As of 6:00 a.m. Friday, we just entered Job chapter 6. If you're coming to read over the next couple of days, we need to pick up our pace a bit to make sure we finish in plenty of time before the service begins Sunday morning. One tip: don't labor over pronouncing some of the difficult names, quickly give them your best shot and keep moving. Ask God to speak to you each time you're here, reading or listening. Have a great day!
As of Thursday afternoon at 4:15, we're in 2 Samuel chapter 3.
Olivia Mahon, Bryant's assistant asked me to pass on that there may be lots of people passing through the sanctuary Saturday morning in conjunction with the Polar Bear Run. Bryant's admonition is to read on, read loud and clear.
Men - as of 3:00 a.m. Thursday, we're in Leviticus chapter 16. Many faithful, mighty warriors are covering the church with the Word!
Progress update: At our current rate we won't finish until just before 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning - pass the word, we want to read for meaning, but if we can, we want to pick up the pace a bit also.
Men, our cooperative effort to bathe His Bride with the Word is under way. As of the time I'm posting this, the tenth man, the tenth mighty man of valor, the tenth link in our chain, is reading in Genesis chapter 43. Click on the link here to see how it kicked off. For Him!
The more I have the privilege of working with men of all ages, the more I've been struck with the fact that it's not just younger men who wrestle with this question. Men at all ages and stages of their lives struggle through this. I am discovering that grappling with this question is an ongoing part of every man's journey. I want to encourage you with a challenge from Bart Newman's book, "Because of Baghdad". Bart is our speaker this Thursday night at Man Church. "I returned to my original question - what am I going to do with my life? At that moment, I realized I had been asking the wrong question. The reason I could never get a satisfactory answer was because I had the wrong focus. I was focused on myself. I was focused on what I was going to do with MY life. Who I would become. How much money I might earn. Without intending to, I had put myself before God. From that day forward, I trained myself to ask a different question - How will eternity be different because of me? This question forces me to focus on God. It fixes my mind on God's hopes and dreams, instead of my own. . . ." (Because of Baghdad, p. 133)
Men, I want to give you a simple New Year's challenge to contemplate and act on in whatever way the Lord leads you. There is an amazing contrast from the last phrase of 1 Kings 6:38 and the very next verse, 7:1. It contrasts Solomon's building of God's temple and Solomon's building of his own house. It says, ". . . So he was seven years in building it. (God's house) Now Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished all his house." He took almost twice as long to build his own house as he took to build God's. How many of us do the same thing? What might happen in our lives, our families, our world if we spent at least as much time building God's kingdom as we spend building our own? How much time will you spend on financial planning this year? Would you spend an equal amount of time planning and hosting evangelistic-type get-togethers with your neighbors who don't know Christ. How much time will you spend on lawn maintenance, home improvements, or decorating? Would you spend an equal amount of time praying for revival and awakening in our land? How much money will you spend on eating out or entertainment this year? Would you invest an equal amount on sending missionaries for the gospel around the world?
I begin with a quote from Pat Buchanan's article today summarizing the first decade of this century:
"We have a government that cannot balance its books, defend its borders or win its wars. And what is it now doing? Drafting another entitlement program as we are informed that the Social Security and Medicare trust funds have unfunded liabilities in the trillions.
At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, the question is not whether we will preside over the creation of a New World Order, but whether America's decline is irreversible."
Is America's decline reversible? The answer to that question is yes! As men of God live revolutionary lives, building His Kingdom one day at a time; through a spiritual awakening and revival, our country can see better days.
Each "Man Church" gathering is designed to inspire the kind of revolutionary manhood our country is in desperate need of. On January 14, Bart Newman, a young revolutionary, will speak to us on the subject of living as an Everyday Warrior. Please register online by January 6th to guarantee your meal at www.johnsonferry.org.
In the days leading up to our next Man Church I want to give you a sample of quotes and insights from Bart's book, "Because of Baghdad".
Bart gives us the Five Facets of Lasting Leaders in Chapter 4 (these represent solid direction for revolutionary men leading in their homes and other environments)
1. Lasting leaders deny themselves privilege 2. Lasting leaders take care of their people 3. Lasting leaders listen to their people 4. Lasting leaders make decisive decisions 5. Lasting leaders praise in public and counsel in private