Striving to be a True Man

This past week I turned thirty years old and upon entering a new decade of my life, I took some time to survey the last decade.  As a man, husband, and now father, I have struggled with my role and responsibilities as a leader of my home.  I have not been the top money earner most of our marriage.  I feel like I have dropped the ball as spiritual head of the household more times that I would like to acknowledge.  I also have not always been the husband I should've been or even wanted to be.  To be honest, I have much room for improvement.

Tonight, we watched the movie Hope Springs and I was convicted by some of the marital issues dealt with in the movie.  Though I did not start my marriage well, I would like to get to the end of my life knowing that I loved my wife and children well.  Everyday truly feels like a battle.  There are so many distractions in life seeking to steal our time, love, and attention.  There are so many excuses of why not to lead well, love well, or work hard.  I don't want to be one of those men with a laundry list of excuses for why I was not the man I should've been.

I spent the last year of my life striving to live differently than I had before.  I have worked hard to be faithful in my job, faithful to love my wife well, faithful in preparing to become a dad, faithful in pursuing ministry, and faithful in writing this blog.  I can tell you that there have been many days that I failed at each one of these pursuits and yet there were many more days where I held true in being faithful.  Throughout this time of growing into the man I am suppose to be I learned that I cannot become that man without seeking the one who created me.

How can I truly understand who I am as a man if I never seek the God who created men?  How can I truly understand what it means to be a husband unless I learn from the one who created marriage?  How can I truly understand what it means to be faithful in accomplishing the task before me unless I understand what Jesus accomplished for me on the cross?  The answer is that I can't.  In order to become the man I want to be, I have to seek Christ.

Unfortunately, as men, many times our downfall is that culture tells us we have to become men on our own and we believe them.  The stereotype is that men never need to ask directions.  We also fall prey to the stereotype that we don't need anyone correcting or reproofing us.  Men are capable of overcoming any struggle, situation, or problem, on their own.  We are man hear us roar.  Sadly these lies are exactly why so many men have no idea what it means to be a man of Christ.

Contrary to popular belief, becoming a man requires the humbleness to be teachable.  Being a true man requires the willingness to submit and even fall to your knees in seeking direction from God.  Being a true man requires loving those around you in a way that breaks your own pride while healing the hearts of the ones you love.  Being a true man requires admitting your mistakes, asking for forgiveness, and turning from your area of folly.  Being a true man is hard.  Being a true man requires courage.  Being a true man, like Jesus, is probably the hardest challenge a man will ever face and yet being a true man is what we are all called to be.

As I enter this new decade of my life, I will strive to be a true man in Christ.  I love the movie Courageous and believe that all men should have to watch it.  I believe that the men in Courageous have figured out the path of being true men.  I have included the closing speech of Courageous because I believe it lays out so well what it means to be a true man in Christ.  I pray that if you are a man who is reading this blog tonight, that your heart would be stirred to be the man outlined in this speech.

Blessings,

Greg  

Praying the Prayer

I must admit that I have been very weak when it comes to the discipline of prayer.  Many times I have throw up little prayers to God each day in moments of need but I have been very bad about spending quality time with my Savior and Lord.  I also must admit that many is the time I told someone i would pray for them and I forgot to.  I don't intentionally miss spending time in prayer with the Lord each day and I believe that is the reason i have not been praying each day.  I have not been intentional in my prayer life.  This past few weeks I have been intentionally doing studies on the Bible and prayer.  I want this area of my walk to be transformed and I believe that my lack of consistent prayer life is one of the biggest detriments to my walk right now.

In the Bible, prayer is one of the main indicators of a close relationship with God.  The Old Testament prophets received the word of God directly from praying and seeking God's word for them.  The book of Psalm is essentially a large book of prayers mostly written by David, a man after God's heart.  You could always tell whether a king in the Old Testament was going to be Godly or not when you saw whether he allowed the high places of false god's stand or whether he destroyed the high places and proclaimed the kingdom only for the true God.  Jonah's life was literally spared due to prayer and many others also.  Jesus' ministry is marked by His moments of solitude in prayer, His followers desire to learn how to pray, and the prayers he gave on the cross.  The early church was known for their prayers and Paul's ministry was bathed in and ultimately guided by his answers to prayers through the Holy Spirit.

I think it is safe to say that the Bible puts a high priority on prayer.  Why is this?  Well for starters, prayer is the one way we are able to talk directly to God and receive word from Him.  Through our prayers we are able to both pray for our own provision and intercede for others.  The Bible is clear that many of us do not have because we do not ask.  Why is it that, even though we have direct access to God, and the Bible makes it clear that He wants to hear from us and to answer our heart cries, many of us choose not to pray?  Is it maybe true that most of us wrongly believe, though we would never admit it, that God is looking down on us from a distance (as the popular song written by Julie Gold in 1985 speaks about) and that He is not really able to answer our prayers?

I used to believe that praying was a gift.  Some people had the gift of intense desire to pray and communicate with Jesus and that most people did not have this gift.  The Bible is clear that prayer is not a gift but rather something every Christian should desire to do.  In fact, the Bible goes as far to say that those who don't have a desire to pray may need to check their hearts and make sure they know the Savior in the first place.

If you are like me and have struggled in your prayer life for many years, I hope you will change that today.  Maybe even let your first prayer be, "Lord, grow in my heart a great desire to come to you more in prayer.  Show me in your Word the importance of prayer and how I should pray to you.  Amen."  I highly recommend four points of help that have guided me in my pursuit of a more passionate prayer life.

First, I suggest you flip through the Psalms and when you find a psalm that you can identify with, pray it to the Lord.  Make the psalm your own prayer.  This is a quick a great way to begin praying consistently especially if you don't know what to pray.

Second, while you are praying through the Psalms, I recommend you camp out in Luke 11:1-13 where Jesus' followers ask Him to teach them about prayer.  Take the words of Jesus and apply them to your own prayer life.  Take the model prayer and break it down into what Jesus is saying in each part and then take each part (like glorifying God, Asking for provision, asking for forgiveness, etc) and pray it in your own words.

Third, I highly suggest taking the time to study what the Bible in general has to say about prayer.  There are many devotions, books, and resources on prayer in the Bible.  Also you could use something like www.openbible.info to find scriptures that speak directly to prayer.

Last but not least, I highly suggest you start a prayer journal.  By using a journal, you will be able to see what you have prayed and see how God has answered it.  Also, it is great for writing down all those prayer requests that you receive and then it serves to remind you of those prayer request so that you will never again tell someone you are going to pray for them and then not.

I hope through my own struggle with prayer and pursuit of a more passionate prayer life, your own prayer life might be ignited and/or enriched.  I thank each one of you who read this blog and pray for this ministry the Lord has given me.  I would love to hear and be able pray for any requests you have.  May the Lord bless you and may you gain a closer relationship with Jesus than you have ever had before.

Blessings,

Greg

Restorer of my Soul

I have to admit that I have been avoiding this blog for a while.  I honestly can't tell you why other than I have felt like I have been in a rut for a while.  I am still doing ministry, attending church, and leading chapel every once in a while at work but I have really been running on autopilot lately.  I have felt disconnected and disjointed.

Today was my week to lead chapel at work and I had really been wrestling with doing it.  To be honest, I really didn't want to do it.  I had not picked up my guitar in months and I had no idea what to do.  This morning I was really dragging half because of bad sleep and half because I did not want to face my responsibility.

As I sat in the shower, I mulled over what to do at chapel.  I finally came up with the idea of doing one of the videos from the book Beautiful Outlaw.  I decided to do the video on Trueness.  I decided to take my guitar and a few worships songs with my computer on the way out just to leave the option of doing worship available.  Then, probably for the first time since working at Selah, I decided to take the morning to prepare the chapel service.  I reread the chapter I was doing the video on, I watched the video, prepared questions, and put together a worship set that I even practiced before the service.

All of these things served to align my heart back on my Lord.  After finishing my preparations, I spent sometime in prayer.  It took me time to bring my heart back to where it needed to be fully focused on Jesus.  Once I reached this point, I had to take time to still my heart.  I sat on the porch when I went back up to the house.  The Lord fully calmed my heart through a gentle loving cat.  When the time came to for chapel to start, I was exactly where I needed to be.

Today showed me two things.  First, when you allow your heart to distance from the Lord, the road back takes time.  I had to take time to be prepared for the chapel.  I did not wake up on fire and ready.  It takes a lot longer to restart a fire from a cooling ember than to maintain the fire.  Second, that our Lord is gracious and good.  As soon as I brought my heart back to where it needed to be, He blessed me.  Truly He blessed me even more than I ever imagined He would today.  I could truly see Him moving and felt Him working both through the worship and the lesson in a way I had not seen up to this point in chapel.

I walked into doing this chapel with hesitation and the desire to take a break for a while after it to walking out of chapel filling recharged, reminded, and convicted of who I am and how ministry is part of who I am in Christ.  The Lord reignited my heart today because I open my heart and surrendered again to Him today.  Jesus said in each of the synoptic gospels deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him.  I submit that this must be done daily because each day we choose whether to follow Jesus or ourselves.

If you have felt distant from Jesus lately, I hope you will take this moment right now to reconnect with Him.  Jesus is good and loving and has been waiting for you to receive Him again.  I hope you will choose Jesus today.  Let Him convict you of your sins, restore you back to right paths, and recharge you in your walk.

Blessings,

Greg iVey

Following God Even When You Struggle

Following the river where ever it takes me.

Last night my wife and I sat down to dinner and talked about a calling to international missions in Spain.  We talked about our friends who our there, the people group we are going there to reach, and where our hearts are right now.  As we examined our own hearts, we realized that we have a long way to go in our walk with Jesus.  There are so many things we need to be doing and we always feel we could be closer to the Lord.  The thing that I have been realizing lately is that many people in many different stations of life including missions, ministry, and lay ministry feel exactly the same way.  The fact is that each Christian is a sinner saved by grace and each one of us will have our failures, temptations, and weaknesses in our Christian walk.

The real question is does this make us any less a child of God or any less able to serve as a child of God?  Well if our Christianity relied on our works or a consistently perfect relationship with Jesus, then I would say that many of us would be ineligible for in service for the kingdom of God and in imminent danger of hell.  The beauty of Jesus Christ is that our salvation rest solely on His actions.  We have been saved because He died with our sins on Himself and then rose again with the keys to hell because He lived a sinless life.  Our only input into the equation, is our repentance and acceptance of the salvation Jesus offers us.  "For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son so that whosoever believed in Him would have everlasting life."  John 3:16.    

So our Christian walks are completely hinged on the powerful works of Jesus.  Paul put it this way in Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."  Knowing this we can walk in strength because Jesus lives in us.  When we walk in Christ and fully trust in the grace He has imparted to us, we are able to find strength in our daily walk with Him.  In John 15:5 Jesus say, "I am the vine, you are the branches; he that abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing."  Even our love comes only from Him as is shown in 1 John 4:19, which says, "we love because God first loved us."

I hope that each of you will know that even in your struggles and failures, Jesus is still with you.  Each of us struggle with sin and temptation every day.  Even Paul, arguably one of the greatest evangelist in human history struggled with his daily walk, which is evidenced by Romans 7 where Paul firmly establishes his own wretched nature and inability to overcome the sin within himself.  Paul does not end with his wretchedness though he continues on into Romans 8 where we see the saving and transforming power of Jesus in us.  I love Paul's conclusion at the end of chapter 8 saying, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

I say all this because the Lord is teaching me that He can use me for great things even with all my imperfections.  I, as a follower of Jesus, can no longer use the failings of my flesh as a reason I can't answer God's calling on my life.  None of us are perfect!  Yet through God's enormous grace, He still uses us for great things in His kingdom if we are faithful.  If the Lord is burdening your heart for a ministry (local, career, international, or otherwise) today, I hope you will find the courage and faith to accept His calling on your life today.  Trust Him who is faithful to give you everything you need to accomplish what He calls you to.  Stand up in faith and walk boldly for Jesus today, no matter where He leads you.  I leave you with the words of John saying, "For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Blessings,

Greg

Still Small Voice vs. Baby's Cry

A baby's cry rings out in a frequency around 3500 hz.  This frequency is one of the most sensitive frequency to the human ear.  This essentially means that you cannot ignore a baby's cry even if you wanted to.  A baby's cry, especially when in close proximity, feels as though it is pulsating through your skull.  You are adamantly aware of your baby's need at full cry, even if you are unable to console them.

Though I can't say that I am always fond of my baby's cry, I am at least glad that I never have to wonder if he needs something or not.  1 Kings 19:11-13 is the passage about God speaking to Elijah.  In this passage, God was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire.  Elijah sought God's voice in each one of the elemental events but ultimately heard Him in a still small voice.  I have heard many a sermon and lesson on our desire to hear God in a greater more prominent voice like the wind, earthquake, and fire but I personally wish the voice of God was as attention grabbing as the cry of an infant.

I never want to miss the voice of the Lord to me.  I want to hear His every exhortation, direction, and warning.  I know I may not like everything He has to tell me but at least I would never wonder what He was saying to me.  If I could have the voice of Jesus as prominent as a baby's cry, I would be able to hear His warning against the pharisees around me.  I would hear Him saying, "get behind me satan" to me when I spoke outside the Father's will.  I would know when I was walking with Him in His ways.

Though I truly would love to hear God's voice more prominently in my own life, I know that even I can tune out the full sound of a baby's cry after enough conditioning.  So I will focus on quieting my own life.  Seeking the still small voice.  Listening for the leading of my Savior and Lord.  Could God scream direction into our life like an infant's cry?  Sure He could.  Will He?  Probably not.  God wants us to seek Him.  "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matthew 6:33.

So the next time you long for God's clear voice to ring out like a baby's cry, remember that He IS with you and speaking, waiting for you to listen for the still small voice in your heart.  I hope you will take the time to reduce some of the noise in your life today.  I hope you will remove yourself from the many distractions in our lives like music (even Christian), television, movies, smart phones, books (other than the Bible), and much more.  It is in those moments of quietness with God we find true communion and relationship with Him.

Blessings,

Greg

This is a fun video my wife did a few days ago.  Though the crying times are difficult the cute moments abound with a child.  I hope you all enjoy it.

 

Thank You!!!

Today marks the end of my first year of blogging.  I have learned so many things just by writing this blog.  It has been amazing reflecting on how Jesus is working in my life each day.  I have had wonderful highs in Christ in the past year and great struggles too and yet the Lord has walked with me, my family, and hopefully you through them all.  I want to thank each one of you who have been with me through this journey and I hope that you will continue to be blessed through many more inspired blogs to come.

Please continue to pray for my family as we seek to draw closer to Christ daily and learn how to trust Him with our every struggle including the adventure of being new parents ;).  Also I pray that each of you would continue to pray for us as we seek the Lord's guidance in our calling to ministry and international missions.  We plan to begin working towards paying off debt, working on seminary education, sharing our calling with others, and hopefully raising support to leave for the mission field sooner than later.  Know that I consider each one of you essential in our road to the mission field.  Thank you again so much for the encouragement you have given to me over this past year and I look forward to continuing the relationships that have been built and hopefully will continue to develop.  

Blessings,

Greg

Finding Strength in Hebrews 12

Though it is not running, it was definitely a race ;)

I was talking with a friend today about life and how much it has changed since Sam, our one month old boy, has come.  I mentioned to him how exhausted my wife and I have been lately.  He related a story to me me of a nineteen year old he was doing ministry with who told my friend he was just exhausted all the time.  My friend said he just walked away from the nineteen year old because, like me, he has an infant also and knew that the nineteen year old had no concept of being tired yet.  Isn't it interesting how our perception of certain situations is relative to our experiences?

Before Sam was born, I would've told you that there was just no way I would be able to survive on 5-6 hours of light sleep.  Now I manage with about that much sleep everyday.  I won't say that I am excelling in this current stage of constant responsibility, inconsolable crying, and less than adequate sleep but I am surviving much better than I thought I would.  Isn't it incredible what the human body can endure?  Most of us are fascinated by the Olympics because of the stories of pain and endurance tethered with our amazement that these premiere athletes are able to perform feats no one has performed before.

The Lord has truly designed us to be incredible.  In all this exhaustion and stress, I am learning that there is one thing our bodies absolutely cannot survive without.  That is a relationship and connection with Jesus Christ.  I have found that spending time in the Word has been my greatest source of strength in this past month.  My days in the Word versus my days without the Word are starkly different.  I have peace, joy, endurance, and strength when I take the time to dwell in the Word each day.  Not because of the Word specifically but because of it's ability to help me develop a more intimate relationship with my Savior, Jesus.

I cannot honestly say that I realized or even understood my intense need for the Bible until I reached the point of high stress and shear exhaustion I have achieved with Sam.  In our struggles, we begin to understand our need for a relationship with Jesus.  Most of us cry out to Jesus when we hit the bottom.  Even most non-religious people cry out in prayer during their times of need.  Our souls are crying out for relationship with the creator and unfortunately it takes us hitting rock bottom to acknowledge our great need.

I can honestly say that I am thankful for the hardship I have endured to this point simply because of the great need it unveiled in my heart.  Hebrews 12:1-2 say, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."  This verse identify our need so well.  We need to lay down our sins and the things that distract us.  We are able to endure all suffering by looking to Jesus, "the perfecter of our faith."  We can completely trust in Jesus because we know we are putting our faith in a God who completely understands suffering and endured through it bringing us salavation.  Therefore, we can also endure all thing through our relationship with Jesus.  

I don't know about you but that gives peace.  It gives strength.  It builds faith.  It gives me what I need to not only survive but to find joy in living each day.  I pray each of you are blessed by this passage and I hope you find strength and endurance today!

Blessings,

Greg