Men of God

As I’ve mentioned in previous blog entries the world around us is unraveling at an unprecedented rate. I’m absolutely not a doom and gloom type person, but one of my primary roles these days at Horizons is to counsel with individuals and couples about the struggles they are facing and I see first hand the pain and hurt people are dealing with on a daily basis. One struggle that is coming fast and furious is divorce. If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time, you know that God hates divorce (Malachi 2:16), so why then are so many Christians getting divorced?

This topic is incredibly complex and would be far to difficult to lay out in a blog format such as this, but suffice it to say, I believe from what I’ve seen through my own personal experience, is that generally speaking, the man within the marriage relationship is not living up to his end of the bargain as far as what God’s Word calls him to do as a husband and father. Now DON’T hear me say that men are always to blame! I made that statement in general terms. There are a lot of reasons perhaps for that being the case; the main one being that I believe in general the woman is further along spiritually in life than the man and therefore he may have never had any teaching about what his role is to be?? Again, this is another topic in and of itself, so I don’t want to get bogged down with it at this time.  

The other factor that greatly contributes to the divorce of Christians is that both people, men and women, are allowing their feelings and emotions to dictate behavior and decisions. Rather than living out 2 Corinthians 10:5, “we are to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”, they forget that we’re commanded to look to God’s Word when we make decisions. Instead, they take the easier route of allowing their feelings and emotions to dictate their behavior and decisions.

So how does Horizons hope to address the man’s end of the bargain? Several months ago the Lord began working on me as I saw couple after couple rotate through my office on their way to divorce. The question that kept plaguing me was this, “What if, just what if, we could have reached these marriages a few years sooner? What if there had been a system in place that would have been easy and non-intimidating for them to plug into to get help? What if the men had been trained, motivated and held more accountable to what God’s Word instructed them to do?” All of these questions and more got me thinking about scheduling our first ever men’s breakfast. My thought is that if we can gather men together in a safe and fun environment, give them Godly teaching on their role as husband and father, introduce them to other Godly men to develop friendships with, and add to that some man to man accountability, maybe just maybe, men would be in a position to learn from God’s Word, receive conviction from the Holy Spirit, and start living up to the expectations God sets forth in His Word for them.

Our first Men’s Breakfast is scheduled for Saturday morning, January 16 from 9:00am – 11:00am. Jim Johnson will be our featured speaker that morning along with a number of other simple programming elements. We’re still working on the details of what this will completely look like, so please be sure to keep your eye on the bulletin and website for more details.

Let me close with this one last thought. Once again, I am not making blanket or dogmatic statements in what’s addressed above. Every circumstance and situation is unique and different. My comments above are based on nearly 15 years of working with couples in distress. In particular, working with couples over the last two years has magnified the points referenced many times over. This unfortunately is the reality I see and the disaster that is ensuing within the Body of Christ in an exponential way.