Quotes

" It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light." -Aristotle

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Everyday life can get extremely busy, and it is often difficult to make time for each days planned activities. Unfortunately, in many cases, our relationship with God is often what gets cut out. We choose to focus on other tasks that we feel are important, ironically cutting out the most important thing in our life. As the saying goes, “actions turn into habits, and habits turn into character”. Over time as we cut out our time with God, unintentionally distancing ourselves from God, our relationship with Him begins to falter. This tends to lead to other worldly things entering our heart which can make us proud or self-reliant. Inevitably, life happens, and hard times will come. It may be a job loss, marriage situation, addiction, death in the family, or other life altering event that causes us to reach out and seek God again in prayer. In the quote from Aristotle above, it is at this time, that we must focus our attention to the light.

"Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4

As Christians, our light is God! I would argue that Aristotle’s quote falls completely short for disciples of Jesus. We should be always focusing on the light and the truth of Jesus. We should not wait for the difficult times to come to shift our attention to Him. Our faith and our relationship with God become considerably stronger as we focus daily on Him. Reading and understanding the word should become one of our most sacred rituals which we intentionally seek to do. By arming ourselves with the word of God, we understand that the difficult times will always come, but through faith and prayer, these difficulties will pass. The difficult times will also strengthen us in ways that only God knows. Relying on our own understanding and asking God the “why” we are going through this, means we are relying only on the physical nature of what is being seen, not relying on faith, and understanding that God will give us the strength to get through anything. In these times of difficulty, self-reliance is the easier path because we feel our emotions, understand our own thoughts, and feel we can control our situation; conversely, it is much more difficult to have faith in God and that He is always in control and will provide what is needed to get through difficult times. In good times or bad, God needs to remain at the top of our list of priorities.

"Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5 

"I have had—and I won’t throw any people under the bus—but I have had moments where I was on stage receiving an award in front of my peers in Hollywood, and there were people in the crowd that I have prayed with before dinners many times, and when I thanked God, I saw some of those people go to clap, but then notice that, ‘This is gonna be a bad thing on my resume’ and then sit back on their hands,” Matthew McConaughey (on Joe Rogan Podcast)

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6

In 2014, Matthew McConaughey thanked God at the Academy Awards for the opportunities that He had bestowed upon him and said that God is who he looked up to. He watched the audience while he spoke and noticed his long-time friends, fellow Christians, and others sat on their hands in lieu of clapping at the end of his speech. They seemed to be afraid to let anyone know that they were a believer in Jesus Christ.

The wicked flee though no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion. Proverbs 28:1

As the gospel has called us to be, McConaughey was bold and courageous in his proclamation of Jesus Christ. He set aside his fear of persecution and potential loss of work in Hollywood to boldly acknowledge God. As Christian men, this is exactly how we should be living our lives. We are called to be disciples as we walk through life, no matter how uncomfortable it may get. A disciple is one who is willing to learn and absorb scripture and then go into the world and proclaim the good news. We are told that because Jesus is hated by some, as disciples, we will also be hated and persecuted. We see it in the world today as Christianity is under extreme attack from multiple angles. Much of the world is trying to remove Christianity from society. The strong and courageous will press on though, knowing full well the greater good of a disciple’s work. There are many who have not been reached and our calling is to be daring and find every opportunity to reach them.

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 2 Timothy 3:12

God sent His son Jesus to live on earth in the flesh and then die so that we could be saved. This is, and will always be, the greatest sacrifice ever made. How could we ever be ashamed of that? We are alive because he died for us, it is a small sacrifice on our part to live our lives according to His will. The world has gotten a little crazy these days and it’s just possible, a little Jesus could go a long way to remove some of the ugliness and madness. In order to have a substantial impact on today’s self-reliant culture, as Christian men, we must take the lead and spread the gospel and witness whenever we can. Conversations with others about Jesus are required to get the ball rolling. Sitting on our hands will not get the world anywhere. There are many people out there who have never been introduced to Jesus and this is our calling as disciples. Pray to find opportunities to disciple to others, and then be alert for when those opportunities present themselves. Be strong, don’t be afraid, and let God guide you as we slowly move the world in the right direction.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans 1:16

"Coincidence is God's way of remaining anonymous.”  Albert Einstein

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Revelation 22:13

We generally think of a coincidence as two or more random events that occur, which appear to somehow be tied to one another. We often hear the phrase, “we met by coincidence” or “that’s a coincidence”. You have probably experienced a thought or a dream in which something has happened and then come to find out in short time that it actually does. The term coincidence seems to provide the world with a convenient outlet to explain why things happen. Scientists want to say that coincidences are a mere matter of probability and statistics. We call it a coincidence, often overlooking the substantially large statistical probability that two people who meet actually needed to meet for something to happen in the future, or that two completely separate actions people take wind up causing something else to happen that changes the future. By calling these events ‘coincidences’, it allows the world to completely rationalize incidents with science and not question or explore the ‘why’ things have happened.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” Romans 8:28-30

As Christian men, we must understand Providence. Everything is God’s creation, and he is continually working out His master plan to fulfill His purpose. To that point, there are no coincidences, only the hand of God at work. God is a functioning participant in His creation and actively working in the world. Strangers meet for a reason, people are in the right place for a reason, and yes bad things sometimes happen for a reason. The reason may not be entirely clear at the time they happen, but there is a purpose for each event. They all happen to ensure the ‘end’ fulfills God’s master plan.

God has an intentional plan for us all and it is important that we recognize that. It is not always easy to spot God’s plan in our life, or to see some of the signs God puts in front of us to show us the way, however there are some things we can do to help us better recognize when things shake out. It is this recognition of the signs from God that sometimes can be a challenge and we must strengthen our relationship with Him to help us have clarity. First and most important on the list is to walk with God. To do this you must surrender to God and then get into the word. By diving into the Bible and devouring scripture, we are more in tune with God and are more likely to recognize a God sign when it happens. We must also pray to God to show us what the plan is for our life.  Generally, we know the type of person we are and what matters to us, and often this will give us insight into what we should be doing in life. It is important that we do these things because as we get closer to God, our chance of determining our calling becomes clearer as we start to see the signs or hear God speak to us.

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” 1 Peter 4:10

It is important for us as Christian men to remain in tune with God to understand what our purpose is in God’s plan. Praying and getting into the word will help us establish the closeness with God we will need to pick up on the signs He is giving us.

“And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.” Philippians 1:6