Behold The Father Who is Like No Other – Brian Long
Today is Father’s Day. My good friend and brother in Christ preached a powerful message entitled, “Behold The Father Who is Like No Other.” I also had the opportunity to speak for a few minutes prior specifically to the men. Here is a video that we showed as well. May the peace, power and love of God completely saturate your soul!
Be sure to check out more on the upcoming Remnant Meetings.
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Time2Stand – Rise Up O’ Men of God
Rise Up O’ Men of God – It’s Time2Stand
May 2013
Fellowship and prayer with one another, especially as men, is much needed, but in our striving against the flesh and sin, we cannot rely upon another man to do the work that we must do. We must, with a repentant, humble, and contrite heart, seek to passionately worship our God, love and sacrificially lead our wives, love and train up our children, edify the church of Christ, and compassionately and diligently reach the dying world. The duty is for every one of us, therefore, it must begin through a powerful working of God’s own Spirit through us in the home. We must be on our knees in prayer and communion with Christ, wielding the sword of the Spirit, and in sacrificial dying to self, as Christ, unto our families eternal good. We must ask, “What is our aim? What is our charge? For what and where must we attack? How must we go?” For is it not for the glory of God in and through the person of Christ Jesus? Game time is over; the need to be men has never been greater. May we heed these beginning words contained herein and store them deep into our soul for constant usage. These feeble words but only scratches the surface of our battle call. “For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.” 2 Tim 1:7
May the “goal of our instruction be of love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith”.[i] May we strive forward in a devoted and serious prayer life.[ii] May the reality of 1 Timothy chapter three become us in an authentic and powerful way and walk of life.
May we, the men of this generation, “discipline ourselves for the purposes of godliness.”[iii] “For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things. Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity, show yourself an example of those who believe.”[iv] May we, the men of this generation, move forward with the message of the cross to all with great respect and patience for each one.[v]
May those of us who act as elders and leaders, embrace and take deadly serious our own sins, for if we “continue in sin” we shall be, and should be, rebuked in the presence of all. “Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also will be fearful of sinning.”[vi] Let us not preach any other ‘gospel’ – no gospels of cheap grace, no false gospels of health, wealth and prosperity and no name it and claim it gospels of blasphemy – no never! “If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing; but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.”[vii]
May we never, never think that we can become complacent in the fight against sin, especially our own selfish, self-seeking, pride-filled sin in the home. “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”[viii]
Let us press on in true love for our wives, families, church body and those perishing apart from Christ. May we not be deceived – our every idle words spoken in disgust, anger, arrogance, carelessness and in unloving ways to our wives will be brought to our memory and a mighty weight will stand against us. “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.”[ix] May we, the men of this generation, be strong in the love of our wives. If we are noted for anything, this should be our brand – they loved their wives. “And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”[x]
Let us love and take heed against worldly fables and knowledge. For knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.[xi] May we, the men of this generation, live contrary to the world and follow Christ to the foot of the grace of the cross, and once there, pick it up.[xii] May we follow in like manner as the Apostle Paul. “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but even to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”[xiii] “But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”[xiv] “For although I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.”[xv] “Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.”[xvi]
Our obedience to Christ and loving service to our wives is not contingent upon their response back to us, but a holy call to be as Christ is to the church – sacrificially dying to self even if we feel wronged. The same goes with the teaching of our children, the edification and instruction of the church and the preaching to lost men. We are not good fathers if we are not being like Christ to our wives; we are not good fathers if we are not lovingly training up our children in godliness and the fear and admonition of the Lord. This job is ours and ours alone; this is not the job of the pastor, nor the schools, nor another man’s wife, no never!
“So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh – for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:12-14
“Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:17
“Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” James 5:16
“My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” James 5:19-20
Men, it is up to us to embrace the call of Christ in taking grace, mercy and love into every facet of our home. It starts with us; may we arise to the call and stand in the gap.
Jeremy Strang Christian. Husband. Father. Author. Realities of a True Christian Christ Died for His Bride, So What’s Your Problem? Christian – A Dangerous Title to Claim www.Time2Stand.comMay we all, the men of this generation, rise up. For the Time-2-Stand is now. Rise up O’ men of God.
”I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one.” Ezekiel 22:30
Testimony of God’s Restoration and Grace
The story below demonstrates God’s mercy, grace, love, patience, restoration and leading. I have decided to leave it in the originally email format that was written and intended for another brother in Christ. With much time and prayer, this testimony is being released to the public for the first time. Read it and be blessed. If you wish to contact this person, please leave a comment here or email me privately and I will pass it along. May the Lord use this testimony to reach and restore many men and women.
Dear brother,I have been thinking a lot about our week-end. It was awesome! Thanks again for all you guys did for us. It hit me on the way home that when a person gets saved with no christian background, they come to Christ with no idea of how to worship. So they just worship. They just love Jesus and have no agenda other than that. Praise God for what I seen this weekend it was really refreshing.For some reason I feel led to share more with you about my past. I’m not sure why because I hate talking about it.As I told you when I was 11 or 12 I felt called to ministry. I got baptized when I was 13. Although I was not born again. Shortly after that I touched some girls inappropriately that my mom baby sat for. That was when I was 13. Of course the law got involved and since I was so young it was juvenile court. I had to go through counseling and was on probation till I was 18. Life at home was hell. and I don’t say that lightly. My Mom knew about the girls for 2 years before the law found out and hid it from my dad. So I was actually 15 when the law got involved. This is how my dad found out. So they were always fighting and I felt that I was to blame for all this. I hated myself. One night I sat in my bedroom and held a knife to my throat looking in the mirror. For some reason I couldn’t thrust it through my throat though. I just wanted to die though. There were court hearings and different stuff that we had to go through and the only way that dad was allowed to go was because he was suppenied.(I bet I spelled that wrong:)). Otherwise Mom said no way. We didn’t need him there. Mom told me one day that she had lost the will to live because of all this. So now my sin had even caused my Mom to want to die. I should also mention that my older brother also molested me when I was younger. doing very terrible and shameful things to me. He has asked for forgiveness and there is no bad feelings between us today. Praise God for that. My dad stopped me one day when I was walking through our barn. He said that if he ends up going off the deep end and losing it ( I’m not sure what all he meant) that I was not to blame myself. it was not my fault.I think I was 17 when I got into porn. That controlled me for many, many years. I had my own trucking business and I would stop at porn shops any chance I got after I was 18 and could legally. When I was 24 I married Anna thinking that all this would be taken care of. I mean after all if you have a wife surely you wont need porn. WRONG!!!!!!!!!! I very nearly put us through a divorce. I hated church. I hated my dad. I hated my mom. I hated myself. The only thing I really loved was porn. So we moved to Colorado thinking we could get away from all our problems. Wrong again. The porn just got worse out there. There was a lady at the local bank out there that I became friends with. We would text a lot and sure enough it turned sexual. I didn’t commit physical adultery with her but she would send me naked pictures of herself. All this time I would occasionally have a devotional or preach at our small church.there was no fear of God. Actually I hated God. I would think about suicide a lot. I even planned how I could stand at the edge of a mine shaft and blow my brains out and fall in so anna wouldn’t find me. It’s still a mystery how God kept me from it. When I was out there I started listening to Paul Washer. I knew he was preaching truth and so I would try to do what he said and would parrot him a lot and thought I really had it together. There was still no fear of God even though I knew I needed it. Also at this time I started listening to our pastor from back in Indiana. He was saying that to be a christian you have to read your bible. He also said that if you read your bible enough you cant help but be a christian. That made sense. So I would read my bible a lot. Often I would read my bible 2 hours a day. It was when I read it the most that I would struggle the most with porn. This didnt make sense to me. I thought I had to be a christian. I read my bible all the time! Still no fear of God! In 2009 my dad got colon cancer. He went through some chemo and surgery and went into remission. 9 months later it came back so we decided to move back to be with them. We went back to the same church we had been at (where we are now) thinking that they had the answers we needed. After all the preaching was awesome. My dad died october 13 2011. The one thing I wanted to hear was I love you! I only remember that once from him when I was younger. My dad died but I didn’t lose a friend. I lead the congregational singing at his funeral. I was right beside him when he died. I didn’t even cry. What was wrong with me? It was months later that I finally shed a few tears thinking about him.ok. so through all this time I was still addicted to porn. It was totally destroying our marriage. Sometimes when I was really struggling I would write down my thoughts. So one night I went into my office and I got my .44 mag. pistol out and my Bible. I made a decision that by the time the night was over one of them would win. I hated the hypocrisy in my life and was gonna get rid of it one way or the other. Lets just say that looking down the barrel of a .44 mag. is very sobering. When I got done writing my thoughts down I realized that I had written a suicide note. That seemed to wake me up so I wrote at the end of my letter I guess the bible wins tonight. Still no fear of God just a fear of going to hell if I pulled the trigger. I could go on with lots of details and stories but I wont.Finally on the night of July 29, 2012 I went into my office and made a decision that I would not come out till God came to meet me. I was finally done running and was ready to surrender. I was prepared to go all night and all the next day if I had to. It took less than an hour before Gods presence came into that room and washed me whiter than snow. The spiritual warfare was unbelievable and God came through it all and saved me!!!!!!!! Praise God! I have not been perfect since then but I can say as S— says “when I sin it aint fun anymore”.On January 31 2013 God gave me this word. It was “B——–”. The only thing I knew about B——– is that is where the guy was from that preached the last sermon at the revival conference last fall. B——–? what does this mean? It was so real that I texted my wife and said “start praying about B———”. She text back wondering where that was:). I also text my sister and told her we were moving to B——–. She asked what was there? I said I don’t know but I’m gonna find out:). What I found was a group of people who just loved Jesus. People saved out of all kinds of sin. real people. I’m crying as I write this. I feel as if I left a huge part of me in B———. It was all I could do to keep from totally breaking down and crying when we left your house Monday night.What now? what do we do? I feel in some ways that I have so screwed up that I will never be used now in ministry. However i also know that with God anything is possible. I have been accused that if I move I would still be running. Is that true? I was telling my mom about the church and she didn’t ask one thing about your walk with Jesus. She did ask if the women have long hair though. That whole mentality is what I want out of. So is it right to leave or do we stay and fight it? The other thing is, how would we fit in there? What would we do? I don’t just wanna come to church and warm a pew up every sunday. Is there a place for us in B———? These are just some of my rambling thoughts:)I love you brother and thanks for the wonderful weekend.J—-PS now you know why I froze when you asked if I would give my testimony:)
