BrothersOfTheBook.com

Brothers,

Something has corrupted my blog.  It is not any kind of attack.  There appears to be some kind of glitch in one of the bits of software used in this process of delivering the blog.

I’m working with support folks and hope to have things solved in the very near future.  In the mean time the website will have difficulty loading in your browser.  If you are receiving the daily e-mails instead of going to the blog itself then you may not have noticed any problem.

If you don’t receive the e-mail, that may be the best way to ensure you gain access to the daily posts.  If you wish to sign up for the e-mail click on the “Reading Schedule” tab above and look to the right hand navigation panel.  There you will see a place to enter your e-mail address.  This is a double opt in system so you will be sent an e-mail to which you must respond in order to start receiving the daily e-mail.

I’m sorry for the inconvenience brothers.  Your prayers are coveted!

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Men,

I’m afraid I had some technology problems that prevented today’s post from being delivered at its usual time.  I hope it was not an inconvenience for any of you.

I hope I am through my challenges but won’t know for sure until the next post.

Thank you for your patience with me as I attempt to get things back on track.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

Guys,

The tragedy in Haiti is mind blowing.  I donated to the SB Disaster Relief organization and they’ve been sending me updates on what’s going on there.  I thought you might be interested in this.

Bill

Disaster Relief Update – Wednesday, January 20, 2010

“I will also make you a light for the nations, to be My salvation to the ends of the earth.” Isaiah 49:6b (HCSB)

Haiti Earthquake

Amid the rubble, there is joy as well as heartache. Tuesday, one week after a massive earthquake destroyed the capital of Haiti and surrounding areas, a woman was removed from a collapsed building alive. On this same day rescuers told families waiting outside a supermarket there was no one else alive. Joy and heartache are themes repeated throughout the countryside.

Security remains a major issue. The UN is sending in additional troops and police forces. Getting food to the 1.5 million homeless in Port-au-Prince is also a challenge, For the second straight day, forces air dropped MREs and water to people gathered in makeshift campgrounds. The death toll continues to climb, approaching the 100,000 mark, and expected to grow. There are still thousands in the rubble.

Medical care is slowly improving as more clinics are established by military troops and volunteer organizations. Even so, multitudes of injured Haitians wait for life-saving care and many die before getting the help they need.

Southern Baptist personnel on the ground report the sobering reality before them. Leaders are urgently stressing the importance of accurately assessing every volunteer’s ability to cope with the sights, sounds, and smells of the devastation. Those planning to respond to the call to action in the next few weeks should prayerfully consider their own ability to handle the impact of what they will encounter.

While teams and individuals are eager and ready to respond, the situation on the ground requires caution, careful planning, and well-organized logistics. In line with agreements with BGR for international responses, Kentucky and Mississippi are at the top of the list for deployment this month. Their state DR leaders are currently on the ground with the assessment team.

In the midst of tragedy, there can be an extraordinary gift. Henry Courser of Georgia reported that on Monday he assisted in the rescue of a little girl. She turned out to be an orphan in the last stages of adoption to a California couple. Henry, with close ties to the American ambassador, spent most of Monday and Tuesday completing the process, getting her passport, and arranging for her evacuation to the US with the help of Ted Turner. When we are faithful, God places His people in the right place at the right time.

Communication is another area that is proving to be a challenge. Cell phone service is improving but service is not consistent. Satellite phones are proving to be more reliable but they are costly and few are available. Several Southern Baptist HAM radio operators have been in touch with operators in Haiti offering words of encouragement and praying with them. Perhaps others will choose to reach out in this manner.

Bill Hoops K3WJH of PA/SJ Disaster Relief communications is one who reported talking with operators in Haiti. He said that those he has communicated with tell him the situation is “worse than you can imagine, a true war zone, bodies and all.” They report that they are working off generators, quickly running out of fuel for the generators.

While the needs are enormous (the scope and magnitude of the response needed is greater than even Katrina a few years ago), we realize we are dealing with a sovereign nation. We are learning how to navigate in the brand new waters of Haitian politics, UN control, and State Department leadership. Let us remain faithful as we await God’s fullness of time. There is no doubt that God is in control. In His time He will get the glory and His Kingdom will be strengthened in Haiti.

Read more about the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief effort in Haiti.

Support Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Efforts

Southern Baptist Disaster Relief responds to disasters across the US and around the world. Donations are fully tax deductable and 100% of all gifts are used to meet the needs of hurting people in the wake of disasters. Donations can be made online, by phone (866) 407-6262, or by mail – checks should be made payable to “North American Mission Board” and sent to Disaster Relief Fund, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543.

To contact SBDR, call 1.888.462.8657 or e-mail disasterrelief@namb.net

Fellas,

I’m afraid the timely, early morning delivery of the daily reading post has been problematic the past couple of days.  I had set the blog up to publish the daily reading every morning even if I didn’t have a comment to provide.  It turns out that the scheduling feature of WordPress 2.9 has a bug in it and doesn’t work.  It took me most of the day yesterday to find a patch.

The scheduled function now works. I changed the delivery time yesterday in order to force a delivery of the daily reading.  I thought I had changed the time back but this morining’s reading didn’t go out as planned so I checked on it and discovered that the time had in fact not been saved.

I think I’ve got this all figured out now and hopefully, from now on the e-mail will be sent out between 1am and 3am every day.  This should make it available to you first thing in the morning if that is when you would like to read it.

Sorry for the slow and messy start.

Bill

Guys,

Before we get started I thought it would be good to put down some ground rules on comments. Common sense dictates that you not write/say anything on this blog that you wouldn’t want your wife, parents, friends, boss or anyone else to hear. This is a public space and anything you put out here stays out here for eternity and is available to anyone in the universe. Comment wisely.

All comments must be respectful. It is my hope that we can have vigorous discussions through this blog but let us not mimic the angry, disrespectful pattern of the world in our discussions. Since this blog is open to all I feel I must say that anyone that is abusive toward others on this blog will be banned from future commenting. Let us focus our comments on that which is edifying. If we disagree let us do so with grace and courtesy.

No politics. I can think of little that divides one man from another today more than politics. I have read the Bible through a number of times and I have never seen a verse that indicates that one must be a Democrat or Republican in order to be a member of the family of God. We can and should discuss the great moral issues of our day as they relate to Godly manhood but let us not fall into the politicians trap of denigrating each other based on party politics. There are plenty of blogs that cover politics. Please look to one of those as your political comment outlet.

No profanity or sexual comments.

I reserve the right to ban anyone who I feel violates the rules above or the spirit of the blog itself.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill

This is the first post on a blog I hope will be a meaningful resource to Christian Men everywhere.

It has been my experience that I enjoy the abundant life Jesus promised me (John 10:10b) when I live as He commanded in Luke 9:23

“If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (NKJV)

I don’t know about you but I want to be the man God created me to be.  This naturally begs the question, “For what did God create me?”  If you read through scripture you will find that the answer to that question is implicit in every line.  God created me to be in a loving relationship with Him.  Many of us have spent years in an agonizing search for meaning in our life; for our purpose.  Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” has been a huge best seller because people are indeed searching for the answer to that question; “What is the purpose of my life?”

The answer to that question has been starring you in the face all your life and I just gave it to you a moment ago.  The answer is your purpose in life is to be in a loving relationship with God, your creator.  That’s it!  Everything else flows from that.  When we walk away from a loving relationship with God we are walking at cross purposes (or should I say conflicted purposes).  Conflict in our life is inevitable.

Well, I could go on and on but I won’t.  The real issue here is how do we get back to and maintain a loving relationship with God.  It starts with spending time with Him.  That means daily time in God’s word and in prayer.  Do you have a time each day you spend in such activity?  How well do relationships in your life hold up when you give them little or no time and attention?  I suspect the quality of your relationships are directly proportional to the time and attention you give them.  You need to make a commitment to your purpose.  You need to deny yourself the daily distractions that rob you of your relationship with God.  You need to step up, be a man, deny yourself, and invest in your relationship with God daily!

This blog is about building a strong relationship with God through daily Bible reading, prayer, and scripture memorization.  Each day, starting January 1, 2010, you will find a Bible passage for the day.  As I read each days passage I will be looking for what God has to tell us about Godly manhood.  I’ll provide a comment on what I found and ask that you join me in that conversation.  I believe topics will range from being a Godly man to being a Godly husband, father, and citizen.

Further, every week will have its own Bible Memorization Verse conveniently located at the top left of the blog.  Most of these verses, by the way, will be pulled from the wonderful discipleship series entitled “MasterLife”.  If you memorize each of these verses you will be armed with a strong shield to protect you from the vicissitudes of life.  You will also have a leg up on the “MasterLife” homework if you are participating in that course.

Okay, I’m sure you’re asking “What’s up with this MasterLife reference?”  “MasterLife” is a discipleship training course through which the men in my church are currently progressing.  One of the requirements of that course is the memorization of certain scripture.  Since I don’t want these guys overwhelmed with competing verses I’m attempting to track with that course work.  They are still great verses to memorize even if you aren’t taking the class so stop your grumbling and start memorizing!

Finally, it is my hope to build a reference library of suggested reading covering topics on marriage, finance, fatherhood, spiritual growth and anything else that will help us on our journey to being the men God created us to be.  I’m not sure just yet if that library will be on a separate page of this blog or not but I’m sure you’re all intelligent fellas and will find it once it is available.  You are, of course, welcome to make suggestions for this list through blog comments so do share you reading gems with the rest of us.

It is my hope to have Twitter enabled through this site so you can be automatically notified when there is a comment of post.

It is important to note that if you read all of the passages throughout the entire year you will have read through the entire Bible by December 31, 2010.

Guys, I’m hoping this thing will be a virtual men’s ministry encouraging us all to be the men God created us to be.  It won’t happen in my power but in His all things are possible.  I pray this blog will be a blessing to all that participate.

Your brother and servant in Christ,

Bill