A Treasure From God

Guys, or I guess I would be more correct in say," Ladies", because women are 10 times more likely to read a long article than a man. Us guys just will wait on the Cliff Notes or for our wives to tell us about it. That, in a nutshell is what I'm writing about. Watching Perry Stone recently, he spoke on this very same topic and I found out I wasn't by myself, we agree 100%. I'm about to tell you ladies something that most men don't want to get out, but when you sink an anchor of emotional attachment into us, we will pretty much follow you like little puppies. That can be good or bad, which leads me to a subject that I discuss with a lot with my guys. You need to be very careful before you allow a woman to get close enough to sink those hooks in. She will be a steering force in your life, for the good or bad. Once you are on the hook, its often too late. The damage will be done before you ever realize what everyone else has been trying to tell you since you first started losing your mind. So, the million dollar question is how or why? The answer is because we need them and God knew it. Without them we would still be walking around with our knuckles dragging the ground.
If we go back in time, we could use any name in the place of Adam and I'm sure it would have still turned out the same. Put Steve in there and they would still be called woman.. Why? I'm sure knowing the male species and being part of them, it went something like this. Adam woke up and looked over and saw this beautiful creature laying there in all her glory and Adam shouted Whoa - Man !!!!! So, God said, Ok we will go with that.. We are pretty simple creatures. After all we did come up with cat and dog.. Deep thinkers I know.. But, I for one am grateful he made woman. Can I get an amen. Throughout history there have been many women that have been the downfall of many men. Men that seemingly had it all and threw it all away on a whim, pretty eyes and everything we weren't born with. But on the other hand, there are so many men that achieved greatness because they had a good loving woman behind them. The men had a good start with a sure moral compass when it came to dating and made good decisions when it came opening themselves up to love and allowing a lady to have that position of encouragement. We have heard the statement before, when a man was being honored for some great achievement, that I couldn't have made it without the encouragement and strength of my wife. That statement has more truth than we realize.
Every man that has walked the Earth has felt the impact and power of a lady. I don't care if your loafers float, we were all born of a lady. Even Jesus himself, although he never had a wife, knew the impact of a lady. Take the wedding for example. We all know the story of how he turned the water into wine. Have you really paid attention to the underlying story? Mary apprached Jesus and in todays terms was almost in freak out mode. The weddings those days lasted a week and it was a community affair. So providing food and drink for all guests was a pretty big deal. They run out of wine and surely the neighbors were going to be talking. So, Mary appraoaches Jesus and says something to the effect ( again in todays words ), I'm so glad you made it son, we are out of wine, I need you to do your thing.. Well Jesus looks at her and says its not time for me to show up and show out yet. I can see it now, Mary pauses, looks at Jesus, smiles, and turns around and shouts to everyone "just do what he tells you." Right there, to the creator of the universe, a mother tugs at her sons heart strings. Guess what he did? His first miracle, lol..
As Perry said, in that moment Mary showed the connection of her to God. Remember that Jesus had her blood in him but not of man. She was his mother and God was his father. He was connected and bonded to his mother as we all are. But if you look back in time through the old testament, you will see that God did not always answer mens prayers but you will find that he always answered the Godly womans prayer. Women are more tenacious and persistant than us guys. For example, in the parable of the woman before the judge, she keeps coming back to the judge until she gets the answer she wants. She basically pesters him to death until he gives in. But she gets what she wants. Women are like that when it comes to praying. They are much more intense and straight to it than us guys. We have to call it a prayer breakfast for us to get together and pray. Then it's all about what we are having and spending the whole time talking about praying. Women just say, hey we need to do some intersessory praying and they just get after it. Not saying there aren't good Godly men that are prayer warriors cause there are a lot of men that I look up to. But seriously guys, if my life or soul depended on a group praying, I think I'd put my future in the hands of the prayer chain at church. I could still be there waiting on my miracle while the guys are still frying bacon, where as the ladies would be wearing their knees out crying to God.
Whats your point Steve? My point is that when some of us guys get on our high horse and think we have a monopoly on talking to God we need to check the attitude. When we think we are all that and a bag of chips, again the attitude. If you think that women can't fill the postion you have at church, chances are she could and would do it better. I know how God talked about men being the leaders of their church and families and I'm not going against the big man for sure. But I think that has a lot to do with the men in that family or church. If the men won't or don't step up to the responsibility that God gave us, then it might very well be that the ladies have to. And I personally know some Godly ladies that make up for endless amounts of weak backboned pastors that are more apologetics than mighty men of God. They are more worried about hurting someones feelings and not being liked than they are loving the person and showing them the truth that will save their souls. These ladies wouldn't sit on Larry King and deny that Jesus was the only way to Heaven. Guess he was more worried about being politically incorrect to the Muslims than he was about loving them and showing them the truth. But, here I go and getting sidetracked. I get accused of that a lot.. lol
I, for one, am grateful that God looked down at us and saw how truly pathetic and lazy we can be as men. So much so he created a help mate that would inspire us, motivate us with the gifts God gave her, wrap us around her finger, and if need be nag us til we get off our rear ends and get busy. Might as well admit it men, we need them. Fortunately for us guys, God created this system to where they need us too. Or at least like us, he put something in them that wants us around. He created us to grow up, find a Godly partner, marry and become one. In that union is every blessing that we could dream of. If we are being the Godly fathers and husbands, leaders, that he called us to be then we shouldn't have to worry about having a lady that honors you as the leader of her family. Our wives, or future wives, are given to us a gifts from God. We are responsible for how we treat them. One day God will take them back and will look to see if we built them up, honored and loved them. He will want to know if we made them our treasure only behind him.. The love of a good Godly woman is a gift to not be taken for grant it. Remember this also, it's never too late to start. The farther you go along the harder it's going to be, but start at this moment. Humble yourself before her. Show her that she is a treasure and only God is more important in your life than she is. She can have more impact on your life than any CEO. She can guide you in a direction that will change your life forever. If things have not been great and you see no hope, try anyway. Take her to church and be a Godly leader for her and your children. Watch Fireproof. Stop listening to those egotistical jerks at work and become wrapped around your wifes finger again. She needs you to be a man, and I think you will find as you become the man in her life you become the man of her dreams. She will want to be the woman of your life. Be strong when appropiate and be gentle in her arms. We were given a great gift that day in the Garden of Eden. Show her how precious you hold that gift and how grateful you are for her. Most of all get on your knees, thank God for her, and ask him to help you be the man you should be. God Bless and go honor your wife.

The Pretenders

The Pretenders

I have recently gone through some things that had you asked me prior if I could deal with it, the answer more than likely would have been no. Probably some kind of phrase muttered, "I'd rather be dead." But come to think about it it, the previous mountain climbed would have resulted in the same response. The time before that, and before that, etc.. You get the picture. Point is, from the time we are children, we have limitations placed on our lives. Some are imposed by others, while some are just self imposed by our surrounding environment and just being taught, we are just humans, we are not suppose to be able to handle everything. Well, at least there is some truth in that phrase, kinda. We are humans, and we seldom handle things correctly, especially when it's our butt on the line. It's that sympathetic nervous response Walter Cannon nailed as the fight or flight response. High tech language we have to learn in the medical field but it basically means, we freak out. We become the Chihuahua of the human species. In our defense, this has saved many men and women in situations that seemed unachievable. But for the rest of us, especially me, it has caused me to forget the thought process altogether. In the majority of my life, had I just slowed my breathing, my pulse, and just started getting some oxygen to my brain, I may have thought of a much more logical way out of my predicament. But then, who are we talking about? Steve...... So I freaked when I should have thought and screwed everything up so much worse.

So, here comes the Great Pretender.. Shakespeare would've been so proud of me so many times. So, here we are again, we have inevitably messed something up so bad it just can't be ignored. Now, this is where my theory I call my, Bill Clinton Syndrome kicks in. The one thing we all have in common is that , yes, we are all humans. Some of us perform our roles with a little more admiration than others but at some point we all fail. It's that sin nature passed down through thousands of generations, when our dear ole Grande Eve and Papa Adam decided it would be cool to be smart as or smarter than God. Fast forward, the Bill Clinton Syndrome. Now, when we mess things up, and I mean really mess up, sure someone is going to be mad, maybe even hurt. But if we stop it there, then we may still be in the forgivable range. After all, we are all humans and even the purest have messed up. But, nooooooooo. We will compound that mistake a million times over just to avoid the brief moments of humility and pride swallowing we may have to do. Of course, while we are in that fight or flight response, we are not coming to the obvious conclusion that at some point that simple little error is going to be found out. When that happens it's going to look like a pinhead compared to the mountain of lies we just emitted in our freak out moment to cover it up. This has inevitably been mine and a lot of our lives. Does it mean we are bad people? Some, maybe, but for the most of us no. It just means we made a mistake and instead of just squaring our shoulders back and facing it, we had the crazy thought we could just cover it up and no one would get hurt. I believe in most of our hearts, that's the case.. We are good people that made mistakes and really do not want to hurt the ones we love the most. Most of us would gladly take a brutal beating before we hurt the ones we love. So we try to prevent it. But, in the process, we compound their pain.

When I sat down tonight and started to write, I had a whole different direction I was going. "The Pretenders" topic was suppose to be geared toward how we pretend everything is ok, when in reality on the inside we are hurting. I know for myself, there may be a few I open up to and let know some of the pain that is going on, but even after a while you start feeling guilty for using them as a dumping ground. To me, and this is my own opinion based on observation of people that I watch and my own actions combined, I think one of the biggest issues in God's church today is that we are not transparent. We play that Stained Glassed Masquerade. But do you know what happens? It's the same inevitality that by hiding our own hurts and pains we hurt those closest to us. They see us as having it all together and hold their pain inside. God gave us a 24 hour hotline to him to pray or just talk to him about these things. We are to lay all of our burdens at his feet. He wants us to take these chains we carry and lay them on his shoulders, to give us peace. The price he paid to be able to do that is a price none of us can ever imagine. See, before we were ever created, God created a place called hell for a band of rebellious angels including Satan. It's a place of such eternal torment that our minds can never comprehend. But, he had no intention of us ever going there. Unfortunately, the one hell was built for travels this earth, seeking to devour and destroy as many as he can. We fall right into his trap. Because we choose to follow his lies and fall to his deceit and we will be taken down with him. Many say God is a God of love and I will say you are right. He doesn't want his children in that hell. He himself felt the temtations of Satan as a man. He knows his power. But these games we play as humans only play into the hands of a doomed man wanting to take down as many as possible. The 24 hr open line of communication to God is there to help us. But he also wants us as his church to stop playing these masquerade games and lean on each other for strength while we turn to him for guidance. For those that think hell is just a fairy tale, that God would never send his own children there, let me ask or tell you this. There is a reason he left paradise to come to this God forsaken Earth to be beaten, humiliated, tortured and killed on a cross. A pure sacrifice had to be given in order to save his misled children from that nightmare designed for the one that deceives us all. He gave all that up and was butchered so we do not ever have to experience that. Listen, as a man that has faced many hellish things on this Earth, the pain from MS or for those poor souls that have gone through so much worse than I can ever imagine, there is hope. There is hope because he loved us so much to go through so much pain, agony and humiliation as the King of this Universe to give us the hope of something so wonderful he has waiting for us. All we have to do is just make the choice to do so. Stop being bitter and a scorn in your neighbors side, tell them you love them. Stop being the one no one wants to be around because you are always negative, be the one that lets his light shine. Stop pretending everything is ok when its not. Be real, get on your knees and cry out to your father whose heart aches for you but stands in the paradise he created for you if you will just hold on a little longer. And church members, stop putting on your suit and ties and pretty dresses and painting smiles on your faces when your world is falling apart. God called for us to join together as a body. To lean on each other for strength. Remember, he knows how hard it is. There is a reason for the parable of the one lost sheep. Well there are a few, but one very important is that together as his sheep we are strong under his watchful eye, but let one of us wonder off and in the brush there is a wold that is ready to devour us. We have to stick together as his sheep, under his protection. We need to know his voice and listen when he speaks. Above all else we need to put all our faith in that voice, without it we are doomed. Yes, there is a hell, a place of torment never ending, but he left heaven to face hell head on so we never have to experience it.

I've learned a slow painful lesson. Like a dog beaten over the head multiple times I'm slowly starting to get it. There is a way and only one way. We are going to face trials here on Earth, but he will never leave our side. I also learned that I am much stronger and able to defend myself against the attacks of that doomed one if I am surrounded by other Godly men and women. Not perfect, just people that have learned like me that the only way is through Jesus. Sometimes when I start these things I never know where he is going to lead me and this is one for sure I didn't know but I believe it's probably one of the most important. We have been given just 2 commandments in the new covenant established by Christ. If we follow those then the rest take care of themselves. Love God with all your heart, and love your neighbor.. If you do that then we will all one day be singing praises to our creator in our glorious home, Heaven.. God Bless and I love you all..