Ordinary Men - Final

So what has been my point? I think it’s fairly obvious?From the beginning, throughout history and still today; God takes ordinary men and women and makes extraordinary things happen.

You may have a sketchy past, you may not have the skills required, you may not feel like the right person for the job, you may not have the education. God still wants you, needs you and will use you if you let him.

Legacy Dad is a testimony in this very fact. I fought God about starting this ministry and I still struggle to trust His plan. I’m not a pastor, I don’t have a Theology degree from Fuller or Dallas Seminary and often I don’t understand the Scriptures or what God wants me to do or say.

The Noise in my head often tells me to quit, stop writing and give up this Ministry. But God tells me He is not done with me.

Every day I have to get up and remember that it’s not by my power but by His power.

God has a plan for each and every one of us: in our marriage, with our children, in our churches and in our communities. We may not understand the calling, feel qualified or up to the task but we have to trust in His plan for our lives.

Andy Stanley said that the true measure of spiritual maturity is a believer’s ability to trust in God’s plan, put our fears aside and walk boldly in faith.

What is God calling you to do? What ministry big or small has been etched in your mind and heart for some time? What signs and tests has God put in your life which you may have ignored?

There basically have two choices we can make: Ignore our calling and let fear keep us in mediocrity or trust in God and His power to meet us wherever we are and use our lives for extraordinary things.

Almost 2000 years ago, 11 men decided to trust God. The walked in faith and 10 were martyred for their faith, their ministry and their commitment but they changed the course of history and the world as we know it today.

What will history speak of you? What will your Legacy be? What might happen if we followed the example of these 11 ordinary men and let God use our ordinary lives to change history again?

-  Lance

It is the Veteran

"IT IS THE VETERAN"

It is the Veteran, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.It is the Veteran, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.It is the Veteran, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.It is the Veteran, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.It is the Veteran, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.It is the Veteran, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.It is the Veteran, who salutes the Flag,It is the Veteran, who serves under the Flag,To be buried by the flag,So the protester can burn the flag.

Author: Anonymous

To all of you who have served, are serving - we at Legacydad would like to thank you for your sacrifice (of time, of talent, of treasure and even unto death) we thank you for your integrity, bravery, fortitude and all around real american hero!

May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you the peace of Christ -

Best wishes,

Lance & Dante

Ordinary Men - Part 3

James: Boanerges “Sons of Thunder” was the nickname Jesus gave to the brothers, James and John. James, the eldest, was obsessive, passionate, fervent, and thunderous. He was also ambitious and bloodthirsty. James sometimes had a tendency to let such misguided zeal get the better of him. James wanted a crown of glory; Jesus gave him a cup of suffering. He wanted power; Jesus gave him servanthood. He wanted a place of prominence; Jesus gave him a martyr’s grave. He wanted to rule; Jesus gave him a sword, not to wield, but to be the instrument of his own execution. James became the first disciple to die for his faith. Although James started out as “in it for himself” when he met Jesus, by the grace of God, he was transformed into one of the leading apostles and his life became less about himself and more about God’s Kingdom.

 John:

The younger brother of James was zealous, passionate, fervent, and thunderous, just like his brother. How did this man become known as “the apostle of love?” John wrote more about love than any other New Testament author. He focused on Christ’s love for His church, a Christian’s love for Christ, and the sign of true believers, love for one another.

Love did not weaken John’s passion for truth. Truth remained John’s passion to the end of his life, but the love he learned from Christ gave him the necessary balance that enabled him to proclaim truth to his last day on earth.The balance of love and truth, John wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (3 John 4). He used the Greek word for truth twenty-five times in his Gospel and another twenty times in his epistles. In his early years, truth was “it.” He had no concept of love by which to balance this zeal.

Then, in Mark 9, we see him confess to dealing with a man who was driving out demons in Christ’s name by telling him to stop. This showed intolerance, rebuking the man for using Jesus’ name because he wasn’t part of the group. Jesus corrects him, “Do not stop him. No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us” (verses 39-40). With this, John began to transform, to understand the need for balance between love and truth. The truly godly person must cultivate both virtues in equal proportions…Know the truth, and uphold it in love.

 Matthew:

We know very little about Matthew, which is interesting since he wrote the Gospel that bears his name. We do know that he was a tax collector. Tax collectors were the most reviled people in Israel.  The best answer we can deduce is that whatever Matthew’s tortured soul may have experienced because of the profession he had chosen to be in, down deep inside he was a Jew who knew and loved the Old Testament and realized something when he saw Jesus and Jesus called him to follow. Matthew was spiritually hungry, so the draw of Jesus was irresistible. For the rest of his life, he was a quiet and humble man who cared for the outcasts of society and introduced them to Jesus.

Thomas – The Pessimist:

It is easy for an optimist to be loyal, after all, optimist think positive and believe everything will be okay! How much harder it is for a pessimist to be loyal? A pessimist is convinced the world is full of evil and pessimist are quite skeptical of things especially faith and the supernatural. In spite of Thomas’s pessimism, Thomas was determined to be at Jesus’ side. This may be pessimism but it is heroic pessimism and that takes incredible courage and faith! As a pessimist, Thomas realized he wouldn’t have all the answers or facts, his faith couldn’t be scientifically and mathematically proven, yet he chose to believe and follow Christ and spent the rest of his life fighting his skepticism and teaching others about Christ.

 Simon The Zealot or Terrorist:

Simon was probably a former member of a political party known as the Zealots, a feared outlaw political sect in the fist century. The Zealots objected to Roman rule and violently sought to eradicate it by generally targeting Romans and Greeks. Another group, likely related, was the Sicarii or dagger men, who raided Jewish habitations and killed Jews they considered apostate and collaborators, while also urging Jews to fight Romans and other Jews for the cause. Simon was a modern day member of something like ISIL/ISIS.

In both Matthew and Mark, he is listed just before Judas Iscariot, which indicates they were probably a team and the low listing probably means he was despised or not trusted by the others. Simon probably had political reasons to follow Jesus initially, possibly thinking Jesus was there to overthrow the Romans, but along the way Simon actually accepted Christ and became a true believer. Simon and Matthew were at opposite ends of the political extreme, like putting a liberal and ultra conservative together, yet they became spiritual brothers who worked side by side to spread the gospel of the Lord they both worshiped. They put their political differences aside for the greater good and the advancement of God’s kingdom.

Is there a point to all this, besides a nice history and Sunday School lesson?

Stay tuned for the final post on what all this means and how it applies to our lives today.

-Lance

 (This post includes research and highlights from the book – Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur. I’ve read this book multiple times and it is one of the best resources on the 12 Apostles of Christ.)

Ordinary Men - Part 2

These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him - Matthew 10:2

They were ordinary in every way. They were not orators or theologians. None of these men was a scholar or well versed in the Scriptures. Their natural talents and intellectual abilities were in no way outstanding. They were prone to failure, none more so than Peter, the leader of the twelve. Jesus even stated that they were slow learners and spiritually dense (Luke 24:25). Yet, after little more than eighteen months of training, they changed the world.

The disciples had faults and character flaws. They were all sinners. They were incredibly ordinary men, just like you and me. Yet these men were transformed and empowered by the Holy Spirit and God used these ordinary men for His extraordinary purposes.

Peter:

His birth-name was Simon Bar-Jonah, in Aramaic this means “Simon, son of Jonah.” But Jesus gave him the additional name of Peter or Simon-Peter.

Throughout the New Testament, Peter displays the following leadership traits and qualities:

Inquisitiveness: Curiosity is an important element of leadership. Leaders are hungry for answers and often ask questions and sometimes rock the boat. According to the gospel, Peter asked more questions than the other eleven combined.

Initiative: Drive, ambition, and energy are important components of effective leadership. Leaders make things happen. We often hear Peter speak boldly, as seen in Matthew 16:13–16. When Jesus asks, “Who do men say I am, the Son of Man?” Several ideas are expressed. Then Jesus asks, “But who do you say I am?” Peter boldly and decisively asserts, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Peter was always ready to take hold of every opportunity, a characteristic of a natural leader.

Involvement/Courage: Leaders are most comfortable in the middle of the action piloting others in the right direction. In the story of Peter and the boat (Matthew 14:26–28), while the others wondered if they were seeing a ghost, Peter said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Jesus said, “Come.” And out Peter went. While Peter’s lack of faith is often criticized, the fact is, he got out of the boat! He took action and had faith. Even today, many Christians are happy to stay safe in the boat rather than walking out in faith on the water. But the water, the dangerous area, is where Jesus is.

Besides Peter’s leadership traits, we also saw evidence of his character traits as taught by Jesus:

Submission (John 6:38)

Restraint (1 Peter 2:21–23)

Humility (Matthew 26)

Love (Mark 9:35)(John 13:1-7)

Andrew:

Andrew was the first disciple to be called by Christ and therefore had a close, personal relationship with Jesus. When others wanted to personally meet Jesus, it was Andrew who brought them. While Andrew lived his life in the shadow of his dominant brother, Peter, Andrew had an amazing ability to see the value of small, modest things such as:

People, even broken ones: Andrew appreciated the value of every single soul. Both Andrew and Peter were evangelists, but their styles were dramatically different. Peter preached at Pentecost and 3,000 were converted. While Andrew never appeared to have preached to the crowds, it is important to remember that it was Andrew who brought Peter to the Lord; therefore, the fruit of Peter’s ministry was also the fruit of Andrew’s ministry. You and I would never know at the time but we might have the chance to bring the next Billy Graham to know Christ by our actions and personally testimony.

Gifts – Spiritual and Otherwise: While the other disciples were convinced that the best way to handle the hungry multitude was to send them to the village to buy food, it was Andrew who said, “There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish” (John 6:9). He identified to Jesus an available food source. With it, Jesus fed the people and had food left over. Andrew knew that no gift is insignificant in the hands of Jesus.

Service behind the scenes: Unlike his brother and friends, Andrew was more interested in bringing individual souls to Jesus than in being given the credit for doing so. Being hidden in the background was not a problem as long as the work was being done.

Many of us will never be on the center stage or preaching before large crowds, but we could lead a small group, pray with someone in need or even pour coffee on a Sunday morning. Each one of these tasks helps and advances God’s kingdom in some way.

Stay Tuned for more in Part 3

-Lance

 (This post includes research and highlights from the book – Twelve Ordinary Men by John MacArthur. I’ve read this book multiple times and it is one of the best resources on the 12 Apostles of Christ.)

Ordinary Men

A few years ago, I was asked to sit on a steering committee to find a new youth pastor for a church, the following is some highlights from this experience.I had attended this church for a while of highly religious people, you know, “church” people. They went to church each week, tithed and gave money to the poor; they studied their scriptures and read them daily. These people dressed nice, smiled, and were good, Godly people. These people also believed in a strict interpretation of the Scriptures and to that end they were at times prejudice. They looked down on those who were different or those who did not believe what they believed. They often spoke harshly of people who were outside their religious group or used passages of scripture to point out the sins and flaws of others in an effort to help these outsiders repent. Overtime, this church developed an “us” versus “them” mentality but it did not really matter because there was more of “us” then “them” and we knew we had the true faith.

Then along came this young man, a youth pastor for a nearby town, he was very knowledgeable of the Scriptures but believed that the Scriptures was to be interpreted and used for grace, mercy and kindness. He invited everyone to come to his youth group and service and hear his message – those who had premarital sex, criminals, and drug users. He seemed to attract a rough crowd. He didn’t care how these people had sinned or what they had done; the youth pastor allowed them to come to our church and often told them they were forgiven. At first, the elders from our church were shocked but they merely dismissed this youth pastor as ignorant. In fact, the youth pastor came from a part of the country that was uneducated and poor and therefore the church elders chocked his actions and teachings up as misguided and that the youth pastor was simply uneducated.

But the youth pastor didn’t stop there, he kept preaching and even started preaching against the senior pastors and the church elders saying there were corrupt and misguided. The youth pastor also started to attract a following of some rough men – laborers, a former convict, and a CPA who had been caught in tax fraud. All these men were flawed; sinners and none of them were well versed or educated in the Scriptures. They were ordinary men but the youth pastor told them they should start teaching everyone about God. The situation got so bad that there were many altercations between the senior pastors and church elders, and this youth pastor and his band of criminals and sinners. Even worse, many of the people at our church were starting to follow the youth pastor instead of the senior pastors and elders. Finally, the senior pastor and the church elders decided they needed to take action, they could no longer allow this youth pastor to teach his interpretation of “their faith” or corrupt their church and their way of life. Something needed to be done.

What happened next was amazing and something that I will never forget, the senior pastors and church elders felt threatened by this youth pastor. He was contradicting everything that the pastors and elders had taught their congregation for years. He was overlooking sinners and those who had questionable morals and allowing them to be a part of “us”. The youth pastor was splitting our congregation in half and appointing criminals and untrained laypeople to speak on behalf of the church. The youth pastor was challenging our church, its authority and our rules. So they killed him. That youth pastors name was Jesus.

While this story in itself was amazing, what happened next was a true testament of faith in God. Those fishermen, a terrorist, a tax collector and the rest of the untrained, ordinary men – went on to change history and our world as we know it. God used these ordinary, untrained men to change the fate of the world and history forever.

Stay tuned…

- Lance

A prayer for spiritual strength

FOr this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (‭Ephesians‬ ‭3‬:‭14-21‬ NIV)Often I find myself in life's circumstances that make me question why and how some things seem to be what they really are not.  Some call this spiritual warfare and/0r our spiritual lives in the desert place.

As we read Ephesians 4 we have to realize that Jesus Christ is the center of it all.  Surrendering our will to God and trusting Him is the way we should go!

Lance and I pray this spiritual strength for you!

blessings,

Dante

The "g"od complex

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaA god complex is an unshakable belief characterized by consistently inflated feelings of personal ability, privilege, or infallibility. A person with a god complex may refuse to admit the possibility of their error or failure, even in the face of complex or intractable problems or difficult or impossible tasks, or may regard their personal opinions as unquestionably correct.[1][2] The individual may disregard the rules of society and require special consideration or privileges.[1]

God complex is not a clinical term or diagnosable disorder, and does not appear in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

The first person to use the term god-complex was Ernest Jones (1913-51).[3] His description, at least in the contents page of Essays in Applied Psycho-Analysis, describes the god complex as belief that one is a god.[4]

----

When Jesus referred to Satan, he called him a liar and the Father of all lies.  Satan, the Devil, in his heart was proud and sinned because of it and thought in his heart to set his throne above God's throne (Read here:  Isaiah 14).  Knowing that the devil (Satan) prowls around like a lion seeking to destroy God's disciples, we need to be on guard and to be in the word daily to protect ourselves against his evil arrows.  We need to be rooted in the word.  The problem with this "g"od complex is set at the beginning of our lives when we reach cognitive thought, in that, we desire to seek our own kingdoms and sometimes at the expense of God's Kingdom.  Meaning:  We often find our motives and heart in place of God's will for our life.

When God spoke to Cain:  Genesis 4:7 (ESV) 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted?[a] And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for[b] you, but you must rule over it.”.  He gave man a clear path on what Sin can do to our lives.  Cain murdered his brother out of jealousy and anger.  Jesus took the 10 commandments in his teaching and expounded the definition even further with us in saying that if we hate our brother(S) then we have already committed murder in our hearts.  In the 10 Commandments, if you are guilty of one, you are guilty of them all.

So where is the hope?  How can we sustain?  How can we overcome?

Constantly the world bombards us with media, advertisement and daily jaunts of how they know what is best for us (pleasing ourselves) instead of pleasing the one who creates us.  This type of rationalization does not please God, it please the god of this world, that great liar and deceiver, the devil.  He is a bitter and evil creature that turned from his Creator.  He was the first in Scripture to turn to self and please himself and to try and overcome his way instead of God's way.  Often we find when sin tempts us we are given a choice.  Sometimes this sin materializes out of our own desires and greed.  Other times, it is clear that there is likely spiritual warfare and the evil one and his minions tempt (or put situations) in front of us to stumble us.  However, God gives us hope in His Son Jesus Christ.  1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) 13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Imagine for just a moment a throne room in each one of our lives.  Imagine the great royal chamber and what that looks like.  For me, when I think of Jesus and God in all their glory, I see a magnificent throne room with all types of gems and diamonds and brilliant light and rainbows and clouds and thunder.  I imagine what it would be like to try and look upon this throne room and to see the Angels and saints all around praising their names:  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and how awesome and how wonderful and even how terrifying that would be.

Now imagine when sin creeps in each of our lives and for a moment we see a flash and we no longer see God (in three) on that throne, instead we see ourselves for what we are:  A sinner in need of a savior and who is weak and feeble and full of our own pride, insecurity and greed and selfishness.  We need to put ourselves to death daily (our old selves) and too seek God's will for our life each day.  As one of our readers said recently to me, when I say the phrase "let go and let God" it grate him because he believes that true discipleship is just more than letting go, it is required daily surrender of self and obedience to God's will for each one of our lives.

It is taking the small "g" out of our lives (for some g = greed,  g = gluttony, g = god complex) and putting God back on that throne and realizing he is in all, through all and above all.

Let go of self, let God in control and trust and obey and surrender to Him each day.

Blessings,

Dante

Mini Church: Faith, Family and Friends

For the past four years I have had a small group that to me, was family, and we used this as a place of prayer, friendship, trust and encouragement.  This group was family.  It was a place to let my proverbial hair down and to be fed instead of pouring into.  Two of the couples felt called to lead in other areas.  This was a group of leaders, not followers and it was really nice to lean on each other during these past few years.This group helped me through the death of my mother.  They prayed for my wife and me when we needed it most.  And most importantly we didn’t feel judged in this group.  That is not to say that they didn’t hold me accountable, because when they did, I knew it was out of love (and truth).

The beautiful thing about these changes are that they will bless other people (other marriages and individuals) as much as they have blessed my wife and me.  They will comfort and encourage and urge others to live a life worthy of God.

So what about the others that I left with us?  What about the new members in our group?  The more the merrier.  Seriously, these others are still part of our family.  They love me and we will continue to grow and challenge each other, to pray for each other, and to be there for one another.  We just had another family start coming and we have been truly blessed by them.

So as I am leading this group, I was praying on what best to talk about:  Marriage?  Stewardship?  Missional? Discipleship?  Of course, I decided on a topic after serious prayer:  Parenting!  We all have kids and we all are our own experts on this subject (not).  The one thing, among many, that we have in common is at times we begrudgingly admit that we do not like bedtime when it is difficult – don’t get me wrong, there are many nights were tickles, snuggles, bedtime pillow fights and songs from the heart ring true to my ears, but then there are those nights (well, you know those nights).

This topic was clearly an answer to my prayers because we have had some honest discussion and really good prayer time with each other.  The thing that I realize is that there are a ton of books about parenting that try to give you cookie cutter solutions on how to raise your kids, but the honest to God conclusion is that not all kids are the same.  Not every child responds to the desires of our hearts that we would like.  Not every child can be disciplined the same.  Not every child, so the list goes on and on and on.

In my opinion, God gives us the privilege of parenting so we can see exactly how much he loves us.  He gives us this blessing to help us understand his mercies are new every day.  He shows us how to love even when we want to scream in frustration and he shows us no matter the good or the bad (the child – each one of us are His) He still loves us.

The Bible has a lot to say about parenting, but there is no clear cut way for each parent to follow.  I will say this, Lance was spot on in his last post, Parents:   You can’t Rush God’s Plan.  Because we cannot.  He is in control even when life seems out of control for us.  He has plans for us, not to harm us, but to give us the abundant life for those who fear and love Him.

God tells us clearly in Scripture to train a child in the way that they should go and that they will never depart from that.  There are a few caveats that we have to apply for this to be the case:

• Our faith has to be real
• We have to trust the Lord with all our heart
• We have to not lean on our own understanding
• We have to acknowledge God in all our ways
• And we have to believe that He will make our paths straight
• We have to stay grounded in the Word (because that word is our lifeline to God)
• We have to show love, faith and hope to our children

This all sounds like it would be an easy formula to follow, but the problem with this theory is that we are married and there is one man and one woman in this marriage.  The potential problem with this is that we continue to try and fall back to our old selves (the old sin nature) instead of putting on our new self (in Christ Jesus) for those of us who profess the Lord Jesus as Savior.

When we get in the way of ourselves:  To our spouse, to our children, to our church and to our work and community – a whole slew of problems begin to unravel themselves.  So what to do:

Turn ourselves back to God (confess this to him:  our doubts, our fears, our troubles)

Lean on Him (all the time – He is faithful even when we are not)

Let Go and Let God.

As Lance, said, “It’s the difference between living your faith versus knowing about faith.”  Your kids can smell a fake a mile away – so be real, make mistakes, get angry, be sad, cry, love, laugh, and live true faith.  Let your kids know that God is a God of second, third and infinite chances as long as we continue to pursue him, trust him and love him.

What say you?

Blessings,

D