The Man I Want To Be

Wanted to share this with you, in case you have not seen or heard it.

Guys,

Below is a devotion out of our Stand Firm magazine that I wanted to share with you. I thought it tied in well with our Men’s  group, and was a good reminder of our small groups/connections on Sunday evenings.

I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding, and have the knowledge of God’s mystery–Christ (Colossians 2:2).

A 2008 Consumer Reports survey found that nearly 40 percent of people who purchase home exercise machines say they use them less than expected. Other research suggests that those who don’t own exercise equipment at home are more likely to stick with working out over time. This doesn’t mean a home exercise machine leads to less exercise. It just means that having home equipment is not the most important factor to getting in shape. Source: New York Times.

Personal Training

Ever try to lose weight or get in better shape? Dumb question. Most guys want a fitter physique. Many of us have purchased some sort of workout equipment. Sales for the home fitness industry totaled $4.3 billion in 2008. But now most of those treadmills and weight machines gather dust.

Part of a Group

The same principal works in building spiritual muscle. Many men want to become more Christlike. We join a church but slip into the service on Sunday morning and slip out when it is over. We don’t connect and don’t experience significant life change. What we need is a spiritual workout partner. Even better might be a group of Christians with similar goals and interests. Paul writes in Colossians 2:2, “I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding.” Believers have aways grown stronger in small groups. Small groups provide a place to firm up our faith–where we can question, share struggles, build friendships, and help each other through life’s journey.

Bottom Line

Small groups can help you grow into a spiritual muscle man.

Galatians 6:1-2

Taken from Stand Firm magazine, vol. 15, number 1, January 2010. Used by permission of Walk Thru the Bible. To order Stand Firm, go online to www.lifeway.com/standfirm.

Lately I have been thinking about what people say, don’t say and the tone that comes with the things they do say. Studies indicate that women use, on average 25,000 words with men using 12,500. On a lighter side, it is concluded that men use 12,495 during the day and work leaving only 5 words when they get home. One article that I read continued that when a man gets home three of his last 5 words are “what’s for dinner” and the final two are “good night”.

So, now that we have a thought of how many words people use, that still does not answer the question of how many phrases a person may use in a day, but we do know that people either use words or phrases to either build people up or tear people down.   David in the Psalms wrote “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer”. He also wrote “The words of his mouth are wicked and deceitful; he has ceased to be wise and to do good”. He continues “They sharpen their tongues like swords and aim their words like deadly arrows”. Proverbs records “The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the speech of the upright rescues them”.  In other words, some of the words that people say are good and others are not so good.

I am also preparing for premarital classes with a couple that I will marry in January. One book that I use and reference is The Five Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman. In his book he discusses the concept of five languages that couples, and I would suggest that can define a single person could have. One of these languages is Words of Affirmation. Dr. Chapman quotes Mark Twain when he [Twain] said “I can live for two months on a good compliment”. I think that people need more than this. I know I do, and this is the point that I am working toward, and prayerfully this will have meaning for you also.

I work in a Customer Service Call Center. I work for Alabama Power. Put those two together and picture the middle of summer when their power is out and imagine the words that come out of some of my customers mouths. Got it? Picture rush hour traffic after a long day and you are ready to get home and someone has either cut you off, or someone is taking their Sunday drive on a Monday afternoon. Picture that you are one of many families who are struggling through this economy and you are wondering how to make ends meet. The conversation that you have with your spouse is heard by your children and leaves little to be desired. Then you get out of your car at church and want everyone to act like everything is Ok. I mean, look at the position you hold! What would people think?

Go back to Customer Service. One thing that the reps like is to have their customer speak to their supervisor about the good job they did in handling their situation. The reason is for the outcome. The supervisor will send out an email to both call centers letting people know about the good job that was done. I have gotten close. I have transferred a customer to my supervisor, but nothing was ever sent out. My spirits were down, because to this day, I have not reached that milestone, and according to scripture should not worry if I do.

The Lord led me to Matthew 6. Matthew, in this portion of his book writes on was Jesus taught about giving to the needy, prayer fasting, money and worry. Throughout this chapter, Jesus encourages us in that there are those on earth that will get their reward while here, and there are those that the Lord will bless. Consider Matthew 6: 4, 8, 18, 19-20 and 33.

As far as words of affirmation go, I like them and this is my love language. I enjoy it when Sandy tells me that I have done a good job, or simply says “thank you”. She tells me that sometimes I fish for compliments. I need words of affirmation, but I guess I really don’t need the entire world knowing what I have done, because with what I say or do, it needs to be to God’s glory. He needs to be glorified by it and He promises that he will reward those positive and good things I do, even in secret.

How are your words and phrases? Are they words of affirmation? Do they build up or tear down? Do you look for the praise of men, or do you look for Jesus to stand as he did for Stephen because He was honored by his words and deeds.

The basic definition of grace is: God’s gift or a good thing which is given but not deserved. If you take this definition and look at a couple different areas such as “God’s gift” and “good things”, then there are a couple of examples that come to mind. The first is Christ and the second are Madison and Cole.

First, Christ is one example of God’s grace in that there needed to be a perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. The scripture reads: [In fact] under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins (Heb. 9:22 Amp). Another is In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace (Eph. 1:7-8 NASB). We see God’s gift in John 3:16 God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die (CEV). Paul preached to the Romans that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23 HCSB). The reason that we need this grace or this gift is because of who we are. Isaiah said For we have all become like one who is unclean [ceremonially, like a leper], and all our righteousness (our best deeds of rightness and justice) is like filthy rags or a polluted garment; we all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away [far from God's favor, hurrying us toward destruction] (64:6 Amp). Finally the apostle Paul mentioned throughout his writings of the war that takes place between the sinful nature and the Spirit. God’s grace is a wonderful attribute.

Second are my children and this will not tale as long as what you just read. I try to use the moments I have with them as “teaching moments”. Examples could be teaching them when it is polite to use words like thank you, no thank you, etc; also when it comes to punishment. There are times when repeating the same thing wears out and something physical must happen that will encourage them to stop whatever un-wanted behavior is occurring. But, there have been a few times when one or the other, by themselves, are walking with me and they know what is about to happen and then I stop and talk with them and explain to them about grace. Grace being that gift or a good thing which is given but not deserved. They deserve more than what they are getting, but sometimes grace abounds more…The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more (Romans 5:20 NASB).

This is a response to a quiz that I ran across while on Facebook.

What is on my mind is that a friend of mine sent me a request to take a quiz to see what war leader I am most like, and as I navigated to that page, another quiz popped up.. This quiz was going to give me the results to let me know if I was either going to Heaven or Hell. Looking at the quiz, the questions are based on good works, and I can tell you that my best work is about as useful as a dirty rag in God’s eyes. Isaiah 64:6 reads “We are unfit to worship you; each of our good deeds is merely a filthy rag. We dry up like leaves; our sins are storm winds sweeping us away.” So, our good deeds DO NOT get us anywhere.

The quiz would be better with only one question: “If you were to stand before the Lord, and He asked you, ‘Why should I let you into Heaven’, what would you say?” The only answer that He is looking for is that you accepted His son, Jesus to be both your Savior and Lord.

The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church in I Corinthians 15:3 “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;” One portion of scripture that Paul could have referred to was the prophet Isaiah, when in Isaiah 53:5 we read “But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” The “He” Isaiah referred to was Jesus. Then we look to Luke 23 and read the account of the actual crucifixion. Luke 23:33 reads “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”

We then look to John and John 3:16 reads “God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.” We “never really die”, because we are promised in Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” The reason for this promise is due to Romans 3:23 that reads “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

Understanding that just simply “doing” our best is not good enough, but that it takes Jesus can lead us to I John 1:9 : “But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.” So, if we admit that we cannot get into Heaven on our own, and we believe that it is Jesus ALONE that will give us eternal life with Him there and confess, according to I John 1:9, it is at that point, you will know the answer to the question: “Are you going to Heaven or hell?”

As an aside about good works, once we have accepted Christ as our Savior and Lord and realized that He is the only way to Heaven, then we will do “good works” for people, not because we have to—to earn something; but because we want to. Because of the “free” gift we were given. Two additional scripture passages include: Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:” and Ephesians 2: 8-9 that reads “You were saved by faith in God, who treats us much better than we deserve. This is God’s gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. ⁹It isn’t something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about.”

When you here the word “standard”, what comes to mind? Webster has a few definitions that include: “something established by authority as a rule for the measure of quantity, weight, extent, value or quality.” “ Astructure built for serving as a base or support.” Other words used to describe a “standard” are “gauge” “yardstick” and “criterion”.

While working at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with the Campus Police Department, I moved up through the ranks as a patrolman then as a Sergeant with duties that included training of Officers and Watchmen and keeping our “SOP” up to date. This “SOP” was our Standard Operating Procedures. Even though it would never include every scenario that our Officers would face it gave a basis, a foundation of  where to start.  When I moved back to Birmingham and worked with the Power Company as a Corporate Security Officer, I again moved up through the ranks. I closed that chapter of my life having gone back through our “SOP” and made continuous updates as needed. I now work with the Customer Service Organization and I still have an “SOP”, but the term is simply shortened to “Standards“.

When I found the clip art for this blog, the first thing I thought of was the automobile industry. But “standards” are all around us. It seems that the general standard for life is “do what feels good to me, and don’t worry about anyone else!“  This is know as Post-Modernism. What about the days when people looked out for one another? People throughout history have struggled with this concept. Cain, in Genesis 4:9, was approached by God about Abel and his response was “am I my brother’s keeper?”

What about a person’s “standard of living?” The “standardof living” refers to the quality and quantity of goods and services available to people, and the way these goods and services are distributed within a population.”  Our world is full of marketing “gimmicks” and people buy into what others say they “have to have” in order to live. Americans are now trying to keep up with the Jones’!

What is God’s “standard?” I see God’s “standard” wrapped in the words of Jesus. According to Luke 9:23 Jesus said “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Jesus is also recorded in Matthew saying “but seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

What is the “standard” that you have set for yourself this week? What is the “standard” for your family? Is it your “standard” to follow God’s “standard“, or will you continue trying the keep up with the Jones’?

My Saturday started out being at the church around 8:00  AM for three basketball games. I was looking forward to meeting Sandy and the kids in Trussville at her mom and dad’s house. The reason that we were going to meet was to take a walk down the tracks behind their home to an area out of the way and shoot soda cans with my Glock 9mm. It has been a long time since I have shot a weapon and was looking forward to getting familiar with the feel of the grip in my hand and after an easy pull of the trigger and a slight recoil of the weapon, seeing the can I was aiming for to fall over. I was looking forward to letting Sandy shoot as well.

After the third game the rain had stopped and the sun was out and the weather was a little warmer. It was setting up to be a nice afternoon with the family. We were supposed to meet around 1:00, so I went on to Trussville to look for ear plugs. Neither Sams nor WalMart had what I was looking for. So, by myself I had lunch at Sams… they have a good pizza combo and waited for Sandy to call. After we talked and she relayed to her folks our intentions, we found that what was a common practice…about 6 years ago was no longer “a common practice”. So, I got back home first with the rest of the family not far behind. After getting home, I spent time looking back over my Sunday school lesson for Sunday, January, 25th.

Our lesson speaks about the Throne of God and his nature. The lesson looks at three different pictures of this throne. The first is in Isaiah with the second in Ezekiel and the third in Revelation. Since we normally do not have time to get through the entire lesson, this week I focus on Isaiah 6.

Isaiah says that in his vision he sees the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted with His train filling the temple. Just like you, I have seen the weather change in dramatic ways this week, and as I walked today seeing the cloudless day and feeling the warmth, I stopped and thanked the Lord for it. The song continues reminding us that the whole earth is full of His glory. Everywhere I look, I am supposed to see His glory; but I tend to see his glory on the otherside of situations that I get in.

A couple of weeks ago Sandy’s mom went through a surgical procedure that, to say the least, weighed heavy on the family and thinking about myself at one particular moment, I felt like I seperated myself from my wife because I was not there to give her what she needed. We are better now, and I am thankful that the Lord did not leave her, like I felt I did in that moment she needed me to be…understanding. This is one of those situations. I look back and see God in His glory working in the life of her mom and today she seems to be doing better.

He IS NOT simply the “big man upstairs” or any other slang that we attach to Him, He is my mother-in laws Great Physican. He is the creator and sustainer of ALL life. He has my best in mind. He is Holy. He is set apart. Because we are His children we are to be set apart in every area of our life!

Are there areas in your life this week where you have not practiced holiness? Are there times this week where, If someone knew that you professed to be a child of the King, your life would have reflected it? What can you, what can I do this week…the rest of today to he holy, to be set apart?

The link below is to the YouTube video of Isaiah 6. The music is set to photographs to help us reflect on His holiness. 

Isaiah 6…Todd Agnew

FBC Pinson Men–Welcome to your personal page on the net and the church web site. With this site, it is our prayer that you will find the information here useful, beneficial and a blessing.

Scripture points out…” As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17. When you ask men if they have an accountability partner, the answer more times than not is “no“.  This site gives men the chance to be accountable .

There are a few pages here now. One gives a description of what our ministry is about. Another will be an area where we will be able to blog our thoughts and put “feet” to Prov. 27:17. The last page, for right now, is centered around the Bible study that we are in. There will be posts concerning where we are in the study and will allow us to share with and pray for each other as we journey through the process.

I want to thank Jeff  Wilson for assisting me in starting this blog. Jeff, I appreciate you brother and I thank God that he has brought you and your family to our church and that you have the ability to provide this avenue for our men to connect and build closer relationships with our Heavenly father and our other brothers in Christ.