Friday Men’s Group 9/24/21

(Photo: Northern California Fires)

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch.
Malachi 4:1

Hi Men:

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away” (Matt 24:35).  I pray your week has been one of complete trust “in” Jesus and not in the circumstances surrounding you!  So many these days are “wrapped around the axle” of current events.  Unless you think Jesus is lying to you, He makes it pretty clear that everything around you will disappear on That Day.  The only 2 things that will last forever is God’s Word and people……. That’s it, nothing else.  So why jack your blood pressure up reading about what one of our politicians is doing or something going on half-way around the world?  Maybe you should be praying instead of grinding your teeth……… right?

Our “Prime Directive” is the Great Commission, Jesus’ final words in Matthew 28.  Unless a person….. “openly confesses that Jesus is Lord and believes in his heart that God raised Him from the dead” and has a desire to obey all that Jesus commanded them, they will spend eternity in the “lake of burning sulfur.”  Sorry, there are no back doors to heaven ——- only one way as Jesus declarer, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; NO ONE comes to the Father but through Me.”

Get your priorities straight men….. because as Jesus said:   “Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to reward each one as his work deserves. (Rev 22:12)

Grateful slave to King Jesus,
Dan
(Gal 2:20) 

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MIRACLES IN FRONT OF ME!

As many of you know, my dear wife Jane has had a passion for horses since a little girl growing up in Las Vegas.  As a teenager, she actually saved from her first job to buy her first horse.  After I married her, 41 years this October, I remember her always paying particular attention to the horse’s hooves.  She was careful to find a good farrier (horseshoer) because that could make all the difference on the soundness when riding her horse.
I never asked her many questions concerning the complexity of the hooves until quite recently when she was experiencing and addressing some very complicated issues surrounding these particular problems.
I was amazed when she showed me some pictures of the blood vessels of the horse’s hoof.  Below is an actual horse hoof showing how mind-boggling complex just the blood vessels are!  Check it out…….

Now to give you an idea how small some these blood vessels are, look at this next image.  Some of the blood vessels in a horse’s hoof are ONLY 1 MICRON in width.  The unaided human eye can’t see anything less than 30 microns.

I don’t know about you, but I was blown away by all this.  Only the God of the Universe can create something like this from His miraculous hand.  In light of all the chaos surrounding us right now, remember what He is able to do with just a thought.  

And you were saying all our problems will go away if we get the right people elected?

The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating disaster;
I am the Lord who does all these things.
(Isaiah 45:7)

Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That both adversity and good proceed?
Of what can any living mortal, or any man,
Complain in view of his sins?
(Lamentations 3:38-39)


Disasters

 “……..if such things did not happen, we would place our hope in this life
and forget the terrible Judgement awaiting us on the other side of the grave.”

Evaluating Disasters – Day 268 Red Book
The purpose of these devotionals is to help you think Biblically

 Solomon said, “As a man thinks, so is he”


Has your pastor ever asked:  “How can I help you with your ministry

Men:  Question………… For those of you that God has given a ministry (i.e., volunteering to coach a football team, a scout troop, conducting a regular Bible study, E2 outreach – Evangelism & Discipleship, organizing a men’s outreach, etc), how many of you have ever been approached by your church or a VCW (Vocational Christian Worker) where they have asked how they can help you with “your” ministry?   If they understand Eph 4:11-12 and 1 Peter 2:9, it should be a question asked often!

I thought it appropriate to insert this devotional from, “Thoughts From the Diary of a Desperate Man”

Worth of the Individual – Day 262 Blue Book


The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis

November 3rd – 1 Night Only
CSLewisMovie.com

Men:  I received an email from Lee & Miltinnie Yih about this movie.  They saw the pre-release and said, “Don’t Miss It!”
This would be a great movie to invite your friends and neighbors.


THE DEATH OF PORN

Many of you may be familiar with Ray Ortlund and his Renewal MinistriesHe and his wife Jani have been ministering for many years.  This month his new book was released, The Death of Porn – Men of Integrity Building a World of Nobility.  Tim Challies shared in his blog that it’s a series of six letters from Ray to younger men or from a father to a son.  In the second letter Ortlund begins to land some heavy blows, to pummel men with the sheer horror of of what they do when they indulge in pornography. So here, for example, is his explanation of what a man tacitly says to a woman when he looks at her on that screen.

“I don’t care about you. I don’t care about your personal story that got you onto this wretched porn site. I don’t care about what will happen to you when the filming is over—how you’ll drag yourself back to your apartment and get drunk just to stop feeling the pain. I don’t care about what you’ll be facing tomorrow, which will be yet another day of this torment. I don’t want to know what you’re suffering. I don’t even want to know your name. You don’t matter. All that matters here is me. And not the ‘royal me’ God created but the predatory me, the masturbatory me, the urge-of-the-moment me, the selfish me that Satan is robbing of life, even as I rob you of life. So whoever you are there on the screen—I’ll click over to some other victim soon, but you just keep up the show, okay? Keep smiling while you’re abused. Keep it up, while I masturbate and masturbate and masturbate, because nothing about me or you really matters anyway.”

[Read that paragraph the next time your tempted to click on that site]

By knowing who we are “in” Christ, there is hope for any addiction!
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.  (1 Peter 2:9)

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FLASHBACK:

The Great Porn Experiment

About 6 years back, I included in the Friday letter the YouTube that Gary Wilson presented on a TEDx Talk.  Gary died in May of this year after battling a chronic illness for several years.  This guy was one of the pornography industry’s worst nightmares, but he held fast.   Click on his name above to read a few of the many comments……

If you want to send a great video discussing pornography to your
secular friends, this one is excellent.  Most will be familiar with the “TEDx Talks” venue.  It’s had over 14 million views

The Great Porn Experiment: Gary Wilson at TEDxGlasgow  (YouTube 16 minutes)


“For better for worse… in sickness and in health.”

Jean-Pierre Adams – French Professional Footballer  (1948-2021)

Men:  You will want to read this short article about Jean-Pierre Adams who was in a coma for 39 years!  
GentleReformation.com/For-Better-For-Worse/


 

“I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him,
he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5