“Until you are my one desire!” Lord, I seek YOU more than pleasure.
Real Revolutions Start with Sacrifice
October 15, 2011 by 1 Comment
All true revolutions seem to have started with huge sacrifices, in many cases including martyrdom. I believe it is because we have a sense of justice and rightness. An inherit willingness to die for a cause or for someone we love. This is just one of the ways we were made in God’s image.
A person or a small group of people see an injustice and can no longer keep quiet. They have what Bill Hybels calls a “Popeye moment”. That is they have a moment of holy discontent, they say “I’ve had all I can stand, I can’t stands no more!” They decide that this is a cause worth fighting, a cause worth dying for. They put on the gloves, they take up their cross and get to work. This moment “prompts us not to indifference and not to despair, but a moment that empowers us to rise up and do something about it.”
Pastor and playwright Kay Munk lived in Denmark amid Germany’s occupation during World War II. He drew the attention of the Gestapo because of his outspoken opposition to the persecution of the Jews in Denmark.
In 1941, he preached on the Good Samaritan. In his sermon he stated that “Christ-ians follow Jesus by loving their neighbors as themselves. This is the truth that the Good Samaritan tale puts before us; it calls its hearers to face up to the needs of a flesh and blood neighbor. To have a flesh and blood neighbor,” says Munk, “puts you in an either/or position. Either you may be a help to your neighbor or a burden.” Either you protect the sheep or you are one of the wolves.
Munk insisted on, and showed unflinching honesty about, what is helpful. To name the wolves so that the flock can protect itself better helps the neighbor in Jesus’ name. The wolves must be resisted for the sheep’s sake, and for their own sakes. Munk says: “It was not the task of the Good Samaritan to look up the robbers afterwards and compliment them for work well done. The goodness of God as we see it in Jesus is meek and long-suffering, but never compromises with evil.”
Therefore he called for mercy for the Jews, striking workers, hungry in city and on farms, and for confused children in an unstable world.
He was executed by the Gestapo in January of 1944. His body was found in a ditch by the side of the road, his Bible was next to him, along with this writing:
“What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer “Faith, hope and love?” That sounds beautiful. But I would say – courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature…we lack a holy rage – the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity.
The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth…a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God’s earth, and the destruction of God’s world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lies that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction, peace. To rage against complacency. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God.
And remember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish…but never the chameleon.” (As found in Irresistible Revolution pg. 294)
His killers honored Munk’s outspoken resistance to the Nazi occupation by their ruthless but futile determination to silence him. The people heard his message. Despite the danger from the Nazis who had killed Munk, four thousand Danes came to his funeral. They commemorated him with a lively courage and faith like his own, both then and throughout the war.
Good shepherds protect the sheep from the wolves. Munk insisted: “Jesus’ fight against the wolves continues through the church which will allow itself to be torn to pieces rather than let robber or wolf gain entrance to the fold.”
Will you answer the call and stand up for your family, your children, your wife. Saying I see the wolves in our society. The wolves of materialism and selfishness. I choose to sacrifice my time and ambitions for the sake of my family and friends. For “I’ve had all I can stand and I can’t stands no more!”
If your answer is yes, see www.NYMensMinistry.com/MENTOR
Material garnered from some of the following sites:
http://www.pietisten.org/summer99/kajmunk.html
Repentance
August 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Heard a great sermon yesterday by James MacDonald on Repentance. Definitely worth a listen. Let us know what you think below!
Pastor James explains, when you get specific about what God wants to change, God provides no shortage of opportunities to work on it. God loves us so much that He doesn’t want to leave us the way we are. Learn the importance of repentance in the process of change.
INDEPENDENCE DAY: COUNTING THE COMMITMENT, NOT THE COST
July 7, 2011 by 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
>Lent: Don’t Give Up!
March 10, 2011 by Leave a Comment
>(Sorry for the long delay between posts)
Hey guys! I know that’s a weird subject for this blog entry but it was inspired!
Did you guys make a resolution for lent? Something you will either stop or start doing for the next 40 (now 39 days). If you were thinking of something but didn’t do it (or stop doing it) yesterday, don’t give up. Why not start today. We are imperfect, we know that (and guess what – so does God). So why not start today?!
I’ve decided to meditate/journal every day through Lent. I’m hoping I can build discipline and start to enjoy it. To let you know how much of a stretch this is for me, I’ve been journaling about once a month. And I’ve been satisfied with that because that was once more than I was doing before.
Why not share your resolution so we can pray for you and cheer you on!
How to Ascertain the Will of God
September 27, 2010 by Leave a Comment
From “Answers to Prayer from George Müller’s Narratives”
1. I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter. Nine-tenths of the trouble with people generally is just here. Nine-tenths of the difficulties are overcome when our hearts are ready to do the Lord’s will, whatever it may be. When one is truly in this state, it is usually but a little way to the knowledge of what His will is.
2. Having done this, I do not leave the result to feeling or simple impression. If so, I make myself liable to great delusions.
3. I seek the Will of the Spirit of God through, or in connection with, the Word of God. The Spirit and the Word must be combined. If I look to the Spirit alone without the Word, I lay myself open to great delusions also. If the Holy Ghost guides us at all, He will do it according to the Scriptures and never contrary to them.
4. Next I take into account providential circumstances. These often plainly indicate God’s Will in connection with His Word and Spirit.
5. I ask God in prayer to reveal His Will to me aright.
6. Thus, through prayer to God, the study of the Word, and reflection, I come to a deliberate judgement according to the best of my ability and knowledge, and if my mind is thus at peace, and continues so after two or three more petitions, I proceed accordingly. In trivial matters, and in transactions involving more important issues, I have found this method always effective.
George Müller
Westchester Men's Ministry 