TGIF….But it’s Tuesday?

TGIF! Thank God I’m Free! 

Good morning men.  This was on a marquee outside of a church here in town. I thought man, that is spot on. In Christ, we are free! Free from the chains that used to bind us. He has forgiven us and promised us a life with him. Life will be so easy now! Except that it won’t. And Christ never promised that. Quite the contrary actually. 

Timothy 3:12 “In fact, everyone who wants to live a Godly life in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.” 

Touching on Sunday’s message from Yancey, God’s forgiveness us sets us free. When we forgive others, really we are the ones who are set free. We don’t hold on to things that we hold against other people. If God can forgive them, shouldn’t we? I don’t believe we have higher standards than Christ. Have a great day men! Be set free!

M.I.T.T.

God goes before you and fights for you

Deuteronomy 1:30: “The LORD your God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes,”

Deuteronomy 20:4: “for the LORD your God is he who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.”

Deuteronomy 31:6:“Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

For those of you who feel this year has started off as more of a frustrating grind, these promises have given me courage.  For those who are trying to do it in their own power and strength yet feel overwhelmed, give it to the Lord. It is God who does the work, the heavy lifting, the fighting. Allow Him to.

GOD IS FAITHFUL.

Hebrews 10:19-25: 19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.

If you want to see more on this, check out his link:  http://www.incourage.me/2017/01/sunday-scripture-66.html.

The link above came from my wife. I didn’t want to admit it but I needed it. It also includes a link to a good song on this topic.

Have a blessed day and week as God goes before you. M.I.T.T. F.T.K.

Michael

Forgiveness

Colossians 3:13

13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

The reason for the message today is obvious. I need your forgiveness for not being on task about the Manly Message today and yesterday. I make no excuses. I have written a message before about keeping the main thing the main thing and I did not do that. 

As for this topic, it is not easy to forgive those who have wronged you. I have written on this several times because it pops up in my life regularly. I suspect it does the same in yours. 

We have to call on ourselves to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Many of us are in professions that rely on other people. When that is the case, there are or will be many opportunities for hurt feelings or misunderstandings. What we need to see these as are opportunities to show others grace and forgiveness because we are saved and have been given the ultimate forgiveness. 

Be exceptional at being you and have a great week in the trenches. I’ll be better next week. 

YW

Family Friday 1/27: Jewels of Joy

Good morning, men! 

Short and sweet on a Friday morning! This last Saturday, we had a sleepover for my boys 4th and 7th birthday. The pic above is post pizza and pre Nerf War. When I was preparing for the party and thinking about hosting a sleepover for the first time, I was admittedly anxious and worried about the endless possibilities of what could go wrong.

When the time arrived, I managed to chill out, let my guard down and just enjoy the 5 healthy, smart, hilarious boys that God had entrusted me with for the night. 

Isaiah 61:10 says:

I delight greatly in the Lord;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation

and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

My sons and their friends are so much fun. They aren’t without their challenges, but getting to be their coach, teacher, and spiritual guide is such a blessing. My challenge to all US dads this weekend is to slow down, breathe it in, and enjoy your children. Don’t see them as bothersome….see them as jewels given to you by a wonderfully benevelont God!

M.I.T.T. ~ Runyan

The Wise Man

It amazes me how many times I will hear a story or a lesson and later grasp a greater meaning of it. Take for example the Wise and Foolish builders. We have all heard this story and sung the song countless times. I’m sure many of you are humming it in your head now. It’s so much more than a Sunday School song.

As I was reading over it the words and message finally clicked. Jesus speaking “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house upon a rock……… But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand” Men hearing a message isn’t enough you have to put what you hear into practice, live by it. Going to Church and hearing a message, sitting down and reading this isn’t enough. Be the Wise man and put what you hear/read into practice. Get into the Bible and put the words given to us to work!

M.I.T.T.

Zach B

Back to the Basics

Good morning, men! Nowotny, those are some sharp looking kiddos!

This morning, I wanted to kind of re-establish a few things about who we are and why we are here. The Message has grown, by the grace of God, very quickly. So I just wanted, for one day, to kind of go back to the basics. Once upon a time I was a high school coach, and it was always beneficial to check in on base mechanics from time to time to make sure we weren’t letting any of the small things slip and become big things.

First of all, we are a collection of imperfect sinners with VERY different backgrounds seeking a daily walk with Jesus Christ. This means quite a bit, but there are a few things that will present themselves, inevitably:

1. The message is not based in a particular denomination, nor will it ever be. By design, we want men to share their personal experience in their walk with Christ. We know that this means not everything posted here will strike you where you are in life. That’s ok. As we grow and change, having the grace to understand a difference in background or perspective is vital.

2. Every last one of us has our own personal struggle, none of which are less forgiven by Christ’s work on the cross. The last few days have featured topics that are at times hard to read. Wether it is sexual sin, drug/ alcohol abuse, pride, envy, gluttony……your sin has been atoned for and you are forgiven in Jesus. No one act, or misstep, can keep you from glory in Heaven if you take it to Jesus and ask for his forgiveness.

Most of all, I just wanted you all to know that I love and appreciate each and every one of you. It takes courage to say “I am willing to commit to advancing my walk with Christ, even though it may be difficult and at times ruffle my feathers.” Our church body should exude love, grace, and kindness because that is the example set by Christ.

Have a blessed day men, and thank you for being here!

M.I.T.T. ~ Andy

Love & Patience

Ephesians 4:2 “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Good morning men. I will play off of Michael’s post from yesterday a little. With all that is going on currently in the world, we need some positivity. I believe that by following the verse above, this would help us to bring more people to Christ. Yes, at time we need tough love but there is a time and place for that. “Be patient”. From this above, I take it as to listen. Understand. Take your time and process. God gave us two ears and one mouth so we should listen twice as much as speak. 

Proverbs 14:29 “Whoever is patient has greater understanding, but one who is quick tempered displays folly.”

There will always be disagreements among men. How we respond to those disagreements shows our character and can be the light that someone is needing. We will not win hearts and change hearts by yelling louder than the other side. Diligence. Compassion. Understanding. Sit down and have conversations with people. Give testimony. Since we are on the topic of abortion, I will share my story. 

When I was 21 years old, I got my now wife pregnant. We were not married, engaged, or even dating. We had known each other a long time, but were not in a committed relationship. I was 21, she was 18. I had just graduated college and she high school. It was May of 2012. I had a part time job at the time making $8.50 an hour living with my parents. Some people around us were telling us we needed to get an abortion. They said my now wife’s life was just beginning. I wasn’t making enough money and we had no where to go. I very blatantly remember stating that we would not get an abortion. The child did not ask for this and it was not the baby’s fault. I told someone that when I die I will have to stand before God and account for everything that I have done and that this is not something that I would be a part of. I will have plenty of other things to account for, but not this. Now 4.5 years later, my baby girl will turn 4 next month, my wife and I just welcomed our second child back in October and we will celebrate 3 years of marriage in June. Be patient with other people. Be a testimony to them. Above all else be patient with the Lord. His timing is PERFECT. I would not be where I am today if not for him and his timing. Have a blessed day men. 

M.I.T.T.

Life. Is . Precious

Sorry for the lateness of the Monday message. This weekend has been an emotional & spiritual roller coaster in processing current events.

• Multiple friends losing a loved one
• The craziness of the reactions to the inauguration
• Madonna saying in a televised, public speech “I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House.”
• Hundreds of thousands of women march for the right to have an abortion
• Unexpected death of Royals ace Yordano Ventura in a car accident
• storms killing 20 across the Southeast U.S.

All of this and more had me wrestling in prayer about this message as I kept seeing division and death.  Life is not fair and we will all experience physical death at some point.

Then Sunday I heard my Pastor preach the message below and I felt this is where the Lord wanted me to go:

RIGHT TO LIFE (from Pastor Orion Berridge, Pastor at The Avenue Church, http://www.walktheavenue.com)

Today I am going to talk to you about Freedom in Christ, specifically the title today is “LIVE FREE”. Freedom is an important topic in general right now. We as a free people have just watched the transition of power from one President to another President. We have new Senators, Congressmen, Governors, and mayors all across the country who have been sworn in on a holy bible to uphold the Constitution of the United States which is our document of freedom. The Constitution proclaims the freedom that we have, and it ensures as long as we protect it that we live in a free society.

On the day the Constitution was born James McHenry, George Washington and Benjamin Franklin departed Independence Hall together. Benjamin Franklin was approached by a Mrs. Powell who asked, “Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?”   Benjamin Franklin replied, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it.”

History warns us that to one generation in five falls the duty – the highest duty and the most difficult duty of this Republic – to preserve the liberty of its citizens.   It is most difficult, because as Abraham Lincoln warned, [the threat to liberty] springs up not on a foreign shore where we can see it – it springs up amongst us.   It cannot be defeated by force of arms.   It must be defeated by reason.

I often ask myself as a Pastor, how can we be faithful to the gospel and yet be good citizens? How can I preach the gospel being a citizen of heaven and yet be a citizen of the United States? I feel like I have an answer to that more clear than ever and that is FREEDOM AND JUSTICE are not an American attribute, they are an attribute of GOD Himself. AND so anytime you see the need for freedom it is worth your time, when you see injustice, it is worth your voice, and it doesn’t matter if it is part of your political parties platform. The Church needs to rise and be a voice of grace, a voice of truth, a voice of reason.

So I want to use this pulpit to fight for freedom and the rights of those who do not have a voice and are oppressed, and in view of yesterday’s call to continue killing the unborn thru abortion we say “no”.

Now you may be pro-life, or pro-choice or undecided, but I want to challenge you to listen to me for a minute and keep an open mind-  on January 22, 1973. The Supreme Court handed down its decision in the case Roe v. Wade. Nine men determined that every state had the duty to give women unfettered access to abortion up until the birth of the child.

Yesterday a few hundred thousand women marched in Washington, about that many marched in different cities around the country, many of them for the right to have an abortion, to have control over their reproductive choices. Now I want you to know that as Pastors we support a man or a women’s right to make choices for themselves, that they should not be told how to manage their own health or medical choices. I think that is exactly what our constitution guarantees, it is what our soldiers have died for and are still dying for today. We are a free people and we have the right to do as we please, we have the right to discern our moral code, to eat what we like, to do what we like.

And listen to me now…. those rights have only one limitation and that limitation is this; your rights and personal freedoms end, where mine begin. Let me explain…

It is your right to make a fist and swing it to your hearts content, as a free person it is your right and no one should take that right away from you. But when you come toward me swinging your fist, your right to swing about free and happy comes to an end where my nose begins or to be honest even at the threat.

There is no balancing act of my rights versus your rights, this is not moral relativism, it is established law, it is absolute truth. The same is true about abortion, men and women have the full right of reproductive choices until those choices infringe upon the rights of another life. Thankfully in the past 40 years science and medicine have progressed and we can clearly see now that a baby has a heartbeat, and to have an abortion is to stop the heartbeat of a human, that human we can clearly see has its senses already, it can feel pain, it has emotions and it has thoughts. Because in the womb a baby is alive. This is not news to Christians, we read our bibles and we see that God knew this; look at these passages here…

Psalm 139:13-15

13 For you formed my inward parts;
    you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.[a]
Wonderful are your works;
    my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
    intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Jeremiah 1:5

“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.”

Psalm 22:10

10On you was I cast from my birth,
    and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Isaiah 49:15

15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child,
    that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?
Even these may forget,
    yet I will not forget you.

It was a day whose infamy overshadows December 7, 1941 in the memory of the church in America. Since that time in 1973 – 50,000,000 babies have been murdered in the womb with the full protection of the state and the knowledge of the church.

Abortion in America is, in the judgment of many, the greatest evil in our history. This American holocaust dwarves the evil of Nazi Germany in both numbers of the dead, and the numbers of we who know what is happening.

I am grateful that abortion rates are at a historical low, I am thankful that the debate has raged on and that the church has had to own failing to address issues that contribute to abortion. That Christians have had to see that we cannot be against killing the unborn without being for the lives of the born.

I am thankful that science has caught up to the bible again- and that we might see this end. Our role is to speak out, to repent for the past, to love those effected and to make a stand for FREEDOM and JUSTICE!

Let me pray for this: Lord we want to say that we are all for life! We are for Justice and freedom this morning. We are for the life of the unborn and the life of the born. We want to stand against abortion and see them end. We also want to be used by you oh God to be a solution to the reasons why this evil exists. To push back darkness and let your light shine in. Help us to genuinely say to those who have had abortions that we do not condemn you, we love you, come experience the grace of God that we have experienced. In Jesus name Amen.

So simply: Cherish the ones you love. Invest in them, love them & hug them as much as you can. Share with them about the Lord Jesus Christ and his amazing love. Discover & experience the greatness of the gospel. Don’t get so bogged down in the busyness of life that you lose sight of this. No one ever said on there deathbed, “Gee I wish I would have spent more time at work.”

Be a Devoted Servant Leader

Romans 12:10

10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
We have several groups that we need to be devoted to in our lives. First, we have our families. We must provide Christian leadership for them and act as servant leaders. 

Second, we have the people we are around regularly. This might be at work or it is a church group. 

Third, we have everyone else. This group is in that category. The poor or underprivileged are in that category. The members in this category are endless. 

The point is that we have to sacrifice and give of ourselves and that isn’t always easy. 

Pastors, today is your day. Your congregation needs your devotion. Be exceptional at being you in that perfect spot. 

Have a great week in the trenches, men. Take care of and be devoted to your families, each other and those who need your servant leadership this week. 

YW