Category: Guys With God

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We Gotta Put It On

We gotta put it on…

Have you ever noticed that we have to make many choices daily? 

We decide what clothes to wear, what foods to eat and even the routes to take to get us from place to place. 

Some requires a lot of thought and some very little, but either way we have to give it our thoughts and make our choice. 

It’s the same in our Spiritual life. 

Even though we are saved and promised eternal life when we take Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He still gives us the free will to choose our Spiritual walk daily. 

So how is that working out for you? 

Are you choosing to put on your Spiritual Armor daily and walk in His path? ..

Check your experience…

“walk day by day in the path of spiritual progress.” Big Book pg. 100

 Lord, let us put on Your Spiritual Armor daily and walk covered and protected, AMEN. 

“..and you must put on the new self, which is created in God’s likeness and reveals itself in the true life that is upright and holy.”
Ephesians 4:24 

Have a blessed day Y’all! 

What if you had a person who coached and mentored you in building a better life? 

 Inspired 365 Life Coaching with Mark Farley!! 

https://www.faiththroughworksfellowship.org/inspired-365-life-coaching 

Want in? 

[email protected]

Where’s Your Focus?

Focus… 


It’s amazing to me how elite athletes stay focused on their game despite the distractions all around them, or how actors and artists keep their focus on their craft and avoid distractions. 


It’s a great testimony seeing how focus leads to the end result. 


Spiritually speaking, we have the same opportunity with our focus. 


Practice in prayer over the years has taught me that when I focus my prayer life on being in tune with God’s will for the person, place, or thing I am praying for I get the blessing to be free from…


praying to GET what I WANT and instead I have the Spirit, heart, and mind to…


… WANT what I GET from my prayers. 


How’s this working out for you? 


Check your experience… 


“praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.” Big Book pg 59 


Lord, let us pray to want what we get instead of praying to get what we want, AMEN. 


“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion.” Ephesians 6:18 


 Have a blessed day Y’all! 


Join me in looking at the things we face daily with passages from both the Big Book and Bible! 


https://www.amazon.com/s?k=pastor+mark+farley&ref=nb_sb_noss 

Happy Fathers Day

HAPPY FATHER’S DAY!
 Your faith will be a refuge for your children

“Whoever fears the LORD has a secure fortress, and for their children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14:26

Happy Father’s Day Men!
As you enjoy your day today please consider this calling that God has placed upon us. Remember the word “FEAR” here means respect and trust. So, what I wanted to share with you about this verse is that God needs us to model our faith and live it out in front of those in our lives, From our kids, spouses, family, friends, and employer to those we randomly encounter. God needs us to wear our faith as part of our daily armor so that we are not only covered by the Holy Spirit in all that we do, but also we are a living example of what  love and trust in Jesus does for us! Happy Father’s Day!

Testing of Your Faith

James 1:2-4 says “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.


Most of us tend to avoid suffering, hardship, or troubles at all costs. Life events such as job or career loss, financial hardship, medical issues, divorce, or even loss of reputation and image tend to undermine our self-confidence and derail our faith. When bad things happen in life the impulse is to try and stay happy and confident, or grin and bear it. This attitude often leads to aggravating or avoiding our troubles through medication, distractions, denial, or anything that will allow us to avoid the real problem. For the faithful, we may just direct our frustrations toward God, praying for Him to intervene or even wondering why He allowed these troubles to overcome us.

I once attended a seminar series called Landmark Forum. The Landmark training uses 23 techniques to help you to separate what really happens to you from what you think about what happens to you. One of the key outcomes of the program is answering the question of whether we are just machines responding to stimulus and acting upon it or are we something more than our physical machines? Many people think of themselves in terms of their body being like a machine driven their physical desires. The Landmark Forum teaches you to reframe your mind to exist separately from the drives of your machine (your physical body). This is not a Christian or spiritual type of teaching or experience, but rather a psychological one based on human language and emotions.

In simple terms, the Landmark Forum seeks to remove some of the primary drives of your physical body from your decision-making processes – the ultimate definition of an open mind! Human drives originate from basic necessities like food, water, and shelter, but in modern society these needs are no longer based on our ability to directly obtain these necessities. Our basic needs are sustained indirectly through our social status. Thus, we get access to basic necessities based on how well we are at looking good and avoiding looking bad. Modern society, especially with the rise of social media, makes us rely primarily on our social status to thrive or even just survive. For example, a homeless or street person has challenges with getting basic necessities because their social status for earning money and obtaining a place to live is diminished. The broken people in society have become slaves to their need for social validation to the point that they cannot see themselves as separate from their physical urges and addictions.

As Christians we know that God is in control, even if we face trials and tribulation. In times of troubles, it is hard not to wonder if God is mad at us or He is just letting us suffer the consequences of our bad decisions. What if these times of trial and hardship are actually good things? What if they have a constructive purpose? What if they are not about us, but about God’s love and His will to make us more mature, more focused, more rugged, more fruitful? Look at John 15:2 where Jesus says he will prune “every branch that does bear fruit,” so that “it may bear more fruit”. Most of us would likely agree that while we certainly did not enjoy past times of hardship and tribulation, we do like the growth that resulted from them. Maybe the words of James and other Apostles make more sense in the context of who we are after God helps us through times of despair!

If you are going through something tough right now, keep your eye on God. Pray, read the Bible, talk about it with trusted friends. But don’t try to flee from it. Let God’s love do the work in building trust that will last forever.

Pride

Over the past several months I’ve been on a journey of discovering how prideful I am! It seems the more I realize how much pride I have, the more I see how prideful I am! It really comes out when someone, (usually my wife), doesn’t say, do, or act in a way in which I believe is right! I get angry, frustrated, and disappointed because I didn’t get my way. Anyone else feel that way?

Welcome Men

Welcome to Guys With God! We are a group of guys who are trying to learn from each other through the struggles of life that all men have! As we begin to grow our site, please let us know if there is something you are currently struggling with, and we will do our best to help you work through where you are to where you want to be by sharing the experiences of Christ-centered men who have been burdened with similar challenges and experiences!

Iron Sharpens Iron!

Welcome Men!

Romans 13:1-7

This post came from a study on Romans 13 that is very relevant to the lawlessness occurring these days in the world. While Paul indicates in Romans 13 that God is the author of all authority, he does not address many of the nuances of living under the authority of a secular government. The purpose of authority as defined in Romans 13 is for the Glory of God and the good of others.

People respond to authority in different ways:

  1. Reject – Completely rejecting an authority
  2. Receive – Completely receiving an authority where someone is often blinded by their allegiance
  3. Respect – Holding respect for an authority if it does not conflict with God’s Authority in your life.
  4. Retreat – While you may respond in one of the three ways above, sometimes you must retreat from authority under certain circumstances.

Biblical and Life Examples of Responses to Authority:

Rejecting Authority

Most people reject authority for selfish reasons, which is unrighteous rejection. For example, the Roman tax collectors were unrighteous for abusing authority by collecting too much from the people of Israel. In some cases, the rejection is righteous because God’s Authority supersedes that of man. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar due to their faithfulness to God. Joseph rejected Potiphar’s wife. The Bible says we should reject authority if respecting the authority will lead to sin. A better option may be to retreat from authority.

Receiving Authority

The Pharisees and Sadducees at the time of Jesus were blinded by Old Testament law causing them to focus so intently on the letter of the law that they missed the Spirit entirely. A similar blindness happens in the church today where people are so focused on their church that they fall away from full devotion to God and Biblical truth.

Respecting Authority

Paul provides a great example of respecting both Jewish and Roman authority while still holding his respect for God above all earthly authority. Many other Apostles and Old Testament figures also respected authority as God’s will. As Christians we are called to respect our laws, government, and leaders because these were all ordained by God.

Retreating from Authority

The Bible also has many examples where authority was respected up until the authority defied or overruled God’s law. The wise men retreated from King Herod’s authority by not bringing him word from Bethlehem of Jesus’ birth. Many early followers of Jesus in the book of Acts retreated from the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem due to the threat of persecution. Someone who receives authority can also retreat from it through an unrighteous retreat. A Biblical example would be how Jews avoided Samaritans because they had created their own temple to God and were thought to be unclean.

Table of Authority Reponses in Different Life Situations

Some Explanations:

  • Retreating from being an accomplice is when you are asked to do something unethical at work.
  • A Church Fan holds their relationship with the church as higher than God’s calling.
  • A victim in the church results from an unethical or unrighteous act by a church leader.
  • A progressive belief in eternity results when someone falls away from the Biblical teachings of God’s word.

Questions to Ponder

Think of the many tyrannical and unrighteous leaders throughout history. If God put them in position, is He at fault for their sins against people? No, we are all sinners and have flaws.

So, is rejecting an authority set in place by God always a sin?

Read Habakkuk 1: Habakkuk laments and calls out to God when his people are being destroyed. God’s answer is that He is raising the Babylonians to achieve His will and pass judgement.

We have to remember that God has a Devine perspective. How much more than man does God see the big picture of eternity and act on His infinite knowledge?

One thought is that if God did not submit to evil, we would not have salvation!

So, when should we retreat from rather than reject authority to avoid sinning against God?