Archive for December, 2020

Heavenly Deposits

Posted: December 26, 2020 in Heaven Bound
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I had the opportunity to spend some time with an old work friend who I hadn’t seen in a long time. At one point, we had worked together every day for two years but after I left that company, not so much anymore. But I had the chance to connect over some dinner so I took advantage of the chance to see him. As you can imagine, we talked about the usual work stuff and family stuff but somehow the topic bent toward him planning to win the lottery of all things. 

To be clear in MY mind, that topic was wasted mental energy because the chances of winning are not worth spending the time thinking about what you would do with all that money. But as I sat there and listened to my friend talk, I realized he had taken this lottery-planning topic to a whole new level. Honestly, the amount of detail he had already planned out was utterly amazing. He knew where he would invest, who he would give money to, and how much. He knew what upgrades he would make to his home, where he would take his first vacation, how he would quit his job, and the list went on and on. He even worked out a plan to help his kids pay off their student loans, and buy his parents, sister, and nephews new homes…and guys, I could keep going. I finally interrupted him and asked him why? Why would you invest so much of your time and brainpower on a topic that will most likely NEVER happen? 

He replied simply, “ah, but it could, and I want to be prepared”

“Prepared”, I thought. “Interesting concept.”

From your perspective, what does it take to be prepared for anything? Investing time, thought, and effort toward something helps you be prepared…However Christ told us to prepare by storing up for ourselves, treasures in Heaven…in other words, preparation for eternity…not preparation for a fictitious event, or for that matter, anything else here on earth.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust can consume, and where thieves can neither break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matt. 6:20-21

So what is a treasure in heaven? How can I have any connection with heaven while I am still here and living on this earth? 

Here is how I look at this; my friend was investing huge amounts of his time thinking about a fantasy event rather than thinking about how to make a difference now while he is here on earth. For example, how about spending more time with his kids, his wife, or both? What about focusing on or engaging with a particular subject that might make him better or even the people around him better? 

The way I see it, all of these suggestions are treasures that are being stored in heaven for him. It’s like making a deposit in a bank or maybe better yet, it’s an investment in your heavenly eternal future.

Jesus said, “How will they know me? By how YOU love one another”

Pretty simple actually. If we take the time to be kind to someone, anyone…when we aren’t required to do so…YES… it helps them, but believe it or not, that is a treasure YOU have stored in heaven. 

What you do here on earth matters for your eternal future.

You see…everything we store up in heaven is safe…forever. There are not any malware or viruses that can wipe out your deposits in Heaven. Christ said this in the verse above, where neither moth nor rust can consume, and where thieves can neither break through nor steal.

NOTHING can destroy what you have stored there…It is safe for all eternity

My simple advice:

Why don’t we try to get out of our own way, focus on each other for a change, and watch what happens…

What I think you will find is a far happier group of family and friends because you aren’t 100% solely focused on yourself…or like my friend at the beginning of this post, who simply spent too much time planning for a fantasy event.

So as you begin to look and plan for this next year, 2021…my recommendation is to start making heavenly deposits sooner rather than later…

Honestly, your future depends on it…

Until next time Guys…

Are you a Grumbler?

Posted: December 20, 2020 in Tough Times
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We have all heard the word and maybe you even have first-hand experience working or living with a grumbler.

Websters defines Grumbling as: 

to complain or protest about something in a bad-tempered but typically muted way.

For us men; Grumbling is specifically mentioned in the Bible as something Christians need to work hard to avoid. Grumbling is dangerous because it creates unrest. Grumblers are what a boss I used to work for called, “people who punch holes in the boat”. Whether this is a work application or just a life application, grumbling ruins everything over time. 

In this past year of crazy COVID, I did a whole lot of grumbling, how about you? What does that say about me? Probably that I write this particular blog because I need to read and apply this one more than most of you…because when it comes to grumbling, I failed this year.

To me, when the Bible mentions a topic over and over, we need to pay attention; and Grumbling is mentioned numerous times. Now, just a few sentences into this blog do you find it hard to believe that the Bible even talks about grumbling? Why would grumbling matter to God? Easy…because as I said in the beginning, grumbling is a dealbreaker or as my wife would tell me, “I don’t really want to be around you when you grumble” Honestly, I don’t want to be around myself when I do that either…it is miserable.

When I started looking into this topic, I remembered reading about Moses as someone who had to deal with grumblers as he guided the Children of Israel across the desert. During those 40 years, he was constantly battling the grumblers who actually were not grumbling against Moses, they were grumbling against God…Which is really the point of this blog today.

MY grumbling, the Children of Israel’s grumbling, anybody’s grumbling, is truly AGAINST our God. AND, with a HUGE emphasis on this point…it ALSO makes everyone around you unhappy… 

Paul tells us that very fact in 1 Corin. 10:10

And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer. 11 These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction,z on whom the ends of the ages have come.

Destroyer? Wait, what? No one mentioned anything about a Destroyer. But actually, that’s not true because, as we just read, Paul informed us HOW big of a deal grumbling is to God…

Grumbling undermines anything and everything that is good. It basically says, “I don’t trust this plan or this person, and I need to make sure that everyone around me knows. Moreover, I really don’t think that God is capable of saving me or my family. Can you imagine what grumbling does to your children? I can tell you, it fundamentally provides them an example of how to walk away from God and just not trust or believe Him that He will work things out.

Yep…Grumbling does all that and MORE.

Guys, today I urge all of us, and certainly, myself included, to refocus on Christ and His saving salvation and start by just being thankful for that…THEN…Push Grumbling aside completely and look at your family and be thankful for that…

The pattern for removing grumbling is being thankful. You can’t grumble when you’re thankful…it is a scientific impossibility. OK…honestly, not sure about the science part but I do speak the truth. When you truly focus on the things in your life that you are thankful for (and they are there) you won’t feel the need to grumble anymore.

Guys, if you are like me, 2020 sucked and it is still sucking. But for me, even writing this, helps me remember that I have a tremendous amount to be thankful for and even though the future seems scary and I am unsure, we have a God who cares and asks us constantly to reach out to HIM for help.

Guys, I urge you today to take the first step…be thankful for ALL you have and no more grumbling-

Until next time guys-

Postscript: If you are specifically interested in the Destroyer I mentioned earlier, here are some scriptures for you to reference:

Exodus 12:23, Hebrews 11:28, 2 Kings 19:32-35

My many trips to Home Depot

Posted: December 13, 2020 in Just for Fun
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I wanted to change things up towards the lighter side with this post and I just couldn’t resist this article because I know we have ALL been there along our journey. I cannot take credit for this, and I have no idea who wrote it, but it just is so true…Enjoy.

Alright, so we have all been there at some point, you are in the middle of some kind of project around the house – mowing the lawn, putting up a new fence, painting the living room, or whatever. You are hot, sweaty, and covered in dirt or paint.  You have your old work clothes on,  Shorts with a hole in the crotch, an old T-shirt with a stain from who knows what, and an old pair of tennis shoes.  Right in the middle of this great home improvement project, you realize you need to run to Home Depot to get something to complete the job.  

Depending on your age you might do the following:

In your 20’s:

Stop what you are doing.  Shave, take a shower, blow-dry your hair, brush your teeth, floss, and put on clean clothes.  Check yourself in the mirror and flex.   Add a dab of your favorite cologne because you never know, you just might meet some hot chick while standing in the checkout lane or you went to school with the pretty girl running the register.

In your 30’s:

Stop what you are doing, put on clean shorts and a shirt.  Change shoes.   You married the hot chick so no need for much else. Wash your hands and comb your hair.  Check yourself in the mirror.  Still got it.  Add a shot of your favorite cologne to cover the smell.  The cute girl running the register is the kid sister to someone you went to school with.

In your 40’s:

Stop what you are doing.  Put on a sweatshirt that is long enough to cover the hole in the crotch of your shorts.  Put on different shoes and a hat.  Wash your hands.  Your bottle of Brute Cologne is almost empty so you don’t want to waste any of it on a trip to Home Depot.  Check yourself in the mirror and do more sucking in than flexing.  The spicy young thing running the register is your daughter’s age and you feel weird thinking she is pretty.

In your 50’s:

Stop what you are doing.  Put a hat on; wipe the dirt off your hands onto your shirt.  Change shoes because you don’t want to get dog crap in your new sports car.  Check yourself in the mirror and you swear not to wear that shirt anymore because it makes you look fat. The cutie running the register smiles when she sees you coming and you think you still have it.  Then you remember the hat you have on is from Buddy’s Bait & Beer Bar and it says, “I Got Worms.”

In your 60’s:

Stop what you are doing.  No need for a hat anymore.  Hose the dog crap off your shoes.  The mirror was shattered when you were in your 50’s.  You hope you have underwear on so nothing hangs out the hole in your pants.  The girl running the register may be cute, but you don’t have your glasses on so you aren’t sure.

In your 70’s:

Stop what you are doing.  Wait to go to Home Depot until the drugstore has your prescriptions ready, too. Don’t even notice the dog crap on your shoes. The young thing at the register smiles at you because you remind her of her grandfather.

I hope you enjoyed the humor of this article guys because the bottom line, we are all getting older but through the grace of God, even though our bodies aren’t what they used to be, we have huge reasons to be hopeful for the future. 

Jesus is alive and well and we must continue to tap into Him for Ironman Strength.

Until next time guys-

Is it so Hard to simply…Believe?

Posted: December 5, 2020 in Inspirational
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I know that a great deal has been written about Abraham, the patriarch of the Old Testament, and honestly far more than I could ever begin to convey in a single blog post. The same thing can be said about how many times you or I have heard someone speak about Abraham in our lifetimes. He is not only important to the Christian faith, but also to Muslims as well because he was the father of Ismael, who as mentioned in Genesis 16:12 below, was against everyone.

This man will be like a wild donkey. His hand will be against everyone, and everyone’s hand will be against him; he will live at odds with all his brothers.

Interesting verse, isn’t it? But let’s get back to Abraham because he does something in his life that caused God to award him with the status that I know all of us would give anything to have. God saw something very different in Abraham that gave Him confidence in knowing that He could start over with the Jewish nation. Abraham was special in the eyes of God and that has always struck me…what made him different? What did he do that would cause the Creator to think in his mind, “that is my guy”? “He is the one I am going to work with” “I am gambling on him”.

When you read about Abraham you can see right away that he is a doer. He is a man of action when the situation calls for this. He wrestled with God over the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. He rescued his nephew Lot and his family when they were captured. But what I found most interesting about the story of Abraham is that “doing” is not what caused God to find so intriguing about him…it was Abrahams “believing” that actually moved God. In fact, the verse in the center of this post is what made me write this in the first place is in Genesis:

Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Genesis 15:12

Think about that for a moment…for the very first time in the Bible, we see faith and righteousness mentioned together. Why is this so important? Because of this statement:

By Abraham just simply believing in God…down deep in his heart, God gave him a right standing or a “different” standing with Him.

Abraham’s heart was turned toward God in an enduring trust, obedience, and submissive relationship. Because of that rock-solid belief, it changed his status with the Creator of this universe. Abraham didn’t conquer the greatest army in the world or climb the highest mountain…all he did was believe, and that belief caused his position with God…to be BETTER.

Guys, in almost every post I have ever written here on IronManStrength, I have expressed the fact that living in this world, as a Christian, is not an easy road. I don’t say that to depress you, I say it to encourage you because of the amazing journey we are all on together.

What I find extremely encouraging about the story of Abraham is the fact that even though what he saw in front of him was contrary to what God told him…He still believed. Here was a guy who was told his offspring would outnumber the stars and this would all begin with his very own son… he was over 100 years old and his wife was a ripe young 95…but, guess what? He still believed…

Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.”  He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then the Lord said to him, “So shall your offspring be. Genesis 15: 4-5

Guys, hear me out for a second…how does this really apply to you? How does the story of some old guy who lived over 2000 years ago make a difference to any of us right now? It’s simple really…

Abraham had problems – we have problems

Abraham had struggles – we have struggles

Abraham had family issues – all of us have family issues

God spoke to Abraham – God can speak to us

The difference:

ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD

Not lip service…but real belief…that is truly what it comes down to guys…actual belief that God can do what He says He can. 

When you believe God can be trusted…your relationship with Him changes. When you are obedient and submissive toward God and do not allow arrogance inside all of us to show through…things will change.

I encourage you to take your own belief to the next level by trusting God.

Establish a “right standing” with Him…

Do you Believe it?

Until next time guys…