This past Saturday morning we kicked off our first Men’s Group of the year. We’ve done things like this in the past, but we really feel like there is a clear direction from the Lord with this latest one. Myself and one of the elders, Kevin Vaughan, are heading up the group, and treating it as a sort of “Man School”. Our intention is to steep the men in the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and let the Holy Spirit use us to get to the heart of the matter with the men in our church.

We are breaking things down into short series’, usually less than 6 weeks long. Our first series is called, “The Reason for Man”. We took the idea from the first question of Westminster Shorter Catechism, which asks, “What is the chief end of man?”, then it answers, “The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”  After a great men’s retreat the weekend before where we looked at worship and idolatry through the lense of Romans 12, we felt like this was a great place to start with our men.

So many men today, especially in the church, don’t have a clear reason for their existence. If asked about their reason for being, they would probably each answer with something a little different, and “God” probably wouldn’t be in the majority of the answers. It is our desire to point our men to the truth of their existence as found in scripture, and see them changed by the grace of God.

So I have been involved in the on-going process of purchasing a computer from a private party. I am now discovering that this was probably a terrible decision. The party involved seems to be scamming me, and I am left with the regrettable decision to report it as fraud. At the point of my writing this, I am out about $1250.00.

But I have learned from this whole experience.

I’ve learned that as I’m making decisions, I need to listen better to the discerning voice of the Holy Spirit. I have been learning this lesson the hard way a lot lately. Usually I’ll sense something about a situation or a decision and something equivalent to a warning light will flash in my mind. It’s something more than a mere sense of fear about a situation; it’s almost like I hear a voice saying, “Don’t do that, Stewart. It’s not going to end well.” Looking back on my most recent situation, I should have known better. I had a few instances where I felt like the Lord might be telling me something, but I chalked it up to my own fearfulness to take a risk. Now I wish I had listened.

In our worship of Jesus, we are to have more than an experiential, sing-song, kind of worship. We are in a relationship wherein we submit ourselves to the loving will which the Father has for His children. When we go against this submission, we are going against the worship of the Father. Ultimately, I know that this is what I have done. Now I’m left praying for deliverance and redemption, like a child who has decided to touch the stove after being warned that it is hot.

Lord, I repent of my self-reliance.