Ok, this is some crazy idea I got the other day and I just jumped on it. It is the beginning of a story, don't know how long it will be. Not sure how often I'll work on it. Hopefully this portion I am sharing will leave you in mystery. Hopefully you will thoroughly enjoy it. Hopefully you will want to hear more, if not just say so and I'll forget it. Here it is:

Desolate. Destroyed. The words pounded through my head. My eyes closed, and head heavy. I start shaking my head and rub my eyes to take out the sleep. I’m not on a bed. This is hard. Uncomfortable. I sit up and realize it’s a wooden bench. I look ahead and see a sea of blank stares and hollow bodies. To my right and left are endless rows of more benches, more people waking up from sleep. I look at my hands, feel my face, touch my legs. Everything is surreal. I am wearing a grey, three-button suit, a white shirt, and red necktie. My memory is gone. I remember nothing of yesterday, nothing of how I got here, nothing of where I am. Empty faces stare ahead. Expectant, and yet drained. I stand up and automatically understand their perceptions and feelings. As I stood my heart and chest remained. I feel them leaving my body and staying behind. My emotions are torn from my body, and there is no reason to stay behind. I walk forward creating another head in the mass, waiting for my journey to continue. Behind me I can hear yet another person awake and pull himself from the bench. Him, like me, will just become another blank stare.
I don’t know if hours passed, or days, or weeks. A flash of silver roared and howled in front of us and came to a grinding halt. We all march on board the train silently, in a neat single file. There is no rush, but there is no reason to delay. Inside the corridor is a rich golden light. A man in a black suit, shirt, and tie awaits me.
“May I show you to your compartment sir?”
I cannot speak, but nod my head for there is no reason to do otherwise. The man in the black uniform leads me down the golden corridor. All the people that have entered the train before have seemed to disappear. There is no other person in sight. He leads me into a compartment. It is extremely large. The size of a house itself, but I take no wonder that there is no possibility this could actually fit inside the train. The room is filled with the same golden light that filled the corridor, only much more brilliant and shining. The roof extends nearly 40 feet above my head. A long winding staircase led up to a balcony that surrounded the compartment, and led to other rooms. The man in black turned to look at me.
“You will be residing here until you reach an understanding. A restaurant and lounge can be found in the next car. You will find the food satisfactory. When I leave you shall be able to speak yet again and you can feel free to speak with anyone wish.”
He turns to leave and exits out the door. As he does I feel my mouth and my tongue loosen as though suddenly becoming unknotted, though I was unaware I was incapable of speech. My mind immediately draws me to the lounge and restaurant. I feel empty and in need of another human being. I walk towards the next car.

Men and Marriage

Today's is pretty simple guys. I listened to a message today revolving on this theme of men and their families.

There is nothing that can be added to what is said in the following link, neither can it be summerized in a few paragraphs. please take an hour and listen to this message.

ME ME ME!!!

Ok, so I just cannot take it anymore. The world boils down to two types of people, those who live selfishly and those who try to live selflessly. Notice I say TRY to live selflessly, because thanks to a little serpent with a huge ego we are now all inherently slaves to sin, unrighteous, ungrateful, unworthy, selfish pigs. It is by God, and through Jesus that we as christians do our best to live selflessly, or should do our best. As my pastor mentioned this evening some form of the word "give" is used 2162 times in the bible. If we are constantly feeding ourselves and holding ourselves inside and not out pouring, what good is that?

This was brought on a few moments ago while reading reviews for a book by C.S. Lewis. I noticed there were a few 1 star reviews of a particular book. Thinking "Who would possibly give C.S. Lewis a one star review?" I had to read. A particular reviewer put that he was leaning towards atheism because there is no hard proof for an afterlife, and stated that christians believe heaven is a place of infinate time and no pain, and no sorrow. This was correct, but he went on to decide that this couldn't be true because in a nutshell he couldn't fathom it.

There is a particular TV show that I like to watch, but it unfortunately spreads a message of selfishiness. Characters are constantly talking about how they have been wronged by others, and our being taught that the only thing they need to be happy is to live for themselves and not care about anyone else. THIS IS TERRIBLE!

Please don't think I see myself as a perfect selfless human being. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I'm incredibly selfminded. Just ask my wife how many times I lose track of my family because I'm thinking of myself. But, I do try to make it a point to cut my own wants and desires down to meet the needs of others.

I have this perfect picture in my head of what selfishness and selflessness do to people that I wish I could draw, but alas, my sisters got the drawing gift, not me, so I'll try to explain it. Picture, if you will, two people talking to eachother. They begin talking relationally on a personal level. Now if either one of these people start to just say "me, me, me, me, I, I, I..." Everything being said goes directly back to them. If both people talk this way there is absolutly no connection. On the other hand if the talking changed from "what I want" to "what do you want" that goes forward to the other person, and if both people talked that way, a bond can form because it's no longer inward, it is outward. I hope that makes sense.

Bottom line, God created us for unity, not division, and by being selfish, and inward all the time, nothing can flow out of you to bless or minister to others. Selfishness is a disease, let's find a cure.

driven

First thing is first. God created you. Jesus died for you. God requires no less than absolute praise and devotion. So yet again, another song. This is an absolutely fantastic song by a brilliant worship leader, Jared Anderson. Again, just get quiet focus on the lyrics and make them personal for you. The song is prime example of devotion and worship. Use it that way.

I listened to a message the other day by a terrific speaker, Pastor Mark Driscoll. He was doing a sermon on masculinity and men. He brought up one particular trait that all men have in common, no matter what. Men love to build and to cultivate. There is nothing more satisfying for a guy to get something together and then continuously work on it and tweak it so that it just gets better and better. For a lot of guys, it's cars. Faster is never fast enough, not to mention all the care given to make sure it runs as perfectly as it can. For some of my friends I had in high school it was all about computers. They needed more memory, more power, faster modems. For me personally, I play bass, and I am not content with where I am. I want to drive myself to play better, faster, more precise. It's just who we are. But are we leaving anyone in the dust?

Where are our families? God called us to be the leaders of our family. This title as I've mentioned before has been majorly abused. This does not involve emotional, physical, or psychological abuse. Any man who hits, mocks, or disrespects a woman or child is no man at all! Being the leader does not involve forcing your power and authority on your wife and/or kids. When Jesus came to earth as a man He did not force His presence in the court of Ceaser Augustas and demand his loyalty and respect. That probably would have gotten Him a spear or two. No, Jesus came as a servant. To make His point, Jesus bent at the feet of his disciples and washed their feet. This was a point God showed to me a couple years ago. The greatest way to teach, and to lead is by example, moreover by Jesus' example. If we can cut our pride down, and serve our wives, will we in turn gain their respect? If we make it a point to display love for our wives, will they not be so moved in their hearts, they will love us as well?

Back to building and cultivating. Men love their hobbies, that is a universal truth. I love playing bass, others love cars, computers, in the case of my brother in law, comedy. I asked a little bit ago, who gets left in the dust? Hopefully no one. If you are married and/or have kids it is your God-given blessing and duty to build up, and cultivate your family. Fathers, your kids desperately need love and support, as much as they can get. Husbands, your wives desperately need to be loved and cared for. In the movie Fireproof one of the firemen put it this way, "A woman is like a rose, if you care for her she'll, if not she'll wilt." Truer words were never spoken. You cannot expect to be respected without respecting others, and you cannot expect to be loved without loving others. If you care for your family, you will give them what they need, love, encouragment, (in the case of chrildren) discipline. Your family will never love you, or respect you, if you ignore them and play with your toys all day. And you can't expect them to love you or respect you, if you do not show them the same tokens.

If you have trouble or think you have trouble with wisdom and discernment in the boundries of discpline, I strongly encourage you to read from the book of Proverbs every single day. The easiest way to do this read the chapter corresponding with the date. For example, today is the 23rd, so read Proverbs chapter 23. They are all fairly short and simple to read, and you will be blessed by them.

Before you read anymore I'd like you to take just five minutes with a worship song in reverance and prayer to God so you can become better focused on Him today. I have a paticular song I'd like to share with you for this purpose right here. This song is pretty much the conerstone of christian faith pressed into five minutes. The belief in, not just Jesus Christ, but the belief and truth that He did overcome the grave. To me this song presents so much more than a simple "Jesus died to save our sins" MO. It presents Jesus as a conquerer and destroyer of death, so much more appealing to men, in my opinion. So just take 5 minutes, listen to the song and spend some time loving on Jesus.

I'd like to expand a little more this time, on what I had said last time. My last post talked about, basically, viewing God relationally. Looking at our everyday lives and trying to find God in them. I asked the reader to view God as their father, and friend, and themselves as His children. This time I'm taking the otherside of the coin (as my good friend John would put it). I am not taking God out of this by any means, but I am going to focus more on our personal relationships with our children, and wives.

Men in our age, christian or not, love and abuse the bible verse that tell wives to submit to their husbands. Unfortunately, They are all to happy to completely miss the verse that follows directly underneath it. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her," Ephesians 5:25. Last I checked that was a huge responsibilty. If this was being practiced daily, even just by christians, I truly, in my heart believe that divorce rates would drop drastically. How much did Christ love us? Besides dying on the cross? Besides forgivness? He created us. He crafted us to be exactly the way we are. He knows our strengths, and our weaknesses. And, as the Word says, while we were still sinners (techincally cheating on God, our lover, with satan a sadist) Christ came and died for us. Despite the fact that we were cheating on God, He still loved us enough to be beaten, broken, stabbed, and suffocated just so we wouldn't have to endure Hell. Can we do that for our wives? If your wife cheats on you, can you not only offer a hand of forgivness, but pursue and capture her heart as if you were the one who was unfaithful?

Ok fathers, or soon to be fathers. The closest parallel in life you will find to God comes no closer than the relationship you have or will have with your children. Unfortunatly at this day and age, fathers could careless. there are plenty of boys with a ridiculous amount toys, and rather than discplining and loving their kids as they should, they are far to busy playing the next medal of honor, or halo. I've known a few people who were hestitant to get divorces, because of the blow it would make to their toy fund, but all to happy to be rid of their children. In every case a son is involved. This is downright damaging for a young boy. I don't care where you stand on men and women. Men don't know what it means to be a woman, and women don't know what it takes to be a man. A boy needs a man there to show him what it means to be a man. Now these fathers that I know, their sons are better off without them. I'm sorry but it's true. A man is not called to play video games and snort drugs for the rest of his life. First off, christian fathers, it is your duty to discipline your sons in a Godly way. That doesn't include emotional and physical abuse. If your prone to that, better to let your wife discipline. Christian men in general, step it up! There are fatherless sons EVERWHERE. Whether they don't have one, or their father is just absent. We need to hunt these boys down and display a God fearing, female respecting example for them.

Genesis!

My wife has her cooking/parenting/awesome blog. Now it is my turn. Who knows what may turn up on this page? I enjoy writing, maybe a story or two will show up. I love God and think men in this generation are on a fast decline, maybe there will be encouragment for men to step up and be good fathers, husbands, or boyfriends. I love my wife, rest assured she will pop up on here more than once. Point being, I don't know what this will turn in to, but I do know this is only the begining.

You learn something knew every single day. What have I learned today? God shows us lessons on where we are and where we should be in our walk everyday. Just look at the relationships in your life. Friendships, parents, wives, children, every relationship in your life is lesson in your walk with God. As we are fathers to our children, so are we Gods children. As we are in a relationship of love with our wives, so we should be with God. And as our parents do their best to discipline and provide for us, so does God.

It's incedible. Do you moan and complain about spending time with your wife? Do you loath and disdain your children? Hopefully the answer is no. If not, that is a whole other post that haven't done yet (beware, your time is coming!) As you raise your kids and spend one on one time with your wife try to think and wonder, what it must be like to God when He views us in the same way, as His children, and  as His beloved. Do you neglect God? Do you make Him proud? Wake up and tell your Dad you love Him. View Him as your father and greatest friend.