Maybe I am the only one who has had this rise up and take over when it came down the line that they were smiling in my face and working their gums behind my back. Maybe I am the only one who hurts enough to say that God can't always control me and restraint ain't always my best side. It seems that more and more of life is becoming more and more bruising, shattering, intimidating, breaking, ripping. We don't seem to heal like we used to, don't seem to be able to get up like we used to, don't seem to be able to take the licks like we used to and that is how our nerves wear thin and our restraint is impulsive. We are lightning if you catch us on the right day and it is because Christ has not always been our go to reciever, our blocker, our mighty running back able to score touchdowns. We did not even want Christ to play on our team when we were choosing up sides.

 

Uhh..I'll take Despair

Okay..Gimme, Lust

I'll take Vengeance

Man, uhh, let us have Fear

We want Pride

Man, uh,uhh,uhh...shoot, well, come on Jesus

 

Jesus Christ, last picked, least trusted, little game time. And in many ways we are still there in that picking line trying to choose the strongest, fastest, most illustrious ones who might cause the other team to forfeit. We want the challenges to just give up and go home! We want the hardships to play a little while, start coughing and have to leave the court! We want our way or no way at all, especially not Jesus Christ's way. I have been there and I say that not to say that I have gotten anywhere near Christ's intended destination for me which is eternity in the ever presence of God our Father. Sitting at the table of brotherhood, seeing the majesty and the glory and the intrigue and the spectacular abundances of my savior Jesus Christ's possessions that His Daddy gave Him, no, that His Father gave Him. That's not a boast, I am not bragging and if I am it is because Jesus Christ gave me permission to do so when He said,

 

"24-Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world." (John's gospel account, chapter 17, verse 24)

 

Many are angered, boiling over right now, because of the claims that Christians make of their God being a Father Eternally. Those who have had fathers and daddies and have concluded many birth fathers merely sperm donors have trouble with one saying my Father is Eternal, Everlasting, Always Ready and Existing to Give me all the glory He has.

 

I know right now that I am as Jesus Christ is in every way. I am not ashamed to say that God my Eternal Father shall show you the glory that He has given me because I trust the power of the shed blood of His Son, my brother, Jesus Christ.

 

The name of Jesus Christ is precious to me. You don't know what I had to go through that I might be free to call on the name of Jesus Christ in my distress, in my trouble, in my achings, in my angers, in my darkness, in my perceived paradises. That name is above every name and that is why I am still here right now because I put my trust in Jesus Christ and He preserves me from the day of evil. Oh, temptation is all around me, trying to puncture me, make me bleed so that it can place a patch on my that will pool poison into my bloodstream, into my thought stream, but I have called and shall ever call on the name of Jesus Christ because I need that power and that strength that He holds with His Father God to be made perfect in my weakness.

 

I used to be scared to call on God because I thought I could use Him up. Like I only had so much credit to buy time with God, if I didn't have any credit to trade for my time with God what would I do, but I am so glad that one day, God came by, introduced me to Jesus Christ and began a conversation in my soul and my spirit and my entire living being that says that I can come on up higher to ssee what liberty really is, that I might see what love really is, thatI might see what fatherhood and parenthood really is, that I might see what brotherhood and sisterhood really is, that I might value higher, and reach in faith higher, and shout more pronunced the glories of God my Eternal Father, and someone in this place is mad and is enraged because God has not been that real to them, but I am just going to keep right on serving God with a glad heart.

 

I might not always look like I am glad that Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life, you might see me from time to time acting strange according to what you think is normalcy, I might not walk it like you feel I should be walking it, but I know without a doubt that no matter what is going to come that God is to be ever and always satisfied with me because I am presenting my body to be glorified by His will and His way.

 

Thank You Father God, that I can shelter beneath Your wings, Thank You Father God that I can find compassion to make it through another day, Thank You Father God that I can call You as much as I need to, thank You Father God that my foolish look for Your name is working an eternal reward that I might be seated at that table in heaven to see the glory that Jesus Christ Your Son has been given by You from the very foundations of the world.

 

Somebody wants to slap me because they say I stink. But if I stink Father God I stink for You to be glorified in all of my life. If I Stink Father God I stink for Your purpose to be all the way uncovered in my life. If I stink Father God I thank You because this joy I have didn't come from the bone marow transplant, but it began as an inspiration conceived by You. I thank You Father God because this peace I have didn't come from the unemployment office, but it came from You who made heavens and earth and saw fit to give me Your breath of life. Thank You Father God because You are the fragrance of eternal life to me! Thank You Father God because You placed value on my blackened soul card and wiped me down to reveal a brilliant lustre like never before.

 

You said Father God that no one can ever imagine or think of the way that You shall take this new creature You have fashioned in me and bring its fullest potential out for display. I thank You Father God for the process of sanctification. Thank You Father God for Your mercies that are new everyday. Thank You Father God for Your love that is heart bursting. I love You Father God.

 

So difficult and so very challenging is it for a man to be grafted into a family whether that family is previously established or whether that man is presented with children of his own loins.

 

I know personally both situations.

 

I know a fellow who has a child of his own loins and I know a fellow whom lives every breath knowing that he has not produced the children placed into his care by God yet they are his own children.

 

Why does it strike up such a conversation to hear of a person who has accepted that their children have been specially created ro them only another man's seed has be prominant on the children's DNA?

 

I wonder why the conversation turns to laughter when a fellow mentions that his children are older than he is.

 

I wonder why the fellow who has been given that child of his own loins has found such challenge in day to day living?

 

I write that there is pressure at any rate- whether the children are of a fellow's loins which seems to eequal that they are his very own that he cannot discard or toss away in dislike or disgust or whether the children are inherited blessings from a relationship that has produced the children as fruit.

 

I do understand somewhat that this is a cause of much drama in our communities.

 

Many are wounded and hurting behind this very incident and many are tired of hurting and therefore seek the rest of another, fresher relationship. Even Moses wrote that a man shall have a writing of divorcement drawn up for the cause of not wanting his wife any longer especially to the point that he proves harmful to her.

 

Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, pops up into my mind right now as I even ask myself of these wonders of family hood. What challenges there are in a statement as that, and even in that statement!

 

God, how can You really expect me to be a father when I don't even know if I can cut it right as a husband?

 

God, how come this responsibility came to me when I never asked for it because You said in Your Word God if you ask you shall receive?

 

Oh how we wrassle with the Lord our God about this family matter.

 

Oh how we shatter into the exact form that God saw we were the entire time and even right now God has lifted us up after the breaking to bring us to a cooling station that the heat might settle into our molds forming and shaping us as we never could have self improved ourselves into. God works out all things for His glory to be had. Some of us think that no glory lies within us at all.

 

We try to discard any portion of ourselves that might be found worthy of Jesus Christ's inspection. We rush to cover up any shred of light that may have come from helping our neighbor's rake their yards or from simply speaking to one who is sitting alone and needing company.

 

We try and hide the glimpses of light because we are afraid of the light overtaking the hurting parts of our lives and finding out for ourselves without a doubt that God is true and that Jesus Christ is able to save even unto the uttermost.

 

What does that mean?

 

That means that Christ is digging them ditches with us even after we have murdered someone.

 

Christ died that we might find newness in HIm even after we were convicted of the crime and caught red handed and sentenced to life in prison for our criminal actions. Christ is there with us when we are homosexual in action and in thought.

 

Christ is a cleanser and Christ makes whole.

 

So many people in our entire world, in this place called earth, will not allow Christ to activate operation clean up in their lives because they have just recently become comfortable with their identities, just found themselves, just turned legal age to do whatever without reservation, just become a mama or a daddy, and at that moment they don't want to know that Christ is with them.

 

Isn't Christ with the drunken man and the addicted man? If you drink a lot of sodas and you find that you have reached the point where you cannot live without the rush and the exhilaration that those sodas provide for you how are you any different than the individual who is using and falling at the feet of crack and sex and folding in body for cigarrettes and dividing soul and spirit for liquor that's 180 proof?

 

There is no difference.

 

My pastor who is my pastor first and my wife second says that there are no big sins or no little sins in God's eyes. She says sin is sin.

 

Because sin is sin and despair is despair and separation is separation and brokenness is brokenness Christ came and many of these illustrations and attributes here listed are all the things, all the parts that make up fathers and husbands.

 

I thought some 5 years ago when we were first married that marriage was all about the sexual act. Get mines, maybe you'll get yours.

 

I thought that the children weren't mine and I had a real problem trying to find a way to keep them from coming around. I was furious that I had to share this woman that God had given me with the kids, the very heritage that He had given her.

 

Time wears down and erodes and washes away a lot of pain and a great many mistaken steps. I thank God for my children and I call them that knowing they have seen me in my shattered moments and hours and days. I call them that knowing that God has some kind of plan to bring newness even when it can't be seen.

 

I write that you each might trust God-male and female-married and single-trust God and watch for God's movements in your life.

 

Take your eyes off of the lives of others and look at the images that you reflect in your own life and you will find I am quite sure that it is time to have a sit down with God and say God, I can't do this the way I am doing this any longer.

 

I need You to be my God.

 

I believe that life brings us every day to call out to God and that calling out is our entrance into the next day.

 

It is God's mercies that we are not consumed. Consumed means what? Consumed means totally destroyed, wholly burned. The word holocaust also means wholy burned.

 

How many times have we been right there in the fire and said God You got to get me outta here?

 

How many times have we said God, You know what I deserve to be in here in this fire and You are merciful to me and so wonderful and I praise You regardless?

 

I am not quite sure of the tally count of these things in my own life right now and I don't even think it is meant to count up at all because we are dealing with a nature warfare. God's nature is prevailing always against our human nature which is the nature of being formed of the earth.

 

We are but dust , but God knows our frames and therefore God has mercy on us and gives us help in the time of trouble that proves He is ever present to keep His nature alive.

 

Oh fathers, husbands, right now, how toughly we all as men are fighting to keep our natures alive.

 

Saying we need that strong seed, that seed that shows no weakness, that will buck up in the face of adversity no matter his or her size and say what the deal. And God wonders when we will get that the shedding of our life is the gaining of His life which exists in the place of renewable energies. Not as in environmental but as in Praise God Central.

 

Our hope is lost if we apply it not as a bandage upon our wounds in the name of Christ Jesus who waited until this moment to say something to your heart and to my heart. We can make it always through Christ Jesus.

 

Lord God, right now I lift up to You all the hearts that are wounded in these men who are here facing the challenges and the pressures of fatherhood and of hubandry.

 

A father is an awesome title and You well know the span of the duties O God.

 

Enlighten us even right here and even right now as to how much You are willing to bring heaven's peace down into our souls and into our bodies and into our minds in this place called fatherhood that we might only know You.

 

And O God, we ask also that You apply to our wounded hands and hearts and feelings that touch of Wisdom that You have that cleanses without comparison. You are often duplicated, often imitated, often celebrated, often abated, often reprobated{by us in the fight for our carnal nature to override Your grand design for even our lives} and You are often mislocated.

 

Guide us in our roles as husbands God for You alone made these women that you have given to usas precious stones, as gifts of which we are charged to love and to cherish, to have and to hold, to from this day forth, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer, as long as we both shall live.

 

God, that's a mighty tall order that we couldn't see when we were ready to make it official.

 

Now we hurt and are angry at You and at them and mostly at us because we don't know how to love them, how to cherish them, how to hold them down, how to protect them without weapons of this earthly place. We don't know how to hear how they desire to be pleased instead of rushing to satisfy another portion of our flagrant desires.

 

God, we need You up in here because our marriage is on the edge and I trying not to lose my head. But lost it I have God, so so many times and too many more times than I would willingly like to name or mention.

 

 I see the hurt all the time now God and I remember when her eyes used to light up when I stepped in the room. I recall the way that her words had that cute twist to them as she called me by the name that You gave me.

 

God, I remember and it pains me to do so because it seems so far from here. I need You Lord right now because I can't see any other way around this. I love her and it has become less fairytale and more ritual.

 

Oh how wretched I am Lord God!!!

 

I place these other images in the side of my mind waiting to see if my wife will begin to crumble some more until I am a little more justified in viewing the images I hold in storage in my head.

 

God, why have I these shattered places?

 

Why have I these holes in my soul and in my heart?

 

How long must I wander in this house before I see that smile come back and that joy in her voice agian?

 

God, I miss that, but I cannpt find the feeling to connect to that to bring it back. So I come to You seeking assistance and advice and cure for my ailment. 

 

I have a problem bowing before You God even as I ask for things I need and I ask forgiveness for that from You but I really want to get my needs met and still let everyone see how happy my wife is. Where from here do I go O Lord God? Trusting in You to guide me as I look around for signs of a covenant love. In Jesus' name I pray to You God. Amen.

 

What are we connected to on a day by day basis? I mean really, downright connected to that we might get on up and stop trying to fool folks and see what God got in mind. It is sure as the day is too long for troubles and too short for joys and smiles that somebody got something in mind for us to do or to be or to just try out. How about God? Why not just spend some time and try to see what He got on His mind.

 

I believe that we look at the clock and our passionate capturings and decide that God might just be able to have a little space in our lives.

 

Connection is what drives us to move from a pit of despair or unfaithfulness into a new step towards the vastness of newness. Yes, even a step can be extrememly painful and shattering to all that we know, but God stands by our sides, holds our hands, lifts us from the places of scarring and says, Let's walk it out together.

 

Oh, It is all about connection...connection to the sure steeper who will walk through the many burning coals of living right along side of each of us. God bless us all as we move into the places where our feet both scream and bleed while being purified for walking without worry or fear. God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

 

Step on into your place of victory and call on the name of Jesus Christ who heals beyond belief and whom adds comfort to downward spiraling situations. There is security in knowing that that name of Jesus is all the connection we need!

 

There is a young man we know who had a few serious charges pending against him and His life seemed to be hopeless. Trying to feel God out was breaking Him up in body and in spirit. Seemed like just reaching for God cost too much and left him bruised and ridiculed.

 

But thank God the Word went forth and healed even the disease of the soul where hopeless was disfiguring him inside and out. God executed a slow drip sanctification process from the time of this young man's confession of Jesus as His personal Lord and Saviour and it continues even now. This young man feared facing himself to judge even himself, as we all do at some point in our lives.  But God remained faithful. God is always faithful to us because HE is trying to show us how to be faithful. The young man had his charges dropped from felony to misdemeanor and was given probation service.

 

God sets the captives free!!

 

If you are imprisoned, bound hand and foot and can't even cry out for resolve and help from the LORD, then we pray that God issue the healing touch of His love and mercy right now and we proclaim you free by the power of the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.

 

Be free, O man of God!

 

Be free O virgin daughter of God.

 

IN Christ is the fullness of joy.

 

Your life is meant for more than presently is seen or known. Eyes have not seen nor have ears heard nor has entered into the hearts of men what God has prepared for those who love Him.

 

When you love someone you call on them whenever you need help or just need someone to talk to. You can call them up anytime day or night and they'll drop everything and listen to your cries.

 

God is that to us all. We just gotta tap into His phone line and get His signal from Heaven Wireless.

 

God is not dead, He is Living and able to make these dry bones live.

 

Arise, dry bones and live in the name of Jesus Christ.

 

The songwriter sings,

 

 

It is downright amazing that our lives are still valid to anyone, let alone God.

 

But friends, strangers, God holds the construction bids for our lives as well as the building codes as well as the demolition schedules. What I am trying to say here is that God is in control of all that we are and ever shall be.

 

The scripture says,

 

"If any lack wisdom, let him or her ask of God who gives to all men liberally {that is freely} and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him or her."  (James 1:5)