Devotional For Men Blog
Know Thyself, Know Thy Limits
“Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, ‘Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.’” (Matthew 8:10, NASB)
Many have entreated mankind to “Know Thyself.” These words are quoted from the ancients: Chilon, Thales, Juvenal, Socrates, Plato and more recently Hobbes, Pope, Linnaeus, Franklin, Emerson, Coleridge and others. Many of these men would point to human capability as the goal of knowledge; Jesus would disagree. Knowing thyself is not completely sufficient.
The ultimate value in knowing yourself lies in knowing your limits. In response to your own limitations you can turn to Christ, the all-sufficient Lord who is able to meet those needs. Matthew chapter eight tells the story of a Roman centurion who believed that Jesus could heal his servant with only a word. The centurion was a powerful man and yet Jesus said he had the greatest faith: greater than any in Israel! Can you imagine how that must have sounded? A gentile, a Roman official, the enemy of the Jews and an unbeliever and he had the greatest faith? How could it be?
He believed. The centurion knew his power as well as his limitations and trusted in the Most High for sustenance and healing. He was a powerful Roman coming to beg at the feet of the Jewish carpenter. It came at the cost of his dignity but the reward of great faith.
Know thyself? It’s still great advice. But know thyself so thoroughly that the walls of your humanity loom tall before you and your faith causes you to fall at the feet of Jesus.
Father God,
You are mighty: high and lifted up. I honour Your name and adore You as the sovereign LORD. Thank You for designing me in Your image. I recognize my failure to be holy like You. My shortcomings are all too clear. I kneel at Your feet and ask You to do for me today what I cannot do for myself. Heal me. By your Spirit, create in me a pure heart O God. Restore me. Make me more like You.
In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
Question: In what ways do your own limitations draw you closer to God?
Irrigation of the Soul
But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. (Deuteronomy 11:11)
Recently I was driving through a rural area with farmlands on both sides of the road. Both were planted with corn ready to be harvested, but I noticed a distinct difference. On one side was a field of lush green tall corn, while on the other side the corn was half as tall and partially browned from the lack of rain.
Why the difference? The answer was simple. One side had an irrigation system and the other did not. The difference was obvious. Crops need water to grow and more water to prosper.
There is a spiritual parallel here. As the roots of agricultural crops need to be irrigated with water, so too do the roots of our being need to be irrigated with the Word of God.
Joy is what we experience when our longing for eternity is satisfied by an encounter with the Lord. When we meet with God through His Word and draw close to Him through righteous living, we enter into fellowship with Him and get a taste of eternity. Psalm 1 reveals that those who take pleasure in and preoccupy themselves with God’s law will prosper and experience true joy. In other words, meditation on God’s Word irrigates our souls and makes us grow.
An encounter with God irrigates our soul. The Bible equates spiritual growth with natural growth. Just like a person is born a baby, so we are born again a spiritual baby. For you have been born again (1 Pet 1:23). Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation (1 Pet 2:2).
No one is born a full grown adult. The same is true spiritually: no one is born again as a mature Christian. It takes time to grow. The way you grow is through the spiritual milk (irrigation) of God’s Word. The more you feed on it the more you will grow.
Two very important ways of cultivating our walk with God are through daily time spent with Him and developing meaningful relationships with other Christians. We should carve out time with God through study in His Word and spend adequate time in prayer, and we should spend time with other people who do likewise. Corporate worship is essential to spiritual maturity and development, but so is involvement in small groups and one on one discipleship. So often we learn best as we teach and disciple others.
Question: Do you want to flourish and prosper spiritually? Then take time each day to irrigate your soul.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a Mustard Seed
Do you have faith the size of a mustard seed? Do you believe God can use you to impact His Kingdom? We have an awesome opportunity to reach hundreds of thousands of people each month. Will you help us impact this world?
“[Jesus] told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)
Jesus told many parables comparing the kingdom of God to something familiar to help people understand what Heaven is like. He said it’s like a tiny mustard seed (Matthew 13:31, Mark 4:30, Luke 13:18); like yeast that works through a large amount of dough (Matthew 13:33, Luke 13:20), and like the seed a man scatters, which grows even though he doesn’t know how (Mark 4:26).
God doesn’t build His kingdom through a complex international strategy with a slick business or marketing plan. It doesn’t make national news. Instead, quietly – starting with one person of faith – it grows and spreads.
It starts with a person like you, who may not possess great communication skills, but who believes Jesus’ sacrifice paid for your sin. As you live in the freedom that forgiveness brings, you influence your husband and your children. The peace and joy displayed in your life changes the atmosphere of your home. Impatience, criticism and selfishness begin to melt away. Friends and neighbors start to notice.
A teaspoon of yeast can make three cups of flour rise. A single mustard seed grows into a plant large enough for birds to sit on its branches. Flower seeds planted in the garden each summer germinate and sprout while we sleep! It doesn’t take much because God does the work. We don’t even have to understand how it works; we just need to surrender our lives to Him.
Holy God, help me to understand what Your kingdom is like. May I willingly allow You to spread Your kingdom through me. Amen.
Question: When have you seen a small step of faith produce something great?
Lifting Off the Weights
Are you carrying spiritual weight? Talk to us.
In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat. (Isaiah 10:27)
Well it is that time of the year again, an annual experience when I get a report on my most up to date physical condition. I have been to every kind of ologist there is and have too many times been asked to dress in an undersized grocery bag. I have been poked, prodded and stuck more times than I can imagine.
For the most part, all checked out well, but I still don’t like those sentences that begin ……”but for a person of your age.” I am blessed with good family medical history and I don’t smoke and I don’t chew and I don’t hang around with those who do. But, this year, as with most years, there is that one factor … weight. Some doctors refer to it as obese and refer to the charts. Those docs who know me on a first name basis use the word “fat.” I tell them that I am not overweight, just two feet short according to the charts.
So, here I go again, off to shed the pounds. It’s easy. I have done it many times and lost hundreds of pounds. Mark Twain once commented how easy it was to quit smoking, as he had done it hundreds of times.
No, it’s not easy. It is plain hard work and once you get to the target goal it is a bear to stay there. Let’s face it, I like to eat and that it the root of my problem. It creeps up gradually pound by pound and all of a sudden I am, well … fat again.
Sin is like that. Our natural man likes to do it and it creeps up on you sin by sin and soon you are drowning in it. We can try to wish it away, desire it to be away and even pray it away, but there is nothing passive about resisting sin. It, like losing weight, is just plain hard work. As humans, we like to sin, because Satan wraps it in such beautiful packages.
Physical weight has its consequences. Someone recently asked me how many fat people I knew who were over seventy. It was a sobering question. Sinful weight also has its consequences, often deadly. Isaiah (10:27) talks about a burden lifted from our shoulders. It is an image of deliverance from oppression and calamity.
It is time for all of us to throw off the sinful burden our shoulders and the yolk around our neck. Get serious. Get real. Sin will take you under and drown you, so we all need to work hard to throw it off.
As for me, I am a man on a mission … a mission to shed the pounds, so if you see me, shake my hand, but please don’t offer me a Twinkie.
A Rusty Nail
Do you need to work on forgiveness? Take our free life lesson.
“Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Luke 11:14)
Imagine you’re doing work on a deck and you fall on a rusty nail. It’s a small puncture but you keep working. Meanwhile, anaerobic bacteria begin to metabolize and cause infection. You don’t treat it and soon you have lockjaw, facial spasms, difficulty swallowing, and muscle rigidity. You start to get full body spasms and they continue for weeks until one day you die… if you don’t treat it.
Sin is the same way. It loves to fester in a grudge. The puss and poison of bitterness will eat away at your soul and enslave you… if you don’t treat it.
But treating it is hard. It’s open-heart surgery. We feel justified in our grudges! We think our bitterness is warranted and our rage is necessary for justice. Justice? Consider our Lord Jesus Christ:
He was crushed for our iniquities.
He took up our pain.
He bore our suffering.
He was stabbed for our sin.
His punishment brings us peace.
His wounds heal us.
We receive unwarranted forgiveness every day. We must also give it. The giving and receiving are two in one. Love God and your neighbor by accepting forgiveness and also forgiving.
Recall the people who have hurt you. Have you forgiven them? Reach back in your memory to your childhood and ask, “Does hate still linger there?”
Don’t listen to the voice that tells you, “Things are fine, let’s move on.” Search your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to search you as well. Uproot and kill the weeds of hate in your soul and humble yourself before God and man. Ask for forgiveness and be made new right now.
Lord, I understand that my salvation is not fair. You forgave me when I did not deserve it. And so, as I have been forgiven, so I must forgive. Holy Spirit, help me give up my grudge. Draw out the poison from my heart. In Jesus’ name I rebuke the unclean spirits in my heart and confess I have allowed them to fester. I repent and ask that you Lord Jesus to make me new. Cleanse me oh God from all unrighteousness. I trust you to heal and cleanse me and praise you for being the Great Physician. Amen.
This is a Grace-Day
Do you find it hard to accept God’s forgiveness? Come talk to a mentor.
“In him (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.” (Ephesians 1:7-8)
God calls us to practice grace in a fallen, unjust world, where fighting or avoiding each other is more common than forgiving each other. We need to remember that we are recipients of grace, God’s undeserved favor.
Because of God’s holy justice, we deserve judgment for our sin. But Jesus paid for our sin-debt in full, so that now God offers us mercy and grace. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. Grace is getting favors we don’t deserve. “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God–not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8) Grace is a gift, which he has freely given us in Christ.
Not only do we receive God’s grace at salvation, but He pours it on us lavishly moment by moment. He equips us to be His agents of grace in our families and our neighborhood.
I will remember that today is a grace-day:
Great Riches At Christ’s Expense are mine.
I will immerse myself in the ocean of His grace. I will feed on promises of His grace. I will be a grace-giver in prayer, and in my walk and talk.I will bless someone with grace today.
Dear Father, I’m truly amazed at your grace which you keep pouring out on me. I want to bless someone with your grace today. Amen.
Questions: Can you think of someone who needs to know and experience the grace of God? Will you reach out to that person today?
Are You Going with the Flow?
Do you need help finding God’s path? Talk to a mentor.
Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13-14)
A couple of years ago, my bride and I were in Albuquerque for a meeting that was at the same time as the annual Hot Air Balloon Festival. It was an incredible sight to see all of the multi-colored balloons glistening against the crystal blue New Mexico sky.
My friend asked us if we had ever ridden in one and we both said no. He said that then was the time and the next thing I knew, we were crammed in an oversized laundry basket with two other friends and a young pilot barely old enough to shave and we were trusting our life to him.
Always wanting to know how things work, I started asking questions as I watched the hot air from the burners fill the balloon. There was a brisk wind from the South and I asked how we could ever expect to get back where we started. As we lifted off and began a rather swift ride North, the pilot answered my question.
It seems that the wind, much like the currents in the ocean does not run uniformly at all altitudes. The trick to piloting a balloon is to find out which way the wind is blowing at different altitudes and raising or lowering the balloon’s altitude to catch a ride in the desired direction.
A lot of people run their lives that way, following whatever is the path of least resistance. We take great pains to put ourselves on its path. We’d do anything to keep from waiting in traffic, standing in line at the bank, post office, or grocery store. We’d come back another time when the place is not as busy.
If Noah, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego, Joseph, Joshua and Caleb, Esther and others had taken the path of least resistance, would we be reading about them in the Scriptures? Probably not, because God’s way is not always the easy way.
Sometimes we fail to realize that the struggles and challenges in life, the trials and adversities that we face day to day are just what we need to grow in Christian grace. Matthew talks about the narrow gate and the broad gate. One is easy to pass through and the other takes effort, but the rewards are greater. Which way do you choose?
So, as we go through life, let us not follow the easiest way, but the way of highest calling…. God’s way.
Iron Sharpens Iron
Are you lacking Christian community? Let us pray for you.
Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. (Proverbs 27: 17)
These days, especially in large metropolitan areas, the Christian has a lot to choose from. You can attend a small neighborhood church with dozen of members or you can attend a mega church with thousands of members. You can hear great preaching and sermons that spiritually excite you in person, on line or on television. You can hear wonderful Christian music that inspires you.
But no matter where you go or what you hear, unless you are involved in a small group experience, you are not sharpening your spiritual growth. I am talking about Bible fellowship classes, small group Bible studies, prayer groups and accountability partnerships.
All of us are the product of the people we meet, the places we go and the books we read. If we hang around with dogs, we get fleas. In life, we are an associational product. It’s not easy to love a “G Rated” life in an “X Rated world.
The best way to live a holy life is to hang around with those who do. Get involved in a Bible fellowship, a morning Bible and accountability group, or a weekly luncheon with Christian brethren.
Living a holy life is not easy, but in order to do so, we must live in fellowship with God and have the flavor of God in our life. All of that goes with the development of a healthy and godly fear in our lives. To live a holy life, I must be identified with God and with Holy living. The best way to do that is to hang around with holy people.
Since I became a Christian I don’t do what I used to and I am not who I once was. But, I am human and I can slip and slide, especially when I hang around with the wrong people, read the wrong books (TV’s shows, movies and the like) and go the wrong places. No matter how solid my faith, there are limits to the temptation I can resist.
Getting saved is something I have to do alone. It is a private and personal thing between God and me. But living the Christian life is something that is best done in a group setting. It needs to be done with others and, like putting on your clothes, it is something that needs to be done daily. Daily, I must walk with the Spirit or risk walking in the flesh.
Living the Christian life is not easy in this demoralized world, but a team approach makes any task easier. Iron does sharpen iron, as Christians sharpen one another. So, pull along others and grow together.
Another Side of Our Saviour
Do you need Jesus to be your warrior? Let us pray with you.
“The LORD is a warrior, the LORD is His name.” (Exodus 15:3)
Do a Google image search on the name Jesus. What do you see? I see dozens of pictures of a white guy who looks like he might be good at crocheting or reading nursery rhymes.
Who was Jesus? Well, he is alive, so the proper question is, “Who is Jesus?” What is he actually like? If you hung out with him for a day, what kind of person would you see.
He is God’s son and the image of the invisible God. Of the many indescribable characteristics he possesses, one of the strongest would undoubtedly be his humility. Philippians 2, among many other passages, confirms this.
But another facet in the diamond that is Jesus’ personality comes in the form of his warrior persona.
The Jews were expecting a liberating Savior that would free them from their physical oppression, restoring the nation of Israel geographically and politically. Jesus was concerned with much different things. He was in the business of spiritual liberation, spiritual freedom. He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness and remained faithful, using the word of God as his defense. He cast out evil spirits and demons from people, restoring them to spiritual health. He was aware of the spiritual realms and engaged in spiritual warfare on many occasions.
May we do the same, by faith in Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, to the glory of His name. As Christ fought the darkness, so must we.
LORD, you are a warrior. May we be aware, as your son was when He came to earth, of the spiritual battle that rages around us. Holy Spirit, help us believe and overcome our unbelief. Keep us strong by the truth during temptation. Keep us faithful by prayer and fasting during spiritual warfare. Amen.
The Kingdom of God is Near
Are you living a Spirit-filled life? You can start today.
“From that time on Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’” (Matthew 4:17)
The gospels record Jesus proclaiming, (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:15) and instructing His disciples to proclaim, that the kingdom of God is near. (Matthew 10:7; Luke 10:9, 11) Although the book of Acts, Paul’s letters and other New Testament books continue to speak about the kingdom of God, none use the phrase, “the kingdom of God is near”. Why wouldn’t the apostles continue to use that statement?
People were looking for an earthly kingdom, one to overthrow the Romans and free them from oppression, but Jesus’ talk of the kingdom suggested a less tangible but still powerful realm. Jesus told the Pharisees, “The kingdom of God does not come visibly, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21)
Jesus also said “Some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God come with power.” (Mark 9:1) If Jesus meant the complete fulfillment of the kingdom of God – with sin and Satan finally defeated, where Christ will reign eternally – then some of the people who heard His words would still be living today.
That’s not the case. So, we know Jesus was describing the indwelling of Holy Spirit, who enables believers to live in the kingdom of God and experience His power. Many lived to see that day – Pentecost – when the Holy Spirit powerfully descended upon the disciples. (Acts chapter 2)
The disciples no longer preached ‘the kingdom of God is near’ after Jesus’ resurrection, because it had arrived. Jesus explained that you can’t see the kingdom of God because it is within you. His death, resurrection and ascension into heaven, made it possible for the Holy Spirit to come and live within us.
God’s kingdom – His rule and authority – came to earth through Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Holy Spirit in our lives – the kingdom of God within us – empowers us to walk in righteousness.
Thank you God that Your kingdom is here – within me! Help me to live in that reality. Amen.
Questions: How does knowing the kingdom of God is within you affect you? How have you experienced the power of the kingdom in your life?
Start a Conversation
Media
What Do You Fear?
What do you fear, and why? Is it holding you back from realizing your full potential?
>Watch
Do you crave destiny? (Part 2)
Destiny? Is this really me? Was I really born for great things?
>Watch