1 Take a Stand

I originally wrote this post 2 years ago in June of 2013 and yet it still has huge relevancy as America continues to change before our eyes. I am calling out the men again to take a stand in their own homes and be strong and be who you have been called to be for your family. I ask that you read this post with the same urgency it was written 2 years ago and now…

The Ironman Strength blog has always been about MEN being strong in God and taking on the challenges that this life sends our way and this post is no different. Guys, I sense some indecisiveness out there. Maybe you have some doubt in your lives that if left alone, could cause some very serious problems for you and your family down the road. Please read this post with the same urgency that I write it and please take it to heart because our America is changing. I begin with a verse for warriors that I hope you will apply today…

But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15 NIV)

This is a great verse because it is clear and to the point. When Joshua wrote this verse, he knew he was going to die. He had fought the good fight for God and now he was old but before God took him into heaven, Joshua spoke to the children of Israel and gave them two options about their spiritual future; either serve God…or don’t serve Him. They had already experienced the power of God throughout their daily journey as they moved through the promised land and continually overcame obstacles that were more than they could have ever withstood on their own…And now, here they stood on the precipice of the most important decision any of them would ever make for their future…and with Joshua gone…would they give in and serve the gods of the existing tribes around them…or…would they take a stand and serve the God who had brought them to where they were now?

What is critical to note here though is Joshua’s final opinion on the two options he gave Israel. He said, “as for me and my household, we will serve The Lord”. As was typical of the rock who Joshua was, he did not waver or falter…he spoke from his heart and it was solid.

Joshua was one of the most powerful warriors in Biblical history who served God with all he had and when the end of his life was near, he took his final stand in front of his nation and announced who he and his household would serve…

My question to you is…which option have you chosen for you and your house?

Have you taken the stand for yourself and firmly planted your feet on the solid ground before God?

I believe that now is time to “man up” in your relationship with God…You need to make a decision and then stick with it…It is your responsibility to shield both you and your family from the harm that Satan seeks to wreak upon the people you care about. Now is NOT a time for doubt, it is a time for clarity. Otherwise you will be like this;

But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. (James 1:6 NIV)

Everyone has seen seaweed being tossed back and forth inside waves with no stability whatsoever. That seaweed could end up anywhere because it has broken away from its stronghold under the sea. Guys, if you doubt, that will be you being thrown around in this world like broken seaweed in the waves…with nothing to hold onto…being tossed around with no idea where you will end up…

Trust me here…that is NOT God’s plan for you OR your family.

Guys, I challenge you right now to be the warrior God intended you to be by taking a stand inside your house by protecting your wife and kids from what Satan seeks to do them. It starts by clinging onto our God who is a rock and a fortress and will always be there for us…

I challenge you to be like Joshua and declare to the world…

As for me and my house, we will serve The Lord…

Who will you choose to serve?

Until next time guys…

bad_odds_for_youth_gamblers

I really enjoy reading the Old Testament because I like to see the hand of God everywhere throughout the various difficulties and challenges that each Israelite generation faced. What a life these Bible characters lived; between the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Hittites, the Midianites, the Jebusites, the Amorites and all the other “ites” working to destroy them through one means or another…One thing is clear, if the Israelites did not seek God for protection, they surely would not have survived. These armies they faced were immense and the men themselves were huge with some of them being Giants as we shall see.

Time and time again we see examples in scripture of a no possible way for victory and yet Israel survived through divine intervention Do you remember the story of Gideon in Judges 7 where God tells him that he has too many men to fight the Midianites? When was the last time anyone heard that before a battle? “You have more men than is necessary to accomplish this task”…so then after he pairs down his army to a “are you kidding me” number of 300 men, he goes out and wins a huge battle with trumpets… In our eyes, the Midianites should have destroyed this small band of men. But as was in most of the cases with Israel, the worse the odds seemed for any victory, the better God liked the scenario…because when Israel was ultimately victorious it was absolutely clear to ALL opponents, the God of Israel was truly ALL POWERFUL.

Now, we have another example in Dueteronomy with Joshua, Israel’s great General, where if you were a betting person, this battle was the ultimate long shot. In fact, the odds were so bad against Israel in Deuteronomy 3:22, God had to remind Joshua to move forward in faith and He, God…would fight the battle for them. You see from Joshua’s point of view, just counting soldiers, they would have been destroyed. But God had the situation right where He wanted it. He told Joshua:

Do not be afraid of them; the Lord your God himself will fight for you.

Can you think about that for a moment…”God himself will fight for you”.

Could you use some help right now with someone fighting your battles for you? Here is something I want you to think about when you are facing a difficult situation; have you considered that God may want the situation you are facing to seem overwhelming, insurmountable and frankly impossible?

Why…because God wants you to be fully dependent upon Him in all of your life circumstances and especially the difficulties because he wants there to be no doubt in your mind that you achieved victory because of Him. God prefers situations and circumstances that have no apparent (human) solution…at least to you and me…but just like in Deuteronomy 3 where the children of Israel had to face Og (who was a real guy, a predecessor to the famous Goliath of Gath…Og King of Bashan who according the Bible, was even bigger than Goliath read Deuteronomy 3:11) they moved forward in faith on the battlefield and was victorious…not on their own power, but with God right their beside them fighting…you must move forward in your own faith and take the first step. I don’t care what the odds are for victory, I only know what Paul tells us in Romans 8:31:

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Honestly guys, those are odds I can live with…

Until next time Guys…

the-cross-made-you-flawless1

Have you ever been inspired by something? Maybe a great speech, or a seminar you attended, or even a song that really hit you in your core? Maybe whatever it was actually got you to think that something in your life might actually change for the better? Because sometimes lets face it, we need that hope don’t we?

I found myself unexpectedly inspired by a song recently that I want to share with you the main idea in this post because I think it matters to all us as we continue to navigate our lives. You see, some of us find ourselves going back and forth from trying to be good person and then failing miserably. As a result, when we try to get back to God, we feel like we are on the edge of a cliff and we cant get back…we have gone to far and we are going to fall over…which brings me to point of my post and the point of the song…

No matter what path you have been on or may still be on…

 

No matter what has happened in your past that you are ashamed of…

 

No matter if you have experienced failure, disappointment, unhappiness or you just cant overcome what is keeping you down…

I want to point out one thing to you that you may have forgotten along your way.

God has and amazing grace, just for you, and as a result of what Christ did…

THE CROSS HAS MADE YOU FLAWLESS…

Here is what is important to remember; the reality of this part is that we come to God looking kind of filthy because we live down here is this world full of sin (I cant imagine what that actually looks like from God’s perspective). Without the cross, I don’t think God could recognize some of us because we are so covered in the stuff. But that isn’t the end of this story because all of us have grace, which means we (YOU) can approach Him and through the cross, He can see you are Flawless.

I don’t care what you have done…that’s between you and Him but I do know that because of His grace extended…and His righteousness wrapped around you…

You, YES YOU, are Flawless…

Guys, I get this is a very simple message but I also know we can all lose our way and forget even the simple things God has given to us. I believe there is no such thing as hopelessness to someone who recognizes what has been done for him on the cross…why? Because being right with God and being flawless before Him…there is truly no greater place any person can be and that my friend is the greatest hope anyone could ever experience.

Until next time guys…

Enjoy, Flawless, by MercyMe

heaven1

The fool says in his heart, there is no God.          Psalms 14:1, Psalms 53:1

Yes. It is true. This particular verse is in the Bible twice and I have to wonder why that is?

The “fool” is mentioned many times in Gods word but he is classified as a fool based upon two things:

  1. He rejects Gods word and His revelation
  2. He does not seek God in prayer or request His presence in any way.

These are the simple realizations of how the Bible classifies a fool…none of which surprises any of us.

David told us in Psalms 16:2:

That apart from you, I have no good thing.

According to the Bible, the person who is a fool is the one willing to walk this journey of life completely on their own and they are comfortable with the fact that they have only themselves to rely upon. David on the other hand, can’t imagine one single moment of life without God. He told us that without God in his life, he had nothing. Solomon also told us that the pursuit of “stuff” in this life is 100% meaningless when carried out apart from the will of God.

So the question is, which direction should we choose? What choice to YOU makes the most sense? Should we pursue our life solely on our own with no help and no guidance and just be willing to take our chances with whatever comes next?

Or, do we believe David, who said that guy described above is a fool because he doesn’t believe in the existence of God?

Guys, I heard this awhile back and maybe it’s relevant for this post:

I would rather live my life believing there is a God and die to find out there isn’t one, than to live my life NOT believing and then die to find out there is…

I have no idea where any of you sit with this question that I am raising today and I can only give you my side of the fence as my example but I would simply ask you wouldn’t you want to at least anchor yourself onto something that will last? I know answering that questions requires belief but there has to be more to this life than just this…don’t you think?

You see I believe in a basic fundamental about this life. Simply put…the existence of a single God…the Creator. Why? Because I believe you were created for a higher purpose. But yet at the same time, if you refuse that basic fact about the existence of God, then I can only conclude that is the reason why David wrote what he wrote…

The fool says in his heart there is no God…

In this world YOU get to choose…I pray that you choose wisely. I also pray that you choose with your eternal future in mind…

Jesus said, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Matthew 12:30

Until next time guys.

have-you-made-a-plan-for-your-life

Guys, if you can, please take just a few minutes and read this story in the book of Acts. This is about the beginning of Christianity and how once Christ had ascended into heaven, how ugly the Apostles were treated by the Pharisees.

Acts 5: 17-41

The Apostles had angered the high priest because they kept preaching in the name of Jesus and he was looking for a way to kill them. During this angry meeting of the Pharisees, another Pharisee leader stood up whose name was Gamaliel (the same man who Paul studied under), and gave the council some very wise words which are summarized in the verses below:

Acts 5:38-39

…So in the present case I tell you, keep away from these men and let them alone, for if this plan or this undertaking is of man, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You might even be found opposing God!

As a Christian man, I encounter obstacles everyday just like you do. Unplanned problems rise up in front of me and seem to work just to thwart my plans every time I turn around. Does this ever happen to you? Your plans get squashed in front o your eyes? What I found was a huge encouragement when I read these verses again is what I want to share with you today…the very simple realization of:

If your plans are just YOUR PLANS, they will fail…

But if they are of God, NOTHING can stand in your way.

Guys, go with me for just a moment here. How many times have you made great plans for a project or a vacation or for that matter, your entire life? You may be busy organizing your finances or changing directions because of information YOU have that matters or refinancing or getting a line of credit or…I can go on and on.

You are probably planning right now am I right?

Guys, Please hear my words right now…planning is NOT a bad thing…in fact, it is a very good thing to plan and look forward to the future…what I am suggesting to you today is to make your plans WITH GOD INVOLVED. Look to Him for the guidance to those plans, because as was said above in Acts, if your plans are with God, He will be your guide and get you there in once piece.

Now there is one caveat to this conversation which is your understanding that God has plans for you too and if you get Him involved, He will want to guide you towards His higher plan for your life which trust me, is the direction you want to go…

Do His plans and your plans always coincide? Honestly, no they don’t; But I have found that when I am in the middle of Gods plan for my own life, I ALWAYS come out in far better circumstances and a much stronger person than I was before.

So consider what I am telling you today because God is very clear when He tells us this from Jeremiah 29:11:

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Those words are for you and me…

Until next time guys…

guard-your-heart

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. Proverbs 4:23

When was the last time someone told you to guard your heart? Has anyone ever told you that before like maybe Mom or Dad? On the outside, guarding ones heart does seem like an odd thing to say, but from a Christian perspective, it makes all the sense in the world.

But I always do find it interesting when I find scriptures that reference exact circumstances I’m in now or see others going through and I realize that God was way ahead of all of us when He gave us this Word of His. Where else will you find instruction about guarding your heart? Who else but God would have cared enough about us to give us instructions as to how to do this in the first place? You see, if you look at the Bible as just a storybook, and I have met many who do, you are missing Gods point. His intent with scripture was to provide us a road map to use while on this journey called life. It is up to us and it’s our choice as to whether or not to use it…

So if we get back to this scripture above about guarding your hearts, and we look at it transparently and think about the FACT that…Satan only wants your heart and nothing else. Because when he gets that, HE HAS YOU.

Do you believe that? When Satan breaks through your heart barrier, it takes a superhuman effort to resist him and when was the last time any of us met a super human? That’s because they don’t exist. The reality is, the only way you or me can only hope to resist Satan’s attack on our heart is with Gods help. Our job is to seek God and everything else just works out according to His will. It really is that SIMPLE.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

What I am telling you is simply this…

Be aware of who and what you give your heart to…

Guard it safely as God has asked us to do…

Don’t be ignorant of what I have told you…

Until next time guys…

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I pray that we are not the generation that never saw IT coming. What is IT? Please read this:

If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.

Luke 19:42-44

Luke writes this in his gospel and it is the only gospel where Christ says this in response to seeing Jerusalem in all its glory…but yet totally blind. In just a couple of days from that point, Christ would be crucified.

Jesus has pity on these people because they cannot see what is right before their eyes. The opportunity to have God among them was there for a time, and then it was gone.

He then speaks about when the enemy will come and build a circle around them and they will be surrounded on every side with no way out…BUT, and most importantly, they did not recognize the time of Gods coming to them…

Guys, I write this to you today because its painful when I see the world around me and all my brothers completely surrounded by the enemy and they can’t see God.

God has a way out for them, but they do not see it…

I simply write this today to warn you now that the time is drawing near where the option of Christ will not be there. Please hear me.

 I am NOT the town crier.

 What I write is my opinion solely based upon what I see on the news each night and what I read in the Bible. I do not have a timeline. The Bible says,

“No man knows the time or the hour when He will come”.

But there will be signs of the times…and believe me, there are many signs out there if we just pay attention to them.

Brothers, all I am asking is that you see the signs and recognize them for what they are…and hear me and understand me that all I do is warn you because I care.

Again, I say that I do not want us to be part of a generation that did not recognize Christ when He made Himself known to us and when everyone finally saw the need, it was to late.

Guys…I want to leave you with these verses from 1 Thessalonians 4…

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope. For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him.

 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage one another with these words.    1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

My intent is only to encourage you…


Until next time guys…

polls_live_forever_5930_223223_answer_1_xlarge

I heard one of my favorite Pastors, Andy Stanley, recently speak about a topic that I think is so very relevant right now because of where we are in the world with all of its chaos and unpredictability. As Christians, many of us can honestly see the worlds events unfolding just as the Bible says they would…all right in front of our eyes and yet at the very same time, we same Christians are living on this earth as if we are going to live forever?

We live, play, and conduct ourselves as if our tomorrow is something guaranteed to us…NEWS FLASH…it isn’t.

You see as Pastor Stanley said, if we could totally see God as He is, everlasting to everlasting, we would give Him the reverence that He is due because as humans, we are only just a blip on the screen of eternity. In fact, I don’t even think we are a blip or a speck on His eternal timeline. If you really think about it, what is 70 or 80 years to a God who is truly eternal or time less?

Here are a couple of points to consider:

  • If you and I could see God as He truly is we would be much more careful with the time that we have here on this earth.
  • If you and I could see God as He truly is we would probably rethink what we do with our limited time here on this earth and how we choose to spend it.

Think about that for a second…Do you consciously think about how you will spend your time?

Because from my vantage point, it looks like many of us are just living as if the rest of our life is guaranteed and locked in permanent. We even spend our time with our children as if they’re going to be here forever. Whether that means we ignore them or we tolerate them, they too will be gone before we know it.

Moses said in Psalm 90:12

Teach us to number our days so that we may gain wisdom from you.

When we number our days and gain that wisdom from God, we carefully allocate what we choose to spend our time on each day. In other words, we pay attention to what we do and where we focus our efforts on. Simply put, this life is preparation for the next and our task here on this earth is to accomplish what GOD wants us to accomplish and NOT what WE think we should. As Christians, remembering our time is limited on earth should give us better insight into how we should not waste it.

Please trust me when I say this, wasting time is not what God would have us do while we are here on earth.

One more thing to consider:

Pastor Stanley made the point that because my time is limited means I need to limit what I do. In other words, don’t throw yourself into every single thing you are asked to participate in as well as for your kids.

You know exactly what I mean…

Busy is good…crazy busy, stressful busy, that is not careful allocation of the time we have here on earth. Something to think about…

Guys, when I heard this message it hit me between the eyes and spiritually speaking, I hope it does for you too…

Until next time guys…

 

humility

In my own life, I have found that fear can be a very strange motivator. In the heat of the moment it can cause us to move towards both good and bad behaviors. Sometimes fear can cause the hero in us to come storming out of the depths of our core ready to take on anything…

Other times fear can also cause some of us to cower in the corner and be almost paralyzed. Either way, fear has very different reactions for each of us…with none of them predictable.

I have written about fear before in past posts but I felt the need to revisit it again because of some recent reading in the Bible where once again I learned more about the absolute might of our Lord God. It has always amazed me that God describes Himself as “Love” as well as our “sanctuary of refuge” yet throughout the Bible He reminds us that we need to fear and dread Him as well. Those have always seemed completely opposite to me, but then let me remind you of the love of your earthly father. On one hand he is the one who teaches and helps guide us along our path as we grow but yet when we do wrong, he is there to punish us and remind us that there is always a consequence for sin. At the same time, we experience both fear of the punishment and love from the same person because he is a father who loves his children.

The Lord God Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary. Isaiah 8:13-14a

But as I think about this world around me and our human nature I think that without actual fear in our relationship with God, humanity would become to comfortable and relaxed towards Him…oh wait…many of us ARE to comfortable and relaxed and that my friends, I believe, is a big mistake.

We cannot forget that no matter what is going on right now…He is God and we are not. Everyday the business of life piles up in front of us and we get distracted and diluted with our responsibilities. Trust me when I tell you this guys, I am speaking to myself just as much as my audience. We cannot be too busy to be humble in the sight of God…to recognize His might as well as His love for us.

This is simply a friendly reminder for all of us. If we can maintain that fear relationship with God, there is a humility there in all of us that God can use. When you focus on maintaining that condition of the heart, that Humility…well simply put, life is better because the joy of the Lord will be your strength.

Remember Proverbs 22:4

Humility and fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life…

I don’t know about you but I could use all three of those…

 

Until next time guys…

A Response to Sum Guy in India

Posted: February 7, 2015 in Inspirational

Businessman-looking-for-god

One of the greatest experiences I have had with this blog is the opportunity to receive comments, both good and bad, from the readers. I find for the most part, people are struggling with many of the same questions that I have and share their thoughts on this blog. Most recently, I wrote a blog about the Tower of Babel where I shared that God ultimately saved Mankind during the building of the Tower instead of destroying the builders by confusing their languages. When God looked at their intent, which was solely to “make a name for themselves” rather that wipe them out…he confused their languages and because they no longer could properly communicate, they gave up on the tower project and moved on.

As a result of this blog, I received a comment that I wanted to share with all of you from a very articulate man in India whose reasoning I find excellent as he poses a great question for me, “Why didn’t God just allow them to fail?”

To truly help this conversation resonate with you, you may need to go back and read the previous blog in order to understand his comments back to me. Below, is Sum Guy in India, (as he calls himself) response to this post.

 

I wanted to chime in and say: why would a God confuse man with the languages? Surely after allowing man to sink to such lows as are observed pre-Noah, it becomes clear that God is willing to allow significant tribulations to befall mankind as a whole. Without intervention.

Would allowing man to fail not make more sense? If a group of men attempt a great deed, their leader befalls a tragedy, and they fail, the question becomes “Did they fail from the tragedy or from their own hubris; was the deed possible or did they just suffer from bad luck?” A tower to heaven is impossible, we know this now. But it strikes me as odd that an omnipotent God would deny such a learning experience to his people in one year (XXXX BC), then allow his people to travel far beyond a tower, to the moon and planets beyond in another (1969). To read the transcripts of the astronauts and cosmonauts it is clear, they believed they were prodding god. Is this not the same hubris?

Despite my own beliefs, reading this article caused me to look at this tale in a purely analytical light. Unfortunately, it sounds more like one of the Roman’s or Aesop’s fables than a grand truth.

Yours in Pondering,
Sum Guy
In India

 

Dear Sum Guy-

First of all, thank you for reaching out to me with your response. One of the best parts of this blog are the articulate questions raised that truly cause me to think. Honestly, I appreciate your perspective greatly and frankly, I don’t disagree with you. There are many stories within the Old Testament that are not without great questions as to why God did what He did.

As examples, Genesis 6:5-8, Exodus 32:9-14 and Numbers 14 illustrate…Not only do I not understand why God did or reacted in a certain way, in these circumstances, He seemed to allow mankind to influence Him to change His mind? However, as an old preacher once told me, “Gods sovereign decision to allow this to happen doesn’t mean he is inconsistent or changeable, but that a different aspect of His character gets expressed by whatever decision He makes”.

We as humans can only approach anything in this life through our own eyes and with our own perspective because that is all we have. We can study books that man has written or we can observe nature but we can only learn and perceive as much as we know through our human minds. What I have found to be true us that the God of Creation…is NOT me. Even though I am created in His image, I clearly do not think or react like He does. In fact, He points this very fact out in scripture:

 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.  Isaiah 55:8-9

These things you have done, and I kept silent; You thought that I was altogether like you; But I will rebuke you, and set them in order before your eyes.    Psalms 50:21

Should God have allowed men to fail in that specific instance while building the Tower of Babel? Only God knows what was in their hearts at the time and we only know what the Bible tells us; these people wanted to make a name for themselves (Gen. 11:4) and God wanted them to seek and trust Him. I think based upon what we know about God through what He has revealed to us about Himself, that He saved them from themselves by confusing their languages…

I am like everyone else on this earth when it comes to understanding the “why God does what He does” and sometimes how confusing that is for everyone. But if you believe what God says about himself in scripture; that He sent His only Son to die and save us in order for us to be with Him always then to me it comes down to one thing;

Can I live this life with faith and can I trust Him enough to believe that He will save me even though I have questions?

As a Christian, even though I ponder, I still come back to faith…

Thank you for sharing Sum Guy

 

And for the rest of you…until next time Guys…