When is enough, enough?

Where ever you find yourself in life, at some point or another (as a man) you will ask yourself this question, "Am I doing what I should be doing?"  Or some may find another question along the way, "Is this enough?"  The key to these two questions is contentment.  As a Christian Man, I do not mean by the world's definition of contentment, "Those who have the most toys win",   but rather, I prefer the Philippians 4:12B-13, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret to being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do everything through Him who gives me strength."  We have spent some time talking about Biblical Purity (our bodies are temples of the Living God).  We also have to talk about Biblical Contentment which falls, in my opinion, under Biblical Stewardship.  Biblical Stewardship is defined as a Christian who manages God's property or financial matters.  To put this into context of WDJD (what did Jesus do) the Pharisees tried trapping Jesus by asking him a really tough question about giving what belongs to whom.  Jesus told one of them to pull out a coin, whose image was of Caesar, and then Jesus said to them give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar and give unto God what belongs to God.  In reality, all of this world belongs to God.  As a Christian, not only what all of us own belongs to Him, but he also owns us, for we were bought with a price - his blood.

Biblical Stewardship truly boils down to the heart of the matter.  Remember that God judges our heart.  We can look at all of our expenditures and I can look at your god (small g) by where you spend your money and where your heart truly is.  Are you serious about God or are you more serious about the ways of this world.  Before you answer quickly and say it's all about God, then let me ask you a set of questions:
    

    Are you tithing 10%? Do you have any debt (home ownership doesn't count) but debt like credit     cards, etc.,?  Are you content (in any situation)?  Do you give to charities?  Do you help others even     when you don't think you can afford to (or have the time to)?  When you tithe, or give your money     or time, do you do it without grumbling?  Do you give with a joyous heart? When is     enough, enough?

If you truly want to be a legacy dad then you have to be serious about your purity (in Biblical terms) not your own definition.  If you truly want to be a legacy dad, then you have to get serious about Biblical Stewardship.  And finally, if you want to be a legacy dad, then you have to get serious about discipleship.  I think both Lance and I have said, for now, more than enough on Purity.  Now it's time to turn your attention to stewardship.  That is, to say, are you being a good steward with God's money and assets.  Remember rule #1 - GOD OWNS IT ALL.  Remember rule #2 - DON'T FORGET RULE NUMBER ONE! Now that we have that understood, it is time for your to take an inventory check:  Do I let money rule my moods or do I use money to serve a purpose of responsibility?  Do I let money control my expenditures?  Do I have credit card debt?  Do I owe more than what I make?  Am I content with what I have or do I want more?  Do I have to always compete with the Jones's?  If you find yourself answering yes to any of these questions then you have to take step #2- Confess it to God, and give it back to him.  Give everything back to him.  Did you know that there is only one place in the Bible where it tells us that we can test God?  Seriously there is (Malachi 3:10: "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of Heaven and poor out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.").

 If you want to get serious about being a good steward for God, then Lance and I would like to challenge you to start reading the Book of Proverbs and learn what God says about Stewardship.  There is a wealth of knowledge found in the Bible - Proverbs is where we will begin.  So for the remainder of this month and into next month, we would like you to read a chapter of Proverbs a day correlating to the day.  So today is 1/10/2010 then you will need to read Proverbs 10 until you get the the entire month of February.  Also take notes on things that speak to you about stewardship and see what the Words mean to you and write down those thoughts.  We will talk further on Stewardship.

Wordless Wednesday

 

Menschood

A friend ofmine once described my concept of being a Legacy Dad as the Yiddish concept ofmensch.  So, here is my definition andexpression of what a Legacy Dad/Mensch is. Salute!

Mensch means "aperson of integrity and honor according to Leo Rosten the Yiddish maven andauthor of The Joys of Yiddish, mensch is someone to admire and emulate,someone of noble character. The key to being “a real mensch” is nothing lessthan character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible,decorous.

A Legacy Dad strives to:

Display analtruistic attitude.  Give to and helpothers simply out of respect for humanity and without an expectation of return.

Help asmany people as possible, change as many lives as possible.

Do theright thing always. Set the example for others to follow. 

Live yourcharacter, morals and values openly and daily.

Be thebest husband, father, Christian and man you can be through faith, prayer, accountabilityand honesty.    

Leave the world a better place becauseyou were here.

Running the Race

Running The Race

God Disciplines His Sons

Hebrews 12: ¹Therefore, since we aresurrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything thathinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverancethe race marked out for us. ²Let us fix our eyes onJesus, the author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before himendured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of thethrone of God. ³Consider him who endured such oppositionfrom sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Galatians 5:7 You were running a good race. Who cut in on you andkept you from obeying the truth?  

2 Timothy 2:4 No one serving as asoldier gets involved in civilian affairs—he wants to please his commandingofficer.

Tobuild on Lance’s last post, let’s take a look, for an instant, of where we havebeen and where we want to go.  I thinkabout the parable of the seed that Jesus told his disciples and other witnessesto the Truth.  The point of the Parable,to this post, is where you are getting your strength and training from.  The point being that there is a beginning andan ending and that we have to be prepared to finish the race strong.  Lance made a point that he had to raise thebar in his life as a runner and as a husband and father, by surrounding himselfwith others, who raised the bar from mediocrity to the elite.  Not all of us can go out and consistently runa 5:30 minute mile for one mile, let alone 8 miles straight.  However, with a lot of encouragement andtraining from his friends, Lance was able to meet that goal and looking back,realized that it was all the more sweeter. 

Todayis the second day of January in the year 2010. Many of us may find ourselves frustrated with our lives (our marriages,our parenting, our work, and our serving others) and may desire to domore.  As a new Christian we jumped outof the starting blocks and read our bibles daily and got involved at church andfor some may have joined a mini-church or men’s group, BUT then it happened, weslipped back into that hidden sin of ours and that laziness and we are nolonger able to compete the way that we started. I like what Galatians says in that who cut in on us and took away thetruth from our lives.  It is never toolate to pick up the Word and start training again.  We can open up the very book that will readour lives to the core and convict us of that which we have to let go and tomove closer to God.  We can pray and askthe Holy Spirit to guide us in our race. We are all in this race, called life, and it is not a sprint, nor is ita quick jaunt around the race track, but it is a marathon race.  We need to stay fit (biblically andphysically speaking).  We need to sharpenour senses and prepare for battle.  Weneed to have accountability in our life (free accountability software) and weneed to be honest with God and with our wives (lives for some who are notmarried) and to start the training process all over again.

 Doyou want to be elite?  Do you want apurpose driven life?  Do you want to stepout of mediocrity and into the elite? That is, do you want to be a disciple forChrist?  A soldier in the ultimate battlefor lives, this is war and this is for keeps? Are you ready?  Are youprepared?  What is it going to take toget you off your seats and instead of being a pew sitter, you can become aheavy hitter in the Kingdom of God.  

I am not the man I used to be

There are many days that I often look back at the man I used to be.  The one thing that I love about this blog is that Lance puts it all out there.  That is, he is not afraid to tell you where he has been very honest about the mistakes he has made, and he also puts it out there for the rest of us to see- that is called true accountability.  He also leaves a road map for us to follow and that is Scripturally based and calls for us to repent and to be brutally honest with our lives.  In my life, there are a lot of things that I have done that I am not proud of and there have been things in my life that I cannot say anything else but, "Thank you God for always being faithful, even when I am not."  The hardest part about looking back in my life is to try and compare the man that I was and the man that I am trying to be and if I am brutally honest, realizing just how close I am to falling back to the old self.Let me be perfectly honest with all of you here.  When I first met my wife, I was anything but pure.  I had defiled my temple with all kinds of sinful nature stuff.  Lust and pride where huge issues in my life as a twenty something bachelor and I did not think twice about the ramifications of my choices.  However, sin has consequences and sin can destroy a lot of things in our life.  Sure, at the time, it seems like a great idea, but how can we justify sin to a Holy God?  We cannot!  I cannot expect the Holy Spirit to grow me to the man that God wants me to be if I have unrepentant sin in my life.  So when I met my wife, she was pure and she was honest and she was innocent.  She (and help from my mom who had a massive heart attack - asked me to start reading my bible) started to get me to attend her Sunday Morning Class and help teach 2 and 3 year olds a Bible Study - ugh!  Now that was a rude awakening to what parenting would look like.

The thing about the consequences of my sins were that they continued to haunt me in the first few years of my marriage, that is, I used to be able to justify normal behavior as just the daily jaunts of life.  That was a lie and that was revealed to me in Scripture.  I was grieving the Holy Spirit in my life by not repenting of sin and allowing myself to try and serve two masters - meaning there was no fruit in my life.  However, I didn't like that man and I didn't like the type of legacy that I was paving for my children.  My wife and I talked and we/I was brutally honest about my struggles and my sins and she said so do something about it and we grew a lot closer.  The more that I prayed and the more that I read Scripture the more convicted I felt and the more Scripture revealed in me the things that I needed to let go of.  And then, suddenly, the things of this world grew dimmer and the things of our heavenly Father's will grew more apparent - less of me and more of Him in every aspect of my life.

Another aspect of my marriage was that my wife and I were asked to take a leadership course in our church called Living Fire.  The course was a three years in all.  The first year was to ask of you two major questions:  1) Who is God (in our lives) and 2) Who am I (and where did my past story take me to this point in my life).  I have to be honest and say that as a graduate from college in Finance and having my Master's degree in Accounting and Economics, I did not think that this was going to be such a big deal (was I wrong).  Between this course and my daily prayers and bible reading I slowly started becoming the man that I want to be striving for daily to be:  To be a righteous man, to be a really good husband and father and to love God will all my heart, soul, strength and mind.  In the past 3 years my marriage has really grown and the friendship and love with my wife is simply unbelievable.  My hope and my prayer is that I can model this faith, daily walk and husbandry and parenting to our three lovely kids.

There are three themes we need to get a masters degree in:  I.  Biblical Purity II. Biblical Stewardship and III. Discipleship.  If you are married, you need to get a doctorate degree in your wives.  Just imagine if we spent half the time on our wives (studying them, trying to perfect them and nurturing them) as we do our sports, hobbies and other interests - Wow!  That would really be something.  So where do we begin:

1) Read Colossians 3, 2) Read Romans 12, 3) Repent and 4) Move to action - get involved in a men's bible study, a mini-church, an accountability group.  Repent of your sin (Jesus said that you cannot serve two masters).  Be honest with your life, that is, give up your pride.  Take simple steps:  Read your bible daily, meditate on what you read, pray on that Scripture that convicts you to move you to change.

When you find yourself moving into these simple four steps, trust me, for an instant just look back on your life (for a gander) and realize that you, too, will no longer be the man you used to be.  You will be a man that God wants to use, grow, disciple and mentor others.  That, my friend, will be a beautiful day for your church leadership - as you will be a man that can be called to action.

Live each day in order to be the kind of man that when you wake up, the devil will say, "Oh Crap, he is up again..."

Home is where the heart is...

I want to apologize to all of you as Lance and I have been away (I am traveling) and have not been as frequent on our posts.  Today, we are going to move back toward our previous posts on purity.  As you all know, life can be very busy and work can be very demanding on a precious time with God and with Family.  Sometimes we can even let the pressures of this world distract us from what, we are who called by Christ, should really be focusing on.  Does this mean that we are not to serve those who we work for on this earth with all of our God-given abilities?  Absolutely not!  Even if we find ourselves in difficult situations and do not like the situations that we are "serving" (working, leisure activities, family demands, etc.,) we still have to serve that calling as we are called to serve God. 

As Christians we are told in Scripture that this World will not be easy.  That we will find trials and tribulations in this life, but that we should not be upset by this, but instead, take pride in the sense that we are being tested.  And in being tested, as we come through the trial or in some cases the tribulation, then we mature as Christians and can move closer to God (Paraphasing the Book of James).  The question that needs to be asked here to all men (Single, Fathers, Dads, Sons, Grandfathers, Widowers, etc) is where is your heart.  Mathew 5:8, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." 

Imagine the most beautiful and pure thing that you have ever seen in your life (a scene, a picture, your little girl, your pure son...).  Now imagine what they would look like if they were 120% defiled and left dirty and disgusting and/or violated to the point that it/they could never be returned back to the way you first imagined that image.  That is what was wrong with you and I as sin entered our lives.  To God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and His Holy Word (The Bible) we are condemned through sin and are not able to even enter the same chamber with this impurity.  Yet, God, who loved us so much decided that we needed the only sacrifice that would permanently wash us clean.  That is, once and for all, the old tabernacle would no longer be in need as God was to give us his only begotten son.  Jesus paid it all, if you accept him and believe in him, then you will be saved.  If you have already done that - AWESOME!  Hallelujah!  Glory be to God for your salvation.  Now what?

Purify yourself.  This begins with daily reading of Scripture, daily prayer and repentance of the heart.  This means "death" of the old self as we, being children of God, are now called to be holy priests and prophets and kings in our home, community and work place.  We are kidding ourselves if we think we can serve two masters:  sin and God.  We cannot, because if we continue to defile ourselves, that is our bodies (living temples of God) then we cannot move closer to him and we faily our daily trials and tribulations.  ANd where there is no fruit (of the Spirit - Galatians 5) then there may be no salvation. 

If you and I are serious about God and about our faith in Him, then we need to decide right here and now whether God is more than enough for our needs.  We have to decide if we are going to allow God in all parts of our life, that is, will you allow God to be Lord over our entire life?  Let's get serious about true purity of heart, mind, sould and our strength and allow God to work in our lives through the Holy Spirit who dwells in our hearts.  Remove the impurities (sin) and clean house to allow God to grow us into mature Chrisitans to do his work here on earth.
Where is your heart today? 

To husbands and fathers....

If you are a man and you are married, and if by chance you have the pleasure of having kids with your wife, then this blog is for you.    If you are divorced, re-married and with step-kids, then this post is for you.  If you are single and/or recently divorced and have kids, then this post is for you.  If you are single and not married and just struggling, then have patience - we will come back to you in another post.  For those that are still reading, then this one is for you.  

The Bible is the true Word of God.  The Bible is true and accurate from cover to cover.  The Bible is the inherent Word of God.   Now that I have your attention please turn your Bibles to Ephesians 5:22-29 (NewInternational Version)

Wives and Husbands

 ²²Wives, submit to your husbands as to theLord. ²³For the husband is the head of the wife asChrist is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴Nowas the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbandsin everything.

 ²⁵Husbands, love your wives, just asChrist loved the church and gave himself up for her ²⁶tomake her holy, cleansing^[a] her bythe washing with water through the word, ²⁷and topresent her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or anyother blemish, but holy and blameless. ²⁸In this sameway, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves hiswife loves himself. ²⁹After all, no one ever hated hisown body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—"

Now guys, before you go on and say to your wives, "see what Paul says, you have to submit to me"  - BE CAREFUL.  Read on my friends.  It says Husbands love your wives just as Christ loves the Church AND he gave himself up for her.  Don't just brush over that, but seriously, think on that.  Did it say he gave himself partially?  Did it say after golf, or after time with my buddies and after me, me and me?  NO.  He gave Himself on the Cross for you and I and that is what we, THE SPIRITUAL LEADERS of our house and of our family are called to do.  We are called to love our wives and to give ourself up for them.  This doesn't say that you have to be a wimp nor does it say that you have to wear a skirt in the household.  The woman has her place and the man has his place and in some cases that may require that both parents are working.  Whatever lot you are cast and whatever vocation you have to follow, one thing is for sure (your wife may not admit to it, nor can she fathom what Spiritual Leadership truly looks like if you haven't followed the aforementioned scripture).  However, if you were to find yourself taking these steps and honoring her and loving her as Christ loves us, and giving yourself up for her the way that Christ did for His Church - WATCH AND SEE MY FRIENDS - WATCH AND SEE what happens.

Some of you may be in a situation that seems hopeless.  Some may have even wandered away and cheated on your wives in adultery or even worse through pornography - Oh, you say that either one is worse then the other - SIN IS SIN.  Remember what Jesus said in Mathew, paraphrasing that if we even look lustfully at another women (at work, on the computer, in a magazine or a social network- Facebook...then we have already committed adultery.  Hmmm?  It is pretty hard to argue with Jesus let alone His Scripture.    

So is there hope for those of you that are in this situation?  In Job 34:31-33 we read, "Suppose a man says to God, 'I am guilty' but will offend no more.  Teach me what I cannot see; if I have done wrong, I will not do so again.  Should God then reward you on your terms when you refuse to repent?  You must decide..."  In 1 Peter 3:7 we read, "Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers."  

Do you desire to have a Christ-centered life?  A Christ-centered marriage?  Then it is very clear what Scripture has to say; do not barter with God.  He is a Holy God and we need to repent our hidden sin to him - no matter what the sin (or in some cases the idol) may be.  Jesus paid the ultimate price once and for all, that is, to say, that nothing else we can do on our own can save us.  Jesus paid our price in full and we are written in the Book of Life forever.  Scripture does ask us to move toward living sacrifices (Romans 12) and to move toward Holy Living (Colossians 3).  

If you love your kids?  Let me say that again, IF YOU LOVE YOUR KIDS, THEN love your wives.  Respect your wives and treat them as heirs to God and Heaven as they are daughters of God through Jesus's blood.  We are engrafted into his family with a price - His Blood.  No matter where you are at in your life:  Single, Divorced, Divorced with Kids, Divorced and re-married, Married (barely), Married mediocre, Married poorly, Married with kids and/or Married happily with Kids - The choice is very clear - it begins with you getting on your knees and repenting of the sin that we have in our lives and moving closer to God through his word and through prayer. Then we can move in our marriage, our singleness and in our brokenness and allow God to heal us and to sanctify us when we no longer grieve the Holy Spirit that is in us.   

Do you understand?

Wordless Wednesday