Viewing Jesus through dirty glasses.

Have you ever worn eye glasses or shades (my term for sunglasses)?  I think we all have at one point or another.  If you wear them for awhile and take them off and look at them you will notice they get dirt specks, spots, and smudges pretty easily, in fact you get them without even noticing it at the time. These things just build up over time and you dont even notice it till you take them off.  When I take my glasses off and see all the dirt specks, spots and smudges I think wow why didn't I see all this while i was wearing them?  I mean its pretty bad.

Wrong thinking is kind of like the dirt specks on your glasses.  It slowly builds up most of the time without you even thinking or seeing it until your walking the trash out to the curb and fall because you dont see the hole in the driveway.   All the pain now in your elbow and arm could have been easily prevented just by having clean glasses.  Problem is you didn't know you had dirty glasses because it was a slow build up over time that you didn't notice till it was too late.

Wrong thinking is the same thing.  Wrong thinking builds up slowly over time without you knowing it until you fall down and then its too late.  I want to talk a little bit about one item of wrong thinking us men can have.  The wrong thinking is this, "Viewing our Heavenly father through the eye glasses of our earthly dad."

I have a real good friend (lets call him Mike) who I grew up with.  Mike had a dad who was not a great guy.  His dad was not only loud and pretty obnoxious he wasn't real nice to Mike.  His dad went through periods of time where he beat Mike and verbally abused him.   Mike told me there were times when his dad would just leave and not come back for weeks on end.  Nobody knew where he was or where he went.  It was pretty scary for Mike and his mom.  Growing up with Mike I knew it was an area that bothered him deeply.  It would bother anybody!  Mike got hurt so much he decided that even though his dad might be able to hurt him physically he wasn't going to hurt Mike emotionally no matter what his dad said or did.  He put up a wall of security as he called it whenever his dad was around him.  After high school my friend couldn't wait to leave home and start college as far from home as he could get.

Several years ago I was able to get back in touch with Mike.  It was great catching up with him and seeing how he was doing.  Mike turned out to be pretty successful.  He is married and got a couple boys now.  From what I know he seems like a real good dad to his kids and isn't anything like his dad.  Mike is a Christian and is a leader in his church.  We were talking some time ago and I asked him about his dad and how it effected his Christian walk.  Even though we were talking on the phone you could immediately tell he became a little chocked up.  He told me his dad prevented him from having a closer relationship with Jesus for many years after high school.

Mike told me for years he viewed God, the father, as he viewed his dad.  The Bible refers to God hundreds of time as the father.  Mike having wrong thinking and not knowing it began to see God through his eyeglasses of his dad.  He told me the following things.

• My dad was mean, so God the father was mean in making me go through it
• My dad left me, God the father will leave me too
• Nothing was ever good enough for my dad, I believed nothing will ever be good enough for God the father as he is perfect.

The list went on and on.  Mike told me he went through countless years of viewing God in these ways.  It effected him in his personal relationship not only with God but with his wife, friends, co-workers, boss and his kids.  I understood what Mike was saying as I know I did the same thing.  I at times viewed God the father through the dirty lenses of my dad.  Think of it this way.  Lets pretend you have a chance to see God.  You are standing looking at God but you cant see him as the strong, magnificent, glorious God he is because your glasses are dirty.  The dirt is a metaphor of your earthly dad that is human and has faults like all dads do.  Here is the thing you will never be able to see God for who he is through the eyeglasses of your dad.  No matter if you had a great dad or one like Mike had; All dads are imperfect and have sin and there is no way to see God the father through the prism of your dad.

No matter how much you know about God the father; until you see him as a strong loving, caring, God who only wants the best for you and will not harm you, you will not be able to have the kind of relationship with him that he desires.  Most importantly you will not be able to love him to where he can set you free from wrong thinking.

Mike told me he was never able to take his glasses off and clean them, Mike told me God did it for him and Mike now sees God the father for who he truly is.

Men of God are NOT called to be "NICE"

Have you heard that phrase, "Nice guys always finish last?" As Colonel Potter from the Mash 4077 would say, "Horse Hockey!". I know 'Nice' guys and to me they seem to have it all. People love 'Nice' guys. 'Nice' guys are always the ones talked about and the ones people like to be around. 'Nice' guys are always invited to the parties and put on the best committees. These 'Nice' guys seem to have the same job the longest and always get the first pay raise when they are dealt out every year. Some of the 'Nicest' guys have the biggest and best houses I have ever seen. If you think enough you might even be tempted to believe 'Nice' guys must be loved by God the most.

Dont be fooled! In fact I would be willing to say even though God loves the 'Nice' guy he is extremely disappointed in him. Whoa there big fella did you just say God is disappointed in the 'Nice' guy? The guy who never gets into arguments, never seems to have a dispute with his boss and dare I might say has the perfect marriage because he and his wife haven't had a fight in upteen years?! Yep, you heard me right! I believe 'Nice' guys are tortured men because they haven't used the gift of being a man to be a 'Hero' for the Kingdom of Heaven.

Here is where I will lose many of you. Are you ready for this? Here is my profound statement which will make many of you 'Nice' guys mad. Here it is,"JESUS WAS NOT A NICE GUY!" Are you upset, disgruntled, or even dare I say mad at me for this statement? If you are GOOD! Its about time you got angry about something!

Jesus was a controversial figure in his day (to this day to be honest). Jesus just didn't sit in the temples and read scripture and push legal garbage on people. In fact, Jesus stood up to the Priests and Preachers of his day called Pharisees and Sadducee's and called them "white wash tombs" (Matthew 23:27) and hypocrites. In todays setting that would be like calling you Pastor a dog or parasite. Would you do that? 'Nice' guys dont call others much less pastors a brood of vipers fit for hell (Mat 3:7 & Mat 23:33-27) Jesus used harsh words when he confronted people with authority when they used it incorrectly. He was irreverent and flat out disrespectful, which is part of the definition of profanity.

Listen real Men are not 'Nice' when they see wrong they confront it, when they hear wrong teaching they rebuke it, when they know something is wrong they dont sit back and say, "Well I didn't do it." No, Real men step up and say look here that is wrong and here is why. Lets read Proverbs 27:5-6. "Better is open rebuke than hidden love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of the enemy." What the scripture is telling us it is better to rebuke your brother when he has done wrong even if it causes a wound because his faithfulness is in seeing you grow in Christ.

There is a big difference between a peacemaker and a peace-keeper. If you watch the news you will hear about peace-keepers getting shot in troubled areas but you seldom hear about peacemakers getting hurt. Why? because God has called us to be peacemakers and not peace-keepers. Sometimes disagreements are needed so the truth comes out and the healing can begin. Peace-keeping is not solving a problem it is only passivity disguised and claimed to be "the way Jesus would do it."

Last year one of my daughters was getting bullied on the bus from school. I could have just told her to sit somewhere else on the bus and ignore the kid. Is that really solving the problem? No it isnt helping the bully because he is just going to continue the bad behavior with someone else so I haven't protected my daughter I have just transfered the issue upon another kid. I decided to confront and fix the sinful behavior. I went to the boys house and his mother answered the door. I asked if little Johnny was home and she asked me why and I told her I would like to speak directly to him regarding his behavior toward my daughter. When the mother would not allow me to speak to her son I politely told her what her son was doing and I wanted this bad attitude to stop or I would take further action. To this day my daughter remembers what I did. Why do you think she remembers it? Because I wasn't a nice guy and swept it under the rug because i was afraid of hurting someones feelings or not being liked by someone I dont even know. Screw that I have a daughter who God has called me to protect and show her that I will protect her like Jesus has called me to. I was able to show her that her daddy was willing to be her hero no matter what it cost me personally.

I am not telling you to go around and publicly rebuking people, that is not biblical. It is biblical when you see wrong to go to that person and say in love, "look buddy you really made a mistake here and it is sin and you need to confess, repent, and go ask for forgiveness." Real men stand up and will fight for right over wrong no matter what it costs them. These men are the kind of men God is calling on. These are the warriors who will take up the full armor of God and say, "Not on my watch!". We have nothing to be afraid of as "God did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and love". (2Tim 1:7)

'Nice' guys are passive guys, and there is one thing I know for sure. There is nothing passive about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Lets become the men God has called us to be. God has called us to be Heroes not only for him but for the people whom he loves who have done wrong and need a friend to help them see the truth.

Accomplishment or Comfort?

Leadership.  Leading people is a huge responsibility.  When you think of Leadership what do you think of?  Is it a President of a company?,  a manager of a corporate division?, how about a pastor or elder?  One of the leading authorities on Leadership today is John Maxwell.  John says in his books,  "leadership is not a position it is influence."  I believe very strongly in that.  

Many people today have authority over a person.  Example a manager of a restaurant might have the authority to hire and fire someone and make them do something that they may or may not want to do.   My question is this, "Do you have influence in their life?"  You see it is much easier to have someone do something they are supposed to do if you have influence in their life.  The only way you can get influence into someones life is not by telling them what to do but to have their TRUST.  You see once you gain someones trust and they know your truly for them they will submit to your leadership.  The question to men is what are you doing to build influence into peoples lives?  If you want to lead, truly lead you must build a relationship with the people you are to lead.  It is totally contradictory to what culture tells you to do.  Being vulnerable and open is not what today's men are to be about.  Men today are supposed to be the John Wayne type.  Alone, strong, and self confident in your abilities, at least that's what the culture today tells men.  Let me say this, the culture is wrong.

Are you a father, husband, big brother, or perhaps a manager, shift supervisor, or Sunday school teacher?  If you are any one of these things you are a leader.  To lead you have to be uncomfortable and be willing to learn.  Most men today demand respect but are much less likely to give it.  To men respect is like water, they not only need it they will do almost anything to get it.  Here is the important root of respect.  You must not be passive in getting it, but you can not demand it without learning how to get it!

Men today do their work and then come home and veg out on the couch and let their wife do all the work with the kids.  Most men spend much more time watching sports center or playing golf than reading with their kids and asking them how their day at school was.  Kids and wives seem distant from their father.  Why?  Because fathers don't invest in their kids or wife as much as they should.  The best way for a man to invest in their wife and kids is to ask questions about their day, their life, and their dreams.  

Men today are passive, they would much rather let the wife raise the kids, discipline the kids, met with the teacher during parent teacher conference, and talk to them when they have questions about life.  Let me say this, if your wife is doing this it is not because they are wanting to do it, it is because their is a void of leadership in the family and it is a Godly husband and Godly father who is missing.  Passive men are like leaches.  Yes you heard me like a leach.  Because of their passivity in leading their family by taking an active role they are sucking the life and future out of a loving, caring relationship with their wife and children.

Men, your wife and kids are like a bank.  Every day you will either make a deposit or a withdraw from their account.  If you love your wife and kids and speak to them in a manner that they need you make a deposit.  Every day you ignore them to watch sports center and not talk with them or show them your love you make a withdraw.  Here is the question you must ask yourself, actually its a question if you want the truth you need to ask your wife and kids.  Here is the question.  "Is your wife's account in the positive or have you made too many withdraws and the checks are bouncing?"  If your wife is not giving you the respect you crave odds are her bank account is in the negative and you have not made enough deposits.  If your kids don't come and talk with you about their problems at school or with their friends odds are they have a negative account balance also.  

If you are to lead and have influence and get the respect you crave, you must become uncomfortable and venture out and gain influence by developing a real relationship with the people you lead.  If you don't know you to gain influence then you need to talk with me or with a true man of God who will teach you and disciple you.

God Bless and remember Real men are fighters like Gideon, David, Moses, and Jesus!  Real men are not afraid to get their hands dirty and roughed up by doing the work of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit to bring honor to God.

Brandon Hein

Men Need A Vision

Matthew 9:27-31

As Jesus left the house, he was followed by two blind men crying out, "Mercy, Son of David! Mercy on us!"  

When Jesus got home, the blind men went in with him.  Jesus said to them.

 "Do you really believe I can do this?" 

 They said, "Why yes, Master!" 

 He touched their eyes and said,

 "Become what you believe."  It happened, they saw. 

     

     So many churchs are killing men!  Not killing them physically but spiritually and emotionally.  If a man dies spiritually and emotionally you might as well put a fork in him as he is good as dead.  Men who are spiritually and emotionally dead are walking zombie's.  God created man to be a go getter, a man who solves problems, creates things, and LEADS OTHER MEN.  Creating things, solving problems, and leading others comes from a drive of how they see themselves.  Men see themselves as what can or will be, this is called a man's  VISION.  A man without a vision for his future will or has already become just another person.  God put something within a man, something that drives them to have a purpose bigger than themselves.  Most men today try to fulfill that with their job or career.  

     In today's economy men are losing their jobs in record numbers.  I recently met a man that lost his job.  He was a builder, not in the construction industry but in the financial industry.  He built banks with passion and vigor.  He lead men to do great things by empowering them.  He believed strongly in his company and what they were doing.  His 'vision' drove him to get up in the morning.  It give him, what he called, a purpose.  The day after he lost his job he called me.

"What am I supposed to do today?"  he asked me.

"What do you mean Mark?" (not his real name)

"For the past 7 years I got up everyday and knew what I was supposed to do and how to do it, today I don't know what to do."

     Mark was lost, he was dying.  He was dying because he had lost his 'vision' for himself.  He had nothing to build, no one to lead, no challenges ahead of him.  Mark was losing his 'vision' of who he thought he was.

     The bible says, "Without a vision, the people perish."  Men are the ones perishing spiritually today.  Every man has the deep desire to live a life of significance.  Men desire to be a part of something greater than themselves.  The church isn't helping men, they are actually killing them by a slow death.  How is the church killing men you ask?  Because men are not willing to surrender to God because they don't know what he (God) is doing in the world, and they have no idea what part they are to play in it.

     Jesus had a 'vision' his 'vision' was the Kingdom of God.  It was a huge.  It required total and unconditional sacrifice.  It required men to do things that were not normal or 'comfortable'.  He told his followers that it would cost them.  When Jesus said it would cost them he wasn't talking about money he was talking about a man's future, his passions, his wants and desires.  Jesus said we are going on a mission, a mission that requires total sacrifice.  He imparted his vision into twelve men.  Those twelve men changed the world.  Those twelve men whom Jesus devoted his every waking moment too helped changed the world.  Those men lived to fulfill a 'vision'.

      The church today needs to call men to service.  A service that imparts into them what Jesus imparted into his disciples.  We need to tell men, "Jesus needs you, he not only needs you he wants to lead you to do things bigger than what you could ever dream or envision for yourself."   The church needs to build within a man an understanding that God needs him.  God not only needs him but wants him to fulfill a purpose that is grander than anything he can imagine.

     The church needs to awaken men.  Men don't need a kick in the head, church leaders do!  Men might be mighty warriors at work but at church they sit in the back and think about how their fantasy football team will do today.  The church needs to understand these men that sit in the chairs or pews and daze off and seem passive are the same men that at work will work endlessly to complete a project at all costs.  Men are mighty warriors like Gideon.  

      When God called Gideon "A Mighty Warrior" he was anything but!  Gideon was scared, timid, back offish, and aloof.  God gave him a 'vision' to defeat cities and armies.  Gideon could never dream of doing this before God intervened.  Once God got a hold of him he caught the 'vision' God had for him and he was able to complete the work God had for him to do.  He lead men into battle where their lives were at stake.  Gideon became a leader, he took the 'bull by the horns' and completed the good works set out for him to do.  Why did Gideon do this?  Gideon did it because God gave him a 'vision' for his life that was much bigger than he could ever imagine.  God proved to him that he was needed, God showed him he was valuable, God demonstrated that Gideon was powerful when others thought nothing of him.  What is the church doing to raise up our Gideons today?  It should be more about the Gideons and less about the people on the stage.  More than anything it should be about the redemptive power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

     Men will, "become what they believe",  when the church by the POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT is able to impart to them the right 'vision'!

Brandon 

Who does this guy think he is?!

Do you know this guy Jim?  Does Jim sound like a Christian?  

     Jim is a thirty-something teacher to whom people are drawn.  But Jim breaks all kinds of rules.    

    He's confrontational, opinionated, filled with will power.  He threatens to fight scoundrels who are making money off of religion, even grabbing their tv cameras, a tool for this sordid gain, and smashing it to the ground, creating one long commercial break.

     Jim has called his students dumb and dull, asking how much longer he'll have to endure their company.

     In order to stem his influence, his enemies play word games and devise interview scenarios in which to embarrass him; he's so cunning and shrewd that he constantly shows them up instead.  

     No one has the guts to talk the way he does.  Others talk like they understand God; Jim talks like he knows God.  Jim forcefully disrupts the order of things and disregards convention.  Jim's inappropriate.

     He calls people bad names that "respectable men" never say.  He verbally confronts one of this most powerful government officials.  When Jim has faced an authority figure who, because of manufactured charges, could actually invoke the death penalty, Jim's slow to come responses have been obscure, searing and disrespectful.

     Jim doesn't mind his manners around important persons.  Jim causes problems for society's respectable people.  No wonder they want to pull him down.

     In one public speech, to illustrate a profound spiritual truth, Jim has spoken of excrement going into a drain.  He's colorful, but some think his language is too coarse for a spiritual leader, and the press has a field day;  PREACHER OR POTTYMOUTH? YOU DECIDE.

     He has told reporters that his mission isn't to discover or promote a lifetime of warm and cozy.  "I bring division and conflict! Live as i say you should," he tells morning news shows over coffee and crumpets, and it may "tear your families apart!"  Then he states the obvious; "Those who don't find me offensive will be blessed."  

     Jim is sarcastic, sometimes bitingly so; he doesn't apologize.  Jim goes to parties and hangs out with others who do.  At least once he has supplied wine during a wedding where children were likely present.  Drinks are on him, even though he knows he'll be accused of corrupting others and touting sinfulness.  The bureaucrats and government workers with whom he spends time are the ones everybody else hates.  Jim doesn't even shun mentally imbalanced devotees or politically leprous radicals.

     Many murmur and complain that they don't understand him.  His own students sometimes won't ask him questions because they fear his response.  

     Most religious leaders enjoy the attention of large crowds, but Jim's wary;  he doesn't trust them, and he doesn't hid his distrust.  He actually confronts empty compliments during public gatherings--not a seekerfriendly ministry approach.  Even though he still takes students, Jim's been unemployed for at least three years and doesn't even look for a job.  He lives off handouts, owns no property, doesn't even have his own cardboard box to return to at night.

     One choice that led to further attacks was Jim's allowing a prostitute--in public--to anoint him with rare and expensive oil that could have been used to feed the poor, support missionaries, or pay for part of a child's life saving surgery.  While his students and his opponents boiled with anger over this wasteful extravagance, Jim would not hear it denounced and had the audacity to say that whenever God's liberating message is preached, this one event will be mentioned favorably.  The woman wiped Jim's feet with her own hair, a lure she has used to draw men to her bed, but he has no care for his reputation.  The scandal of it all!  Hear the good folk gossip!  Film at eleven!

     He warns his students that people will despise them.  Some will even be brought to court by blackmailers with unfair charges.  Jim tells them to pay off the blackmailer before it goes that far.  He instructs one student to sell some clothing in order to buy a weapon.

     Jim, who's loving, kind, and compassionate, is not owned or influenced by fear and shame.  Still, he does all the above and more, which begs the question:  Do you think Jim's a "good Christian man"?  Is he a Nice Guy?

     This is part of the life of Christ as recorded in the Gospels, but are you surprised by how foreign some of it looks?

The story above comes from Paul Couglin and his book "No more Christian Nice Guy"

     Jesus was a man, a real man.  He had emotions, and feelings that were not always "acceptable" to the religious people of the time.  I encourage you to read Matthew 23 and see how Jesus talks to people.  Read Mark 7 where Jesus calls people "frauds",  in verse 18 he calls his disciples "stupid" (the message)  

     There is another side of Jesus;  a side that isn't talked about in our church's today.  Its the masculine Jesus.  He is the same Jesus that hugs and loves children, but this side of Jesus isn't talked about because it's not comfortable to some.  I say preach the truth, men need to hear about the real Jesus.  American church's are dying, they are dying because men don't go to church anymore.  Men feel they must 'check in' their manhood at the door and be someone they are not.  Men think they must be this passive, happy guy that acts and dresses like everyone else.  Garbage!  That's not who Jesus was and that's not what Jesus has called us to be.  

     This blog is about a journey; a journey that I hope takes men back into a partnership with the real Jesus.  Let the experience begin.

Regards,

  Brandon