Lord Give Us Men
Lord give us men.
Men who are willing to live and die for you, who name the name of Christ and live for His glory.
Lord give us men.
Men who know your voice and whose greatest delight is to do your will.
Who are slow to anger, quick to listen, and eager to forgive.
Lord give us men,
Men who love their wives and honor you in their homes;
Who are living epistles of salt and light to all they know and meet.
Men whose sacrifice, service, and love are renown and who are known to have spent time with you.
Lord give us men!
These kinds of men! For the world is desperate for them.
Lord give us men,
Men of faith and action, who have eternity in their hearts and only you as their focus, passion and reason for living.
Men of whom the world is not worthy.
Lord, these men are few, but they know that you use ordinary men to do extraordinary things through your power. That you use foolish men to shame the wise; weak men who because you become strong.
Men who are known more for their availability than for their ability.
Men who choose to decrease so that you may increase.
Lord to me this seems like an impossible request, but these are the kind of men you make when they give their lives in total abandonment and absolute trust to you.
Lord let me be a man like this among men like this.
Lord let me be that man.
—Pete McKenzie 2006
We’re the kind of men whom God has called from the darkness of this world into the glorious light of his gospel of truth. He has called us according to Mark 9:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father which is in heaven.”
He who enters into God’s inner chamber must enter in with personal abandonment and absolute trust. Before we can enter into his holy presence we must trust him absolutely. Absolute trust begins with prayer. Prayer is aligning my heart with his heart.
Absolute means without restrictions or qualifications. Absolute is fundamental, uncontaminated, unadulterated, pure, refined, without deviation from God’s exacting standard of truth. Only men who trust him absolutely, who are not confused about the object of their trust can enter into God’s holy of holies.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says…..Trust in the Lord with all thine heart….
Trusting in the Lord is indicated by your concept of the object of your trust. How confident are you of God and the integrity of his word? Most men are ashamed to be called “man of God.” Most men will look away when you call him “man of God.” When you ask him why, the usual response is “because I feel unworthy.” However, he made me worthy and now by his grace, his mercy has made me his own.
A man of God is God’s man. The phrase “man of God” is the genitive of possession. Christianity is not who we are, but whose we are. For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I but Christ liveth in me, and the live that I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.
According to 1 John 1:11-13, These things have I written to you so that you may believe in the name of the Son of God, and that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe in the name of the Son of God.
To know him is to love him. Herein is the love of God made perfect…. we love him because he first loved us. Without his loving us first, we could not have the capacity to love him. The love of God is unlike the types of love in this world. Agape is the Greek word for God’s unconditional love. God’s spiritual unconditional love does not require love in return. Love is manifest in the pure act of giving. For God so loved the word that he gave his only begotten son.
There are two great commandments upon which all the other commandments depend… Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, soul, mind, and strength, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
To love others, to love thy neighbor as thyself, we must love God above all. To love God is the first of the Ten Commandments: thou shalt have no other gods before me. In others words, “thou shalt have no other gods between your face and my face.” Nothing shall come between you and me because I love you. In loving God above all we can love others with the love of God.
To reconcile with others we must “meet each other at the foot of the cross.” For only Jesus Christ can reconcile our hearts with God. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. When our hearts are reconciled with God, then we can reconcile with one another to God’s glory. Then we can love each other in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.
Christianity is not a religion….instead, it’s a relationship. The relationship starts with God’s loving us… hereby is the love of God made perfect, for in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.
A loving relationship starts with trust. Doubting Thomas doubted the resurrection of Jesus. When Jesus appeared in the midst of the disciples he said, “Thomas, put your hand in the wound in my side and feel the imprints of the nails in my hand and be not unbelieving, but believe.” When Thomas touched Jesus’ wounds, the said, “My Lord and my God!”
Hebrews 11:1 says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Jesus said, blessed are they who have not (physically) seen and yet believe.
When we received His Holy Spirit, the spirt transforms us from the image of the flesh into the image of the spirit….Christ in you the hope of glory. For we all with open face beholding in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed from glory (of the flesh) to glory (of the spirit) even but he spirit of the Lord.
Jesus said, “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” Our desire is in the object of our desire. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight thyself also in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.” Then when our heart is aligned with His heart, he will give us the desires of our heart. Likewise, Joy and rejoicing is in the object of our joy. Therefore rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice.
For who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, for life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor height, nor depth, nor things present, nor things to come shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
There is nothing God can’t handle. Therefore, trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lead not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Lord give us men! Men who join their hearts together to create an environment where the Holy Spirit can come help himself to our lives to share in the unity of the spirt in the bond of peace.
Lord give us men! Men who love you above all. Men who give their lives to you in total abandonment and absolute trust. May I be a man like this among men like this…
….that we may live to the praise of the glory of thy grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael
