Faith – Westchester Men's Ministry

Thirsty for God! Faith, Waiting for Truth!

January 29, 2012 by nymensministry Leave a Comment

This is an excerpt from “Tortured for Christ”

by Richard Wurmbrand

‘Russians – A People with such ‘Thirsty Souls’

“For me, to preach the gospel to the Russians is heaven on earth. I have preached the gospel to men of many nations, but I have never seen a people drink in the gospel like the Russians. They have such thirsty souls.

An Orthodox priest, a friend of mine, telephoned me and told me that a Russian officer had come to him to confess. My friend did not know Russian. However, knowing that I speak Russian, he had given him my address. The next day this man came to see me. He longed for God, but he had never seen a Bible. He had no religious education and never attended religious services (churches in Russia then were very scarce). He loved God without the slightest knowledge of Him.

I read to him the Sermon on the Mount and the parables of Jesus. After hearing them, he danced around the room in rapturous joy proclaiming, “What a wonderful beauty! How could I live without knowing this Christ!” It was the first time that I saw someone so joyful in Christ.

Then I made a mistake. I read to him the passion and the crucifixion on Christ, without having prepared him for this. He had not expected it and, when he heard how Christ was beaten, how He was crucified and that in the end He died, he fell into an armchair and began to weep bitterly. He had believed in a Savior and now his Savior was dead!

I looked at him and was ashamed. I had called myself a Christian, a pastor, and a teacher of others, but I had never shared the suffering of Christ as this Russian officer now shared them. Looking at him, it was like seeing Mary Magdalene weeping at the foot of the cross, faithfully weeping when Jesus was a corpse in the tomb.

Then I read to him the story of the resurrection and watched his expression change. He had not known that his Savior arose from the tomb. When he heard this wonderful news, he beat his knees and swore – using very dirty, but very “holy” profanity. This was his crude manner of speech. Again he rejoiced, shouting for joy. “He is alive! He is alive!” He danced around the room once more, overwhelmed with happiness!

I said to him, “Let us pray!” He did not know how to pray. He did not know our “holy” phrases. He fell on his knees together with me and his words of prayer were: “Oh God, what a fine chap you are! If I were You and You were me, I would never have forgiven You of Your sins. But You are really a very nice chap! I love You with all of my heart.”

I think that all the angels in heaven stopped what they were doing to listen to this sublime prayer from a Russian officer. The man had been won for Christ!”

Amen! Hallelujah!

Filed Under: Christ, Faith, mens ministry, Prayer Tagged With: Christ, Christianity, faith, God, Jesus, joy, truth

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!

Filed Under: Christian Men, courage, Faith, grace, MENTOR, trials Tagged With: Christian men, devil, faith, fear, hope, Model, satan, testimonies, trials

In Jesus’ Name

August 28, 2011 by nymensministry 1 Comment

A Prayer from Jesus; He gets the Credit

It isn’t uncommon today for someone to donate money to a cause on another’s behalf. This could be done as a gift or to celebrate / mourn an event. They may have said “I have made a donation to this organization in your name“. Of course you would thank them, especially if you have strong feelings for the organization or its purpose. The fact the money was given in your name means you get the credit for the donation rather than the giver.

I was thinking the other night that this isn’t that different from a prayer said in Jesus’ name. When we say “in Jesus’ name” at the end of a prayer, we’re saying that this prayer should be treated as if it came from Jesus directly. Also He will get the credit for any good thing that comes from it.

Authority

There is a difference though. Unlike donating to a charity, a prayer said in our own name will not be accepted. It’s not because God doesn’t love us but because we aren’t righteous (sinless) and therefore have no ability or authority to ask on our own behalf. Think about it this way, although this isn’t a perfect analogy, if you needed a favor from someone but you recently had a bad argument with them, it isn’t likely that they would go out on a limb to help you. They may not even want to talk to you. You would need someone else who they respect and possible love, to go on your behalf and ask them.

When we pray in Jesus’ name, we are asking Jesus to be the conduit with God. To advocate for us because He is the only one who can. We are also following the direction He gave us in John 14:13-14.

His Will

Now, if we were to take the anology about donations above a little further, we can attempt to explain the last point on this topic. If someone said that they would like to donate money or time to an organization in your name, and the organization had a purpose/mission that you strongly opposed, you would refuse. Or you might recommend a different organization.

In the same way, when we pray in Jesus’ name our prayers must align with God’s will. If we ask for something that doesn’t glorfiy God, than we shouldn’t expect the prayer to be answered. Actually if we are truely open to God’s will, many times we know this before we even complete the prayer. One of the hardest aspects of prayer, is the letting go of our will.

Of course Jesus says in John 14:12 that we must also pray with faith. We must believe. If God is worth praying to, He’s worthy also of our expectations that our prayer will be answered. Isn’t He?

May God bless your reading of this blog entry, in Jesus’ very precious name!

Filed Under: Faith, God, Jesus, Prayer, Uncategorized

INDEPENDENCE DAY: COUNTING THE COMMITMENT, NOT THE COST

July 7, 2011 by nymensministry Leave a Comment

Commit your way to the LORD. (Psalm 37:5, NIV)

Americans will make a mistake today (sorry, little late), well intended, good hearted, but none-the-less, a mistake. I’ve seen it begin already as June ended and the calendar pressed forward to this day, the Fourth of July.

I’ve seen it mostly in the e-mails, the blogs, the Facebook postings of well-intentioned citizens asking me to take this Holiday and think about what freedom cost, to remember the men and the women of the Armed Forces and their sacrifice as the prime example of the cost of freedom. The suggestion is that if we stop a moment and think about their sacrifice and their suffering then we will have honored the Holiday and made ourselves worthy of it and justified the picnics, the ball games, the BBQs, and the fireworks.

I know this to be true because for years I have done it myself. I figure that I have a leg up on most of you because I didn’t have to conjure up pictures and videos of men and women in uniform, long rows of white crosses and stars of David, heart-warming clips of homecomings. I wish I could say I had a front row seat to America’s sacrifice, but Dover’s mortuary puts one right down on the field, not a picture, not a video, but face to face with the actual ultimate price of liberty.

But America has already given me a Holiday to honor them and the cost they have paid — it’s called Memorial Day. America has given me another holiday to honor those who paid a price and by God’s grace came back alive — it’s called Veteran’s day. Today, Independence day, we make the mistake of trying to squeeze one more day in to honor our brave men and women of the armed forces and while that’s never a bad thing, I’m coming to the conclusion that it’s not the purpose of this Holiday.

This Holiday does not celebrate the cost of our country’s military, but the commitment of its citizenry. We all know the famous lines from the Declaration . . . “We hold these truths to be self-evident” .

. . But what of the last line? . . . “And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.”

This is a day to remember their commitment to the higher ideal of Freedom.

Their commitment was established before the cost was paid.

And pay a cost they did — giving their lives, their families, their health, their homes, their businesses, but that’s no less than they pledged to each other.

What commitment! That’s what I want to remember today — I want to contemplate the deep core of character these men had who committed themselves to giving up life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for themselves in order to give life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to others living and to other generations not yet born. I want to be a man who makes commitments, good and noble commitments and follows through with them even when the cost was more than I imagined when I made the commitment.

When I was sixteen, I committed myself to being a follower of Jesus Christ

— I will keep that commitment to the day I die. When I was twenty-one, I committed myself to a beautiful woman while standing before God and witnesses — I will keep that commitment to the day I die. When I was twenty-eight, I committed myself to defending the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and though I have been retired from Active Duty, I will honor that commitment until the day I die.

When I was 25, 31 and 33, I made the commitment to be a father to three children, not just to raise them, but to be their father — I will keep that commitment until the day I die.

Costs follow commitment! If I make no commitment, then anything that happens is just a by-product of chance. If I make the commitment, then I am saying, “let cost come — it will not deter me from what I have pledged.”

So, today, I am reminded that I want to be a man of commitment, to God and His people, to my wife, to my children, to my country. I may have not paid the ultimate cost in any of these things yet, but I have made the ultimate commitments and I shall keep them regardless the cost.

To Whom, divine or earthly, are you committed today? To what ideals have you pledged yourself? Do you recognize that those who pledged themselves to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness gave theirs up — can you do no less?

It’s the fourth of July — make it yours . . . Commit!

John Groth