Is it time to eat yet?

New Heights Men at New Heights Church Message from: Alex Hedgepeth  Hey Guys, Man, was that a game Monday night? Sorry LSU fans, but you have to admire the effort Bama put into that game. What was the difference? In a word, hunger. LSU had spent months hearing about how great they were and Bama stayed hungry to win. There was no doubt who was better prepared. I saw LSU run one play that Bama wasn’t ready for. I didn’t see that LSU was ready for very many of Bama’s plays. That showed a lot of effort spent during the holidays to get ready for this game. Now you know that I don’t talk a lot about sports in this blog, so that game can’t be my point. Hunger is the point. “How bad do you want it” is a topic I have addressed here before, I just had a good example of it this past Monday. A friend of mine asked the question “Do you know the difference between patience and resignation?” the other day and I think a lot of it boils down to how bad to you want something. A patient man never loses sight of his goal, a resigned man quit thinking about his goal a long time ago. A patient man that follows God knows that God is making him into the kind of man he needs to be to be able to follow God’s plan for him. That plan that requires faith, wisdom, revelation, risk taking, lots of things that don’t come easy. A resigned man has taken the path of least resistance and is just marking time until he dies wondering why his life has no passion (his wife is wondering that too, btw). So here’s to the New Year men, not to the resolutions you have already broken, but to something much deeper, the thing that God is using to stir your heart for you to be the man He created you to be. May your journey keep you hungry always.   Your Brother Alex Upcoming! Friday Morning at the Warehouse Band of Brothers at 6:00 Come and worship, be challenged and pray for you and your brother’s lives.   Spring Men’s Retreat What Every Man Wants New Life Ranch March 9-10 Registration at 5 supper at 6 on Friday. Plan to spend most of Saturday outdoors. Early Bird. If you pay a $25 deposit before Feb. 25th, the cost is $60 After Feb. 24th the cost is $70 College guys $55 If you would like to scholarship a man in need, please contact Brian Bailey (brian@newheightschurch.com ) or Alex (alex@pottershousethrift.com)

 

What are you looking at?

New Heights Men at New Heights Church Message from: Alex Hedgepeth Hey guys, Occasionally you will hear reference to “how we view life”. Or you might hear someone talk about what kind of lenses we use in our outlook on life, such as rose colored, referring to someone always looking at the bright side of things. Though lots of guys don’t go for the psychological side of things, this is true. Your life experiences, where you live, how you were raised, what kind of philosophies you embrace all color how you view life and the things in it. The question for today is: How do you perceive God? What kind of a being is he? What’s his heart and intentions towards us? I know men that hate the way they react to various situations and they honestly think that is the way God made them, that it is just their “personality”. REALLY? To view God as someone who’s purpose is to make you miserable, or that following Him is misery, wow. No wonder people are not lining up to get to heaven. That goes hand in hand with the perception that God is not actively involved in our lives. I was listening to a Christian kids show the other day on the radio (ok, it caught my attention as I was changing channels). It looked at the life of Solomon and his downfall with all the wives of other religions he had that led him astray from following God (they would actually do the whiney wife voice). At the end, at the “just in case you missed it, you imbecile, we are going to shove the point down your throat” time, they told the listener that if you are faced with temptation, to pray really hard and God would provide you a way out. Hogwash. That’s not what the scripture says (which they quoted, btw), the scripture says that God has already provided a way out; you just need to take it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.   Wow, move away from the subject of temptation for a moment and let the implications of that verse sink in for a minute. God provides. Wow, a God that loves us enough to be actively involved in our lives. I challenge you as you read scripture to see the different aspects of God and get a real idea of who He is and how He operates. It juuussst might be different from what we have misconceived most of our lives!   Upcoming! Friday 6:00 am Band of Brothers Warehouse   Spring Men’s Retreat March 9th and 10th. More details at our website www.newheights.com look under the men’s section. Early bird registration discount!   NEW!!!! It’s Your Call Retreat Led by Gary Barkalow, author of the book “It’s Your Call”. Come for a weekend of finding out who god made you to be and how He wants you to offer that to the rest of us. April 20th-22nd More details coming soon to our website. This retreat is being offered regionally, so men will be coming from Little Rock, NWA, Tulsa, etc. If you know anyone that is struggling with their direction, this will be a great weekend for them.

 

How to love your wife

 

I received the following from AJ Neufeld and wanted to pass it along.  Shared without permission--because we all need to hear it. 

Hey, men. 
I wanted to relay some news I heard today.  Dr. Jim Walters was a professor for 40 years at John Brown.  Almost everyone who has graduated from there since the 1970s until just a couple years ago has taken a course from him.  His wife Linda, who suffered from MS, passed away today.  The reason this is significant to you all is that this man was the personification of Christ’s love towards his wife.  She was wheelchair bound for as long as I knew them.  She couldn’t talk or even lift her hands.  And yet, he was almost never without her.  He took her to basketball games and to The Market Place to eat.  I witnessed him lovingly and slowly feeding her with a fork in one hand and a napkin in the other to catch the food that would fall from her mouth.  He would sit over her shoulder so he could whisper in her ear.  They were best friends.
 
I remember in a class I took from him once, he showed off his wedding picture.  She was gorgeous and he was puffed up and proud.  They looked like a couple madly in love.  He then told us how years later they found out she had MS and how she slowly began to lose functioning, from her legs, to hands and also her voice.  Someone once told him that he should divorce her and put her in a home because he’d done enough.  He should get on with his life.  Dr. Walters’ eyes flashed with righteous anger as he told our class that this person was a fool.  This person didn’t understand the love of God for us and how that affects a person.
 
Dr. Walters understood it well.  Long before his teaching days should have ended, he retired.  Linda had become his life and he couldn’t stand to be away from her anymore.  She needed him full time and he was happy to do it.  He wasn’t trapped by her inability to function.  Rather, he came alive when he was with her.  He loved her completely sacrificially in those last years.  She was unable to communicate or reciprocate her love to him, but he still smiled at her like a newlywed when they were out. 
 
I don’t claim to know the will of God.  But I know that He used Dr. Walters to affect me for all eternity because he superbly executed the job of loving his wife.  It was like watching art form at the hand of a Da Vinci.  But the real rub of it all is that Dr. Walters isn’t that special.  There is nothing about him that stands out as superior to any other man.  He simply understood that the God Who gave him salvation also gave him Linda and everything that came wrapped in that package was a treasure.
 
Men, you all have a treasure.  There are some really crummy things that happen to you and to your treasure (some worse than others).  But I pray you always remember that she is your second most precious gift ever given to you from your Maker.  And I pray that Christ would manifest Himself in you as you live out your days with her in such a way that someone might tell his friends that you affected them like Dr. Walters affected those of us who crossed his path.
 
Romans 5:6-10 NET
"For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die.) But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous by his blood, we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, since we have been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?"


Thanks, AJ.
Brian


Coming Up:
6:15 Every Friday Morning: Band of Brothers meets at The Warehouse (across from Mama Carmen's behind and below Monarch Dental).  Tomorrow: Sausage rolls, muffins, coffee and orange juice.  Dr. Thomas Soerens teaching.

March 9-10
New Heights Men's Retreat led by Alex Hedgepeth and The Dog Soldiers.  Online registration will be available soon.

Are you a noble man?

Isa 32:2
Each man will be like a shelter from the wind
and a refuge from the storm,
like streams of water in the desert
and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.
 
Isa 32:8
The noble man makes noble plans,
and by noble deeds he stands.
 
Are you a noble man? 

The word means generous, magnanimous, large-hearted.  It carries the idea of being a provider and protector for many other people.  As Isaiah 32:2 indicates, the noble man is a shelter, a refuge and a source of protection and refreshment for those who are wandering in the desert and lost in the storms of life.
 
The noble man makes noble plans.
Here at the beginning of 2012 many of us are in planning mode.  Are your plans noble plans?  Are you planning to do things and undertake projects that will express a generous heart and provide shade and drink for those in need?

As we get rolling on a new year I encourage you to ask yourself--This year, who needs to drink from my stream and sit in my shade?  Invite them in.  Let's live nobly.