Proverbs 13:20 He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
One of the things that I am most grateful for, aside from my wife and children, is the presence of wise men in my life. I have truly been blessed by some great men. I guess I was fortunate enough to realize early on, that I was not going to just happen to be the man God would want me to be. I have always been open to direction and help. It seems that may be a dying trait. Especially among males, the thought today is, "I've got this." It is a sign of weakness to accept advice and the cool thing is to disallow any leadership in your life. Well, thankfully, my life is full of wise men that I have gleaned and grown from over the years. Let me challenge you fellas, get with an older wiser man or more than one, and allow them to rub off on you. Respect their wisdom and experience and learn from it. Appreciate it and apply it to your life. Get over yourself and your pride. Let someone in. One thing I am sure you will find out is that you are not the man you think you are. You very well may be the man society thinks you are, but if you will invest some time with a wise man or two, you will see that society has it all wrong.
I must also say that because of the blessing of other men in my life, I had a desire to be the same for someone else. To mentor and be mentored is a very special thing. To mentor is to disciple and you can not do any better work than building people. Your most effective outlet with the gospel will be that close relationship where you can challenge and be challenged. Listen to wisdom, figuratively from this scripture and literally in your life, from other men.
p.s. Ladies, the same goes for you.
Showing posts with label mentor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mentor. Show all posts
Monday, October 15, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
A great investment tip, for real
I have to say that maintaining a blog is a little harder than you may think.
Try it and when you do, let me know so I can follow you. Anyway, the last two
weeks have been crazy. I am an only child and my parents have moved yet again,
so my family and I needed to provide packing and unpacking services. That was
the week before this one. This week has been a totally different story. For the
seventh consecutive year, I am at the Wilds, a Christian camp and conference center in North
Carolina. No one does camp like they do and I have been blessed as a sponsor
every year.
As I have sat in the services and seen the great responses to the preaching, I could not help but think of a conversation I had this week with another sponsor. Interestingly enough, I am nearly 600 miles from home and I was able to make a connection. Our conversation turned to a mutual "acquaintance", a church that we each had an attachment to. This church does not promote any type of youth ministry. That is odd in and of itself, but what astounded me is the fact that they run a Christian school from kindergarten all the way through twelfth grade. That would have to be labeled the extreme end of the discussion of youth ministry...none. Well, as many of you know, most of my years in ministry have been as a youth pastor, and even now I tell my folks, "I will always be a youth pastor to some extent." I love young people. I love being around them and working with them. I love their energy. I love their enthusiasm (if you can find it). I love their perspective. Why would you not want to have a ministry to and for young people? I am sure that the vast majority of parents have provided education, food, and clothing for their children at the child's learning/age level. I am also sure of the provision of specialized medical care for that age group in pediatricians and pediatric dentists. I surely hope that entertainment has been provided in an age-appropriate manner, as well. So why not ministry? There are so many options: Sunday school, children's church, youth group, Bible clubs, retreats, camps, fellowship meetings, seminars, and youth revivals. We have several families at Franklin that have joined our congregation by much prayer, but brought in by our emphasis on youth. Can I tell you that you can not go wrong investing your time, energy and resources, or your church's time, energy, and resources into the life of a young person. I am talking about the best of every world here. There is instant gratification as you look into the face of, not just a child, but a teenager too, and say, "I love you and I am so proud of you." There is a hope that you can not explain and a future that you'll never be able to predict, just from ministering to a young person. There is a dividend that only eternity will reveal as your effort is multiplied by its repetition in countless more lives.
If you attend a church without a vision for young people, you need to ask the Lord how you can change that. Churches are already drying and dying from lack of vision and attendance. If you are not infusing new life, young life, into your church, eventually it will go that way. I love being the Pastor of Franklin Baptist Church, but from my Perspective, I will always be part youth pastor, investing in their lives.
As I have sat in the services and seen the great responses to the preaching, I could not help but think of a conversation I had this week with another sponsor. Interestingly enough, I am nearly 600 miles from home and I was able to make a connection. Our conversation turned to a mutual "acquaintance", a church that we each had an attachment to. This church does not promote any type of youth ministry. That is odd in and of itself, but what astounded me is the fact that they run a Christian school from kindergarten all the way through twelfth grade. That would have to be labeled the extreme end of the discussion of youth ministry...none. Well, as many of you know, most of my years in ministry have been as a youth pastor, and even now I tell my folks, "I will always be a youth pastor to some extent." I love young people. I love being around them and working with them. I love their energy. I love their enthusiasm (if you can find it). I love their perspective. Why would you not want to have a ministry to and for young people? I am sure that the vast majority of parents have provided education, food, and clothing for their children at the child's learning/age level. I am also sure of the provision of specialized medical care for that age group in pediatricians and pediatric dentists. I surely hope that entertainment has been provided in an age-appropriate manner, as well. So why not ministry? There are so many options: Sunday school, children's church, youth group, Bible clubs, retreats, camps, fellowship meetings, seminars, and youth revivals. We have several families at Franklin that have joined our congregation by much prayer, but brought in by our emphasis on youth. Can I tell you that you can not go wrong investing your time, energy and resources, or your church's time, energy, and resources into the life of a young person. I am talking about the best of every world here. There is instant gratification as you look into the face of, not just a child, but a teenager too, and say, "I love you and I am so proud of you." There is a hope that you can not explain and a future that you'll never be able to predict, just from ministering to a young person. There is a dividend that only eternity will reveal as your effort is multiplied by its repetition in countless more lives.
If you attend a church without a vision for young people, you need to ask the Lord how you can change that. Churches are already drying and dying from lack of vision and attendance. If you are not infusing new life, young life, into your church, eventually it will go that way. I love being the Pastor of Franklin Baptist Church, but from my Perspective, I will always be part youth pastor, investing in their lives.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The Power of One
Let me start with the background for this thought. In II Kings 17, the king of Assyria, Shalmaneser, removed the people of Israel from the cities of Samaria and replaced them with Babylonians and others of the surrounding lands. Because these new inhabitants did not fear the Lord, the Lord sent lions among them and slew some of the people. In verse 26, the explanation is offered to the king, "The nations which thou hast removed, and placed in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land: therefore he hath sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them because they know not the manner of the God of the land." The solution was then offered to the king, "Carry thither one of the priests whom ye brought from thence...and let him teach them the manner of the God of the land." And there it is...the challenge to be the one. One man was dispatched to Samaria to make a difference in the midst of all of the people living there.
There is an old English proverb that says, "Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." When I read that proverb, immediately the portion of scripture from Matthew 5:14, "Ye are the light of the world" came to mind. Whether we choose to believe it or not, one person can make a difference. And before you say, "Sure, but not this person", let me remind you of what Helen Keller said. “I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.” I know not one person living with the difficulties or impairments of Helen Keller. I'll put it this way, the inability to do everything should not keep you from doing something. Be that one. The Bible tells us that these new inhabitants feared the Lord after the priest moved in with them and taught them. Get involved. I would say even if it is with just one person, but that minimizes the effect you could have. Intentionally seek to be a difference maker in the life of someone and then move on to someone else and so on. Having had the opportunity to mentor a young man has brought me to a deeper dependence on the Lord. I realized that I really did not have what he needed so I was forced to seek God for help and direction. Through that time I adopted the words I still pray regularly, "Lord, grant me words and wisdom to make a difference."
And there is the beginning of being the one. If you desire to be a "one", someone who effects positive change in the lives of others, you must follow after the One who is the orchestrator of the greatest change ever, a changed heart. The One through whom "old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new." We can pull from that scripture in II Kings that the best that one person can do is teach/exemplify the word/ways of God to people, not lion tame. Deal at the root and that will change the fruit. I will leave you with one last quote. It is a quote that is often mistakenly attributed to D.L. Moody, but it was actually a very intimate friend of his that said,"It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly unto Him." To which D.L. Moody replied, "Well I will be that man." There is power in one. Through a right relationship with God through His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be that one. God help us all to say and mean, "Well I will be that one." I hope you feel that way too, otherwise, it's just my perspective.
And there is the beginning of being the one. If you desire to be a "one", someone who effects positive change in the lives of others, you must follow after the One who is the orchestrator of the greatest change ever, a changed heart. The One through whom "old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new." We can pull from that scripture in II Kings that the best that one person can do is teach/exemplify the word/ways of God to people, not lion tame. Deal at the root and that will change the fruit. I will leave you with one last quote. It is a quote that is often mistakenly attributed to D.L. Moody, but it was actually a very intimate friend of his that said,"It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly unto Him." To which D.L. Moody replied, "Well I will be that man." There is power in one. Through a right relationship with God through His son, the Lord Jesus Christ, you can be that one. God help us all to say and mean, "Well I will be that one." I hope you feel that way too, otherwise, it's just my perspective.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)