The Instruction Manual

Instead, his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. Psalm 1:2

God bless Gladiators. It's been a minute (I know) but we're still here, still working, schooling, daddy-ing, husbanding, living, breathing, fighting, struggling, rejoicing, stressing, worshiping, depending, thinking, planning, wishing, hoping, praying, caring, nourishing, listening, obeying, and the myriad of other thing we do as men. It's funny, no matter what, life don't stop. There's no pause button to conveniently press. This "being a man" thing is real. That is, if you doing it right. Unfortunately there are still slackers out there. Those who refuse to "man up" and take the responsibility that God gave us seriously. These "Losers" are poor excuses for men and give those of us putting forth the effort a bad name. It ain't easy, by no means. It's a 24/7 job; or shall I say, career. But the good thing about it is that God gave us the manual to this “man” thing; His Word.

My son's 7th birthday was last week (wow, I got a 7 yr old son!). One of the gifts he got was this model helicopter thing that could be made into three different things. For speed’s sake, my first attempt was to just look at the box and try to build the helicopter. Problem was this thing came in about 550 pieces all the size of a nickel. Impossible. I had the tools and the material to build it, but without specifically following the provided instructions nothing was getting done. Oh, I screwed some stuff together and matched some pieces, but to no benefit.

It’s the same thing with this “man” thingy. We got the body parts and we see what it's supposed to look like, but a lot of times we don't even look at the "manual" much less follow it specifically. Of course by manual I'm referring to the Bible. It starts with that. Not coming to church, not signing up for track classes, not being faithful in your giving, or to a ministry or a pastor; those things are just the tools, and tools without the manual aren't worth a thing. I’m getting the impression from conversations with church folk that the act of “coming to church” is in some way all that is necessary. I hear people saying things like, “before I started coming to church…” or “when I wasn’t going to church…” sounding as if the emphasis for this new life is going to church. Nope! By no means! Our faithful journeys to 2500 Oak Ridge every Friday and Sunday aren’t even close to being sufficient. Heathens go to church every day! The Pharisees in the Bible were not only in church every day, but all day; and they taught the Scriptures. Jesus called them a den of snakes and referred to them as “white washed graves”: clean on the outside, but dead, decaying, rotten, and putrid on the inside.

A personal relationship with Jesus is where it begins. Personal = 1 on 1. Relationship = having a harmonic connection. Think of an orchestra with all the different instruments and how they all come together in “harmony”. So, do you have a one on one harmonic connection with Jesus? If not, all your church going is just wasting gas! Get to know Jesus. Start with the Bible. Make it an everyday thing. Read it, memorize it. It's hard out here enough already without help from our Creator. Pick up the Book and ask God to make it come alive to you. He will.

Question, have you read the manual today?