Geneva Men for Christ

“For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12 (NAS)

Think About It

We started our most recent book with a chapter on “Bible Intake”.  How are you doing with quality time in the Word?  Without consistent time in the Word we cannot understand the will of God for our lives.  It also creates dullness as we try to navigate without a compass.  We get frustrated with life and yet we have within our reach a source of comfort, direction, conviction, thanksgiving, praise and practical knowledge.  When are we going to stop running solo?  Think about it.

CONSIDER

“Even as great an angel as Michael the archangel did not dare take on Satan alone but called on the Lord to rebuke him.  No Christian, then, should ever feel that he is wise enough or powerful enough to engage Satan apart from complete dependence on the Lord.”  Charles Ryrie

FINDING STRENGTH IN THESE HARD TIMES

A lot of men are facing hard times today — the economy, marriage struggles, children kidnapped by a self-absorbed culture.  What is the battle you must fight today?  Where will you find your strength?  Will you depend on superior force or strategy?  Will you depend on God?  Or will you be divided and pray to God while you rely on your own best thinking?

A civil war broke out between Abijah of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel.  Abijah mustered 400,000 troops, but Jeroboam fielded 800,000 warriors.  Jeroboam secretly sent part of his army behind Judah to ambush them.  A fierce battle was fought that day.  In the end, Abijah’s smaller force decimated Jeroboam’s larger army.  In fact, 500,000 men of Israel were killed that day.

The difference?  Jeroboam depended on superior troop strength and strategy.  He assumed he would overwhelm Abijah by force.  But Abijah and his troops put their trust in God: “So you see, God is with us” (2 Chronicles 13:12).  And the result?

• “God defeated Jeroboam….” (2 Chron 13:15)
• “…and God handed them over….” (2 Chron 13:16)
• “So Judah defeated Israel…because they trusted in the LORD….” (2 Chron 13:18)

The Big Idea:

To have the Lord on your side is better than having the right strategy. Prepare wisely for the battles you must fight today.  Don’t put your trust in your own capabilities — whether strength or strategy.  Instead, realize that having the Lord on your side is better than having the right strategy.  God will fight for you, if you let Him. Pat Morley

VERSE TO PONDER

“Let us stop passing judgment on one another.  Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way. As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself.  But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.  If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.”  Romans 14:13-15 (NIV)

CONSIDER

“True it is that every man willingly followeth his own bent, and is the more inclined to those who agree with him.  But if Christ is amongst us, then it is necessary that we sometimes yield up our own opinion for the sake of peace.  Who is so wise as to have a perfect knowledge of all things?  Therefore trust not too much to thine own opinion, but be ready also to hear the opinion of others. Though thine own opinion be good, yet if for the love of God thou foregoest it, and followest that of another, thou shalt the more profit thereby.”  Thomas a Kempis (1380-1471), Of the Imitation of Christ, I.9 [1418]

RETIRED ARMY GENERAL ATTEMPTS TO SET RECORD STRAIGHT IN NEW AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Lt. General William Boykin retired from the Army in 2007 after a 36-year military career, which included being a founding member of the Army’s elite Delta Force, and later commander of the U.S. Army Special Forces.  But while Boykin dodged more than a few bullets during his Special Forces escapades, he says his unashamed faith and relationship with Jesus Christ made him a target of the media in 2003 and 2004.  He made national headlines for speaking at evangelical churches while in uniform.  “I was demonized by so much of the media for things that actually I had not said nor done,” he says.  “…I was characterized as a religious fanatic who hated Muslims and who was trying to essentially initiate the next phase of the Great Crusades,” Boykin describes.

The retired general says he had another reason for wearing his uniform while sharing his faith at the pulpit.  “If we’re going to go out in these communities and ask moms and dads to encourage their young men and women to join the military, to go off to war, certainly I can go out in uniform and show them that the senior leadership in the military is very proud of the young men and women who wear that uniform,” he explains.  His autobiography is titled Never Surrender: A Soldier’s Journey to the Crossroads of Faith and Freedom. (HT: Click here for more.)

ON PRAYER

“If you were to rise early every morning, as an instance of self-denial, as a method of renouncing indulgence, as a means of redeeming your time and of fitting your spirit for prayer, you would find mighty advantages from it.  This method, though it seem such a small circumstance of life, would in all probability be a means [toward] great piety.  It would keep it constantly in your head that softness and idleness were to be avoided and that self-denial was a part of Christianity… It would teach you to exercise power over yourself, and make you able by degrees to renounce other pleasures and tempers that war against the soul.”  William Law (1686-1761), A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, ch. XIV [1728]

LESSONS FROM JAMES MACDONALD

Pick It Up

If you want to benefit from the Bible, you’ve got to pick it up.  It’s not doing any good on your desk.  It’s not doing any good on your shelf.  It doesn’t matter if you have a nice one on the coffee table, or a great one in the glove compartment of your car.  The Bible is not some magical book that does something for you if you just keep it close to your heart.  The Bible does nothing for you unless you pick it up.

We surveyed a hundred people with this question: Name a reason people give for not reading the Bible.  Here’s the top four answers:

• Number four: “It’s not interesting.”  I know some people feel this way, but it’s because they don’t know how to study it for themselves.  The Bible is incredibly interesting if you know how to dig out what’s in there.

• Number three: “I forget to read it.”  These people leave church fired up about the Bible, but by the time Monday comes around they are occupied with other things.  The Bible gets lost in the shuffle.

• Number two: “I don’t understand it.”  People say this because they pick the wrong place to start.  They think, “Well, I’ve heard of the book of Revelation, so maybe I’ll start there.”  Let me tell you, picking up the Bible and starting in Revelation asking a first-grader to begin with algebra or calculus!  Until you’ve done 2 + 2 = 4, you can’t do calculus.  And until you’ve read the Gospel of John and some other basic passages, you cannot do the book of Revelation.  Apart from that, the Bible is not as difficult as you might think.

• And now, the number one reason people give for not reading the Bible: “I’m too busy.”  We think we just don’t have the time.  But that is so lame; we have to make time.  What food is to the body, the Bible is to the spirit.  We’re often starving our spirits because we’re not feeding on God’s Word.

I was talking with one of my elders, and he told me about a business trip where he went to the back of the plane to spend some time feeding his soul from God’s Word.  He said, “As I walked off the plane, I couldn’t help but notice that littering the seats were all kinds of papers and magazines: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune,New York Times.  They had been read and thrown down, and that was the end of it.  But under my arm—and in my heart—was the eternal Word of God.”  As Isaiah said, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever (Isaiah 40:8).

Let me ask you: How many times this past week did you touch a newspaper?  How many times did you touch a magazine?  How many times did you touch the remote control?  (I can never find the stinking thing!)  How many times did you touch the keys of your computer?   Now, how many times did you pick up God’s Word?  How many times did you pick up the book that God wrote?  It’s sad that we make all kinds of time for the words of men, and yet we’re “too busy” to pick up and read the Word of God.  So, what are you waiting for?  Pick it up!

LAST OUT
Are you praying for the men at your table?  See you Sunday.
Upcoming dates.  August 24  September 7 & 21
Press on, for the upward call….