Faith In Trials

James 1:12
12 Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Pastors, today is the perfect day to do a great job for your congregation.

What do trials reveal? In my experience they reveal where we’re at in our faith. Do we make excuses or blame? Do we dig our heels into our faith? Sometimes we do one and other times we do the other, depending on the situation.

Many of us are coaches or were athletes. Were we at our best when the lights were on? If we were, it was because we’d prepared for that moment. Same with our faith. Is our faith ready for a difficult moment? If not, you better start preparing. Prayer, reading the Bible, talking with fellow Christians … there are countless possibilities.

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

Love,

Yancey

Family Friday 2/26: Words Matter

Good morning, men!

Two nights ago, the Runyan crew was settling in to the couch with coffee and a movie. After a really hectic day, things were starting to slow down and I was finally getting to relax.

Lo and behold, the baby pukes in the carpet, our 8 year old sprints off to grab the cleaner while we all rush to keep her from stepping in it, and he throws the cleaner at me, knocking my coffee all over the end table, books, and floor.

Needless to say, I was pretty frustrated. I managed to not get mad at Jase, but I launched into a 10 minute pity party where I roasted my wife about how her anxiety makes the kids anxious and makes them freak out about small things. Yeah…not exactly a husband of the year moment.

Sarah and I talked through it yesterday and I apologized to her and told her I handled it poorly. Nowhere in that was patience, grace, or the love that Christ shows me for all of my shortcomings.

If you have kids and a spouse, I’m sure you all have a similar story. I’m no specialist on the subject, but I believe that as men we bear a responsibility to our wives to admit fault and love them with humility when we wound them.

Have a blessed day, men!

M.I.T.T. ~ Runyan

Kind Compassion

Ephesians 4:32
32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

How would someone in the service industry view our faith if they judged us on our actions toward them? Would their assessment be accurate? Would it be what we wanted it to be?

I am not going to take much of your time today, I just want to pose the questions above in relation to the scripture and the picture. If we aren’t setting a Christian example, then we need to evaluate and adjust what our actions are.

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

Love,

Yancey

Quiet

I’ll admit, one of the struggles I have at times is I probably talk too much! Lol, those of you who know me just thought to yourselves “thats an understatatement”.

A recurring theme in scripture and conversations I continue to run into is the fact that sometimes its ok to just be quiet. Often times, its ok to just be an example.

We must always be discerning and following prompts from the Holy Spirit, but I cannot go against Him when he urges me to just keep my mouth shut.

“So quiet and unobtrusive the Great Servants work, that many today doubt His ver existence.” -J. Oswald Sanders

Think about Christianity for a moment. Its not “of this world”. So, eveytime in every situation it acts, sees and thinks differently than what the world would. Its whats so awesome about the Messiah. The people were waiting for a leader who would strike physical fear in their enemies, destroy and sit on the throne to lead, who would bring their kingdom great wealth and prosperity. Instead, He was born of a Virgin in a manger, washed his disciples feet, said the only way to lead is serve and the only way to be first is to be a slave, rode in on a donkey, and died a death we all deserved!? Yes!! Thats the Messiah. Quiet all the way up Calvary as people just like you and I spit at him and hurled insults, not changing God’s plan, but accelting the Father’s will!

Come along with me the next time you are prompted to be quiet and just be an example. Let the quiet spirit of the Lord be the answer!

With love, dlp

M.I.T.T.

Missing Church

I have noticed the Church I attend is down to about half of what it was pre-covid. I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to the numbers we had before. To me the sad part is the most venerable, the elderly, are the majority of the ones still attending.

Men, this image says it all, if you keep missing Church, soon you won’t miss is. It’s a very easy trap to fall into, make going to Church a priority again. Teach your kids, your neighbors, your co workers the importance of going to Church. It’s time to fill the buildings again.

New

Good morning men. What a difference a week makes. Last week, the low at our house was -9 and the high for today is 75. Welcome to Arkansas! The warmer temperature means spring is right around the corner and we are coming out of winter. I always see God’s hands at work in nature and each spring I look forward to the new. Flowers and trees in bloom, wildlife being born. It’s just a joyous time of the year. Warmer temperature and longer days and when I think of spring this is the scripture that comes to mind.

Revelation 21:5 “Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.”

Men, each day we have a new day. Yesterday doesn’t count and we are just as close to Christ and being able to become closer to Him despite where we are in our lives. He makes all things new including us. I pray this post helps someone directly or indirectly. Have a blessed day men.

Family devotional time

One of our goals as a family this year was to be more consistent in doing a family devotional. We wanted to keep it simple, involve reading God’s word, sharing and praying together. We decided on a time before they went to bed. My 3 youngest still at home are 17, 14, and 12. And my oldest son at college participates through google meet. One thing I have enjoyed with having older kids is that when we spend time doing a devotional that everybody participates in reading, sharing, and praying. We have been reading through just 1 chapter and using a simple bible study method to understand what we read. It is called OIA and is from a book I am reading called Knowable Word – Helping Ordinary People Learn to Study the Bible.

O stands for observation and is basically asking what does the passage say.

I stands for interpretation and is basically asking what does the passage mean.

A stands for application and is basically what can I apply from this passage to my life? How can I put it into action.

You can dig as deep as you want or keep it simple. We simply look for facts on context, audience, who is speaking etc to help with our observations. After we read and discuss those points we all pray together focusing on praising and thanking God before making specific requests. I am not saying this is for everybody and that this is how you should do it. I just wanted to give an example of what could be done. It is different for everyone. It has been a blessing to our family so far.

Matthew 18:20 New International Version (Jesus speaking)
20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

The Gift of Humble

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.

Pastors, the floor is yours. Be exceptional and humble.

I came across this verse looking for today’s scripture. I feel that the message behind this verse is a great lesson.

In my opinion, the greatest gift for any of us is salvation. As we all know, the salvation we have been given came at a hefty price for Jesus, but to us it is simply a gift for us to receive.

With that being the case I’d like to really focus on the last part, “not by works, so that no one can boast.” That is an incredible reason to give grace and to be humble and kind. The greatest gift we’ve been given that gives us eternal life in paradise cannot be earned.

That essentially took any other reason away to act in a boastful way. Let’s focus on giving grace, let’s focus on being humble and building others up. Let’s give thanks and credit to God.

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

Love,

Yancey

Be Thankful for All Blessings

No scripture today, men. As I was searching for a Bible verse for today, my Prayer of Thanks alarm went off.

There have been times in my life that I have not been thankful enough. However, recently I’ve had several experiences that are similar to those I’ve learned from in the past and I am more thankful for them now than I would have been before. Some were pleasant experiences and others weren’t.

What I have realized thus far is that I would not have some of my greatest blessings had I not gone through some of the unpleasant experiences. I was not thankful for the unpleasant times until I arrived at the point that I saw that without those times I wouldn’t have some of my greatest blessings.

In closing today, I hope you can see that sometimes blessings will be disguised in something that we deem unpleasant. I feel like these situations are described better by Laura Story in her song Blessings. Take a listen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQan9L3yXjc.

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

Love,

Yancey