Hey Man! Where is your Heart?

Men and Brothers,
Greetings to all in Christ Jesus. I pray that peace is with you. Not
the peace of this world but the peace of our Father in Heaven, which
passes all our understanding--Amen! This week is pretty much the same
as most: work, church, family time (devotions), etc.

Well, time to get on with it! I was pondering again, for the hundredth time,
the affections of my heart. Where do they lie? What has a hold on it?
Is it God and His Word? Is it my wife And children? What? Where? Who?
And you? Are your affections set on things above?
(Col. 3:1-2)
"If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are
above,where Christ sitteth on the right hand of the God. Set your
affections on things above, not on the things on the earth."

Paul here is giving an admonition to make sure our heart is pure
towards that which we confess--Christ Jesus! That we are not just
making a profession but a confession of loving and living for God.
That our lives would radiate God's love and His presence. The key to
this type of love is obedience--of the heart.
(Matthew 22:37-38)
"Jesus saith onto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."

The men of God now stand up and say, "Amen! Amen! We know that truth!"
Now I ask, when was the last time you missed a meal to spend time in
prayer and God's Word--to fervently pray over your wife, children, or
your church? Or when did you last choose time with your Savior over
your favorite TV show--or "the game?" Should we keep going?
Why is it that we won't spend 30 minutes with our "Lord" Jesus but
we will spend two stinking hours at the movie theater. Filling our
head with the immorality and corruption of Hollywood and vain
philosophies of this world.

We confess Him as "Lord," right? Or is it that we profess Him "Lord." There is a difference and the testimony of our lives will tell the tale of what is really "Lord" of our hearts and lives. We can fool our friends, our church, and maybe even our families, but we are not fooling God!

So men, have I pushed a button or stepped on your toes? I want to assure that it is not me and has nothing to do with me. This is between you and God--or between me and God for my heart. I want you to know that calling Jesus "Lord" is a very serious consideration. We have no right to call Him lord if He is not really lord. He has loved us and given Himself for us and He deserves our "unadulterated" love. We are His "bride" who He loves with everything He is. Now lets apply this to our lives! Think if our bride's heart was not ours. That she did not love us with all her heart, soul, and mind. What would that do to us as men? How could we continue to give ourselves to her and embrace her? That would be a terrible situation and would hinder our relationship dramatically.
Well, this is what we do to God when our hearts and mind our dedicated and intrigued by things of this world and not to Him. It is spiritual adultery!

I repeat the opening question, Where is your heart? Men and brothers, our Lord is worthy of our complete surrender and dedication.
(Romans 12:1-2)
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable , and perfect, will of God."

Let us meditate on this point for this new year. Let us seek God and His Word for insight into the "true" condition of our hearts. It is worth the time and He is worth the sacrifice. Please know and/or remember we have a bride that is counting on us to be "...as a loving savior..." and a godly, righteous husband. And/or we have children that our dependant upon us to be that earthly example of a loving and just father. They need us to be "sold-out" to the Lord. "WE" need to be sold-out to the Lord. We (men) need access to God's grace, wisdom, and understand so that we can be the servant-leaders He has called us to be.

I hope I have given you some "meat" to chew on for this week, month, and year. It has certainly been a great challenge--or should I say conviction--to me. But conviction is good. It brings us back to a right place with God. I pray that we all would consecrate ourselves for God's perfect will and purpose for this year. Lord bless you and keep you all. To God be the Glory!

P.S. If you receive this in an email, please go to the blog site and post your comments so others can read them and be encouraged and/or challenged by your words. Thank you. That site is: http://familymansam.blogspot.com

1Corinthians 16:13

Papa Sam

Just getting started - again!

Men and brothers,
Greetings in Christ Jesus! I hope and pray that our Father in heaven has blessed you today with His grace and mercy. I was posting this blog to try to give an update on things--as far as posting blogs anyways. It has been a year since I last posted anything on this blog. I am afraid I didn't have the motivation or the "true vision" of what it is I was trying to accomplish by blogging. This year has been a year of desperation spiritually. The blessing behind this is that God has shown me things about my self I really needed to see/know. I started this blog to encourage friends and family "to think" spiritually. To be used by God to invoke more "Christians" to think with a "christian mind." Hoping that it would draw them, and me, closer to our heavenly Father and that we would allow Him to transform our minds to be--and think--more like our Lord Christ Jesus.

Well, after God had dealt with me on various areas in my life and that of my family, I believe I should be a tool for Him to use to encourage and challenge men to be the God ordain leaders they are called to be for His glory. God has dealt with me in this area for some years now and I hope to share that insight and experience with as many men as possible--or those willing to take time and read these blogs. I pray that God will use me here to inspire, edify, teach, correct, convict, and transform men to be biblical men--modern day patriarchs with a multi-generational vision for God's Kingdom work. This, as many of you know, is the biggest problem of our day. Christendom needs her men to stand up and be just that: MEN!

Finally, I want to ask for your prayers for me and all whom God reaches out to through this blog. My prayer is that God would be glorified in all that I share--always. Lord bless you and keep you all and may the peace of Christ Jesus be with you. Blog at you soon.

To God Be the Glory,
Papa Sam

Test

This blog post is a test. It is only a test. In case of a real blog post you will be given instructions.


- Posted using BlogPress from Sam's iPhone