Two Years & Time Travel

Today it has been two years since the death of my youngest son Noah. I must say that it really doesn't seem like that much time has past, but it has. One of the strangest things about losing someone who is close to you, is how slow time seems to pass for you, yet it seems as if those around you are moving through time at a much higher rate of speed. It's kind of like that old movie The Time Machine, the original, not the remake. When the time traveler operates his machine, he sees everyone moving around at a high rate of speed even though he himself never moves. The television show The Big Bang Theory had a humorous tribute to that movie in their first season, here is the clip:

While that is funny, in real life this slow passage of time is not. Speaking for myself, there is a part of me that just wishes I was twenty years down the road from this horrible event. At least that way I might have less to deal with, yet I know that is an impossibility, and not the way that God does things. And how many times have I wished that He would do things the way that I would like, only later to find out that if that had happened, it would have had horrible consequences? I guess He really does know best.

You know if I actually had a time machine where I could go back and change the course of those day's events two years ago I would do it in a heartbeat. I miss my son, I hate that what happened to my family happened. But that is science fiction and not reality. Reality is that my son made a stupid mistake and ended his life, and there is nothing that I can do to change that. But I can make a decision as to what I will do now, and that is to live my life. So many times when tragedy happens in people's lives they give up. They stop living, and like the time traveler just sit motionless while the world around them continues to move on. I refuse to do that.

Life is definitely different now that Noah is no longer here, but I cannot sit around waiting for life to begin again. That's like telling a wood burning stove to heat you up and then you will put some wood and fire into it. You would think that a person who talked or acted like that was insane, and you'd probably be right, yet this is what people do every day. They talk about what is going to happen later on, yet never move past where they are right now. And I for one, don't want to be one of those guys.

My life and that of my family's is different now, but God isn't. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And that is something that I can latch onto, and walk with having faith that Jesus wants the best for me and my family and was willing to go the distance even to His death on the cross to see to it that I have as He said in John 10:10; "Life and life to the full." I choose life, and I choose to live!

What About You Dad, Are You Causing Your Family To Sin?

I was reading in my Bible this morning in the book of 1 Kings and saw something in verse 26 that while I have read numerous times, the Holy Spirit brought out a level of meaning that I had not seen before. It says: "He (The current King of Israel.) did evil in the eyes of the Lord, following the ways of his father and committing the same sin his father had caused Israel to commit."

The thought came to me that a king can cause his subjects to sin, and a father can also lead his family to sin. Now let me tell you, that made me sit up and take notice. I've been on this journey of discovering what a true authentic man of God is for quite some time now, and today I think I've put another piece of the puzzle into place. I don't have a complete picture yet, but it is coming more and more into focus all the time.

As fathers, we lead our families in the way that God wants us to go, if we are doing it correctly. This can be a little bit overwhelming if we will let it however. And the reason that it can become overwhelming is if in fact we are trying to do this on our own. The more we lean on our own understanding of things, the more we will become stressed when things get tough. You see, we were never made to figure everything out on our own. If that were the case, then why did God say that if we lacked wisdom we should ask Him for some? (James 1:5)

What I think is one of the biggest problems that men have, is this tendency to isolate themselves and think that they should be able to handle any situation that comes along. Then when they fail (And eventually, they will.) that failure sends them into a downward spiral that causes them to go even more into isolation and the failures come even faster.

We were never meant to do this alone, and when we do, the leading of our families goes awry and they begin to do things on their own. We, as men, are the source for all the needs our families have. Our source as men, is God. So when our family has a need they bring it to us, and we in turn bring it to the Father, and He supplies our need so that we can supply theirs. If we are alone in this, then we have no source, and when our family brings their need to us, our supply gets depleted and we fall into sin.

By our example, our family then falls into sin as well, and before you know it, you have led your family into sin, just as some of the kings in the Bible led Israel astray and after other gods. It's insidious, and something that the enemy has been using for a very long time. Remember, there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

What we as men have to do, is to lean more and more on the Holy Spirit as our helper, asking God to reveal to us what our next step is. We need to let our families see us pray, and ask for help. We need to let them see where our help comes from, and in doing so they will begin to have faith to seek His help as well. Fathers are responsible to teach their children about God, this does not mean you have to have a set devotion time every day. (Something that is terribly difficult in our fast paced world nowadays.)

Just make the most of all the time you have with your children. Teach them Scripture as you drive to sporting events, have them read a passage from the Bible as you're driving them to school, or to a friend's house. Pray together (And keep it short.), ask them what they are needing from the Lord and agree with them about it. Most of all however, as fathers let your kids see that you love your bride, kiss her, hug her and make a game out of grossing your kids out with your affection.

Men, we don't have to lead our families into sin, if we will keep ourselves centered on what we are supposed to do, be humble to ask God for help and be transparent with our brides and kids, they will be transformed into what they are supposed to be for God. So men, get 'em up and let's go lead our families into the Kingdom!

Shut Your Mouth!

There is an interesting story about John the Baptist's dad Zechariah found in the book of Luke 1. As he was burning incense in the temple, an angel of God appeared to him, telling him that his wife Elizabeth was going to bear a son, and then gave him instructions about the things that John was to do and not do.

The angel was Gabriel, and he tells Zechariah that his prayer has been answered and that he will have a son. Wow, that's cool, how would you like to get the answer for your prayer delivered by Gabriel? Anyway, Zechariah listens to what Gabriel is telling him, then answers him by saying, "How can I be sure of this? I am an old man, and my wife is along in age." It is at this point that Gabriel says, "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time."

Zechariah did what a lot of us do, he chose not to believe the Word of God and what it was saying to him. He did not believe Gabriel's words, and consequently was mute until the time of John's birth. We have a choice just like Zechariah did, each and every time God shows us something in the Bible. We can either choose to believe it or not believe it. The only difference is that we don't have an angel shutting our mouths to keep us from speaking words of doubt and unbelief.

The Kingdom of God works on this principle; you believe it, and speak it and it will come to pass. In Romans 10:9 - 10 we see that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved. Because it is by believing in our hearts that we are made right with God, and it is by confessing with our mouths that we are saved. This is how everything works in the Kingdom of God, we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths and we will have what we say.

The interesting thing is that people want to put everything off on God, and the reason they don't have what they desire is because it is just not His will for their life. The thing that really bothers me about this line of reasoning, is that they don't understand what His will is for their life, and if they don't get something, or see an answer to a prayer they attribute that to the fact that God must not want them to have it. Never mind what the words are that are coming out of their mouths, that part just doesn't figure into the equation for them.

For instance, let's say that I pray for the Lord to help me out of a financial bind that I've gotten myself into. I see in Scripture that it says that God will supply all of my needs according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19) Then after I pray and ask Him to help me, I begin to talk about how hard things are, that the economy is bad, my needs aren't being met and I don't know how we're going to make it. What I have done in effect is basically undo all of my praying and believing. Truthfully if I do that, (And I have to be quite honest with you.) I am not believing what the Scriptures say. And so I am getting what I say, not what I pray.

It is really simple to know God's will for our lives, it's in the Scriptures. We just have to choose to believe it and then act on it with our faith. Remember faith is believing what the Bible says is true contrary to what our five physical senses tell us. We're called believers, because that is what we do, believe. But we can't discount our part in all of this, saying the right things, and not just speaking words of doubt and unbelief.

If we can learn this one thing, I believe we will see huge growth in our spiritual lives...I for one need to learn this better, and that's what I'm going to work on this week, watching what I say! Get 'em up folks, let's go out and whip something for the Kingdom this week!