Cell Phones & Selfishness

I just spent a weekend with some incredible men, learning how to be a better husband, father and man.  One of the  greatest things about this weekend was that I had no cell service and I actually turned off my phone.  That was so freeing for me. Now it's not that I get a lot of text messages or phone calls anyway, but to be free of it was amazing, and I loved it!

I've noticed something that actually kind of bothers me about cell phones, and that is how much people's noses are stuck in the stupid things all the time.  We've all experienced it, you get together with family or friends and 90% of the people in the room are more focused on the life in that little screen than the life going on around them.  You try to have a conversation with someone, you make a comment or ask them a question only to realize that they didn't hear what you said, because their attention is on that little screen.

To be really honest about that, it makes me feel horrible when that happens.  When this happens to me, something inside feels diminished.  Like I'm not important enough to be heard.  I'm sure you've had that happen to you, how'd it make you feel?  The funny thing about this is how we fool ourselves into thinking that we are being more social.

Distraction is the one tool of the enemy that really works well.  He doesn't have to cause us to blatantly sin to mess us up.  I'm reminded of something from C.S. Lewis's book; The Screwtape Letters.

The following excerpt from The Screwtape Letters is, I think, one of C.S. Lewis’ most sublime arguments. The senior demon, Screwtape, is trying to help his new tempting nephew, Wormwood, keep the new Christian sliding away from his faith. Within this part of Letter XII are several brilliant quotations and key points of subtle spiritual struggles.

As this condition becomes more fully established, you will be gradually freed from the tiresome business of providing Pleasures as temptations. As the uneasiness and his reluctance to face it cut him off more and more from all real happiness, and as habit renders the pleasures of vanity and excitement and flippancy at once less pleasant and harder to forgo (for that is what habit fortunately does to a pleasure) you will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention. You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep; a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do. You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes, but in conversations with those he cares nothing about on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing at all for long periods. You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room. All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return, so that at last he may say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked”. The Christians describe the Enemy as one “without whom Nothing is strong”. And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off.

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,

Your affectionate uncle

SCREWTAPE

I have to think that if C.S. Lewis were alive and writing this today, he would have added cell phones to the list of things to distract us from the goal.  There will be those who say, but you don't understand I have to stay in contact with so and so, or with this or that.  But I would ask, why?  Why is it so much more important to be on that phone with people who are not in the same room with you?  Before cell phones and internet access 24/7 there was a time and a place for staying in contact with people. We made time to do what needed to be done, and it worked.  Why won't it work now? It will, we just have to make time for what we need to do.  We have to prioritize our time, and make the time for everything that is important to us.

I feel that if relationships are what Jesus is after, and there is something which diminishes those then perhaps it is being used by our enemy to keep us from where we need to be going.  Just a thought.  Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

Man You're Leading No Matter If You're Right Or Wrong

I was reading the story about Achan found in Joshua 7.  It's the story about what took place after the first battle the Israelites faced in the promised land.  God had commanded that they utterly destroy Jericho and all in it except for Rahab the prostitute and the family she had with her.  He also said to not take any of the plunder as it was holy to the Lord.  All the sliver, gold and bronze was to be placed into the treasury of the Lord.

Achan took some silver, a Babylonian robe and a wedge of gold, hiding them in his tent.  When it was discovered, he told Joshua that he had coveted it, so he took it.  On the instruction of the Lord, Joshua and the elders of Israel took Achan, his family and all he had and placed them outside the camp.  Then all of Israel stoned him and his family, then burned everything they had.  Removing the sin from the camp of Israel.

Nothing is said about his wife and children knowing what he had done, but yet they paid the price for his sin. In this age of grace that we live in, so many times we want to overlook this story and think that it doesn't apply to us today, but these stories are given to us for examples, so we need to learn from them, regardless of living in grace or not.

What I see here men, is that what we do, and the decisions that we make daily (right or wrong) affect our families.  They will either bring good to them, or bad, and it's because of us as the leaders of our homes.  This is not to say that our wives and children get a pass on life, and that everything that happens is because of us, no.  They still have a will, and they still have choices to make too, but when it comes to the family, the buck stops with us as President Harry Truman said.

What we do in leading our family may be one of the most important things that we as men can ever do.  Part of the reason for the decline in America's history is due in part I believe to the lack of fathers, and the leaders of the home standing up and doing what they must.  Too many men have either given up, or just never began to lead.  They're too busy working and trying to get a little extra pleasure for themselves.  And families are falling by the wayside because of it.

And not all of the pleasures are sinful; some guys make lots of time to play golf, and a little time to play with their kids.  A man told me one time that he didn't know what to do with his kids, he just was at a loss of what to do.  I told him to just do whatever it was that they liked to do with them.  I remember when my oldest child Micah was a little boy, probably around three, when I would come home from work to eat lunch I would spend about ten minutes in his room on the floor with him playing with action figures.  We didn't talk as much as we just were together playing, and when I would leave to go back to work, he would look up at me with the biggest smile on his face.  That ten minutes I could have been doing what I wanted to do; reading, watching television or napping, but instead I would take that little bit of time with Micah and the dividends it paid were huge.

Now I'm not saying that we should never make time for ourselves, we should.  Actually if you're not making time for yourself, you're going to end up losing it and going off on your family.  What I'm getting at this morning is that you are the leader, right or wrong, and whatever you do is going to affect your family, right or wrong.  And ultimately the decisions that we make as the heads of our families will determine the direction that they go.  I'm pretty sure that when Achan took that stuff he wasn't thinking about his family and what might happen to them, even though they ended up paying the price for his decision too.

You are male by birth, but you become a man by the decisions you make each and every day.  Lean on the Holy Spirit to help you make the right choices.  And if you don't know the Holy Spirit, I'd love to tell you more about Him and what His role on the earth is for you and your life.  Email me at godsfirstknight@yahoo.com and I'll talk to you about Him and get you some information too.  You can do this men, fight for your family, it's who you were created to be!  Strength and honor!

Respect and Honor

I'm not an old man (yet), I plan on living to a ripe old age as the Bible calls it (Genesis 25:8 & Job 5:26), but I have lived a few years on this planet (49) and in that time have learned a thing or two.  I may not be as wise as Solomon, but I do have some wisdom that I have learned; some the hard way and others easier.  One thing I have always told myself is that when I see something that is out of whack, I will speak up and address it, and today I feel the need to do just that.

There is something that has crept into my church in the past couple of years, something that while not really a bad thing such as flagrant sin or hypocrisy, it is something which left unspoken will cause us as a family a problem if it is not nipped in the bud.  And it is a simple thing from a more simple time, and it is called respect and honor.

I remember as a boy that whenever my parent's friends came to visit, my brothers and I would refer to them as mister and misses so and so, never by their first names.  Oh there were a few of  them who would say, call me by my first name, mister so and so is my father, but we were never allowed to call them by their first names until much, much later in life (I was up in my twenties before I ever referred to my dad's friends by their first name and even then it seemed weird to me).

There is a respect and honor due to people older than ourselves, but not just that, there should be respect and honor given to those who are leading us at Word of Life as well.  I have noticed the lack of the use of the term "Pastor" lately, and it is something that bothers me.  Now please understand me, I don't refer to Pastor Chad Stewart as Pastor because he has me asked to, in fact if he had said to me, "David I need you to call me Pastor when you address me." there is something that would rise up inside me and say, "Don't tell me!"  (And yes, this is an area of weakness in me that I am working on).

I don't like it when men of God tell others what they are to call them.  I feel that it is something that must come from a person's heart.  You see, when I call anyone Pastor, it is something that I do out of respect to the office that they hold, not because they have told me to do so.  For me it is an honor that I give freely to the person in that position.  It's like love, no one can make you love them.  You love a person because you have made a choice to do so, and it is the same way when honoring a man or woman of God.  When you refer to any of those on staff as Pastor, you are honoring the office which they hold.

The Bible says that the only place where Jesus could do very little work was in His own home town.  And like that, at Word of Life, if we are not careful we can become so familiar with the staff that we inadvertently begin  not honoring and respecting the office of the Pastor which God has given to us.  That office and those in it will just become Chad, Jesse, etc. And in doing so we will miss out on a lot of what God has for us as a church.

I know that when Pastor David (our founding Pastor) was with us, had he said something controversial from the pulpit, he would not have been booed, yet Pastor Jesse was just a week ago.  Some people would say that it is because he is younger, that they cannot receive from his ministry, but I would ask why is that?  Why is God unable to get through to you from this tattooed youth minister?  If your television cannot receive the signal from the local television station, it's not the television station's fault, it's your tv's.  Just like that, if you are unable to receive from a man of God because of his age, then perhaps there is something wrong with your receiver?  Just a thought.

I have no problem following a younger man, if God has placed that man into the position to lead the church, and I know that God has placed the men and women on our church staff there to lead us.  We need to honor and respect them and the offices that they hold regardless of their ages or the way they look or act, because it is the right thing to do, not because they have told us to do so.  And I don't always call Chad Pastor.  If we are out at the movies together or doing something in a social setting he is my friend and I call him by his name.  However when I am talking to him while he is in the office of Pastor I call him Pastor, and I place our friendship to the side.  It's all about knowing when the relationship is a friendship and when it is the Pastor/Congregant dynamic.

So please hear my heart in this today, let's respect the office of the Pastor and give the honor due to those on staff by referring to them as Pastor, not because I've told you to, but because from your heart you want to.  And as we do that, I believe we will see more and more in the realm of the supernatural take place.  So there's that, strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King.

Should We Offer Grace Or Castration?

As I was watching the news last night, once again I was horrified to learn that another married couple had been involved in the molestation of a 12 year old girl.  When the husband was interviewed by police back in June, according to an affidavit, James Woodcock admitted that his "urges" are getting stronger and he sees a "pattern" to his behavior. He told police he wanted help, because he didn't want to hurt anyone.

Funny thing is he told the police this back in June, but he failed to show up for court on December 4th.  I don't know about you, but this guy's actions don't quite meet up with his words.  In other words, he might have said he wants help, but in all reality does he?  I would think that if he really wanted to get help, then he would have shown up to court to get some.

And let us not forget his wife, Jennifer Woodcock, 55, was charged with permitting child sexual abuse and failing to report child sexual abuse, after police said she walked in on an incident, but allowed him to continue to be around the child and never reported it to police.  So, she is just as guilty of the crime as he is in my opinion.

Which brings me to the point of my blog, should we offer grace or castration?  The Bible is very clear on the fact that we are all sinners (Romans 3:23).  We have all done wrong, no matter how good we think we are.  And the one thing that I understand about God, is that there is no degree of sin with Him either.  For instance if picking your nose was considered a sin to God, then in the eyes of God it would be no different than murdering someone.  If it is something that separates you from God, it is sin.  It's us as people that tend to assign a degree of evilness to each sin, not God.

Yet I can't help but think (my opinion only here) that there is a special level of hell reserved for those who abuse children.  Remember what Jesus told the disciples about causing a little one who trusted in Him to fall into sin?  He said it would be better for that person to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around his neck.  (Mark 9:42)  Yes, and for those of you who are Bible scholars I have taken that out of context to fit my blog.

Years ago there was a young man who had been involved in satanism and through that had murdered his mother and stepfather in cold blood.  He was arrested  tried, convicted and placed on death row.  While in prison, he was born again, and truly made every effort to bring as many people to Jesus as possible telling his story from his cell.  He truly had a prison experience with the Lord, and a lot of people thought that he would be released because of that.

He was never released, and subsequently was killed by lethal injection, the form of capital punishment the state of Oklahoma meets out for inmates convicted of heinous crimes.  In an interview with this young man's grandfather he was asked what he thought about his grandson paying for his crime with his life, to which he replied, "Sean has given his heart to the Lord Jesus, but his body belongs to the state of Oklahoma."  You see in this instance both grace and justice were served.

So in order to answer the question of my blog this morning, I think we can offer both grace and punishment.  To this couple I would say, please accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, give Him your heart and accept the grace His sacrifice offers, but understand that you have committed a crime that must be punished by the state of Oklahoma, so you will have to be jailed for this, and if castration is an option on the table to prevent him from doing this type of thing again, then perhaps that is what he needs in order to stifle those "urges" which he said are getting stronger in his life.

Well there's that...strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

So Who Controls The Criminals?

Gun control.  It's a hot topic in the news again, as it is every time a horrible tragedy occurs in our nation.  What is gun control exactly, and why are our politicians so keen on putting it into place I wonder?  Could it be realistically that in order to control a population you must first take away their ability to defend themselves?  Is it possible that what lies behind this is truly just one more freedom being eroded away from the population by the river of good intentions? 

I will go on record here saying that people who steal from others are on the bottom rung of the ladder of society, and should be treated with contempt.  Now I will add, that if they choose to change their lifestyle and find gainful employment, becoming good citizens I will welcome them with open arms.  Until then if they choose to take from others instead of earning an honest living however, I will consider them scum, bottom line.

I don't know about you, but I work hard for my money.  I work at least five days a week for my employer; arriving at work before seven in the morning and leaving shortly after six in the evening.  I spend almost half of my day working to earn money.  Now if someone comes and takes what I have worked so hard for, I will have no compassion for them if they get what they deserve.  Take this short little story I read this morning:

Last Thursday night around midnight, a woman from Houston, Texas was arrested, jailed and charged with manslaughter for shooting a man 6 times in the back as he was running away with her purse.

The following Monday morning, the woman was called in front of the Arraignment Judge, sworn-in, and asked to explain her actions.

The woman replied, "I was standing at the corner bus stop for about 15 minutes, waiting for the bus to take me home after work.  I am a waitress at a local cafe.  I was there alone, so I had my right hand on my pistol in my purse hanging on my left shoulder.  All of sudden I was spun around hard to my left.  As I caught my balance, I saw a man running away with my purse.  I looked down at my right hand and saw that my fingers were wrapped tightly around my pistol.  The next thing I remember is saying out loud, "No Way Punk!  You're not stealing my pay check and tips!"  I raised my right hand, pointed my pistol at the man running away from me with my purse, and started squeezing the trigger of my pistol.

When asked by the arraignment judge, "Why did you shoot the man 6 times?"  The woman replied under oath, "Because, when I pulled the trigger the 7th time, it only went click."

The woman was acquitted of all charges.  She was back at work the next day.

I don't know if this is a true story or not, but it does help illustrate what I'm trying to get at this morning, and that is we should have the right to protect ourselves and what we work for from the element in society that chooses to take instead of giving something back.  I realize that there are several people who will disagree with my position and who would probably say that the man in that story needed that money to go feed his children or buy medicine for a sick wife.  Making the victim of a crime the bad guy, wanting desperately to be compassionate to the criminal, saying it's not their fault, they act that way because of how they were raised.

Bull hockey!  People are the captains of their own destiny.  No matter how you were raised, or what happened to you in your past, we all have the same ability to make a decision, for good or for bad.  And when you decide that you are going to take from someone, then you will have to face the consequences of your actions.  You can't blame your choice on someone else, that is part of the problem in society.

I had a discussion with a young man who had decided that he was a pacifistic several years ago and vehemently defended his choice to not own a gun, or to be violent in any way.  I asked him what he would do, if a violent man took his girlfriend and began to rape her in his presence?  His answer was that he would reason with the rapist, and explain to him why his actions were wrong.  I was shocked to say the least.  I asked, "You mean to tell me that you would stand there and try to reason with someone who was defiling your girlfriend, instead of pulling him off of her and knocking some sense into his head?"  To which he said yes.

Now while I guess I should applaud him for sticking to his guns (no pun intended) and remaining a pacifist in light of that horrendous crime.  I can't help but believe that if that were to actually happen, he would become just as big a neanderthal as he probably feels I am for thinking that the brute should be beaten within an inch of his life.

And if we are to see gun control in our lifetime here in America, do you think the criminal element of society will adhere to it?  Will they willingly give up the guns that they carry, most of which have been stolen or purchased illegally?  What gun control will truly do in my opinion is to make it easier for criminals to take what isn't theirs because becoming unarmed and unable to defend what is ours will make us easier targets for crime.  So I say, lock and load, and criminals beware!

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King!

The Christmas Story

I saw this little video yesterday at church. I don't know who the author of it is, but it is such a neat presentation of the story of Christmas I wanted to share it with you.  Enjoy and Merry Christmas.

Strength and honor for the Kingdom and the King.

Confessions Of Dad

Harry Chapin wrote a song back in the 70's called "Cat's In The Cradle".  It always got me choked up, but now looking back on my years as a father it pulls on my heart's strings even more.  Take a look at the lyrics to this song:

My child arrived just the other day

He came to the world in the usual way

But there were planes to catch and bills to pay

He learned to walk while I was away

And he was talkin' 'fore I knew it, and as he grew

He'd say "I'm gonna be like you dad

You know I'm gonna be like you"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon

Little boy blue and the man on the moon

When you comin' home dad?

I don't know when, but we'll get together then son

You know we'll have a good time then

My son turned ten just the other day

He said, "Thanks for the ball, Dad, come on let's play

Can you teach me to throw", I said "Not today

I got a lot to do", he said, "That's ok"

And he walked away but his smile never dimmed

And said, "I'm gonna be like him, yeah

You know I'm gonna be like him"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon

Little boy blue and the man on the moon

When you comin' home son?

I don't know when, but we'll get together then son

You know we'll have a good time then

Well, he came home from college just the other day

So much like a man I just had to say

"Son, I'm proud of you, can you sit for a while?"

He shook his head and said with a smile

"What I'd really like, Dad, is to borrow the car keys

See you later, can I have them please?"

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon

Little boy blue and the man on the moon

When you comin' home son?

I don't know when, but we'll get together then son

You know we'll have a good time then

I've long since retired, my son's moved away

I called him up just the other day

I said, "I'd like to see you if you don't mind"

He said, "I'd love to, Dad, if I can find the time

You see my new job's a hassle and kids have the flu

But it's sure nice talking to you, Dad

It's been sure nice talking to you"

And as I hung up the phone it occurred to me

He'd grown up just like me

My boy was just like me

And the cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon

Little boy blue and the man on the moon

When you comin' home son?

I don't know when, but we'll get together then son

You know we'll have a good time then.

I'm not disappointed with my years as a father, I feel as if I have done a fairly good job instructing my kids and being there for them, supporting and providing for their needs.  And yet at times I still wonder if I'm doing alright by them.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not coming from a place of sadness or regret, just asking myself those hard questions that help a person to grow.

I told a man just last night that the best advice I could give him on being a good father is to repent often when  you make a mistake, and own up to your mistakes with your kids.  I've often been amazed at how many men think their children are just stupid by trying to cover up their mistakes instead of just asking their children to forgive them when they happen, (and they do happen more often than I would like to admit).  I may not have always done everything right with my kids, but this one thing I did, and I feel it has made my kids better because of it.

As Christmas season comes at us full bore, it can be easy to take things out on your kids, try to not let that happen, but when it does (and it will) be quick to repent and to forgive, and show your kids the way a real man handles the stress.  You can do this, there is greatness in you just waiting to come forth.  For the Kingdom and the King!