Family Friday 12/13: Another Year

Good morning, men!

Yesterday marked my 38th birthday. Depending on which stat you believe, I am just over halfway through my journey here on God’s green Earth.

Despite having one of the most hectic days at work I have had in a while (I forgot to eat lunch), I was able to spend some time this evening reflecting on the last year.

My daughter was born, I started a new career, we saw massive growth in our missional community reach which sprouted new friendships, our Lumberjacks came a few outs away from winning a regional baseball championship, and Sarah and I celebrated our 13th anniversary. Overall it was a great year. A year worth praising God!

Two things happened yesterday that made me reflect on how good God is. My daughter showed the first signs of recovering from RSV and slept soundly for the first time in days, and I closed a major account that I have been working on for 3 months. I sat in my driveway just amazed at the timing and how amazing our Father is.

Psalms 16:11 says:

“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

Today, on my birthday, I was blessed to spend a few moments in full, uninterrupted, ecstatic, thankful, joy. It was a pretty intense feeling. One that I pray everyone encounters from time to time, and one that I wish that I could bottle and carry with me each day. It made me wonder in amazement how it’s is even possible that the joy I experienced for a fleeting moment today could possibly exist for eternity in Heaven. Man, that sounds awesome! Can’t wait for that!

Have a blessed day and find something to rejoice over this weekend!

M.I.T.T. ~ Runyan

Prayer

Heavenly Father,

I just wanted to take a moment to pray for all our men on the Manly Message. First and foremost, you are worthy of all our praise, we know that you are the creator of all things, and that you are in control.  Lord, your word tells us to come to you with our worries, our doubts, our troubles, our battles; and we lift those up to you this morning.  Men on here facing the pressure of being the head of a family, providing, building businesses, changing jobs, illnesses, caring for loved ones, Lord the list goes on and on. Please, help us to be the spiritual leaders in our homes, work place and communities that you call us to be. Help us to stand firm against our spiritual battles, against the sin that we struggle with. Help us to face the enemy, give us the STRENGTH!

Father, we also lift up Praises! The times and situations in our lives that we can see you at work! The healings, reaching goals, financial milestones, this list goes on and on as well! You are such a good Father! You have blessed us in so many ways! Please, Lord, continue to transform our hearts, minds and souls.  Help us to serve others with open arms, help us to show others the Love of Jesus! Help us to hear your voice and understand your truths!

Lord, we love you, and we thank you so much for your sacrifice for us.

Amen

With love, dlp

M.I.T.T.

How long is Eternity?

Why are the choices we make today about our salvation so important? Just how long is eternity? The above picture is of sand dues. Imagine these dunes are on the west coast. 1 bird would take 1 grain of sand and fly it all the way accords the United States and deposit it on the east coast then fly back and do it over and over again, until every grain of sand has been moved. You’re thinking that’s a long time. That amount of time would just equate to the beginning of eternity.

Men, there is no amount of earthy things that would be worth giving up eternity for, no amount of money, pleasure, status, NOTHING. Live a life that has a focus on God and where you will be spending eternity.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and to lose his soul?—Mark 8:36

Zach

Courage

Good morning men. Wherever you are and wherever you are at in life, I pray today is a blessed day for you. For about the last 5 years I have been in sales and this has brought me into contact with a lot of different people. I can’t begin to count the number of times I have come in contact with a customer or a passerby who was just down. Not really depressed you would say but just not having a good day. It seemed to that it was always the same ones who were in this kind of mood. I always attempt to bring someone’s day up. Word of encouragement or a smile, tell them to have a blessed day etc. I wonder if the people who are acting in this particular manner know Christ. Many times I don’t take the conversation that far (pray for me to have the courage to extend that conversation further). I most certainly don’t have it all together and while the Lord has blessed me in life, it’s not without my own struggles. I give thanks to the Lord first and foremost for everything he’s given me. I try to have a humble and grateful attitude and let that spill over into my work.

In this world let’s be the light for others men. We have opportunities each day to be JESUS for someone. Take advantage of those opportunities and I pray we all have the courage to do so.

God cares for you

1 Peter 5:6-11: 6Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

It seems the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is shorter this year and has led to anxiety at the Miller house. With an increase in anxiety and fixing our eyes on our circumstances, we can be overwhelmed and frustrated with the season. This leads to trying to control expectations and circumstances; which is very difficult and really out of our control. When things don’t go as planned, or something pops up that causes us to suffer we break down, shut down, try and fix it in our own strength or realize we can’t and cry out to God. We try to avoid suffering but the reality is that suffering is part of life on this earth. We think this suffering is only happening to us, which is a lie from Satan according to the passage above. The fact is this suffering is happening to brothers & sisters in Christ all over the world. The truth is that God doesn’t promise to keep us from suffering but that He personally walks us through it and promises to restore us if we humble ourselves, cast our anxieties on Him, resist the enemy and being firm in our faith. Being firm in our faith is easier when we fix our eyes on the Lord, who is faithful and true, who says what he is going to do and does what he says especially in verse 1 Peter 5:10: And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Men meditate and rest on that truth this season and remember this season is all about Jesus who personally came to earth to live a perfect life, conquer sin and death and bring us back to God so we could have this personal relationship for all eternity. GOD LOVES YOU, PERSONALLY CARES FOR YOU AND IS ACTIVELY INVOLVED IN REDEEMING AND RESTORING YOU!!!

Think Ahead and Give Good Information

Proverbs 13:16

16 All who are prudent act with knowledge, but fools expose their folly.

Pastors, speak confidently today. You are getting to do the Lord’s work.

When others come to you for help or advice, it means they think enough of you request your opinion. That’s a great compliment.

Make sure that when others come seeking guidance, you give advice based on faith and the Bible. If you don’t know or aren’t sure, say you’ll follow up and then do so. Don’t shoot from the hip.

Make it a great week in the trenches. Be exceptional at being you.

Love,

Yancey

Christmas Spending

Please keep one of our men on the message and his family in your prayers as we go forward. They lost a family member Friday morning and will need our support.

Proverbs 13:7

7 One person pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth.

Men, take great care this Christmas season to make the joy of giving fit within your means. Our sincere thought into your gifts and don’t just throw money at them … anyone can do that.

Make your gifts mean something to the receiver. Then, let everyone see your true joy in giving throughout the process.

Travel safely this Christmas and remember you are a man in the message as you attend gatherings. You will be observed, so be worth observing.

Make it a great day in the trenches. Be exceptional at being you.

Love,

Yancey

Gods Thoughts (sermon jam)

I really needed to hear this, and I need to be humbled by it. Hope you can take something from it as well:

 

With live dlp

M.I.T.T.

Do not worry

I needed this message more for myself than anything this morning so I thought I would share. Morning started off by breaking a tool I had borrowed, trying to fix it, no luck. Getting out of the house late to find my tire flat. Going to the tire store to get it fixed. Remembering I had forgot a message. When days go bad its nice to remember we have a God who can get us through the tough times.

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendorwas dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.