You Don't have to S'plain to me

After I put the lesson up last week, I had something happen to me that caused me to do a quick repenting of a thought process I was in.  I won't elaborate in this blog, but it caused me to look at my thinking real hard.  It's difficult to keep what I'm currently writing from crashing in on what I've already wrote for our lessons.  During our meetings on Sunday morning it is even more difficult to keep what I'm currently working on in my head from spilling out onto the discussion.  My original lesson for next week was about how we should honor our wives in front of our children.  As I read over the lesson I'd written way back in early November, I began to wonder if it wasn't just overkill.  So, I pasted it a couple of lessons from now, and thought it would be okay.  It wasn't.
I like to think I have learned to listen to Holy Spirit by now, and I do spend a lot of time early in the week praying for direction before I make a post. Sometimes circumstances, and the events of the week will change my direction, but mostly I trust the peace I feel when a lesson goes out. 
Tomorrow night I'm going to hand out the promised homework sheet and I'm hoping you give it thoughtful diligence.  I'm going to change up how you go about it, because of the lesson I didn't post.  How do I know that I got it wrong? 
You guys didn't read it.  Gasp!!!  How do I know that?  Because of the statistics in the blogger dashboard.  Only one person read it, and I'm not sure it wasn't me. (I need to fix that and isolate myself from my statistics)  Laziness on my part.  That was when Holy Spirit made it clear that I'd bypassed His order. 
Why am I saying all of this?  Not because of what I write or say is more important, but because you're not saying anything.  Typical 'man' type reaction to things we think we all don't need to have said to us.  It's kind of like being a Christian for over fifty years and hearing the same sermon points over and over again.  Before long your brain begins to rebel and says; "you don't have to explain that to me. Already got it."  I've been trying to crush that way of thinking in myself, and that is why I've tried to give more than the usual amount of time for responses, but I'm not getting any.  As men we do it to one another, we do it to our wives, and we do it to our children.  ESPECIALLY OUR CHILDREN.  Then, we wonder why our wives and children tune us out. It's the typical human reaction to when we know something, or at least we think we know something.  I was the same way as a young man.  If I already knew something, I didn't want someone telling me over and over again what I already knew.  We often think our time is more valuable than that, and why are you boring me with the details.  Move on to something new, that I don't already know. 
AND that guys, is how I missed on Holy Spirit.  Before I moved on to last weeks post, I should have posted the lesson about 'Mothers' where it came at in the mix.  WHY?  Because before you can have a kid to build, you have to have a wife.  I looked at the lesson and I thought it was redundant.  Most of it was a rehash of what we'd learned when we went through the "Everyman"  series with some minor adjustments for motherhood.
This is my 'mia culpa' for missing Holy Spirit.  I thought you guys didn't need to have it explained to you again.  You know; who your wife is to God, how she doesn't belong to you, how she is co-equal to you in the family, all that good stuff you understood at the start.  Bro. Dave "You don't have to s'plain it to me again."  Got it the first time. 
Are you willing to put it before your wife and ask her if you got it the first time?  Has she had to give you some attitude adjustments since we did our manhood study?
My greatest fear for myself is when I return to the arrogance of my youth and claim that I don't need to have it explained to me.  Feminists call it 'mansplaining' which is simply saying 'talk to the hand' without the hand gesture.  We men do it all the time, but we don't tell each other what we're doing or why we're doing it.  Men 'mansplain' to each other all the time.  Instead of reacting emotionally, putting our hands on our hips and saying; "Stop mansplaining to me,"  we just nod politely or change the subject.  EVERYONE of us mansplain, but we don't realize it.  Women think we're being sexist when we do it to them, but they don't see it when we do it to one another.  We think we are 'rearing' our children when we explain life to them, but we're mansplaining.  Preachers think they are doing it when they repeat the same point over and over again.  Teachers do it when they think they teach the same thought over and over again.  "Did you get it?  Do you get it?  Understand?  Think about it!  Let that sink in!  Tune in!" I say these catch phrases all the time.   These are just a sample of the catch phrases we use when we hope to bust through the barrier of understanding.  Jesus said it more clearly than anyone; our eyes are blinded, and our hearing is dulled lest we understand.  Every preacher has experienced it, every teacher fears it, that moment when it is obvious you've been tuned out.  We all hope we're just reaching that one person, when we are boring a hundred others.  It's in the eyes people, and we won't talk about it.  A warm room, stale air, repetitious teaching, coffee, donuts, all add up to boredom, which is the one thing I despise.  I'd rather be adding to or arguing with another teacher than to be the teacher who no one is conversing with.  This is the same way we should see our charge as fathers.  That is why I know that Holy Spirit has told me we need to be 'deliberate fathers.'  This job of fatherhood should be done as deliberately as we do our money making job.  Every morning we need to put on our father hats and wear them till we arrive at our jobs.  Then we need to put on our job hats OVER our father hats and remember that our job will leak onto our fatherhood.  The little human being you brought into this life only has one father to example the heavenly Father with.  If that father isn't deliberate in how they do it, the chances they will find the heavenly Father are minimal.  You may turn out a beautiful son, or daughter, but do they have a relationship with their heavenly Father. Which brings me back around to how this all started. 
I tuned out my Heavenly Father, and for that I apologize.  I don't really know why I messed up, but I did.  SOOOO,, we are going to put the motherhood lesson back in its rightful place.  Holy Spirit, I'm sorry for missing you.  I also hope all of you guys read this with an open heart and didn't get offended with my candor.  Fatherhood is too important.  If we allow the 'world' to define family, we are giving up.  I made it clear from the very start that I can't teach this alone.  There are too many of you who are better fathers than I was.  You might be thinking that all of this is redundant and why are we even wasting our time on this, but the truth is that I can think of six unmarried 'boys' in our midst who need to hear what may seem obvious to us.  I don't have one infant or toddler grandchild to make a difference to.  Some of you have do have infants and toddlers running around in your family and this is happening in your lives right now. 
When we come to Men's Sunday morning, I hope you've taken the 'Build A Child' homework and sat down with you wife who just happens to be the mother of your children, and discussed what qualities you hope to build in your child.  That is where I screwed up.  By moving the order of the lessons around, I bypassed including your wife in the deliberate parenting process. 
OH, and as an added thought; you grandpas out there might consider getting with your sons and seeing where they put their priorities.  Might help you to know how to back them up instead of working against them
Please forgive me for my arrogance, and presumption. 

Sincerely, Pastor Dave.

Looking at Matthew 5:3 From Two Different Perspectives

 About six weeks ago, I asked some of our men to teach on the beatitudes.  You might be wondering what the beatitudes have to do with the Kingdom of God, but it only takes the first passage of scripture to reassure yourself that they have everything to do with it.  The beatitudes define what the Kingdom of Heaven is all about.   The first beatitude can be found in Matthew 5:3, and because there are two schools of thought concerning this scripture verse, I assigned the passage to two different people.  There is one school of thought that says the passage should read: “Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”   Then we have another school of thought that says it should read “Blessed are the poor in spirit (the humble); for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  

When I assigned the lessons, I didn’t tell either of the men that they were teaching the same verse.  I didn’t want either one defending, or comparing their interpretation of the verse.  I also asked them to produce a lesson sheet, and answer two questions; the first being:  1. How does practicing the particular beatitude make you happy?  2.  What does the particular beatitude have to do with the Kingdom? 

The first lesson was on Humility, and was taught by Curtis, a man in his late forties. 

THE HUMBLE:

v  The spiritual principal of humbleness produces freedom, peace, and an abundant happier life

Ø  Humility makes you happier because, having humility means you are teachable.  Being teachable brings hope, and where there is hope, there is happiness (Proverbs 29:18)

Ø  Honesty, Open mindedness, and Willingness accompany humility (Romans 12:3)

Ø  Pride is the opposite of Humble: (Proverbs 29:23, Matthew 23:12)

Ø  New Ideas CAN NOT be grafted onto a closed mind, pride closes our minds to new ideas.

Ø  Pride keeps us locked in bondage , and limited to what we know, and that produces the pressure and stress of having to know all the answers, and making those answers work.(Romans 12:16)

Ø  Living a humble life invites God into our lives, by letting him know we need Him. (Proverbs 3:5-7)

Ø  When we are humble (practicing humility,) we can look past our defects, or our powerlessness over a situation, to seek a solution from God.  This will give us the power (grace) to overcome. “overcoming makes us happy)  (James 4:6-11)

Ø  When we humble ourselves, and place ourselves in a lower position to be of service to someone, it removes us from the picture, gets our minds off of the problems, and sometimes that is what is needed to change our attitude!

Ø  MISERY IS OPTIONAL – PRIDE EQUALS MISERY – HUMBLE EQUALS HAPPINESS !

This last weekend, 14 year old Stone taught on the same verse, but from the position of being poor.  (If you want to be amazed, just keep in mind that this is a 14 yr-old.

THE POOR IN SPIRIT:

v  Matthew 5:3 (NLT) God blesses them who realize their need for him, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs

Ø  The poor have nothing that is an illusion of security to them.  They only have God to protect them.

Ø  “The Lord wants to cause even the rich and middle class to become poor in spirit and know their total need for Him.”  (Compelled by Love: by Heidi Baker)

§  The Poor in Spirit have eliminated every option except for Jesus.  There is no plan B for the poor in spirit.  God blesses them because they realize their need for Him.  WE are happier when we are poor in spirit, because we do not rely on our own strength to overcome. (Note similar thought to Curtis’ thought)

Ø  Psalms 91:2 – This I declare of the Lord: He ALONE is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God and I trust in Him.

§  The poor in spirit don’t run to anything but God: only He can offer true, and unwavering protection.  Only HE is always, and completely faithful

Ø  Psalms 20:7 – Some nations boast of their armies and weapons, but we boast in the Lord our God.

§  The poor in spirit value nothing of themselves, but always feel that God is the most important in their lives, and that he alone deserves our devotion.

v  The poor in spirit are happy because they do not rely on their own strength, or other flimsy ideas but fully rely on God.  Therefore they have no anxiety because they are not the ones in control.

  There you have it, two people at opposite ends of the age spectrum, bringing life to the issue of the Poor in Spirit.  I know how people can tend to be when they are arguing for, or against a point, so I think it was fun to see this verse taught from such a pure point of view.  No matter which interpretation you embrace, the simple truth of the matter is that our happiness comes from a position of believing God is our source.  Whether it is humility or being poor, our lives are happier when we rely on God. 

I kind of like the purest sense of the “poor” being the people Christ was referring to in His sermon. I don’t believe we have to live in poverty, nor do we have to subject ourselves to poverty to have the Kingdom.  At the same time I believe that those who rely completely on God for their needs are happier than those who trust in themselves, their money, or their position.  It isn’t the ‘having’ or ‘not-having’ that matters, it’s the heart condition in the middle of it.  I’ve know plenty of poor people who are what I call ‘dirt proud,’ and I’ve known plenty of people with money who’re as humble as they come.  Whatever interpretation you believe, be happy.