MEN OF PURPOSE

Brothers,

As the summer winds down, I wanted to reflect a little on the MOP sessions that have occurred in this "down time".

We have talked about many topics in the "living room" this summer and while each week has started in a different place, last week brought it all together for me.  Early on we talked about how we need to be more fatherly in raising our children and stop trying to be our children's friends. This takes a certain amount of Old Testament Father and an equal amount of the unconditional love and promise from the New Testament.  We have discussed what the true "manly" acts are that we should perform in our lives.  While it is easy to see feats of daring and masculine prowess as what makes us men, it is the the more gentle and seemingly mundane acts of grace that truly define a man.

Over the past weeks, the Church has given us many selections revolving around God's gift of bread and nourishment.  All of the other topics I think fit in here. It is the concept of God's gifts that I have been pondering.

I think that God gives us all many gifts.  We say he has blessed us with life, liberty, good fortune, health, children and on and on.  All that is true.  For me though, it boils down to the one true gift of God's grace.  Now I cannot define that word "grace" and many may differ in their interpretation.  To me the definition is one for study, but perhaps does not matter as long as it is fundamentally understood as the knowledge that God is there for each of us.  He is there to constantly take from, to support us, to give never-ending love.  The extra component, however, is that His grace is a gift that we must choose to accept and to believe in.

Our examples have been rooted in the Olympics, in part.  It is a timely reference point as we watch people from all over the world reach extraordinary heights of sporting prowess and achievement.  I do not think that God's gift to each participant is to win a gold medal, but rather to have the open heart to see God's grace and accept the other gifts that God has bestowed on each of us.  for some it is amazing ability in athletics.  For others it is the fierce desire to compete even thought the outcome of the race will never be in our favor.  for most, it is not an Olympic dream but rather just trying to be the best in each day that God gives us.

So the end result, the gold medal, the bonus, the kid getting into a certain school, etc. is, while certainly noble as a goal, not the end.  Understanding that the outcome is only another manifestation of God's grace.  Acceptance of this brings us further to giving ourselves over to God and his desires for us.  When we forget about "what is in it for me" in the temporal sense, we are much closer to the faith that brings us to what is really in it for us.

What we know is what we can hold, touch, count and compare.  What we cannot know fully is the breadth and depth of God's commitment to us.  Socrates (by no means a Christian) stated that true knowledge is knowing what you don't know.  Somehow this translates for me.  What we think we know is just passing.  Giving over to faith is gaining ultimate wisdom.  We just stop rowing the boat thinking that it will get us to shore.

I look forward to continuing the discussion, sharpening and fellowship this Sunday and into the Fall.

KJ

P.S.  We start The Screwtape Letters (C.S. Lewis) this Fall after Parrish Day.  It is going to be very interesting.

BIB Tuesday 07.03.12

Back at it tomorrow morning - Phoenix will be taking us through Luke 6:27-42 Love Your Enemies and Judging.  0715 at Panera next to the Manor Theater. Hope to see you there.   M

BIB Tuesday 06.19.2012

We'll convene tomorrow morning 0715 at Panera. Keeping at it - Luke 6 (yes we are making progress). All men welcome for Fellowship and Faith. Moniteur

Bible in a Bag - Tuesday June 12

The BIB will reconvene tomorrow morning 0715 with John Linker leading the way starting with Luke 5:33 (he mentioned wine skins are a hobby). Join us for faith and fellowship at Panera on Providence Rd (next to Manor Theater - all men welcome. Moniteur

BIB Tuesday 06.05.12

Another weekly addition of Bible in a Bag will unfold Tuesday 0715 at Panera (Providence Rd next to Manor Theater). Having discussed Jesus's healing of the sick and crippled, we will explore why he chooses to have dinner with sinners and tax collectors - starting with Luke 5:27. All men are welcome - hope you can join us. Moniteur

ABS/PreBlast--5-25-12.Money

ABS for 5/24/12 will focus on James 5:1-6, what the NIV calls WARNING TO RICH OPPRESSORS

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter.You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

     THIS is one of those passages that has the potential to confuse us. Is James saying that wealth is inherently evil? If a man puts money in his 401-K is he "hoarding wealth"? I don't think that is what James means here. It is not simply money that is the root of all evil, but the LOVE of money that Jesus cautions us about. We are given different skills and gifts from God with which we are called to serve one another. There must be some system by which we compensate each other for the performance of those skills. Money is simply the currency of that system of compensation.

     WHAT James is concerned with here is the human tendency to over-indulge and the havoc that results when money is the object of that weakness. Addicted to money, a man becomes progressively less able to part with it until he is not paying people who have labored for him and using his power to improperly thwart their efforts to recover what is justly theirs. Per James, it is a form of corruption that does not go unnoticed in the eyes of the Lord and is something that He will make right.

0745
Dowd-Y Breakfast Room
Aye

Bible in a Bag Tuesday 05.22.12

We'll pick back up tomorrow 0715 at Panera (Providence Rd next to Manor). Luke 4:14 Jesus Rejected at Nazareth. Many thanks to Phoenix for sharing with us the adventures, lessons, and objectives of his recent mission trip to Costa Rica. Moniteur