Man to Man

Are You A Man of Character?

Calling All Men To Christ            Winter 2004

 

In this issue...

 

Psalm 37:  The Wicked Shall Not Prevail

By Gary Pica

Psalms 37  (Revised Standard Version)

Psalm of David, for the memorial offering. 

1. FRET NOT yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers! 
2. For they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. 
3. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you will dwell in the land, and enjoy security. 
4. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. 
5. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act. 
6. He will bring forth your vindication as the light, and your right as the noonday. 
7. Be still before the Lord, and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over him who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices! 
8. Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil. 
9. For the wicked shall be cut off; but those who wait for the Lord shall possess the land. 
10. Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look well at his place, he will not be there. 
11. But the meek shall possess the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity. 
12. The wicked plots against the righteous, and gnashes his teeth at him; 
13. but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. 
14. The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows, to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those who walk uprightly; 
15. their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken. 
16. Better is a little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked. 
17. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken; but the Lord upholds the righteous. 
18. The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will abide for ever; 
19. they are not put to shame in evil times, in the days of famine they have abundance. 
20. But the wicked perish; the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures, they vanish--like smoke they vanish away. 
21. The wicked borrows, and cannot pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives; 
22. for those blessed by the Lord shall possess the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off. 
23. The steps of a man are from the Lord, and he establishes him in whose way he delights; 
24. though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the Lord is the stay of his hand. 
25. I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread. 
26. He is ever giving liberally and lending, and his children become a blessing. 
27. Depart from evil, and do good; so shall you abide for ever. 
28. For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. The righteous shall be preserved for ever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off. 
29. The righteous shall possess the land, and dwell upon it for ever. 
30. The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice. 
31. The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip. 
32. The wicked watches the righteous, and seeks to slay him. 
33. The Lord will not abandon him to his power, or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial. 
34. Wait for the Lord, and keep to his way, and he will exalt you to possess the land; you will look on the destruction of the wicked. 
35. I have seen a wicked man overbearing, and towering like a cedar of Lebanon. 
36. Again I passed by, and lo, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found. 
37. Mark the blameless man, and behold the upright, for there is posterity for the man of peace. 
38. But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the posterity of the wicked shall be cut off. 
39. The salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; he is their refuge in the time of trouble. 
40. The Lord helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked, and saves them, because they take refuge in him. 

Reading the above Psalm one cold morning in January 2004 I began to meditate on it and realized when I was at the ripe old age of 16, a similar experience happened to me.

My biological Father just passed on and I was desperate to receive some kind of income, so I applied for a job at this company I don’t really remember the name of it but I remember the work I was doing for him. I am really not a judgmental person but I thought this man was evil.

I was outside scraping paint off a weathered cement wall it was June or July and the weather was a hot and humid 80 or 90 degree plus day. My boss came out and asked me to move a car from inside out. Now I didn't have a license nor was I a good driver, so when I backed out of the garage I did some damage to a customer’s car.

The point is I should of spoke up and said I didn't know how to drive but I feared losing the job and I needed the money so I didn't say a word, a big mistake.

That one incident really screwed me up. Even though there were no contracts or paperwork (I was getting paid under the table) I thought I deserved to get paid for completing the job I was hired to do outside for 2 days.

I lost my job anyway. I was so angry! I wanted to hurt him in anyway I could! He was so rude to my mother and me. It wasn't long after that experience that he closed the doors forever and went out of business. At that point of my life I should have known there was a GOD and SAVIOR named CHRIST.

GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

Thank You GOD and I love YOU

Through our SAVIOR and YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST: AMEN

 

Doc’s Prescription  

God's Drumbeat

By Dr. Ross Geldart

 

Hey, Man, I would challenge you to experience the most " COOL " life that
you can imagine. "Just a minute, Doc", you say, "You don’t know what I’m going
through, my pains and hurts, My love life is demolished, my family is hurting, my job has
gone down the tubes, booze and drugs, no money. Well, I’m sick and tired of it all. So
what do you think of that, Doc?"

 

First, I say that life, as we experience it, seems to be simply "not fair", and the
natural thing is to bellyache about it. Well, does that change anything? Does it make
the situation any better? Does it make you feel any better? Nope, nope and nope
again! So, what can a man do?

I can speak for myself and from the experiences of countless others that the
perfect answer to all our needs, no matter how severe the problem begins with our
relationship with Jesus Christ and our basic need, a relationship with God the Creator.


Just what is life really all about? Why are we here? What are we supposed to
do? First, know that the real truth is that life begins with knowing that Jesus is in our
hearts. How does this happen? Simply by asking Him to forgive us of our sins, and then
to invite him to come into our hearts as our Lord and Savior.  Then we can have a relationship with the Holy God. 

Many years ago, while I was a student in dental college, I had an elderly professor
who was trying to impart some words of wisdom to our class. I remember clearly the
words of advice; "Class, NEVER let words cloud YOUR thinking."

Just stop a moment and think how much we all are bombarded by words, every day. They are everywhere we go; we hear them or we see them in print. The purpose is usually to control our thinking to make us think the way someone else thinks or wants us to think. We are repeatedly bombarded with pop-up ads on our computers, or TV’s, radio programming, junk mailings, newspapers and magazines.

In short, this is the world’s approach to mind-control to control your thinking! See the impact the negative political candidates have upon each other, and perhaps upon us, as they spread their lies, deceit and angers through the media to the public. At best it is all exceedingly negative and influences or even destroys our personal thought life.

 

The next thing is that with Jesus in our hearts, we have a more positive outlook on
life because we can know that Jesus is the source of our life and our joys. He impacts our inner thought life and gives us a more positive attitude towards everything. He shows us what is right and true, and what is not, thus enabling us to make better decisions.


How grateful we should be that we have a God who genuinely loves us as He
does. We can even sense His presence any time of day or night, if we will only start
talking to Him, for He has promised to never leave us or forsake us. He just wants us to
believe and start trusting in Him. Start walking with Him to the rhythm of our heartbeat,
like a drumbeat. He doesn’t even need to give us a formula for how to do it. Simply
start to do it. In the darkness of wherever you happen to be, just start talking to Him,
and he will make Himself real to you.

Pray that God grants you and builds in you greater faith—a saving faith. He will heal your soul. He will restore you to a right relationship with Him. He will be a friend to you. He will deliver you from evil. He will save you from the sins you have committed against Him.

He will love you unconditionally, and be YOUR SAVIOR and Lord, if
you will allow Him to.

For a healing in your life let me prescribe the following.

Rx: Take this prescription

And do not forget to refer others to Him, for He is The Great Physician.

From the Editor’s Desk… The Passion of The Christ

 

There is a lot of hype right now about the Passion of The Christ, the new film produced by Mel Gibson.  Although this is a well-done movie about the suffering of Jesus Christ during the crucifixion, there are some important points to keep in mind as you watch the movie.

 

First, Mr. Gibson does a fine job of using actual quotes of scripture from the four Gospels, which are the true records of Christ's passion.  However, he also mixes in extrabibilical sources such as visions from nuns, Catholic traditions and opinion.  One example of his use of visions is when Mel has Satan taunting Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Also, there is a scene when a woman wipes Jesus' face with a cloth and His image is transferred to the cloth. This is very clearly a reference to the Catholic tradition of Veronica's cloth. This is not in the Holy Bible.

 

Some have criticized Mr. Gibson for the amount of violence and the extreme brutality shown to Christ.  Although we know Christ was beaten, the extent of this beating is not known. However, it is interesting that the two thieves were in no way beaten as much as Christ.  It may be more reasonable to expect them to have been beaten as well.  And by the way, the Bible never speaks of a crow plucking out the eyes of one thief.

 

Certainly, Mr. Gibson remained true to his Catholic roots by highlighting the stations of the cross as taught by the church.  Also, he includes dialogue between Mary the mother of Jesus and the other women that never appears in Scripture.

 

Overall, as a believer, I found that I was able to appreciate the suffering of my Savior, Jesus Christ. And being knowledgeable of the Bible, I was able to weed out the extraneous, man-made additions to appreciate what really happened.  I urge you to read your Bible, all four Gospel accounts of the trials and crucifixion of Christ, before and after the movie to gain a fuller appreciation.

 

If you take a non-believer with you to the movie, you have some work to do before and after the movie.  Mainly explaining why Christ had to suffer, why He had to die for sins, and basically who Jesus was. The movie on its own is not sufficient to draw one to Christ. 

 

It is a good movie with good production and eye to authentic detail.  The realism is impactful, but be aware of the inaccuracies. I encourage you to see this movie and explore your faith even more deeply.

 

For good resources to explain why we need a savior, visit "Do You Know Jesus?"  and "Who is This Jesus: Is He Risen? from Coral Ridge Ministries.

 

Do you have a men’s ministry in your church?

Who’s holding your men accountable?

 

Calling All Men can help you start a men’s ministry that emphasizes men’s small groups.

Call us at 781-438-7562 or e-mail us: CallingAllMen@CallingAllMen.com

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