed him." (Matthew 4:19 and 20)

When we are called by Christ, what is our response?  Pray that when we hear the call from Christ, we gladly accept that call and serve Him.

Hope Men's Ministry 

Devotion 5.11.15

Sunday, May 10, we celebrated Mother's Day, historically a proclamation signed by Woodrow Wilson in the early 20th century.  We take a day each year to acknowledge the importance of mothers in our lives, yet Solomon writes in Proverbs, "Hear, my son, you father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching." (1:8)

A psychologist came to speak to us when I was a principal, and she noted that children who lose their fathers to an early death adapt much better than those whose fathers are in absentia.  Solomon writes the formula, mothers and fathers.

We speak too often about the dissolution of the family and its impact on society.  Mothers have, by and large, had responsibility heaped on them as fathers have shirked theirs.  As men who follow Christ, rather than condemn the situation, our actions should be as follows:  pray for our family; pray that men learn of their importance and impact as fathers and accept that responsibility gladly; pray that we seek opportunities to mentor children in our sphere of influence, either at church, school, or within the community, who've lost their fathers; and, pray for families.

We pray a prayer of thanksgiving for our mothers.  They hold a special place in our lives.  We pray that prayer of thanksgiving as well as honor of the day, but as men of Christ, pray we never forget our roles and the importance they play as we stand by our wives and children's moms daily as parents in the eyes of God.

Hope Men's Ministry

Devotion 5.8.15

"Is not my word like fire," declares the Lord, "And like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" Jeremiah 23:29

"In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication." Ephesians 6:16 - 18

The Word of God can convict and it can heal and protect.  It can come down like "a hammer breaking a rock into pieces" or can guide us through "prayer and supplication."

We see this play out in John 4 when Christ, the Word of God, speaks to a Samaritan woman.  Christ asks the woman for a drink, against the customs of the day since Jews considered Samaritans unclean.  The woman brings up this point and Christ answers, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." (v. 10)  Christ then explains that he is the living water that will give a "spring of water welling up eternal life." (v. 14)  When she asks to receive the water of which he speaks, he asks her to go get her husband.  "I have no husband," she replies. Christ said, "You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you have said is quite true." (v 17 and 18).

Like a velvet hammer, Christ spoke and she was convicted.  He spoke truth and offered her the well of eternal life.

Where are those areas in our lives that the word needs to break apart as we examine our lives?  What are our needs that we go to the word for supplication?  How can we use Christ's example as we deliver the Word to people?  Pray that we use God's Word daily as we seek to grow as disciples who have been called and known since we were in our mother's wombs.

Hope Men's Ministry

Devotion 5.7.15

"Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord.  He will be like a bush in the wastelands.... He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.  Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green." Jeremiah 17:5 - 8

Where do we place our hopes and our trust?  Is our hope and trust in Christ and the cross?

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." John 4:13

Pray we place our trust in Christ, seeking the spring of water giving us eternal life.

Hope Men's Ministry

Devotion 5.6.15

"If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?  If you stumble in safe county, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?" Jeremiah 12:5

How do we measure up when we are tested along our walk of life?  We ask God for guidance, but how do we respond when He guides us into areas that are well beyond our boundaries of comfort?

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our fait, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews 12:1 - 2

Pray that God give us the strength necessary to take on those areas of challenge He presents us.  Pray that we have our focus on Him as we wander into the thickets of life.  Pray that Christ give us the strength necessary to endure the race we are running called life.

Hope Men's Ministry

Devotion 5.5.15

"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

What is our significance?  What is our purpose and meaning here on earth?  Maybe we should ask why God has called us to be his.  What is our purpose in light of what God desires for us?

God has chosen each of us to be light in the world. Pray that we seek God's meaning in our lives.  Ask God to guide us as we live out our faith lives walking in the light.  

Hope Men's Ministry