grace – Westchester Men's Ministry

Newtown Connecticut: Back to Normal?

December 17, 2012 By nymensministry 3 Comments

On Friday, a mass murderer broke his way into an elementary school in Newtown, CT, killed 20 children and 6 unarmed adults before killing himself. We’ve all struggled with this tragedy and prayed for the families. We’ve wrestled with the reason for it, and how it should have been avoided, while contemplating how we can prevent it in the future.

commuters, NYC, Grand Central, busy, mindless, robotic Today, is Monday, and many of us go back to work and to our normal lives. It reminds me of a discussion my wife and I had with a friend who lost someone very close. She said, ‘I was outside the other day and everyone is continuing as if nothing happened!’ The surprise and shock in her voice was obvious and genuine. We didn’t doubt it, because we had the same thought years earlier when our 2 year old daughter went on ahead of us to heaven.

It is true, the world continues and God is patient. I have to think that out thoughts in that moment were closer to God’s than our own. I wonder if He is in awe when it comes to our robotic and occasionally thoughtless way of going through life. The Bible says:

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” – Romans 13:11

God's outstretched and pierced hand, Isaiah 65:2

brotherjohn.org

Even though, His grace is new every morning, we are one less morning away from our last. May God continue to be patient with those that haven’t taken the time to know Him. I’m thankful that He continues to hold out his hand to all that will accept it.

“I (God) have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts; A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face” – Isaiah 65:2-3a

We have hope because our eternal Father sent his Son, and His hands were pierced and He was crucified for us! Our father now looks at us and says ‘how can they continue as if nothing happened!’ May we all wake from our sleep, before it is too late.

Newtown Connecticut: Back to Normal? by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Filed Under: Christianity, Forgiveness, grace, Hope, Salvation Tagged With: awake, back to normal, busy, ct, God, God's hand, hand, heaven, losing a child, loss, mindless, murder, newtown, normal, outstretched, pierced, robotic, sleep, work

In Light of What Happened in Connecticut

December 14, 2012 By nymensministry Leave a Comment

Reblogged with permission from: http://www.chspurgeonquotes.com

Spurgeon, death, living, heaven, earth, loss, sorrow, river, sheep

http://www.chspurgeonquotes.com

The Hour Is Coming

John 5:25

I have, in my imagination, looked on all whom I know on the earth, and I have said, they are dying creatures. This is always true, but we often forget it. Yet when a precious one is taken, we begin to realize this truth. Thinking about this, I seem to see a passing procession. I remember many who have passed—a long array of my Master‘s servants—some carrying His banner high, others marching with swords drawn, and some weak and feeble being helped by sturdy champions. They are gone, and I will never see them here again. Some of you are also passing away. More are coming, but they are also going.

I said that I was looking at this procession. But that is incorrect, for I am in the procession. I am passing with the rest. What shadows we are! What fleeting things! What mists! What paintings on a cloud! We can scarcely say that we live; for the moment we begin to live, we begin to die. This earth is not the land of the living. This is a dying world. The living world is beyond death‘s cold river. Here graves are innumerable, and death rules all.

No! That is not true. For there is One who rules death. Death has no power over the living God. Death is His servant. It is through death that we pass into life. By the death of our redeeming Lord, we have been rescued from destruction. From everything that wears the aspect of death, we can turn to Him, Jesus Christ, who is the same, yesterday, today, and forever (Heb.13:8).

C.H. Spurgeon

Filed Under: grace, Heaven, Home, Loss, Peace, trials Tagged With: C.H. Spurgeon, death, heaven, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Life, loss, procession, Spurgeon, The Hour is Coming

If God is Worthy…

April 22, 2012 By nymensministry 4 Comments

I think we occasionally fall into the trap of thinking that we are doing God a favor when we do good. So much so that we might even think that God owes us. For example, we might say ‘I’ve been a good person, so I think God will let me into heaven’. This implies that God owes you something for what you’ve done. The good news, and this is good news, is that this is simply incorrect. Let me explain

graduation, diploma, ceremony, earned, worthy, respect, deserved

Imagine that you are a principal in a school and one aspect of your job is determining who will graduate, and then giving them their diploma. Now further imagine that there is a student in the school, who not only passed every test but scores the highest possible grade, an A+. Now, when it comes to commencement, will you be doing the student a favor by giving them a diploma? No, they earned it and you would only be doing what was right. Actually it would be unjust for you not to graduate the student. The student is worthy of the diploma and your recognition.

In a similar way, God is worthy. God has done all the work and He allows us to participate in the honor ceremony. It is only right that we honor Him. Honoring him doesn’t make us worthy, but it allows us to participate in His worthiness!

“Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Will you say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ‘Come along now and sit down to eat’? Won’t you rather say, ‘Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me, while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Will you thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’” - Luke 17:7-10

The above scripture is hard to understand in our culture, partially because we no longer have servants. Thinking again of the principal example, we must understand that God is worthy and by providing him the honor and service he deserves, we are simply handing out a well earned diploma.

Jesus, worthy, thorns, crown of thorns, crown, king, king of kings, crucified

So, what’s the good news?! God has taken the test for us!! He has done all the work, he has suffered and sacrificed and he has passed the test with flying colors, a perfect score. We now get to participate in his honor ceremony by walking along side him and following his example. We are not rewarded by doing good; doing good in Jesus’ name is our reward!

So we are to ‘walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory’ (1 Thessalonians 2:12). Lord, please help us to understand your holiness, your worthiness and joyful give up our will, for yours! In Jesus’ very precious name. Amen

Filed Under: grace, Holy, Jesus Tagged With: ceremony, Christianity, deserve, God's will, grace, holy, honor, Jesus, king, Luke 17, servant, worthy

I Am Second

November 17, 2011 By nymensministry Leave a Comment

Josh Hamilton’s Journey

A friend introduced me to ‘I am second’ yesterday. It’s a great site where famous and not so famous people share their testimonies. That is how they came to follow Jesus. So ‘I am second’ really means, ‘God is first!’

I couldn’t figure out how to embed the video here. I’m sorry. I will fix it, if I can this weekend. The Josh Hamilton video is well worth watching!

Enjoy and have a nice weekend!