Monthly Archives: June 2013

Man to Man….When life ovewhelms

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holding on

This week has been a bit trying. I feel I have been under attack, not from a temptation to act perspective, but a weariness of life perspective, spending all my energy just in hanging on.

There are times when the every day can be used by the enemy to discourage and dampen the call of God on our lives. Often it can be due to the expectations we put on ourselves. Expectations based on our own perspectives and not prayerfully set by God through daily communion and fellowship with Him.

There are times when it seems it takes everything we can muster  just to make life work, and it leaves us feeling empty and unsatisfied. No time spent on realizing any of our dreams, All of our time at work and away from our family and friends, it just feels like we live to work, and that gets depressing very quickly.

So what do we do, how can we get some measure or sense of control back into our lives? What is the solution to having to spend hours and hours working with no time for anything else?

Having asked the question, I don’t know that I have the answer. I think it may be different for each man.

Here are a few things that might be worth considering.

First the obvious. Am I fulfilling God’s call on my life?

Joy for us comes from relationship with God first and foremost. Family follows close behind, but our relationship with family will never be right if we do not put God first in everything. Spending time with Him, in relationship and communion is essential to getting the right perspective on every other thing that fills your day. Do you have  KIROS (God’s Time ) time in your daily schedule? Make the time, even if you have to get up earlier, or go to bed later, or find a quiet place on the way to work and leave a little early, what ever you have to do to create that time alone with only you and God, do it.

Next, maybe take a look at your work week. I know it may sound a little simplistic, but creating an ideal work week, that is, setting certain blocks of time down on paper, that lay out each day and week for you, can help you regain some control over your time. One of the things I took away from my time in sales was to put together an ideal work week. I thought it was silly, and a waste of time until I sat down and did it, refined it a few times and suddenly there were hours of time in my week for things I had not seen before.

Hopefully your spouse is a believer and is on board with working together to help create balance in your lives. You are blessed if that is the case. If that is not the case, one of the things you and God can begin working on together is seeing that change. You need your wife to be your partner in this and in most cases, only God can give you the wisdom and support to bring that to life. I can tell you that having a spiritual partner as well as a life partner is more precious than anything I can imagine, there is nothing that can stand in your way when you are in relationship with God and have a wife that is a spiritual partner. What a blessing.

I believe when these things are in place, everything else will follow. Matthew 6:33 says….But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Jesus is speaking to those worried about the needs we all have in this life, and makes it very clear that God will provide for us if we put Him first.

Psalm 3:

5. I  lay down and slept,
yet I woke up in safety,
for the Lord was watching over me.
6. I am not afraid of ten thousand enemies
who surround me on every side.
7. Arise, O Lord!
Rescue me, my God!
Slap all my enemies in the face!
Shatter the teeth of the wicked!
8. Victory comes from you, O Lord.
May you bless your people.
David not only had his house to worry about, but the whole house of Israel. As King this was his responsibility, but he wasn’t foolish enough to take it all upon himself. He had relationship and communion with God daily, and there he found solutions, and strength to handle the daily, sometime overwhelming events of life.
The same God want’s relationship with you….
Be a man after God’s own heart…
Be a man like David.

Man to Man….The Perfect Family

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This is a picture of my friend Lee and his family while getting ready for family portraits to be taken. Which one of us as fathers has not been here? So I asked Lee if I could use this photo to illustrate some thoughts about family and he graciously agreed.

I can remember when my children were little. Two boys and two girls, beautiful blond hair, captivating eyes, smiles that could melt the hardest heart. We were in ministry full-time, planting a brand new baby Church. It seemed like everything was perfect. People often commented on how beautiful our family was. They used the phrase ” perfect family “, and it was used to communicate a likeness to an image they had in their mind of what the perfect family would look like.

After a while you can begin to appropriate the same perception, and when things seem to be falling apart, kids get sick, get in trouble, life gets hard to handle, fighting between each and all, your perfect perception of family condemns you and beats you down.

Of course we all eventually realize that the enemy is behind all of the chaos and destruction, but often it is too late to repair the damage already done.

I guess what I mean to communicate to you in this is, perfection is an illusion in this life. Our flesh will never walk the streets of heaven. We will be changed, given new bodies like that of Christ. But for now we are housed in this corrupt flesh with all of its cravings and carnality. It is what it is until we go home to be with the Lord.

Until then we ” press toward the mark” like Paul says. We don’t lay down in defeat because we are not perfect, but trust in God to help us through our imperfection. We build relationship with Him and seek the transformation of our minds that starts with the new birth and continues until we reach our eternal home. We do mot condone or enable bad behavior with family but we love one another trough our faults and imperfections, Just as God does with us.

Love and forgiveness are very powerful things, that can transform another’s life.

David consistently sought out God’s unfailing love and forgiveness for his imperfections and short comings, and God called him a man after His own heart. Sin alone is not what destroys us, Jesus took all of that to the cross, but it is our failure to take that sin to God in repentance, seeking forgiveness and restoration that leaves us in our condemnation.

Some may look at the photo above and see imperfection, I look at this photo and see reality, and I praise God He has given us what we need to create something beautiful, like Lee’s family, in spite of our imperfections.

Be a man after God’s own heart.

Be a man like David.