The Joyful Man of God

Posted on by brettyamaji

I remember when my step-dad would come home, often times after he was drinking.  He was a man who was out of control and he was not a man full of joy.  He was a man full of rage and hate, which he took out on us kids and on his wife.  Even when he was not drinking, he was a man who had a short fuse.  Never did we want to leave one of his tools out of place, definitely not outside overnight, and never did we want to break something that he would have to fix, because then he would “break us.”

I share this not for sympathy’s sake, as the life the Lord has blessed me with has shaped and molded me into the man I am today, but as a small illustration as to what a man with no joy is.  My first step-dad had no joy in his life.  The raising of a family was a burden to him, and the things of the Lord were, shall we say, something my mother pushed on him.  So what should a man find joyful?  Or better question that we can ask is, what or who should fill us with joy, that we might find joy in the people things around us?

First off, let’s look at the who.  Who should fill us?  And the Sunday school answer here is “JESUS!!” And this is where we start; we cannot start from any other source.  We must start with Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  If we are not born-again Christians, washed clean by the blood of Christ, we will not be filled with true joy.  Sure, we can have joy in other things or other people in this world but it is a fleeting joy that will ebb and flow as time goes by.  Think of your favorite sports team. Now think of that great season they had, and that great game, and that one great play where they won the championship.  That was a moment of great joy.  That great joy didn’t last did it?  It is not the same when they are losing or having a bad season.  It is a fleeting joy.

When we have Christ, however, we see something more; we have something more.  We have eternal joy that surpasses all earthly joy.  The joy that we now possess can and will endure all things that will come to pass, even when those things that come to pass are worse than a losing season or a lost championship game.  Scripture speaks of joy often and throughout both the Old and the New Testament.  We can find any number of passages with joy or rejoice contained throughout, either as a description of what someone is doing because of what the Lord has done for them.  We can find passages about being joyful or rejoicing as a command because of what the Lord has done, for instance look at 1 Thessalonians 5:16 “Rejoice always.”  This is a command to be always rejoicing, or to be always filled with joy.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 118:24, a familiar verse to many, “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” It reminds me to rejoice and give thanks to God for today and what this day brings; the challenges, the opportunities, the struggles, the victories, and the accomplishments. Each day is a gift from God’s own hand and we come to the realization that even the breath that we take and the sun rising are gifts.  Then we can begin to be joyful because we realize the gracious gifts our Heavenly Father has already showered us with.

So we must start with being born-again, but we are also not on our own.  We are washed by the blood of Christ and imputed with Christ’s righteousness.  The Father sees Christ in us when He looks upon us.  Now, it is the Holy Spirit that indwells us and empowers us and enables us to do these things that we speak of.  Ever hear of the fruits of the Spirit?  They are named that way because they are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 

Joy is listed second in this list, and not by happenstance.  If you have the Holy Spirit, He will fill you with joy.  You will find joy and will be able to rejoice if you keep your focus on the things of the Lord.  We have been commanded in Scripture to seek first the Kingdom of God and then these other things (the things of the world) will be added to us (Matthew 6:33).  We will be able to rejoice even in the mist of trials, even when the darkness is overtaking us.  We find that in James 1:2 2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials.  There is a reason for this as well and we find that in verses 3 and 4, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

As a man of God, the joy that we have begins with the joy that we find in Christ, our Lord and Savior.  Not just us men, this is true of any and all who are the Redeemed.  That is our true joy.  But men, it is you that set the tone in your own homes.  You are the physical and spiritual leaders in your homes for your families and examples for your friends and co-workers.  What joy do you demonstrate?  When you have a bad day at work or school, or wherever you come home from, do you let loose on your family?  Or do you come in the door and let the joy of your heart fill the house and spread to the hearts of your wife and your children?

Let me ask you this question: does your wife or your children fear you when they make a mistake?  I am not talking about when a child has broken a rule or has misbehaved and it comes time for discipline.  That is a separate subject.  Do they fear you when a child loads the dishwasher wrong, or your wife squeezes the toothpaste out of the tube incorrectly?  Do they fear you when you come home from a tough day?  Are they hesitant on any day that you come home?  What would they say about you?

We will have bad days or rough days; these things will happen. I could share a multitude of bad days that I have had that I did not intend to have when I left for work, or left for school that morning. But that did not give me permission to first, get frustrated and second, take that frustration out on those that the Lord has given me responsibility over.  I can thank the Lord for those events, knowing that one day I will not have to endure such things.  But until that time, I can take my cares and concerns to Him in prayer, rejoicing in the fact that I have eternal life and an eternal reward far greater than any temporal matter.

The joyful man of God is not a happy-go-lucky guy, who is easy going and seems like nothing ever bothers him.  The man who is happy-go-lucky is really someone who does not like to get into the deep end of the pool of anything.  Said a different way, he has little conviction of anything, or anyone.

The things of this world can bring us joy, but they cannot be the purpose of our joy.  They cannot be the center or the source of our only joy.  It must be Christ.  There is nothing in itself wrong with enjoying sports, movies, boating, or whatever it is, but it must not distract, compete, or replace Jesus Christ.  We invalidate the joy of Christ and the salvation He brought to us and the joy we find through the Holy Spirit if we have to go and fill our lives with joy in things of this world.  Unbelievers see these things and will doubt our own profession of the transformative power that salvation is.

True joy is only found in Jesus and Him alone.  We share that joy with one another when we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers.  We share the joy of Christ when we gather physically together as believers, whether that is for Sunday morning to worship our Great God, on a Sunday evening, a midweek bible study, small group bible study, a one-on-one study, a lunch, a coffee, or whatever it is.  We share that joy when we are together, because we are in Christ and washed by Him.  That very fact, being washed by the God who created the universe in the span of 6 days, should bring you great joy.

Every time you leave your house, every time you stand in line, every time you are late getting home, every time you get a flat tire, every time you end up in a place you did not think you would, rejoice, be filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit that dwells within you.  You are in a position that so much of humanity is not.  You are among the redeemed; you are part of a select few; you are part of the House of God; you are a child of God.  Rejoice, for this is the day that the Lord has made, and you can tell anyone and everyone who hears about the amazing God that you have.  Only He knows if they will also be adopted into the house just as you have.  If they are, all heaven will rejoice just as that person that you shared the gospel with will.  So again, I say rejoice.

The Bold Man of God

Posted on by brettyamaji

To be bold in our world today is a tricky matter.  To take a stand on any matter can improve your reputation or destroy it.  One of the biggest concerns that has come to light is that if the position that anyone takes on an issue will be the wrong one if it is against the majority.  This person is not just on the wrong side and needs their thinking corrected, but must be cancelled.  Everything about them, their history, their present and anything they could do in the future is now pointless and worthless.  But still, should this prevent anyone from taking a stand when it is the right one to take?   How do we know if it is the RIGHT one to take in the first place? We know that, as men of God, we must start with Him and His Word.

To be bold, whether in person or with our online presence, we must begin with understanding how we are to conduct ourselves with our words and our deeds towards other believers and unbelievers.  Being bold is not necessarily holding up a sign on a street corner condemning a particular sin and screaming at the top of our lungs that all that commit it and live in it are going to hell.  It is true, but it is the wrong way to go about it.  Jesus Christ never did it that way.  He went and had a meal with those sinners.  He went and had gentle conversations with them.  That is incredibly more bold than vocal outbursts of harsh words.

Being bold in today’s world is demonstrating true Christ like love.  Our culture is all about love, it is a love-centric love, but it is not a true love, it is the emotional love.  This type of love ebbs and flows with the current of emotions; it is not steady and does not weather the storms like the love of Christ.  We explored the love of Christ a bit in other articles so I do not need to dive deep into it all here.  But it is this true love that drives us to be bold, to get the truth of Christ out into the world. We should have a desire to preach the Word to all creation (Mark 16:15) and to go into all the world and make disciples (Matthew 28:19).  This does take boldness, especially, in a culture that is more and more hostile toward Christianity, and Christians in particular.

I can write on boldness time and time again and encourage people to be bold out in the world as they go about their business, but it requires so much more.  Being bold does require us to use words, but more importantly it requires our presence, no matter if in the streets, in our place of work, or online.  So how might we be bold men of God in a world that is set against God?  Let us go to the Word, for that is where we must start.  That is our foundation; that is the bedrock of truth that we must stand on that gives us strength for our boldness to withstand the onslaught that will come from back at us.

So, what does the word of God say about being bold?  Oh, it says so much. We can begin with the Old Testament, and particularly the Prophets and how bold they were.  Looking at Jeremiah 7, God calls the prophet to the gate of the temple and calls the people to repent of their sinful ways.  The people for generations have walked in sins making a mockery of temple worship, worshipping Baal along with God, along with many other sins.  The people were going through the motions, but did not truly worship God the way He had prescribed.  God told the prophet what he was to say and then God even warned him of the outcome in Jeremiah 7:27-28.

27 “You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or accept correction; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

Let’s look at Daniel 3.  King Nebuchadnezzar made a very large image of himself out of gold.  He gathered all the rulers of his kingdom to come to the dedication of this golden image, and at the sound of the instruments they would bow in worship of the image.  And in all likeness, all the peoples would do the same.  However, as we see in verse 8, Chaldeans came forward and called out the Jews that had been exiled to Babylon.  These Jews that were called out where none other than Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego.  We know the story, but we may forget the bigger picture of what is going on.  These men stood up to the commands of a king even if it meant their death, and even if it was a dreadful death.

The law that went forth was that at the sound of music all are to fall down in worship, and who ever does not fall down is to be thrown into the midst of the furnace.  They are to be burned alive.  These young men, who were in their teens when they were exiled, now probably in their twenties, are being confronted by a very angry and hostile king, and being threatened with death if they would not do something as simple as bowing down to a golden statue.  But look at their response in verse 16-18, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. 18 But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.” 

This is the boldness that we need to have in today’s world, the kind of boldness that does not look at the consequences that may come upon us and influence our actions and chip away at our boldness, at our resolve to live for Christ.  Our light needs to shine bright, especially now, and when we fear the consequences of what this world and the powers of this world might do to us, then we have failed to obey the mandate of the Master.  There will always be consequences for our boldness, but we cannot let that dictate our message to the world, because for every action that we take there will always be consequences.  This is the way of the world that we live in.  There are good consequences and bad consequences, but we cannot let the fear of consequences dictate how bold or how timid we are in living out our faith or preaching the gospel.

Let’s look at Acts 4:13, the NASB reads “13 Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus.”  That word, confidence, is from two Greek root words, pas meaning “all” and rhesis, “a proverb or statement quoted with resolve, there is a bold resolution to speak all things.  It can also be understood as frankness, bluntness, or publicity.  Now we need to back up and understand what Peter and John were doing before verse 13, so that we might have a full understanding of what “they” saw as the confidence of Peter and John.

In Acts 2, Peter preached the first sermon after the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and many men came to saving faith.  In Acts 3, a lame man is healed and Peter is preaching after the healing.  Now in Acts 4, Peter and John have been arrested by the Sanhedrin and are beginning to address the religious elite with the truth.  Now that takes boldness and courage.  Peter and John are preaching the gospel to men, not behind a curtain of anonymity.  Their identity is totally known and these men may be facing the same fate as their teacher, Jesus Christ, and yet they are preaching to the Sanhedrin without holding anything back.

This is boldness.  This is what we must do.  To let those that need to hear the words of the gospel see our confidence, our boldness in the gospel.  So that no matter what they do to us, it will not shake us, it will not move us off our course.  We have a singular mission and that is to preach, to share that message of salvation.  Not that life on this planet may be better, not that you can have your best life now, or that you will have health and wealth, but that you can be saved from the wrath to come.  For the trials and tribulations that we may suffer here are but momentary light afflictions compared to the weight of glory to come.

The Apostle Paul wrote about boldness in many of his letters to the churches as well, and he endured many trials in his missionary journeys.  He detailed some of his trials in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28, “23 Are they servants of Christ? —I speak as if insane—I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. 24 Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. 26 I have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brethren; 27 I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.”

These were some of the consequences that he endured just for going about and sharing the gospel to those that needed to hear it.  Many who need to hear it will be hostile to it, but that should not be why we are timid.  2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.  That word, timidity, could be translated as cowardice.  We cannot shrink away when it comes to sharing the gospel. 

We must be bold in our speech, but not overbearing.  It is not the way of Jesus Christ, who is our example, to corner someone and yell and scream and condemn them to hell.  Even though He is God, He has every right to condemn every one of us to hell.  He is a gracious God, who willingly went to the cross to purchase us from the wrath to come, the just penalty that our sins deserve.  That is why we must with all love and gentleness share the gospel.  Sharing the gospel also requires listening and having some understanding of where that other person is spiritually.

We see Jesus’ example after He called Matthew in Luke 5:29-23 “29 And Levi gave a big reception for Him in his house; and there was a great crowd of tax collectors and other people who were reclining at the table with them. 30 The Pharisees and their scribes began grumbling at His disciples, saying, ‘Why do you eat and drink with the tax collectors and sinners?’ 31 And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.’” Jesus did not just eat with them. He would have had conversations with them about the kingdom, about the good news that comes through faith in the Son of God, that glorious truth that can only come through salvation of what is to come.  We are living in a Romans 1 culture where the wrath of God is being revealed, where good is being called evil, and evil is being called good.  But we must not lose faith or become weary in our resolve to be bold.  We must stand firm, even when we are maligned for the faith that we have in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.  We must stand fast on the Word of God, even when we are told that it is some ancient text written by men.  It is the one book that holds all the truth that is needed for all that we need to know of who our God is, how He has related to us, how we are to relate to Him, and how we are to relate to one another.

The Trustworthy Man of God

Posted on by brettyamaji

One of the greatest characteristics of a man of God is to be trustworthy.  To be trustworthy is to say that someone is to be found worthy of putting trust or our faith in them.  To put it bluntly, if they said it, they will do it.  Seems straightforward, and I should be able to wrap this characteristic article up in one simple paragraph, right?  Nope, to be found trustworthy is actually much more complex than this.  There are so many ways that break others faith or trust in us by what we say or do, or what we do after we say something wrong.

God created us to be social beings, whether that is within our family groups, friend groups, or local church fellowships.  We need that interactions in a social setting, but we also need help, we need to depend on one another in everyday affairs and in spiritual affairs.  Again, this is where these 3 groups which I listed out above again come into play.  They will help us along and we will help them along as well, but the depth and topic of help will depend of the depth of trust we have built up within those groups.  Let me illustrate, let’s say you are trying to help a fellow believer with a sin issue, which at this point they are confessing they have a sin and they need prayer, accountability, and encouragement through their fight over this sin.  However, you tell a couple of other folks in the church who are not the Pastor or Elder (who may not even need to know every sin issue).  This is actually gossip, and now will that fellow believer come back and feel confident in revealing a private matter with you again? Probably not, as they have no trust in your ability to keep such things confidential.

Keep your commitment in word and deed. If you say you are going to do something, do it. If you make plans with someone, be there. Seeing things through is the trademark of a trustworthy person.  Let your yes be yes and your no be no, we tend to think little or lightly of this verse and others like these as we are afraid of commitments and vows these days.  Generally speaking vows do not even mean all that much, just look at the divorce rate, even among believers.  If and when we make a vow, and the wedding vows are some of the biggest ones as we make them between our spouse and God, but really when we make a commitment we need to honor it.

Getting back to the (yes being yes reference) this is actually teaching us that we do not need to invoke swearing (not the foul language) by God or heaven or by our mother’s life, but letting the fact that we saying be even because we our trustworthy.  The fact that I have agreed to say that I will do what you have asked of me you have no doubt that I will follow through, you can trust me because I have proven myself through past experiences and behaviors to be worthy of that trust.

Be honest. Even when the outcome will not be in your favor, tell the truth. This shows you have good character, which builds trust. This is not speaking of telling lies, this is speaking out on what this truth is.  Take Stephen in Acts chapter 6 and 7, when he was accused of blasphemy.  He could have just as easily countered the accusations that were leveled against him, but instead he recounted the history of Israel from the calling of Abraham to the sojourning of Jacob to Egypt, to their enslavement and their eventual deliverance.  He then revealed the true nature that the nation of Israel had fallen into, a nation of outward religious works and that is what upset those religious leaders so furiously that they killed him.  It did not end well for him, but it did spark a massive growth for the early church and it in the next chapter of Acts we see the calling of another man of great honesty, Saul, who we come to know as the Apostle Paul.

Be transparent. When you make a mistake, admit it. This shows that you are able to take responsibility for your actions without blaming others. This is one of the easiest temptations to fall into, as we try to distance, or at least limit our exposure to ourselves to the outcome of the issue that we may have caused.  Take a look at Genesis 3.  When after Adam and Eve had sinned and then were aware of what they had done so they hide themselves.  As God was walking in the garden He called them and confronted not both of them, but God confronted Adam and what was Adam’s response?  “It was the woman who ‘YOU’ gave to me.”  Adam realized he messed up, he sinned, but was trying to limit his exposure of guilt, and blame to Eve and to God who created her.  Of course, we know how that worked out for him.

Be on time. When you are late, you are showing people that you don’t value them or their time. You are also showing the that you have a hard time keeping your commitments.  In our current culture and society people have lost the sense of the importance of being on time.  Being on time or punctual is a lost part of discipline.  We are unable to manage time effectively anymore, it seems even more so know that so many people have been working remotely.  Lost time is wasted time, it is something that can never be recovered.  I have seen more young people in the last few years late for their own weddings because being on time was not that important to them, than ever before.  Time is a luxury item that no one can afford to buy, let alone waste.  Everyone, can earn more money, most people in 2020 and 2021 have received more ‘free’ money than ever before, and with increased minimum wages and labor shortages we can earn more money, but we can never earn more time, earn more days, or years.  When we waste them, they are gone forever. So as Ephesians 5:15-16 says “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”

Keep confidences. If someone has told you something, it is because they trust you. Do not share this information with others. Guard the person’s business carefully.  This is beyond any type of professional courtesy.  When someone shares something with us that should be kept in confidence, or in secret we lose full and complete trustworthiness.  As one Christian is to do with another, we are to confess our sins, not to every and all Christians, but to those that we have close fellowship relationships with, those that we have built a deep relationship with.  I cannot give a list of things that could be shared and cannot be shared with other, as this things are truly set by the subject and the closeness of the relationship.  When we engaging in divulging these intimate trusted secrets we are engaging in gossip and that is clearly defined as a sin.

Don’t gossip. Talking negatively about others behind their backs erodes trust. Remember if people gossip with you, they will gossip about you. We can engage in gossiping without us actually revealing anything anyone has revealed to us in confidence as mentioned in the previous point.  Just because we were not trusted with the secret, does not mean we do not lose our trustworthiness by being a gossip.  We may be spread a complete falsehood about someone.  Or it could be something that is in fact true but has been distorted through all of the hushed retelling, as each person embellishes a little bit with each iteration of the story.  Regardless, this is an affront to our God because His Word clearly states that we are not to be a gossip.  Gossiping will cause fractures and divides within the body of Christ, and when a Christian is engaged with unbelievers in gossips it is damaging to the testimony of Christ and the transformative power of His gospel.

Apologize. If you have done something wrong, admit it quickly, sincerely and ask what you can do to make it right.  When I say quickly, I do not mean hastely, I mean as soon as you realize you made the error.  As Jesus says leave your offering on the alter,  do not even what to finish the ceremonial offering process when it dawns on you that you made a mistake.  Go and make it right with your brother, then come back and finish.  This apology must be sincere, God is concerned with the heart, He is not concerned with outward appearances and actions so much as He is with our hearts and our relationships with Him, His Son, and with each other, the apology must be from the heart with the intent and follow through to restore the relationship.  The restitution of the relationship is not always complete by saying “I am sorry,” there may be trust issues that have to be worked through, there may be restitution, discipline that must be handled, among other things.  But has the one who did the offending or the thing that wrong someone else you must first recognize it and offer up the sincere apology with the intention to retore the relationship.

Be predictable. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. Be the person who is steady in the room.

This is a hard one to master as we are emotional creatures.  God made emotions in us to glorify Him and we must be masters of those emotions in order to do that.  This goes far beyond just the outward appearance of being steady or level-headed.  Does this mean we cannot have that belly laugh or that sobbing cry, or even get mad, of course not.  We certainly can be happy, sad, and get mad, but to have outbursts of anger, uncontrolled anger at the drop of a hat, or crying fits for simple feedback at work on how we might do something better is not being in control of our emotions.  We all have been depressed at some point in our lives, even at some point in the last year, look through the gospels and you will see the emotions of Jesus Christ our Lord, and remember He was without sin, because He did not remain there and His emotions where never out of control, even when He made the scourge and ran off the money changers from the temple.

Set the tone. Your attitude will cause a ripple effect with others. Make sure that the ripple effect is positive.  This is similar to your emotions but is slightly different.  Setting the tone is deciding how you will approach things; how will you handle situations when they come at you.  You know you will hit obstacles in life, that is the nature of living on this side of glory.  You will face temptations and trials, persecutions and limitations because of one thing or another.  How will you handle it?  Will you, because you know these things will come, face it with a positive attitude look for a way to navigate through it, over it, around it? Or will you look for a way to side step it, a way to blame someone else, a scape goat, or look at it as a reason to not do anything?  Or as an excuse to sin all the more?

Your trustworthiness is set by no one else but you.  It is not set by anyone else.  There are no other factors that are used in determining it.  Sure, the world may say otherwise, but that is the world and the deceiver rules the world using deceptive tactics.  We live in the world but we are not of the world.  We are not to be conformed to the image of the world but to the image of Christ, so as men of God we are to be more and more like Christ and less and less like the world.  The Word of God is full of truth and is full of trustworthy statements, I would rather rely upon it and be transformed to the image of Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us.