Category: Brother Al (Page 64 of 68)

Eric Metaxas is one of my favorite Christian authors.  He has written a new book entitled “7 Men and the Secret of Their Greatness.”  In an interview he observed that, “There’s a crisis of manhood in the culture and it is at the heart of many of our problems.”  He is critical of the notion that men and women are in a “battle of the sexes” for jobs and social leadership.  The culture views strength as a selfish tool “to aggrandize myself and to keep others down, which, of course, is the opposite of God’s plan,” he observed.  The cultural mindset sees strength as negative, especially for men.  Thus there is the focus on greater equalization in which women should be stronger and men weaker

But “when you have a biblical view of men’s strength,”  observes Metaxas, “you know that God only give us anything good to be used for his purposes and mainly to serve others. ”  Strength is not bad. It is the misuse of strength that is harmful.  The seven men in Metaxas’  book all had great strength, but they used it for good.  “The thing that holds all of them together is that every one of them made some noble sacrifice.  They had some great strength and they sacrificed it for other – for a larger purpose.”

My personal sense  is that many men today feel intimidated by the use of masculine strength.   They are confused regarding their deepest motivations to make a difference. It is the nature of the masculine to initiate, with a desire to succeed.  Leanne Payne has observed that the masculine principle is  one “of orientation, direction, order and responsibility.”  We read in Genesis 2:15, “The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden  to work it and take care of it.”  Adam was to initiate and take responsibility to take care of garden.  But after the fall Adam’s masculine ability to initiate was taxed to the fullest.  God said to him, “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life” (Gen 3:17).  The fall brought about the abuse of masculine strength.

My exhortation to the men reading this blog, is not to be intimidated by the voices that are rightly critical of all the evidence of male abuse in our culture.  It is only going to get worse, when men feel trapped like a caged lion in a pen constructed by  social engineers who have no idea of what it means to be a man from God’s perspective.  Remember we are to use our God give strength to be loving, humble servants for the greater good.  This begins right at home with your wife and children.  It is here that we can “field test” our strength displayed with humility and compassion.  It will not always be easy.  But this is where we learn.

Jesus makes this very clear in Mark 10:41-45 ( Message).  “You’ve observed how godless rulers throw their weight around and when people get a little power how quickly it goes to their heads.  It’s not going to be that way with you.  Whoever wants to be great must become a servant.  Whoever wants to be first along you must be your slave.  That is what the Son of Man has done: He came to serve, not to be served – and then to give away his life in exchange for many who are held hostage.”

We hear a lot about “‘burnout ” occurring among men in our culture.  Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm this fact.   It found that  among men ages 50-54, the suicide rate increased 49% between 1999 and 2010.  Overall, men are nearly four times more likely to commit suicide than women.  Men in our culture seem to be doing to much for the wrong reasons with not enough time or energy to do what is on their “to do list”.  I wonder if from time to time we need to change the paradigm in our lifestyle and considered the phenomena of “drainout”  rather than “burnout.”

I ran across this quote from Bernard of Clairvoux that could apply to drainout, in which he visualizes canals and reservoirs.  Bernard was a spiritual leader back in the 11th century. “The man who is wise, therefore, will see his life as more like a reservoir than a canal.  The canal simultaneously pours out what it receives; the reservoir retains the water till it is filled, then discharged the overflow without loss to itself……Today there are many in the church who act like canals, the reservoirs are far too rare…You too must learn to await this fullness before pouring out your gifts, do not try to be more generous than God.”  We read in I Thess. 3:12, “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you.”

What does a man do to take care of his spiritual reservoir.  First I would say, don’t be concerned about the size of your reservoir.  That is God’s concern.  Our task is having the right spiritual habits to keep our reservoir filled, irregardless of how we feel spiritually.  These habits will usually consist in taking time to be with God.  Meditating on His Word and being still before him, puts you into the position to receive. Filling will not come while you are on the run.  I know this is not easy for men.  But there is no other option.  The Psalmist tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God” (Ps.46:10).  Just taking 15 minutes out of 24 hours is a good start.

Secondly, be convinced in your mind that “being” is more important than “doing.”  The doing will come out of the quality of your being.  Our attitude should be more like that of Mary when she consented to be the mother of of Lord.  “I am the Lord’s servant.  May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).  How God keeps your reservoir filled is his work.  Like Mary our place is to consent to what God is doing.  So my third point is this: don’t try to figure out how God is doing the filling.  Come before him in honesty.  Pray something like this: “Lord, I am dry and thirsty.  I feel empty.  There is not a lot in my tank.  I have tried hard to be good and to keep going.  I come to you in deep dependence.  I don’t know how you will do it, but I come to you, asking that you renew my soul.”

Do you live with the realities of your life, or is life based on illusions, that is, who think you are and what you do.    Listen to these words from Thomas Merton.  “There is no greater disaster in the spiritual life than to be immersed in unreality, for life is maintained and nourished in us by our vital relationship with realities outside and above us.  When our life feeds on unreality, it must starve.  It must therefore die….the death by which we enter into life is not an escape from reality, but a complete gift of ourselves which involves a total commitment to reality.”  To be spiritual alive, you needs to have the “real you” relating to the “real God”.  God does not relate to unreality, but to what is really there in our lives.

Jesus tells us, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:34).  Jesus came to show us the truth.  Truth is the reality about knowing ourselves, others and the world.  John declares, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  So if the Lord Jesus lives within your heart, you are receiving grace (help to live the spiritual life) and truth (what is true about our lives).  But all of the help God offers (grace) will do little for us if we are not willing to face the truth about ourselves.

So are you willing to face the truth about yourself.  God cannot have a relationship with our illusions, but only with the real you and your experience of life. We cannot be selective, only giving attention to those parts of our experience what we feel ready to accept.  As David Benner has said, “We must welcome all the visitors that come to the guesthouse that is our self.  Doing so will give us depth and substance that we will always lack when we live in a place of pretense, under the illusion of being in control over who gets access to our house and who does not.”  Failure in accepting unwelcomed guests does not drive them away, they just go into hiding, while we are kept from facing reality

So my encouragement for men is to face the good, the bad, and the ugly in your life.  Always remember that God is at the center, loving you with unconditional love, waiting for you to come home.  Learn to be honest with yourself, accepting who you really are.  God want a “real” relationship with you, one in which you share your hidden parts with him.

You may have read or even watch as high wire artist  Nik Wallenda walked without a harness on a 1,400 foot long high-wire across a 1,500 tall gorge near the Grand Canyon.  In his memoirs he wrote, “I believe that God gives us the power to transform any story from darkness to light.”  In a recent interview before he walk he said, “I visualize myself crossing the Canyon over and over again.  I visualize myself making that first step, quarter of a way, half way, three quarters of a way and then finishing that walk.  That’s really a lot o the mental prep.”

What got national attention was the fact that Wallenda prayed to Jesus the whole time as he walked along, completing the walk in 22 minutes and 54 seconds.  “Thank you Lord.  Thank you for calming that cable God” was one of the prayers he prayed as he reached the halfway point, having to deal with wind gusts of over 20 mph.  What is fascinating for me is the fact that the name of Jesus and prayer got a lot of “free press” because of this man’s faith in God.  There are some interesting analogies we can make from this event

Wallenda mentally prepared for his walk by visualizing the crossing of the Grand Canyon.  Likewise, we need to visualize our walk with Jesus.  Heb 12:1-2 reads in part, “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  Like the high wire artist we are not sure what awaits us as we walk with Jesus on the tight rope, that is life, in our culture today.  One observer of our culture describes “a world that has gone on the decline as subversive policies and agendas have belittled the importance  and impact of moral men in our society.”  Men, we need to continually visualize Jesus with us on our daily journey in our day.  With our eye on Jesus, he is able to turn any situation of darkness into light.  Jesus is the light of the world

Sometimes we will feel we are halfway across a dangerous part of the journey.  There are winds that will come our way, that could knock us off our path.  We might not be able to change the conditions.  But we can cry out for help.  It is all to easy for us to react like Peter when he was on the water during the storm, coming to Jesus.  We can get fearful with the conditions around us.  But like Peter and Nik Wallenda,  we can cry out to Jesus.  Peter’s prayer was short and to the point – “Lord, save me!”  Jesus will be there to rescue you.  You will learn out on the tightrope spiritual truths that you would never have learned staying on the sidelines.

Recently Bono, from U2, was interview by Jim Daley, of focus on the family.  They talked about spiritual matters since Bono is a follower of Jesus.  During the radio interview, Bono made comparisons between biblical characters and music.  “First of all,” he observed, “David’ s a musician, so I’m gonna like him.  What’s so powerful about the psalms are, as well, as they’re being gospel and songs of praise, they are also blues. It’s very important for Christians to be honest with God, which often you know, God is much more interested in who you are than who you want to be.”

What is interesting to me is the fact the Bono recognized the value the laments in the Psalms.  He calls these psalms “the blues.”  Many of the Psalms of lament are written by David, who had his share of problems.  Here is a little taste  from Ps 13.  “How long, Lord?  Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face  from me?  How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in  heart?  How long will my enemy triumph over me? (1-2).  Ps 86, 142 and 143 are some good examples of laments (or blues).  Bono is right – we need to be honest with God.  the psalms are not to just be read but pray.  In so doing you will become honest before God.  You will be real, since deep emotions, not just thoughts are expressed by David.

Two more quotes from the interview.  Daley mentioned one of his favorite quotes from C. S. Lewis.  “When a man is getting better, he understands more and more clearly the evil that’s left in him.  When a man is getting worse, he understand his own badness less and less.”  Bono replied, “Yeah, I might…that could turn up on the next U2 album, but I won’t give him or you any credit.”  Bono evidently saw truth in Lewis’ statement.  The more we grown in Christ, the more we see our need of God’s help.  It is when we think we are doing a good job “spiritually” that we are in danger. It is so easy for men to get into “Sin management.”

Our spiritual life becomes more about what we are doing for God and how we are changing.  But the ego is still front and center, directing our spiritual life rather then the Spirit of God.  It is so hard to let go and let God do it in his way.  That is why the psalms of lament are so good to read and pray over on a regular basis  They deep us grounded in real life.  God meets us there.  He will not meet us in our illusionary efforts to be spiritual and acceptable to God.  Remember David prayed, “My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heat you, God, will not despise.” (Ps 51:17)

I ran across another great quote from a ways back (St John Climacus).  I thought it would be good to share it with other men.  “Let us charge into the  good fight  with joy and love without being afraid of our enemies”  In a day when a man can easily get defensive about his walk with Jesus and negative about the condition of the culture, these words are a great reminder.  It reminds me of Psalm 149:6, “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands.”  The implication seems to be  that men going into battle needing to have a positive attitude, enabling them to praise God while in battle.  That is a great attitude to have for battle.  What is our attitude in the conflicts of our day?

Men, there is no doubt that we are in a fight.  Paul reminds Timothy to,  “Fight the good fight of the faith” (I Tim. 6:12).  The Message tells us, “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.  This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels” (Eph  6:11).  We are in a serious fight!!  Rev 12:12 give us a warning about the enemy that we face spiritually. “But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you!  He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Rev. 12:13).  The enemy has a lot of energy for the fight because his time is short.  It could be that warfare against biblical Christianity is intensifying in our culture.

So how will we fight.  The quote from St John Climacus tells us we are to fight with joy and love, while not be afraid of our enemies.   I believe strongly that men can not fight spiritually as they once did when there was a Christian consensus in our culture.  Culture is no longer sympathetic nor open to biblical truth.  So a direct, confrontational approach will not work.  There are many folks who have “tuned out” religion, while still be open spiritually.  Any man who is negative, judgmental, with a critical spirit will not be heard.  He will probably do more damage then good.

So fighting a good fight will mean having a positive attitude toward others.  The enemy hates  joy and love.  When you love your enemy, you are fighting with a powerful weapon. Whoever heard of a warrior loving his opponent.    Being joyful in the battle is counter intuitive to warfare.  You can’t get more positive then being  joyful in battle.  Love and joy are so powerful because they are in such short supply in our culture   A critical and negative spirit only drives people away.  So my encouragement to each man reading this blog is to do an “attitude check.”  Ask God for grace to go into battle with praise and a heart that is joyful (positive attitude) and loving (compassionate to others).

I have been mediating on Ps. 40 and 69 as  I have reflected on my spiritual journey this last half year.  “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted  me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand”  (Ps. 40:1-2). The Message reads,  “He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip’.  In Psalm 69, the Psalmist talks about the waters coming up to his neck  as he laments, “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold, I have come into deep waters; the  floods engulf me” (Ps 69:2).

None of us choose to get into the pit.   But it will happen to each of us from time to time.  Usually it happens when we are confronted with a life situation that is difficult.  You will know that you are in the pit, when you can say in the words of Ps 69:2 – the Message, “Quicksand under me, swamp water over me; I’m going down for the third time.”  It is not a good feeling.  I know, I have been there recently.  So what can I briefly share with men that will help them when they are “in over their heads” with no foothold, experiencing that sinking sensation.

Here are some of my thoughts.  First, don’t be the “brave solider” in denying your condition.  Men, we have to live with reality and not the illusion that this can’t happen to me.  God can only come along side a real life situation, not an illusion created by self-denial.  Do as the Psalmst; admit that you are slipping (Ps.94:18).  But don’t start to beat yourself up.  This can lead to self pity.  Yes, your weakness caused you to slip.  But God’s grace is available in our weakness.  His “power is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor 12:9), not in our strength.

Secondly, in your situation, “wait patiently for the Lord.”  This is not always easy.  In waiting you need to turn the eyes of your heart to the Lord. For  how long?  That is up to God.  How He delights in the fact that you are crying out to him from your  pit.  Cry out for mercy and grace.  Be real.  It helps when you have someone else praying with you ( I have my dear wife).  Tell him how you really feel.  Above all believe that he loves  you and will help you.

Thirdly, remember it is the Lord that will lift you up.  By faith you need to believe that your heavenly Father is going to reach down and pull you out.  No one can believe for you.  It might be humbling to admit your lack of faith.  It sure has been for me.  This is unbelief.  So confession is good for the soul.  Tell God you are going to hang on with the faith you have and wait for him to give you, “a firm place to stand.”  It is worth the wait.  You will be stronger, having been now prepared for next leg of the journey.

I have been reflecting on a quote from St Augustine. “Christ has gone from our sight, so that we should return to our heart and find Him there.”  There are times in our spiritual journey when we the presence of God seems to deminish.  The familiar ways in which we felt or understood God’s presence is absent.  It become a dry time, when the “lights” seem to go out.  This is normal for all growing believers.  The question becomes, “How do I practice my walk with the Lord, when He seems absent.”  Here I think Augustine’s quote can help

Remember, when you open your heart to the Lord Jesus, He comes and abides in your heart.  You have fellowship with him.  “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (I John 1:7). The light of his presence comes into your heart.  “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ make his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (II Cor 4:6).  Notice the light within you gives you an awareness of the face of Christ.  The light within you is constant.  It does not change with regards to your outward sense of God’s presence.  God is not absent.  The problem is our awareness of his presence.

This is when “seeking His face,” that is, the face of Jesus becomes a vital practice.  The Psalmist prayed, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’  Your face, Lord, I will seek” (Ps 27:8).  He also said, “My eyes are even on the Lord” (Ps 25:15), implying it was a continuous habit, which was very intentional when he states, “I have sought our face with all my heart” (Ps. 119:58).  The Psalmist is speaking, of course,  about his spiritual eyes.  As he pays attention to his inner life, he will fix his eyes on Jesus, no matter what might be the  conditions in his actual life. This becomes an act of faith.

So I encourage men reading this blog, to cultivate the practice of seeking the face of Christ in your daily life.  He is present within you.  Actually he waits for your fellowship.  Make it a matter of your will, to turn our spiritual eyes, the eyes of your heart, unto Jesus who dwells within.  Thomas Kelly put it this way, “The religious person is forever bringing all affairs of the first level down into the Light, holding them there in the Presence, reseeing them and the whole of the world of people and things in a new and overturning way, and responding to them in spontaneous, incisive, and simple ways of love and faith.”

Not long ago, Dr. Anthony Bradley of the Kings College in New York wrote a blog entitled “The New Legalism.”  He had written on Facebook the following, “Being a ‘radical,’ ‘missional’ Christian is slowly becoming the ‘new legalism.’  We need more ordinary God and people lovers (Matt 22:36-40).”  His blog was in response to all the comments he received from his observation.  In his blog, Bradley suggested that many young Christians are smothered with a new legalism: “many young adults feel ashamed if they ‘settle’ into ordinary jobs, get married early and start families, live in small towns or as I Thess 4:11 says, ‘aspire to live quietly and to mind [their] affairs, and to work with [their] hands.”

This got me to thinking about the men who read this blog.  My sense is that most of you are dads, who work hard to provide for your families.  You go about your daily tasks, which often seem rather mundane.  You are committed to your wife and kids.  You don’t have a lot of time of extra time.  Yet you still desire to make a difference in your community.  So you are involved in your local church, or maybe volunteer in your community.  You might even find time to be in a small group with some other guys.

Maybe there are men reading this blog today who are being motivated by shame-driven pressure to be more radical and missional. You live an invisible ordinary life, wanting to make a difference in your family, community and church and you wonder if you are radical enough for Jesus. There is a tendency with men to compare our commitment with other men.  As a result you might be discouraged with your spiritual journey and a good candidate for spiritual  “burn out.”

I want to strongly speak a good word for being an “ordinary Christian man.”  The evangelical culture has traditionally placed an emphasis on doing the right thing and thinking the right thoughts.  There needs to be more thought given to simply “being.”  In my early 50’s I came to the realization that my focus was more on what I was doing for God, then what He was doing through me. I saw that my being with Jesus was more important then working for Jesus.  To much of my walk was about  Al and how “spiritual” he thought he was. I had to come peace that being “an ordinary Christian,” living for Jesus right in my everyday circumstances, was God’s will for me.

So men, take heart.  Being “ordinary,” that is, living a dedicated, domestic life as a husband and father, is a high calling.  Your faithful witness will impact not only your family, but other men in our community and church.  I say that a man who commits himself to be a “humble, loving follower Jesus” within his family, is doing a radical thing.  Why? Because this does not come natural to men, nor is it modeled well in our churches.  Remember God’s exhortation to us as husbands and fathers. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (Eph 6:25).  This means giving up yourself for your wife, as Jesus gave himself for you.  Then the word about being a father.  “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4).  That can be a full time job for a dad.

I don’t know about you, but I can only absorb so much of what is happening in our culture that disturbs me.  The problems that our culture faces, and the solutions that are being offered make me wonder what will happen to our nation.  In all the commentary, the reality of a sovereign God, who is in control of history and who has invited me to live my life under his lordship can easily be forgotten in the midst of all the voices wanting my attention. I must remember that  God has says, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.” (Isaiah 14:24)  I am so thankful that I belong to the kingdom of God.  I always end up praying, “May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  That gives me hope and certainty.  Jesus and his kingdom has come and it will endure into all eternity. We may ask as Sam did in his conversation with Mr. Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, “What sort of tale have we fallen into?”

There is a danger for men to get caught up in their small story, with the need to control and understand, that we forget we have entered into God’s story, which is so much bigger.   Listen to this quote from a book entitled, “Deep Mentoring”. “We understand the plot line of God entering our story, but we fail to realize we have entered God’s story.  Our stories are too small.  And consequently our God is to small.” I don’t know about you, but that is a very convicting statement for me as a follower of Jesus when I get my spiritual eyes off the lord and unto my need to understand and control. Eugene Peterson reminds us that, “story is our most accessible form of speech.”  Story is the primary way in which the revelation of God is given to us.  From beginning to end, Scripture is written in the form of story.

God invites us to become a part of his everlasting story  by inviting our participation in what he is doing in the earth.  Jeremiah tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).  The danger for men is our tendency to turn God’s story into information, to be used, rather then allow God’s story to transform our lives.  We can use “spiritual” information, to take matters  into our own hands, taking charge  of how we will live our lives.

Men, there is the real danger that we can so easily make up our own story of “salvation” that we miss what God is saying to us.  We must never forget that the God’s story in scripture is meant to draw us into a relationship with God.   Jesus tells us, “The Spirit can make life.  Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen.  Every word I’ve spoken to you is a ‘Spirit-word’, and so it is life-making.” (John 6:63 – The Message).  Allow God’s story to impact and expand your story.  Become aware of the ways in which you try to fit God into the “small box” of your story.