Archive for August, 2007|Monthly archive page
New Feature: Sunday Teachings
Leave a CommentGood Evening! First, I would like to apologize to anyone who has stopped by this blog and hasn’t seen any real progress since it’s inception. Sometimes I get so excited about starting something and putting it together and I don’t keep going with it once the initial excitement passes. Now I’m back, and I hope you will give me another chance.
Tonight, I am introducing the first of two regular columns. This first is our Sunday Teachings column, and will recount what I am learning every Sunday at Vertical View Church with a special slant towards Men’s Ministry.
Our first installment is from this week’s teaching entitled Grasshopper Mentality, and highlights our need to trust and obey the Lord, accepting what he is promising us, and not worrying about what else we may see in front of us.
This teaching comes entirely from the book of Numbers in chapters 13 and 14. These chapters encompass the story of when the Israelites finally reach the outskirts of the Promised Land. God tells His people that the land is filled with giants who live in fortified cities, but that He will deliver these people into the Israelite’s hand. Caleb, Joshua, and the other 10 spies are sent out by Moses to scout out the Promised Land, identifying what the people and their cities are like, as well as what the land has to offer. When they return, Caleb and Joshua are happy and excited, ready to lead the people to victory. But the other spies only report on the negative aspects such as fortified cities, and large numbers of giant opponents. This leads God to punish the people by not allowing anyone over 20 from these 10 tribes to enter the Promised Land.
The teaching beginning with verse 2. Moses tells each tribe to provide a leader to serve as a scout for this expedition. it is important to note that this is not just any group of spies but a group of leaders. As Pastor Ron put it, this is like a “Green Beret” reconnaissance team..
In verse 3 Moses obeys, sending out the spies, who accept their task without protest. This is a positive action for the Israelites, who often answer God with grumblings and complaints.
Verses 4-16 at first might not seem that important, as they are merely the list of names of spies sent from each tribe. But Pastor Ron pointed out two very interesting pieces of information. In verse 6 we learn that Caleb is from the tribe of Judah, who are known as the Praisers of the Israelites. In verse 8 we learn that Joshua was originally named Hoshea but his name was changed to Joshua which means God goes before you. This is important for identifying the two spies whose reports to Moses will be positive, and will obey God’s instructions.
In verses 16-20 Moses sends the spies out, telling them to be of good courage. Moses did not send the spies out to see IF they could do this, but to figure out HOW to do this. Moses thought he was sending out the “I Can” people. He was sadly mistaken.
Verses 21-27 describe the spies excursion and exactly what they saw. They did see giants of men, fortified walled cities, and other obstacles as God told them. But they also saw a wonderful, rich land flowing with milk and honey. Specifically in verse 23 it says that they picked a large cluster of grapes and carried it between two of them. The text does not say which two, but somehow I can just see Joshua and Caleb carrying the large cluster of grapes, and talking excitedly about reporting to Moses and possessing the land.
In verses 28 and 29, the spies return and give their report, saying that the people of the land are too big, there cities are too well protected, and despite the land being abundant beyond all imagination, they cannot handle taking it. Caleb in verse 30 tries to get the people to go in and posses the land as God commanded. He tries to magnify the Lord and be his man of “I Can.” But the rest of the spies (excluding Joshua) are men of “I Can’t.” This is why in Chapter 14 we see God nearly destroy all the people, only to have Moses persuade Him to spare them, and instead does not allow anyone over 20 to enter the Promised Land.
My question to you is this: when you set out to do something, whom do you magnify? Do you magnify the Lord, and focus on His Supernatural promise that you can do all things through Him (Phil 4:13), or do you focus on what you can’t do in the natural?
Pastor Ron concluded his teaching by pointing out that in verse 33 the other spies said the enemy was so big that the spies felt like grasshoppers in their sight. He called this Grasshopper Mentality. This is not how God intended us to see things. We are to see things as He sees them, and know that we can do all things through Him.
Next week, I’ll have the continuation of this teaching. Until then keep praying, and have a great weekend!
Daddy Who?
So, the current time is 00:54 right now. I am awake because well, I’m an adult and it’s my decision. I don’t have to get up early tomorrow and I like using this time of being alone to write (obviously), read, and sometimes (scary times) just think. I’m an adult, it’s my right.
But up right now there are about a dozen children from pre-school age on up running around on my block. Some of them are teens, but others are little children. They are loud, rowdy, and running completely unsupervised. Never mind the fact that the City of Cleveland recently changed it’s curfew for kids under 15 from 23:00 to 21:30. What is more important is that these kids are missing valuable sleep time when there young bodies do most of their developing and growing, and are risking getting themselves into big trouble.
Now the natural question that most people would ask is,”where are the parents? Why are they letting their kids stay out so late at night, and not putting them to bed?” I can’t answer this question, but I would like to ask a more specific question that I believe is affecting this society and is related to this issue.
Where are the fathers?
Now I understand that fathers are parents and are therefore a part of the previous question. And I’m not saying that all of these kids have physically absentee dads, I honestly wouldn’t know. But as a Christian Man I know that we are called to be the Priest and Leader of our households. So it pains me greatly to see kids who are not being (in my opinion) cared for even in the physical sense. Because if they are not being cared for physically, being allowed to wander the streets at all hours, do you think they are being cared for spiritually? Somehow I doubt it.
If we are going to change our society for the better, or prevent it from sliding further and further into degradation, then we as men must start in our own households. As a child, I can recall many instances of my father doing things to protect me. But who is protecting these kids, if they are being allowed to run anywhere they want at any time? Bring them inside, put them in bed, and tell them you don’t care if they don’t like it. It doesn’t do any good to discipline kids simply because they are annoying you in Wal*Mart. You have to take care of them all the time, even when you don’t feel like it. Men, if we take charge of our own house, we can slowly change things around the world. If every Dad came home, talked to his children about Christ, and then put them to bed at a reasonable hour, just think about how that could change our world for the better.
By the way, it’s 1:49, and there still out there.
Promise Keepers
I know this might seem like an out of date topic, but since it is my blog…I want to address the Promise Keepers. I like them. I like what they stand for, and I love what they have done for Christian Men.
I believe this ministry is a great way for men to get in touch with God and improve their walk with Jesus Christ. Since I have started participating in men’s small group discussion, prayer and accountability, I have noticed a marked difference in my behavior; in my need to sin, in how I treat others, in what I believe a man is.
In fact, I need to clarify this statement. I said since I have been participating in the kinds of groups PK promotes. The truth is I should have said when I WAS participating in those groups. For the last 18 months I have not been in a men’s fellowship, and I have noticed a reversal, a backslide into what I once was. And I don’t like it. Not one bit. If anyone out there in the blogging world feels the same way about men’s accountability groups, I would really like to hear from you on this blog. I would like to know how your life is going since you started, what has changed in your spirit. And I could use some help to find the right words to say to my church brethren to get them to consider starting this kind of group in my church. I confess to you right now that I REALLY need it.
Slide Share-Sharing Presentations across the Net
Recently one of my favorite blogs (lifehacker) released a story on websites that let you upload PowerPoint and other format presentations to the web so that you can share them with others that either do not have the program or simply don’t want to open it up to view a presentation. One of these sites mentioned is SlideShare, which allows you to upload a file, record narration to go along with the presentation, and save it all to a url which you can then send out to anyone to view in their browser.
I write this here because it could be useful for churches like mine (Vertical View Ministries) that use Powerpoint slides to list scriptures for people to look up or important points in a teaching. This makes it much easier to follow the speaker in church. However, when you miss a teaching and have to catch up, you only have the audio CD to listen to, and not the slides to view. Or if you miss some of the notes, you have to ask someone else for their notes and hope that they wrote down what you missed.
Slideshare solves both these problems by allowing you to marry the recorded audio with the slides in a few easy steps so that those who miss the teaching can catch up on their own at home using both the slides and the audio. This site can also be used for business and school presentations as well.
Resources: ALL PRO DAD
This website is in affiliation with Family First Ministries and was founded at least in part by Coach Tony Dungee when he was coaching the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It is a great resource for learning how to become a great Dad by learning to spend time with your kids.
It seems to me that this would be a pretty self-explanatory thing for most people. You have kids, you spend time with them. This is how you shape their values, learn who they are, and find out what their thinking and who their friends are. But believe it or not, many people do not do this! They spend little or no time with their kids and never even get to know them! Now I confess that i could do more myself, and sometimes I find myself feeling like they are getting in the way of things I want to do. But we have to make time for every relationship that we want to make work: our spouse, our kids, and of course our God (we should also include ourselves in there, too).
This site offers lots of ideas and techniques to help you get in tune with kids of all ages, and is a great resource for practicing Luke 9:48-”And said to them, Whoever gives honour to this child in my name, gives honour to me: and whoever gives honour to me, gives honour to him who sent me: for whoever is least among you all, that man is great.”
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Welcome to all men seeking Jesus Christ!
Greetings to all, and welcome to my new blog! The purpose of this blog is to help unite men who are either already saved and want to connect with others to learn how to improve their walk with Christ, as well as the unsaved who are looking for a deeper relationship with God, to learn the true purpose and meaning of life, or learn how to truly succeed in this world.
I will be posting helpful websites, tips from my own experiences, and other resources as I come across them. I also hope to invite some Christian friends to be contributors to this blog.
One thing that needs to be made crystal clear: I do not consider myself an expert on these subjects. This blog is not only for others to learn and share wisdom, it is also a tool to force me to improve my habits of study, prayer, and research. I hope in creating this blog to force myself to more diligently seek His face, there by improving my own relationship with Christ.
So thanks for stopping by and please feel free to leave comments with questions, comments, criticisms or anything else that will help improve this blog, and God bless you all in your daily walk!
