Men's Fraternity Week 24

Men’s Fraternity
Week #24 – Blessing Letter to Children/Siblings

Introduction: Letter Accountability

• How did you present your letter from last week?
• What kind of reaction did you receive?
• If you did not deliver your letter, tell your group when you plan to deliver it and how you plan to deliver it.

Proverbs 3:27-28
Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it. Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again, tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.

I. Family blessing hinges on 5 key elements.

1. Meaningful touch

Mark 10:13-16
And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.


2. A spoken message
• The misconception we have is that simply being present communicates blessing.
• We need to be aware how powerful the absence of spoken words can be. (Most common phrase: “I’ll tell them tomorrow.”)
Proverbs 18:21
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Proverbs 10:11
The mouth of the righteous is a fountain of life, but the mouth of the wicked conceals violence.

Proverbs 10:31-32
The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off. The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked, what is perverse.


3. Attach high value to the one being blessed.
• In the Hebrew the root meaning of blessing is to “bow the knee”.
• It is important that you point out the qualities and character traits not the performance.
4. Picture a special future for the one being blessed.
• Words that picture a special future are like a campfire on a dark night.
• In John 14:2-3 Jesus went to great lengths to assure the insecure disciples that they had a special future with Him.

John 14:2-3
In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.


5. Make an active commitment to fulfill the blessing.

James 2:15-16
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?


• Mere words of blessing are not enough
• Follow through is key to conveying the truth of the blessing.

Proverbs 22:6
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.


• The better we know the bent of our child and their unique set of needs the better we will be able to give them their own unique blessing.

Dealing with Children rejecting your godly legacy.

1 Corinthians 3:8
He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.

• Parenting is about planting and watering.
• Know your purpose and work together
• Reward is based on the work done not based on who your children become.

The greatest legacy you can leave your kids is who you were as a Christ-follower. What your children do with who you were is their choice.

Personal application/exercise:

Take the time we have left and use the fill in the blanks and write your favorite memories of your oldest child or the one that may need this letter most at this time. If you have no children write it to your sibling, friend, or mentor in your life.

Sharing what you wrote: Share which person you wrote and three memories.

Deliver your letter by our next session!

Men's Fraternity Week 20

Men’s Fraternity
Week #20 Comfort



Introduction:

John 4:31-35
Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.

I. Deep Idol of Comfort

• There is a hidden, yet sudden power in comfort!

1. Comfort Idol yearns for privacy, making no demands and will only do for others if it brings stability or relieves stress.


1. Selfishly introspective.
2. Constantly noncommittal.
3. Abhors anything impinging upon personl freedom.


2. Greatest nightmare for those who worship comfort is spontaneity and demands.

II. Comfort Idol’s Traps

1. The Fear of Responsibility.


• Man hides from obligation, believing that real happiness is found apart from responsibility.

2 Thessalonians 3:11
For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busy bodies.

[If we’re idle we begin to meddle, talking about how things could have been done better]


2. Trap of Consumption


• Preoccupation with consumption is a diversion, but it’s not a solution to the stressful messes around us.

Proverbs 25:27-28
It is not good to eat much honey, nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory. A man without self control is like a city broken into and left without walls.

Deuteronomy 31:20
For when I brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I swore to give to their fathers, and they have eaten and are full and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, and despise me and break my covenant.


• If your “go-to” when times get hard and stressful is to consume, there’s a great chance that what is driving you is a deep comfort idol.


3. Trap of Escapes


• Rather than deal with the harshness of life or feel the pain that is part of life we create an alternate reality of escapes.

2 Peter 2:20
For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world, through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first.


• The real pleasure in life comes not in the pursuit of pleasure but in the fulfillment of responsibility.
• Deep happiness and satisfaction is NOT actually found in pursuing freedom and escape, but it is actually found in the middle of walking with God in the midst of uncomfortable, challenging times.
• ”Sin is what you do when you are not fully satisfied in God.” - John Piper

III. Replacing the Idol of COMFORT

1 Peter 5:6-7
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because he cares for you

• ”Humble” - having a teachable spirit and attitude. That is our part!
• ”Proper time He may exalt you” - God will lift us up in His proper time. That’s God’s part!
• Cast anxious moments on Him - Run to God, not to your temporary comforts. That is our part!

1 Peter 5:8-9
Be sober-minded: be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

• Sober-minded…watchful – We must be on high-alert against an enemy who is seeking to gain access to our lives.
• Adversary - the devil functions like a prosecuting attorney in our mind bringing up our failures and messes creating fear.
• Devour - means to drink or lick, the enemy wants to create fear in us so that we turn into a mess of liquid emotions.
• Resist him - Stand! Keep your focus on Christ!
• Brotherhood - the suffering you face, others are facing too! Best have each other’s back!

1 Peter 5:10
And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen and establish you.

• Suffering a little while - resilience in the midst of difficulty only lasts a little while. At the moment it feels like forever but compared to eternity it is a little while.
• God’s Grace is sufficient - God is the ________ of all spiritual comfort and help for every ________.
• Restore, confirm, strengthen, establish - That is God’s complete work in our lives.

If we are not fulfilled and secure in God, we will inevitably seek other sources of happiness and security.

Discussion:
Which traps are you most prone to find yourself in during stressful or difficult times: Fear of responsibility, trap of consumption, trap of escapism?

Sometimes we seek the idol of comfort because we lack overarching purpose in life or because of the pain of adversity. Do you agree? How have you seen this in your life?

In what sense can pleasure and comfort be an idol?

What is your “Comfort zone” that you struggle getting out of?

In Psalms 16:7-11, what is the Psalmist’s attitude towards pleasure?

Men's Fraternity Week 18

Men’s Fraternity
Week #18 Control

I. Deep Idol of Control

1. Idol of Control is when I am unwilling to let go of my agenda and let God do His work.
2. When we are feeling powerless or circumstances are overwhelming the enemy proposes the lie that, “we must do something (be in control) or we will be hurt.”
   
   • When I am feeling powerless I no longer turn to God, instead my new idol of control is what I live by to protect myself from feeling powerless.

II. Manifestations of the Control Idol

1. Manifests itself in fear and anxiety.
   
   • Fear and anxiety surface when you might lose influence over something you want, and uncertainty about someone or something.
   
   Matthew 16:22-23
   Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him saying, ‘Far be it from you Lord! This shall never happen to you.’ Jesus said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on things of God, but on the things of man.’
   
   Luke 12:25-26
   Which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you are not able to do a small thing as that why are you anxious about the rest.
   
   
   • Fear shows itself in many ways:
   • I am irritated
   • I am unsatisfied
   • I am restless
   • I am unhappy
   
   
2. Manifests itself in workaholism.
   
   • Having “work” under control gives the illusion and mirage of security.
   
   Matthew 16:26
   What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?
   
   
3. Manifests itself in anger.
   
   • When I cannot control a situation and begin to feel as if I am losing control the result is anger.
   • Look behind anger and you will find fear. Look behind fear and you will find control.
   
   Ecclesiastes 7:9
   Be not quick in your spirit to become angry, for anger lodges in the heart of fools.
   
   Proverbs 14:29
   Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a hasty temper exalts folly.
   
   [Important to remember: Sometimes God removes our control to protect us.]

III. Replace Idol of Control Through Relinquishment

1. Greatest stumbling block in growing in our relationship with God is that we no longer can be in control.
2. Definition of Relinquishment: to surrender a possession or right.
3. Jesus is the great example of relinquishing His right to the Father.
   
   John 5:30
   I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
   
   Luke 22:42
   Father if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless not my will, but yours be done.
   
   If Jesus our Savior exchanged His will for God’s will, then why would we entertain ideas that our self-will is something we are master over?
   
   
4. Relinquishing is a trust issue.


Do we trust God enough to let go of our heart and life - of our self-will and let God have his way in our life?


• Letting go is rarely easy or desirable. It is like a wrestling match – a match of the will, God’s will VS my will.
• If relinquishing is a trust issue, then when an issue of relinquishing arises, the true colors of our heart’s devotion to Him will emerge.


5. Being a follower of Christ is not willing to relinquish my sin only, but my whole way of looking at things.
   
   Galatians 2:20
   I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
   
   
   • ”…it is no longer I who live…” – means, my life is no longer identified as mine – I give up my rights.
   • When we relinquish our will to God, we settle with the truth of His sovereignty and live in peace allowing the outcome of our circumstances to be in the hands of our loving Father.

Discussion:

1. Several manifestations emerge from the deep idol of control: fear, workaholism, and anger. Discuss any of these manifestations that can be a temptation for you.

2. How should the concept of relinquishing (surrender of rights) change our approach towards our Control Idol in our lives?

3. Read Jeremiah 17:5-8. Discuss how this passage relates to what we have seen today.

Men's Fraternity Week 17

Men’s Fraternity
Week #17 XXX

INTRODUCTION

• Pornography has a stranglehold on the American Culture!
• Stats from Lifeway Research and Education Database. (Jan 2013)
  
  
  • $3,075.63 is spent on pornography every second.
  • Most popular weekday for viewing porn is Sunday.
  • Percentage of men age 18-34 that visit porn sites in a given month - 70%
  • Percentage of Christian men who view porn regularly - 70%
  • Percentage of men who say viewing porn is acceptable behavior - 67%

Men of all ages, ethnicities, professions and income levels are willingly infecting their hearts and minds with images that are addictive, destructive, and in some cases, criminal.

Matthew 5:27
Jesus addressed this issue: ”You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.’”

1. Sexuality is where we are most vulnerable; we experience the most shame and exhibit the greatest secrecy.
2. In the past you had to go our of your way to acquire pornography, today you have to go out of your way to avoid sexual images.
3. Perceived anonymity and pervasive accessibility has made pornography bigger than ever before.

I. SUSCEPTIBLE BRAINS AND DISCONNECTED HEARTS

a. Susceptible Brains

• God designed our brains to be stimulated visually by the beauty of the female body.

Proverbs 5:15-19
”Drink from the water of your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in love.”

• When a man views pornography, pleasure chemicals are released in his brain in amounts that far exceed normal levels.
• You quickly build up a tolerance to the same old stuff you’ve seen and to get the old high you’ll have to push the boundaries.
• You are not alone. This should strike shame at its root because we are all in the same boat and have the capacity for this stuff.

b. Disconnected Hearts

• Pornography is an outward act indicating a deeper need in us. The deep need is intimacy with God and others.
• A man disconnected from God and others is a man either struggling with or extremely vulnerable to sexual temptation.
• A man connected to God and trustworthy men, you will find a man nobly fighting the battle of lust.

II. ACTIVATING THE NOBLE FIGHT AGAINST LUST

a. We’ve got to ADMIT the sin and pursue ruthless honesty beginning with ourselves and with trustworthy men.

• Breaking the hold comes when we remove our mask and provide opportunity for truth and hope.

Psalm 32:3-5
”When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity, I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.’”

• When we don’t share, our hearts are disconnected, we live life alone and in isolation - turn to pornography to medicate our pain.

b. Identify the broken promises (lies) of pornography.

• To change we have to go beyond the “what” of our sin [I am looking at porn] and get to the “why” [porn promises to meet some need in me].

Matthew 15:19-20
”For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.”

c. Move from the broken promises of lust to repentance to something better.

2 Corinthians 7:10
”For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

• Worldly grief – produces death.
  
  • Negative consequences of pornography do not produce change because they lack the ability to affect repentance. Must go beyond saying, “I have sinned.”
• Godly grief produces repentance leading to salvation…
  
  • Repentance is what happens on the inside; it is not an effort to change behavior through a process of steps or muscle training.

Colossians 3:5
”Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry.”

• Repentance involves a change of authority, and adjustment in who rules.

John 8:34, 36
”Truly, truly, I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin… So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

• We are so powerless to make change that repentance is impossible apart from God’s work.

Jeremiah 13:23
Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.

Matthew 5:3
”Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

• Repentance is a call for brokenness and a radically inward change toward God.

Psalm 51:17
”The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise.”

Discussion:

Reflect on this statement: “Show me a man disconnected from God, from his wife, and from others and I’ll show you a man either struggling with, or extremely vulnerable to, sexual temptation. But show me a man connected to God, his wife, and trustworthy men and I’ll show you a man who has a chance to fight the noble fight.” What are you experiencing? Discuss.

How does the above relate to Proverbs 18:1 “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.”?

Have you known “worldly sorrow” or “Godly sorrow” when dealing with sin? Discuss the difference.

Which of the 3 Deep Idols [control, significance, and comfort] is at the root of your battle with sexual temptation? What false promise can lust use to lure you (i.e. escape, validation, power, acceptance, comfort)?

Share with your group one or two strategic moves that you need to make in order to apply what you have learned in this session.

Men's Fraternity Week 15

Men’s Fraternity
Week #15 Battle Plan

I. Understanding the Strategy of the Enemy

• Temptations and idols are issues for all of us and this has devastated men throughout history.

James 1:14-15
Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it is conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.

desire>enticed>lured>tempted>conceived>sin>continue sin=death

• When a desire is enticed (from without) and entertained in the mind, it lures (from within) us to the point of temptation, we act upon what has been dwelled upon.
• It’s not that your desires are too strong and need to be dialed back; they’re actually too weak and need to be redirected.
• The problem isn’t desire. The problem is misplaced desire. [selfishly desiring things for oneself]

It lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for enjoyment of it is a bad thing. I submit that this notion…is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go making mudpies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.
(C S Lewis, The Weight of Glory, p26, 1949)

Colossians 3:2
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.

II. The more Noble Pathways

• God’s noble pathways are ultimately more lasting and fulfilling than any alternative.
• You can’t just remove an idol or behavior from your life. You have to replace it with something else, something more satisfying and fulfilling.

John 10:10
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I come that they may have life and have it abundantly.

• God is for us, not against us.
• God has given us noble pathways to meet our God-given goals.

Admit the struggle.
Identify the lie.
Replace with the truth.

1. Admit the Struggle

• First step is always to own up to the fact that an external issue is causing problems and has become a surface idol in your life.

1 John 1:8
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

• The hardest step for men to take is to acknowledge where we really are and what we’re really struggling with. [God may have to break us down to get to the core issue.]

James 5:16
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

• We need to acknowledge that we are all in a struggle together, each of us is a mess. When we do, we remove the mask and begin moving towards God’s grace.

2. Identify the Lie.

• What is the lie that is seducing you? [examples: I can’t change. I’ve always been this way. There’s just something wrong with me.]
• We can’t just deal with the behavior you must attack the root! The sin beneath the sin!

John 8:44
Jesus said…”You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and father of lies.”

• When we are enticed or lured…speak the words “you are of your father the devil, your will is to do your father’s desire

11 Diagnostic Questions to ask yourself – by David Powlison
1. What do I worry about?
2. What, if I failed or lost it, would cause me to feel that I did not even want to live?
3. What do I run to in order to comfort myself when things go bad or get difficult?
4. What do I do to cope? What are my release valves? What do I need to feel better?
5. What often times preoccupies me? What do I daydream about?
6. What makes me feel the most self-worth? Of what am I proudest? For what do I want to be known?
7. What do I often lead with in conversations?
8. Early on what do I want to make sure that people know about me.
9. What prayer, unanswered, would make me seriously think about turning away from God?
10. What do I really want and expect out of life? What do I think would make me happy?
11. Whom or what do I trust in for my life future?

3. Replace with Truth

John 8:31-32
If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Discuss Your Action Plan

How do you see the strategy of the enemy in James 1:13-15 at work in your life.?

Take some time to discuss the 11 diagnostic questions. (Ruthlessly honest.)

Practice James 5:16 – “confess sins to one another and pray for one another.”

Men's Fraternity Week 14

Men’s Fraternity
Week #14 Empty Promises

Pastor Brian often begins our sessions with short videos. Sometimes they tie in with that week’s message and sometimes they’re just for fun, like this one. This one is for those of us who have had a bad morning:



Review
Idols can be divided into two categories:

• Surface idols.
• Deep idols.

Deep idols are:

• Control – pursuit of security or power.
• Significance – desiring approval or recognition. [If you feel devastated when you don’t receive approval or recognition then this may have become an idol for you.]
• Comfort – driven to ease or consumption. [Seeking comfort in food, etc…]

Jeremiah 2:13
For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water.

John 4:13-14
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never be thirsty again.

To be an Authentic Man is a repenting man, a man identifying the broken cisterns so he can pursue the Life of Christ.

Biblical examples of Men struggling with Lure of Idolatry.

1. Adam

Genesis 3:5-6
For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.

Foundational lie to idolatry:
When we can go around God and away from God rather than TO God to meet our deepest needs.

Control - ”your eyes will be opened”
Significance - ”you will be like God”
Comfort - ”good for food…delight to the eyes”
Like all idols, this idol (the fruit) over-promised and did not deliver.

2. Solomon

[I have read through the book of Ecclesiastes a few times but confess that I never fully grasped what it was all about. Pastor Brian helped put it in perspective, however, when he said that it is basically King Solomon’s labwork; experimenting with various means of pleasing himself or giving meaning to his life, and drawing conclusions on the results.]

PURSUIT OF KNOWLEDGE THROUGH SELF HELP

Ecclesiastes 1:13
I applied my heart to seek and search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven.

Acquire control of his life through knowledge and trusting in what he has learned.

Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 1:17
And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but striving after wind.

Knowledge too over-promised and under-delivered for Solomon.

PURSUIT OF PLEASURE

Ecclesiastes 2:1
I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.”

Pursuit of comfort through pleasure. Believe that escaping life and responsibility and giving ourselves to parties and leisure is the life.

Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 2:2
I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”

When something good becomes a god, the pleasure it brings dies in the process.

PURSUIT OF ALCOHOL AND STIMULANTS

Ecclesiastes 2:3
I searched with all my heart how to cheer my body with wine…

Turned to comfort of escape through alcohol.

This is fueled by a man who wants escape and immediate gratification, temporary relief, or a buffer between him and the stress of everyday.

PURSUITS OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS AND POSSESSIONS

Ecclesiastes 2:4-8
I made great works. I built houses and planted vineyards for myself. I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house. I had also great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and provinces. I got singers, both men and women, and many concubines, the delight of the sons of man.

Looking to his accomplishments was going to give him a sense of significance.

Conclusion
Ecclesiastes 6:2
a man to whom God gives wealth, possessions, and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God does not give him power to enjoy them, but a stranger enjoys them. This is vanity; it is a grievous evil.

PURSUIT OF SEX

1 Kings 11:3
He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

The god of sex offers a counterfeit joy that becomes elusive through time, ever harder to please, ever closer to emptiness.

The god of pleasure is the master of bait and switch, luring us in with images and promises that become the chains and shackles of our mental imprisonment.

PURSUIT OF WORK

Ecclesiastes 2:18
I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me,

If you seek significance and control from work, it will not _________. [Brian didn’t fill in this blank for us but I think it should be “deliver” or something like that.]

Paul

Pursuit of Righteousness
I can control my life or find significance in:

• Being good
• Being moral
• Fulfilling the duties of the church

Philippians 3:4-7
though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Questions for discussion:
1. We have looked at some key characters in the Bible that had some battles with idols in their lives that left them empty What are some of the empty promises you have discovered in life?

2. Share with your group what would be your top idol we discussed today that leaves you empty, but you find yourself wanting to go back or going back?

3. Read Matthew 6:19-21 and discuss what Jesus was saying here in relation to our struggles with the deep idols we have discussed today.

4. Discuss this quote “Idols are defeated not by being removed but by being replaced.”

Men's Fraternity Week 12

Men’s Fraternity
Week #12 Heart

Pastor Brian began our session today with a funny video about a classic old Christmas song:



Reminder of the Four Pillars of Manhood:

• Reject passivity.
• Accept responsibility.
• Lead courageously.
• Wait for the greater reward. God’s reward.

Remember that men who live out the four pillars of manhood are difference-makers!

1. Understanding the Heart Wound:

• God created mankind without sin and Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world.
• Once Adam and Eve sinned, everything changed.

Genesis 3:6-13
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ⁷ Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. ⁸ And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. ⁹ But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” ¹⁰ And he said, “I heard the sound of you in te garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.” ¹¹ He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” ¹² The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” ¹³ Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done? The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

[Adam did not reject passivity and he did not accept responsibility. His first reaction was to hide from God, but God sought him out to reconcile.]

• The punishment for sin is both spiritual and physical death.

Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

• Understanding this alienation from God can help us understand why so often our reality doesn’t measure up to our hopes and dreams.
• There is a longing in each one of us to be reconciled to God for all of eternity.
• The longing is present even if we deny it.

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.

• The effects of sin are seen in all of creation.

Romans 8:22-23
For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. ²³ And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we walk eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

• One day Jesus will make all things new.

Revelation 21:4
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

• Until that time we have to live between what is and what will be. [but we are not called to simply wait]

1 Corinthians 16:13
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.

2. The Journey from Here to Eternity

• We will all struggle with sin.

Romans 7:18-19
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

• The eseence of the heart wound is our total inability to do anything good before God apart from a right relationship with Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:10-12
”None is righteous, no, not one; ¹¹ no one understands; no one seeks for God. ¹² All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.”

• One reason it is difficult for us to understand this truth is that we are not as evil as we could be. [without our own set of man-made laws, mankind would live to its fullest evil capacity.

Wayne Grudem writes: “The constraints of civil laws, the expectations of family and society, and the conviction of human conscience all provide restraining influences on the sinful tendencies in our hearts…But in spide of the ability to do good in many senses of the word, our inherited corruption, our tendency to sin…means that as far as God is concerned we are not able to do anything that pleases Him.”

• God has already provided the only solution for our sinful heart condition.

Romans 5:6
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

• Faith in Jesus doesn’t mean we all of a sudden become sinless. We are forgiven but not perfect.

Sanctification defined: Sanctification is a progressive work of God and man that makes us more and more free from sin and like Christ in our actual lives.

3. Practical Help as we Grow to be More Like Jesus Christ

• We need to recognize and feel our feelings.
• We must tell the truth about our hearts to those who are trustworthy.

1 Corinthians 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man

• Give the truth of your heart to God.

John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Group Questions:
1. How has the brokenness of the world touched your life? What does God’s promise to redeem the world mean to you?

2. Why do you think it’s difficult for men to be transparent with one another? Discuss how transparency is difficult for you personally.

3. The end of this session suggested three ways for you to connect to your heart. How good are you in living out these three areas?

• Recognize and feel your feelings,
• Tell the truth about your heart to those who are trustworthy
• Giving the truth of your heart to God

Journal - Even More Exciting News

Wow the blessings just keep showering down on us! In the last 30 days we got a new (used) car, and then I got the news from Country Extra magazine that they had published my story in their September issue, and now this! Can you believe it? I really never saw this coming! I’m still a little stunned! Oh wait, I haven’t even told you the good news yet, have I? Okay, get this:

When Country Extra sent me my complimentary copy of the September issue, there was a letter with it. It talked about things like how to order additional copies and that sort of thing and it also mentioned that IF my submission qualified for payment, a check would be mailed separately and would arrive in 4-6 weeks. I don’t know why some submissions would qualify for payment and others would not, and I had no idea if mine qualified, but I really wasn’t expecting anything further from them. Well, can you guess what came in today’s mail? Yep, it was a check in the amount of $250. The check is from Reader’s Digest so apparently Country Extra is owned by them. Having my story published was awesome but this is almost beyond belief!

God has just been so good to us and sometimes I have to wonder why. I just feel so unworthy. And, as usual, His timing is impeccable. When we got our car last month it needed brake work and four new tires. I was able to get the brakes done right away, and last week I got two new tires, but I was really wondering how I would be able to get those other tires before winter. But now I will be able to get them with a little left over. What a blessing!

Well, when God decides to send us a blessing, I suppose it’s best not to spend too much time trying to figure out why. I need to just be thankful, and perhaps try to think of some way that I might be able to help out someone else who may be in need. Come to think of it, I bet that’s something else God can help me with.

Luke 6:38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you. ESV

John 1:16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ESV

Journal - Plentiful Harvest

Well here it is August already! Where has the summer gone? I just thought I would pop in for a minute today and show everyone how our garden is doing so far. We’ve had quite the plentiful harvest. Here are a few items sitting on our kitchen windowsill, ripening in the sun. Those red things are, yep you guessed it, tomatoes! The big round ones are a variety called “Better Boy.” They look like plain old tomatoes to me, but they are very sweet and delicious. The odd shaped one to the far right is a Roma tomato. We have four plants each of those two types but the Better Boys are far outproducing the Romas right now. We also have one “Pear Drop” tomato plant. It grows small tomatoes, something like an elongated cherry tomato, and they are orange in color rather than red. That one plant has been producing lots of little Pear Drops all summer and Joni loves them. I forgot to get some of those in this picture. On Thursday night we had to go to Adam’s school for an orientation so we dropped off some tomatoes at Mom’s because I know she loves fresh tomatoes.

The small green things in the picture are jalapeno peppers. I’m not that crazy about hot peppers but I thought it might be fun to grow some. We have four jalapeno plants in the garden and they are producing like crazy. We picked about 15 of them last week and there are at least that many new ones coming in now. Since we don’t really eat them ourselves, and since I know my brother Brad likes hot peppers, we took a bunch to his house the day we took our new car over for him to check out. Since then, we noticed that one pepper still on our windowsill has turned red. We didn’t know jalapenos turned red. Does that mean it’s especially hot?

Anyway, that big green pepper in the middle is a variety called “Giant Marconi.” We also have four of these in the garden and while they took a while to get started, we finally have several growing now. This was the first one to start and the only one we have picked so far. This is also a nice example of the species because several of the ones that are still on the plants are growing in curls, almost a complete circle in some cases. Joni calls them “Elfin Peppers” because they remind her of the curly-toed shoes that elves wear. I can’t wait to try this thing; it sure looks good!

Today, Sunday, I had the day off of work so we went in to Mom’s to bag up some sweet corn. Mike and Bobbi had some ready in their patch. Mom went out after church and picked a few dozen ears, then we all got to work shucking, cleaning, boiling, cooling, cutting, and bagging it. It’s a messy job but it’s a good way to spend time together as a family, and we sure enjoy having fresh sweet corn all winter long. It also kind of brings back happy memories of growing up on the farm. Grandma and Grandpa would come out and we would all work on an entire pickup-load of corn, spending the entire day at it. Today, we started at around noon and finished up by 4:30 or so and came home with 18 bags of corn to stock our freezer with.

This is what life is all about, isn’t it? Hard work and fellowship, and everyone sharing in the harvest. God has certainly been good to us.

John 4:34-38 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest. 36 Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.” ESV

Journal - A Period of Rest

So I haven’t been writing much lately, except for audiobook reviews that is. Now that I’m working it gets harder and harder to find the time.

I’ve been at Walmart for almost 5 months now. Hard to believe it’s been that long. I’m still enjoying the job although I confess I’m tired of working in the cold. I can’t complain too much though, we’ve had lots of nice days in between the cold snaps. Just yesterday it went over 60 degrees and I worked in a long sleeved t-shirt. More cold this week though and some high chances of snow. My feet and legs rarely bother me anymore although there are days. In general I think I’m a lot healthier than I was 5 months ago: thinner, stronger, and sleeping much better at night than I used to. I always feel pretty tired by 9pm each night even on my days off.

I spend my days off taking it easy for the most part although I have been doing a lot of cleaning up in the basement. On each of my off days for the last month or so I’ve been spending an hour or two in the basement going through stuff and seeing what can be thrown out and organizing a little. I’m amazed at how much stuff we’ve accumulated since we moved into this house 4 years ago. We had very little in the basement at first, but now it’s getting full. I dread the thought of ever having to move again. Anyway, I talked in my last Island Earth post about cleaning out the carpeted room a little to make space for a little recording studio down there. Well, Joni and Adam came through for me and got that whole room in ship-shape with plenty of space for me to set up in.

Other than that there really hasn’t been much going on. Kind of a nice quiet period for us. I saw the eye doctor back in January and got a good report on both eyes. He said I can make an appointment for my prosthesis whenever I’m ready but didn’t pressure me at all, which I appreciated a great deal. I’ve been dragging my feet a little because I haven’t really felt like making more trips to Omaha and I know Joni doesn’t either. I guess I’ll need to get that done before too long though. Around June or July my social security benefits will run out and I’m assuming my Medicare will go with it. I should be eligible for insurance through Walmart about that same time but who knows what it will cover or if I’ll even be able to afford it.

And I’m still putting in some work on Audiobook-Heaven. My audiobook listening time was drastically reduced when I started working but I still get in a couple of hours a day and instead of 3 reviews each week I’m down to 1. Still keeping it going though, which I’m glad of. I put a lot of time and work on that and I would hate the thought of having to abandon it. Also something kind of cool happened a couple of days ago. I got an email from a person who introduced herself as a translator for a Czechoslovakian sci-fi magazine on the internet. She was asking if they could translate one of my audiobook reviews into Czech and use it on their site. That sounded pretty cool so I said yes! Don’t know when that will go live for sure but she said she would send me a link when it does.

And that’s about everything that going on around here. Like I said, kind of quiet, which suits me just fine.

Exodus 33:14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ESV

John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” ESV

Thought For The Day

While we were driving home from Grand Island on Thursday afternoon, I began to think about all the ways and places you can see God at work all around us. The gray overcast sky promising rain, the trees which are once again green and full of life after their months of dormancy, even the grass and weeds along the roadside all bear witness to his power and majesty.

The grass and weeds especially caught my eye. Much of it is green and healthy again but some of it is still brown and dormant. It occurred to me that people are like that. Some are green and healthy and bearing fruit, while some are brown and dormant. But just like the grass, even the dormant people can spring to life again with the proper nurturing. That nurturing comes mostly from God, but it can also come from you and me. Do you know someone who needs a little nurturing? It’s pretty amazing how the simplest of kind words or actions can work a change in someone who’s feeling down. And it doesn’t cost a thing.

I know, that sounds a little corny but it’s significant to me personally because I can see how God is changing the way I see things. He has opened my eyes both literally and figuratively and is allowing me to see Him, and the world, in new and different ways.

John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ESV

Luke 6:38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” ESV

Journal - Restful Week

This week has been fairly quiet and uneventful for us, something we needed after all the trips to Omaha and working in the yard and such. Joni needed it especially since she had a pretty wicked cold over the weekend. We ended up not even going to church on Sunday since she just wasn’t feeling up to it.

Monday was cloudy and cold and windy so we pretty much just sat around the house all day.

Tuesday was a little nice so I got out and did a little mowing. I did the front yard and up both sides of the house.

Wednesday was a very nice day: sunny and warm and not very windy. Joni started mowing and did most of the back yard, from the house all the way out to the road. While she was doing that I gave Sassie a bath, her first of the season. After that I started working on the flower beds along the south side of the house. Actually there aren’t many flowers there, it’s most covered with mint that came from three little mint plants Mom gave us a couple of years ago. It comes back every year and really goes crazy. The beds are bordered by some white, cylindrical concrete pieces that were there when we moved in here. Over the years they’ve gotten out of line and sunk into the ground and I had been wanting to get them straightened up a bit. So I started in on that and got about halfway along the house. I just didn’t have much energy though and called it a day even though I’d only been out for about an hour and a half.

Today (Thursday) was mostly cloudy but still warm. I guess it rained a little bit this morning because when I went out at noon the ground was damp. But the sun was starting to peek out so I went back to work on the south side of the house. I had done the western half of it on Tuesday, so what I had left was the eastern half where nothing much is growing yet. I pulled up all the concrete cylinders, then raked out the leaves and trash that were still in there. This ended up being a much bigger job than I anticipated because there were lots of little trees trying to grow in there. I had already cut out several of them a while back but I found a few more. Also, the roots from those little trees were all over the place, great long ones that grew horizontally just under the surface. After cleaning those up the best I could, I took some of the flowers that had begun growing outside the boundary on the western half of the wall and moved them inside the boundary on the eastern half where nothing was growing. We don’t really know what they are, just some kind of wild flower that came up there I guess. They get pretty little purple flowers on them. Then I put the concrete pieces back in place all nice and neat. While I was doing that, Joni got out the mower and finished up the back yard.

So the whole place is mowed, the flower beds are looking good, and all is right with the world. Let’s see, what will my next project be? Last week at Walmart we picked up a few seeds so it’s getting about time to start turning some soil in the garden so we can get those planted. I got a packet of sunflower seeds as well and I haven’t decided where to put those yet so I need to be thinking about that. I like sunflowers. Oh, and I looked at the weed-eater again. As it turns out, that fuel line just pokes into the fuel tank through a little hole and isn’t attached to anything at all on that side, so I guess all I need to do is get some new line and feed it in through the hole. Maybe next time we go to Kearney we can stop at Builder’s and look for some. It would sure be nice to have that running again.

If you’re wondering, I had no doctor appointment this week. We were supposed to go to Omaha but the doctor didn’t have any openings that would work for us. I’m really bummed out about that. I see Dr. Halsted in Grand Island next week.

Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ESV

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. ESV

Island Earth - The Concept

Long before God gave me my sight back, I began thinking that it would be pretty cool to become an audiobook narrator. Those of you who know me are already familiar with my experiences with audiobooks and how enjoyment I got from them. If you don’t know me, go and check out my other blog Audiobook-Heaven. The more I listened to audiobooks, the more I began to think that would be a pretty awesome career. Getting paid to read books, can you imagine? Okay, I know there’s a lot more to it than just reading a book, but it still sounds cool. I kept telling myself that if (when) I ever got my sight back I would give it a try, if not as a career then at least for fun.

Well, today marks the beginning of what I hope will become my next great adventure. This is the day that I stop thinking, and start doing. The concept is basically to find stories to narrate, and then narrate them.

Finding the stories is not as difficult as you might think. There’s this thing called Project Gutenberg. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s this great project that gathers together stories and books that are no longer under copyright and makes them freely available to anyone in the form of ebooks that can be downloaded from their website. Many of the stories are older ones where the author has died and none of his family kept up the copyrights on his work, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes it’s just work that an author decided it wasn’t worth keeping a copyright on, perhaps something that didn’t sell very well.

At any rate, the stories have no copyrights so anyone can use them for pretty much anything they want. Their terms and conditions are clearly spelled out and there are almost no restrictions at all. I learned about this from one of my audiobook contacts who does something very similar to what I’m considering. So that’s where the stories come from.

Step two is prepping the book. I’ll begin by reading the story all the way through as I would normally read it. This will be done on the computer of course where I can enlarge the text because my eyesight is still a little rough. Then I’ll go through the story a second time, this time making a list of the characters and highlighting each character’s dialogue in a different color so I’ll be able to tell at a glance exactly who is speaking. I’ll also make some basic notes like ANGRY so I’ll know I need to use an angry voice or something like that. Finally, I’ll mark break points. The whole story won’t be recorded in one take so I’ll need to mark the breaks where I can stop and rest. That way when I make a mistake I don’t have to redo the whole thing, only a small part of it. I can do all this in Microsoft Word, but I’m going to look around and see if there’s something that might be tailored a little more for this specific kind of work. I’ll ask some of the narrators that hang out at Audiobook Community.

Then will come the actual recording, and this is the part that worries me. I don’t have a recording studio in my home so I’ll probably have a hard time getting good quality recordings. I’m going to try it in our basement. One of the rooms down there is carpeted so I think that will be my best shot. I need to decide what recording software to use, another question for the narrators, and also get a decent microphone. From there it will be pure trial and error; getting used to reading out loud, familiarizing myself with the software, figuring out ways to block out the background noise, and all that stuff.

The finished product, assuming there ever is any, will go onto the internet for people to download and listen to. I won’t try to charge for it of course, not at first anyway. If it catches on at some point, then who knows. Right now the idea is to get my voice out there where people can hear it. Eventually, it might fall upon the right pair of ears, or when I become more comfortable with it I can make a demo disk to send to the audiobook publishers.

Right now I’m thinking that this will be a separate venture from Audiobook-Heaven, so I’ll probably create a new blog specifically for it. I already decided a long time ago to call it Island Earth Audio. Why Island Earth? I dunno, I just think it sounds neat. Also, there’s an old song called “This Island Earth” that I’ve always liked a lot. I think that’s where the idea came from originally. There’s also an old black and white sci-fi movie with that same title although I’ve never seen it. The logo will be a cartoony looking palm tree beside a cartoony looking planet earth.

So that’s the concept. I’m hoping it will turn into something special, but if it doesn’t I think I’ll have fun doing it anyway. And really, it all comes down to God in the end. If this is what he wants me to do then it will catch on, and if it’s not then it won’t. I’ll be praying about it and asking God for direction. And if you feel like sending up a little prayer for it as well, then all the better.

John 9:31 We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. ESV

Isaiah 30:21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. ESV

Journal - Plumbing Woes

I guess it’s been a while since I wrote anything eh? Aside from audiobook reviews that is, I’m always writing those. I keep telling myself that I need to get in here and just jot some things down but I always end up working on something else instead. Well, I’m finally here so let me see…what’s been going on?

Ah yes! We’ve had some plumbing issues lately. Our house has two bathrooms, one up and one down. The downstairs bathroom quit working a long time ago. I can’t remember exactly when but it was at least a year ago. Since it’s below ground it has this pump that draws the water up from the drains and the toilet and that’s what quit working. Instead of the water being drawn up by the pump it just came back up in the shower or the toilet would run over. We got in touch with the landlord at the time but he wasn’t interested in doing anything about it. So we learned to get along with one bathroom.

At some time during the last year, our upstairs toilet started having problems. Nothing major, just one of those things where you have to jiggle the handle every time you flush it. Annoying! Then, a couple of weeks ago, the cold water stopped flowing to the toilet and the shower and the washing machine. It just stopped all at once. We still had cold water to the bathroom sink and the kitchen sink, and the hot water was okay throughout the house, but no cold to those three things. Those three things all happen to be on the same wall, toilet and shower on one side of the wall, and washing machine on the other side of that wall which is the back porch.

I got in touch with the landlord again right away and he said he’d get his plumber out here. We spent a couple of days not washing clothes and not showering and filling the toilet tank with buckets, but finally the plumber came. This was, I believe, on the Thursday before our big snowstorm, which was two weeks ago last night. Oh, the plumber’s name is Richard Matheson, also the name of a sci-fi/horror writer that I like quite a bit.

Anyway, Richard came at around 9 that morning and started looking at the tangle of pipes in our basement. It took him about an hour just to figure out which pipe fed cold water up into that wall, but he finally found it and cut out a section where he thought the problem was. He got it right on the first try. The section of pipe he cut out was completely filled with dirt and roots. How they got in there I’ll never know, and even the plumber who has been in the business for some 30 years said he’d never seen anything quite like it before. By then it was getting on toward 11:30 or thereabouts. Richard needed to go to his home in Shelton to get some tools and equipment and said he’d grab a bite to eat then come back and finish the job.

He got back here at around 1 or 1:30 and started in replacing the sections of pipe he had cut away. That cutting process was kind of interesting incidentally. He had this kind of long electric saw that he just held against the pipe and cut right through. It reminded me of those chain saws that are on long poles where you can stand on the ground and cut away high branches. Now that I think about it, it also reminds me a little of Grandma’s electric knife that she used to slice roast beef with. But I digress.

He had brought in a length of a sort of flexible plastic tubing that was colored blue. He said that’s what they use now-a-days as someone decided the old PVC tubing was poisoning the water. Quite a talker was Richard, explaining everything he was doing and discussing a great many other topics while he worked. It didn’t take him long at all to get the new pipe sections in and the cold water was flowing again.

The majority of the work he did was actually in the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom, which is directly below the upstairs one, so I casually mentioned our problems with that bathroom while he worked. I had been thinking that it was the pump that had quit working down there and that it might take an electrician rather than a plumber, but I thought it couldn’t hurt to ask him about it. He explained how the system works: a tall pipe running from downstairs to upstairs that has a float in it. When the float reaches a certain level, it kicks on the pump and the pump takes it from there. He theorized that it was probably just a sticky float and not a problem with the pump at all. He showed me the pipe with the float in it, it’s inside a small closet in the downstairs bathroom, and he gave it a couple of mild thumps. As soon as he did that, the pump kicked on and our downstairs bathroom was working again, just like that. Easy-peasy-rice-and-cheesy. And that’s what kept us from using the downstairs bathroom for over a year.

Richard checked upstairs to make sure the cold water was flowing again where it was supposed to and everything was fine. Then it was time to address the jiggly-handle problem, which I had also casually mentioned to him earlier. He took one look at the ancient innards of our toilet and said, “I’m going to replace that.” He took out the old ball-and-cock setup that was in there and replaced it with one of those new things they use which I don’t know the name for. That was good, but the jiggly-handle problem was being caused by the flapper in there that covers the drain hole in the tank. Richard said he normally has plenty of those, but he had just used his last three a couple of days before and didn’t have any on hand, adding that he would pick some up and return the following day to complete the job.

Well, the next day, Friday, was when the bad weather began to settle in and Richard didn’t actually make it back out until the following Monday. He came in, replaced the flapper, and we were in business. Our cold water was flowing, we didn’t have to jiggle the handle anymore, and we had our downstairs bathroom back!

Richard was a nice guy. I enjoyed watching him work and talking with him about everything under the sun: our families, the government, his army days, etc, etc. I admire men like Richard a lot, men who know how to use their hands to fix things. I’ve never been very handy myself, always having to call on someone else for every little thing that breaks down, even something so simple as a toilet flapper or a sticky float. Well, I guess that’s why God gave each of us unique abilities and talents, so we can help each other along.

That’s been on my mind a lot lately as the time for me to go back to work draws ever nearer: wondering what I want to do in my new life, or what I can do. I’d love to learn a trade like Richard’s, working with my hands and fixing things instead of sitting in an office all day pushing buttons at the computer like I used to. But new trades require training, and training requires money and yadda yadda yadda. All I know for sure is that as long as I keep my faith in God, He will lead me to the right job at the right time.

And my adventure in plumbing took a lot longer to tell than I thought it would! Before I get too much further from the topic at hand, I think I will end it here for now. There are a few other things I want to write down, so hopefully I can get back in here a bit more frequently in the future. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

John 3:22 John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven.” ESV

1 Corinthians 12:4-6 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ESV

Inspirations - Penn State Woes

Well, the big news this week has been the tragic events that were recently uncovered at Penn State University. I confess that I don’t know all of the details, but what I gathered was that a member of Penn State’s football coaching staff was discovered to have been sexually molesting young boys for a number of years. Other members of the coaching staff were aware of this and either did nothing at all, or didn’t do enough to stop what was going on. One of these was none other than head coach Joe Paterno.
I can only imagine the anger, confusion, and frustration that must have rocked the University, and probably the entire city of State College, as this story unfolded. Of course, the result was a major house cleaning at Penn State, which is still ongoing. It was announced just a few days ago that legendary head coach Joe Paterno, at the age of 84, had also been fired after 45 years as head coach.
Which brings us to Saturday’s football game: Nebraska versus Penn State. All week long there was a lot of speculation about what might happen at the game. Would angry fans be looking to cause trouble? Would angry players be looking to hurt someone? Should the game be called off? One night on the news, there were some Husker fans saying that they were going to the game, but would not wear red in case Penn State fans might want to single someone out. On another newscast, a reporter voiced his opinion that it was good that the game had an early (11am) kickoff so that maybe people would be less likely to drink alcohol before or during the game. The truth is, no one really knew what to expect, but a lot of people were preparing for the worst.
We didn’t have to wait long for those fears to be laid to rest. Several minutes before the scheduled kickoff time, both football teams walked onto the field in Pennsylvania and shook hands. This is traditionally done at the end of a game. After the hand shaking, the players and coaches huddled together and knelt for prayer, led by Nebraska assistant coach Ron Brown. As they all knelt, a large crowd of Penn State alumni, former football players I believe, gathered around in an incredible display of support and solidarity. I don’t have cable TV so I didn’t get to see this, but I listened on the radio and you could have heard a pin drop in that stadium. I never knew 108,000 people could be so quiet.
Even as the game began, the crowd was eerily quiet. Nebraska sideline announcer Lane Grendel commented later in the game that “It was almost as if people didn’t know how they should act.” That seems a very appropriate description to me. Is it okay to cheer and make noise at such a time? Eventually, the crowd decided that indeed it was okay as they began to cheer on their teams, and I think it was the right decision. Even in the face of such tragedy, life must go on.
I can’t think of a more perfect way that this game could have begun: the teams coming together, the prayer, the silence. Could it be any more obvious that the hand of God was at work this day? What an awesome reminder that His love and mercy can overcome any trial, and what a perfect way for Him to reach hundreds of thousands of people with that message. Can I get an Amen?
Well, I hate to see my team lose, but this is one time when I wouldn’t have been too sad to see Nebraska take a loss. I’m not ashamed to admit that a part of me was rooting for Penn State. It wasn’t to be however, Nebraska ended up winning by the narrow margin of 17-14. In the final few minutes of the game, it actually looked like the Nittany Lions just might pull it off. I’m glad they made a good game of it anyway. And I hope the solemnity of the game’s beginning can begin the healing process in Pennsylvania. My prayers will still be with the victims in all this, those poor little boys, and their families. I have to assume that it will take a bit more for their own healing to begin.

Isaiah 30:20 And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. ESV

John 1:5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ESV

Related Links
Read the full transcript of Ron Brown’s pre-game prayer.

TAGS inspirations, god, football, penn state, Isaiah, John

Miracles

If you know me personally, or if you’ve been following my blog lately, then you already know that I was recently the recipient of a miracle. I have a long history of problems with my eyes going all the way back to 1995 when I was diagnosed with keratoconus, a condition of the corneas. I was twenty-four years old at the time and spent the next 14 years dealing with that and other eye problems. Finally, in June of 2009, I was completely blind. I was blind for two and a half years until finally receiving surgery about four weeks ago that restored the vision in my right eye.
Yes, it was a doctor who performed the surgery that gave me my sight back, but I still consider it a miracle because the hand of God was very evident throughout.
During the two-and-a-half years that I was blind, God did a lot of work on me, and there was a lot of work to do. He taught me a lot about patience. Being blind takes a lot of patience; you have to learn new ways to do things like walking and eating and using the computer. More importantly, I learned how to be patient with God; how to wait for Him to do things in His own time, just like it says in Isaiah 30:18:

"Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for Him.”

God also taught me a lot about humility. When you’re blind, you have to ask for help. A lot. That’s something I was never very good at; I always like to do things myself, but it is part of God’s will for us to help each other, and to ask each other for help. It strengthens the body of Christ when we are all working together in that way, just like it says in Romans 12:16:

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.

And, of course, I learned how important it is to ask God Himself for help.
I could go on and on about all the different things God taught me through my blindness, and maybe one of these days I will, but that’s not really what I came here to talk about today. Today’s topic is miracles.
While I was blind, Joni and I had family and friends literally all across the country praying for us, and who had their churches praying for us. That’s really what it’s all about; the body of Christ coming together for a common purpose, and when that happens—well, that’s when miracles occur. God didn’t restore my sight just to make me happy. No, He did it so that all of those people could witness it; so that everyone could understand what a miracle this was and so that He could be glorified through it. In chapter 9 of the book of John, there’s a story of Jesus healing a blind man. The disciples asked Jesus why the man was blind, was it because of his sin or because of his parents’ sin. In verse 3 of that passage, Jesus tells them:

Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him.

If God doesn’t receive the glory for my healing, then it was all for nothing. It is now my duty, I believe, to make sure that as many people as possible witness the miracle that has occurred in my life. If you are reading this right now, then God has chosen you to be one of those witnesses. The big question is what are you going to do with that? Are you going to forget about it as soon as you click away from this page? Or are you going to go out into the world and tell somebody what a great and merciful God we serve? I hope it will be the latter. And remember, if you are waiting for a miracle of your own, you need to get as many people as possible involved. Get them praying for you. Ask them for help. Through God’s grace and glory, truly miraculous things can happen.

Wind

It’s windy. Not just windy, very windy. Stupendously windy, fantastically windy, remarkably windy, and extra-ordinarily windy. It's so windy the tornados have gone vacationing to South America. It's so windy the hurricanes are jealous. Tempests envy the brute gale force of Nebraska.

When you are driving down the road and you open the window a crack, you know how loud the wind can be. Imagine that in reverse, you are standing still and the whole world is roaring past you at fifty miles per hour. Now imagine that going non-stop for three days. I wonder where all that wind can come from. There must be giant vacuums opening up in Mexico because all of their air is being sucked into Nebraska. Maybe it’s the other way around, maybe the vacuum is in Canada.

I tell people that I don’t know what they have done with the Nebraska that I left so many years ago, and they say it has always been this way. They are wrong. The Nebraska I remember was timeless and unmoving, not this rushing, howling lunacy. I fear that the men in the white coats will come soon to take this Nebraska away. Or maybe I desire it. So easily can you forget that the world can be still and quiet.

The wind roars like a lion and howls like a coyote. It whistles like a boiling tea-kettle and moans like a restless spirit. Trees creak, shingles flap, and barn doors crack like the first shot of hunting season. The power lines are a gospel choir ushering in doomsday. Neighbors shout to be heard over the tumult and they sound miles away. If they shouted at you from upwind, their voices would slap you in the face like an angry mother.

The wind thunders across the plains like a herd of startled buffalo. It gallops to and fro like unbroken horses, crossing the earth in great strides. It is swifter than deer and quicker than hares. It mocks the birds, shoving them aside thoughtlessly.

Outside we are buffeted by the wind; inside we are buffeted by the sound of the wind. The wind is an uproar; a cacophony of howling, moaning ghosts; God's own bellows unleashed. Wind like this could drive a person mad.

Patrick Swayze and Bette Midler never knew wind like this. Benjamin Franklin would have stayed indoors in such a gale. Winds this ferocious would have kept Odysseus at sea for another twenty years.

The wind is endless, tireless, pitiless, bottomless. It is inexhaustible, incomprehensible, inconceivable, and incredible. The wind is unending, unceasing, unyeilding, unrelenting. It is forever, eternal, constant and infinite.

Other than that, life is pretty good.

John 3:8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

Genesis 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

Matthew 14:30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Dream Diary - Comic Books

Sunday night I dreamed about comic books. I was In some department store, I don’t know what store it was. There was a whole aisle of comic books, like the magazine aisle, but all comic books. I walked down the aisle, looking at the comics longingly. I wanted to buy some but I knew I couldn't really afford it. Finally, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to just buy a few. I started picking some up, Spider-Man and Captain America. When I had about five or six in my hands, I suddenly realized that I wouldn’t even be able to read them because I'm blind. I was going to put them back, but I decided to go ahead and get them and just save them until I could see again.

Have you ever had a dream where you knew you were dreaming and you could control it? I’ve never achieved dream control myself, and I’m not sure I even believe in that, but I think I had something similar in this dream. At one point, I noticed there were no Batman comics. As soon as I thought about Batman, I lookd a little further down the aisle and there they were. After that I thought about X-men comics. I turned around and there they were, right behind me.

I used to collect comic books. From 1990 until about 2000 I collected quite a lot of them, I have several boxes of them in the basement. I hope they’re not all damp and moldy. I finally had to give up collecting them because I couldn’t afford it anymore.

This reminds me of another dream I had a while back. I thought I had written about that one too, but didn’t find it. In that one, I was at a shopping mall. There was a comic book store in the mall and I was standing outside it, looking in. On one side of the store was kind of a stage area. It had three rows of stools in tiers. Sitting on the stools, were people dressed up like super-heroes. There were probably a couple dozen of them. It was like one of those window displays you sometimes see with live people instead of mannequins. They weren’t acting like mannequins though, they were moving a little and talking to each other. A guy named Rodney Heyen was there, also looking in. Rodney went to my high school although he was several years older than me. He had a younger brother who was in my grade. Anyway, Rodney started to say “It’s like being,” and I finished the sentence for him, “at a zoo.” We had the same thought and laughed about that.

Comic books are one thing I really miss since going blind. All the sophisticated technology in the world won’t help me enjoy my comics again. I think that feeling was reflected in that second dream, standing outside the store, looking in. And in the first dream as well, wanting to buy the comics, but knowing I wouldn't be able to enjoy them even if I did buy them. And another dream where I could see, but in my mind I knew I was blind. I wonder how long it will be before I really am blind in my dreams.

Well, maybe someday I’ll be able to read my comic books again. Just one more thing to look forward to.

John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Blind Observations - The Golden Rule

Golly, I hope I survive being blind. I’ve had more bumps and bruises in the last year than I’ve had since I was a kid. Sometimes I forget to be careful, or I get impatient and try to hurry. The bathroom in our house here is kind of small and I’m always having trouble in there. It’s sort of a tight squeeze between the end of the shower and the sink. Some previous owner put in a larger bathtub/shower I guess. I’m always bumping into the sink with my thigh or my knee. Sometimes I bang it really hard and I think, "That's really going to hurt tomorrow” but it usually doesn't. On the other hand, one day I woke up and my knee was sore, but I couldn’t remember hitting it. It was sore when I woke up and by that afternoon it hurt so bad I could hardly walk on it. It was better the next day, but I never did figure out what happened to it. I also have a burn on my hand from last week. I was cooking some eggs and spam. I burned my hand, but the eggs were perfect! I guess I’ve always been a little clumsy.
Then, just last week, I was in the bathroom and I leaned down to put something in the trash. I didn’t realize I was standing so close to the wall and I banged my face into the towel rod. It gave me a cut right across the bridge of my nose. And just a few days ago,I did the same thing in the kitchen. I tried to put something in the trash and was closer to the refrigerator than I thought I was. Whack-O! Right in the face, and another cut on the bridge of my nose. I had my sunglasses on that time which is what cut me. Yes, being blind means being careful at all times. Getting impatient will get you in trouble every time. I guess that’s kind of true even for sighted people, isn’t it?
I wanted to talk, just for a moment, about the proper way to treat a blind person. Or any type of handicapped person for that matter. Does anybody know the proper way? Here’s an example:
Joni and I went someplace one time, and there was a lady there who said to Joni, “Would he be more comfortable sitting down?” Wrong! That offended me on so many levels I can't even tell you. If you want to ask a blind person a question, just ask them. Also, if a person is blind, it doesn't mean the rest of their body doesn't work right. My ears are just fine, and so are my legs and feet. I know, I know, I’m being too critical. She was just trying to be nice and I’m overly sensitive. All true.
So what’s the proper way to treat a blind person. After all, you probably don’t encounter very many blind people in your daily life and you don’t get much practice, right? Well, you don’t need any practice at all. Just treat them like people. That’s all any of us want isn't it?
Okay, here’s a little practical advice. When you see a blind person coming along, you can give them a little extra room. Sometimes it's fun to hit people with our canes, but then again sometimes it makes us feel awkward. If you want to shake hands with a blind person, reach out and take their hand. You can’t just stand there with your hand out, that makes us feel awkward too. If their hand is on their cane just ask “Can I shake your hand?” I’m guessing most blind people will be agreeable to that. And for heaven's sake, don't try to hide from a blind person. There are always those who will hug a wall and try to be as silent as possible when a blind person comes into the room. We can’t see you, but we can feel you and that’s just plain creepy. And it’s polite to hold the door for a blind person, just as it is polite to hold the door for someone who can see.
I mentioned this yesterday, but it goes along with my topic today so I will mention it again. If you’re really interested in seeing the world from the perspective of a blind person, check out”In The Center of the Roof.” Ro has been blind for a couple of years now, I think, and is a lot better at describing it than I am. She just went through the lengthy process of getting a seeing-eye dog and documented every step which was pretty interesting.
Okay, I’m done griping for today. Everybody who reads this will probably think, "Wow, blind people are really grouchy." I hope that’s not the case. Handicapped people just don’t want people fussing over them or treating them differently, that's all.

Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

John 9:1-3 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life."

Heavy Heart

So here it is, 1 o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep. Again. This has been going on for several nights now. I have asthma and it’s been acting up pretty bad lately. It’s harder to breathe lying down so for a few nights I was sleeping in shifts of a couple hours at a time. My asthma has been a little better lately though, and I’ve been able to lie down much better. I still can’t sleep though, ecause I just have too much on my mind.

What’s on my mind? Well, I suppose I should back up a little and explain this properly.

I’ve already talked about some of this. I went blind a while back and have been drawing social security. The payments I’m getting are barely enough to pay our bills, but the government says I’m earning too much to get Medicaid. Medicare is out also because I have to be disabled for two years before I qualify. If I had some kind of medical coverage, I could get my sight back because my problem is correctible by surgery.

Well, my mom kept telling me not to worry about that; that she would come up with the money somehow. I kept turning her down because I truly did not feel like that was what God wanted. It seemed like everytime I was tempted to take matters into my own hands and make something happen, I kept getting the message “wait.”

So, anyway, about three months ago the last of my asthma medicine ran out. I tried really hard to put my trust in God to take care of me, but to tell you the truth I was really scared about what was going to happen. In spite of my fears, when the medicine ran out, I was fine! God totally came through for me! For the next ten weeks or so, life was pretty good. I can't tell you how good it felt to be free of that medicine.

Then a couple of weeks ago, it finally caught up with me. My asthma hasn’t been that bad for about 4 years, when I ended up in the hospital for a week. I had a particularly bad evening a couple of nights ago, and I told Mom Iwas ready to take her up on her offer.

So now I face the prospect of getting some health insurance and possibly getting my sight back. Sounds like a pretty good deal. The problem is that now I’m wondering; is this what God intended, or am I trying to take matters into my own hands again? I really don’t know the answer to that, and that’s what is keeping me up at night, now that my asthma is settling down a little.

I know that God doesn’t want us to suffer. But I also know that sometimes he places challenges before us so that “the works of God should be made manifest,” just like it says in John chapter 9. So I guess the question is; has my disability brought glory to God? That’s kind of what this blog has been all about, but did it reach anyone? In my vanity, I envisioned testifying to thousands of people and converting every one of them to Christ, but of course I know it doesn’t always work that way. This whole thing may have been for one particular person out there; someone who just needed to hear someone talk about God; someone who I may never even know exists. Hmm, I need to read “The 5 People You Meet In Heaven” again.

Well, all I can do is pray about it, and hope that I am doing the right thing. It all comes down to faith. I have to have faith that God will lead me to where He wants me to be. Faith is such a small thing; such a huge thing; the only thing.

John 9:1-3 And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. And His disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.