Shat  terd

Men 

The hidden half of domestic violence

How to have eternal life

With Friends like that.....

It's been said that a man is known by the company he keeps. Kenneth Frost found this out the hard way.

Kenneth Foster was to have died last Friday by lethal injection in Texas. His death sentence was commuted by the governor, one of only a few times any recent Texas governor has done so. He was given the death sentence because he kept bad company. He was the driver for
a "friend" of his who robbed and killed someone. Although he admits to having known that his friends were robbing people, he did not know one of them had a gun and would use it.

I am sure most of us remember being told this as we were growing up...to be careful of the company we keep. I am sure some are telling their kids this same thing today.

Oh I am sure some will say: "yes but I am hanging out with them to help them become better" I know, I have used that line myself. The only problem, is that most often, we are pulled down to their level long before we can pull any one up to ours. Often we do not even
realize we are going down to their level until it is too late.

I can also hear the next question. How do we help some of these people? Didn't Jesus hang out with tax collectors and prostitutes?

Mountain climbers often "belay" each other..that is where a stationary climber provides protection by means of ropes, anchors and braking devices or techniques, to an ascending or descending partner. No mountain climber would use a new climber to belay the others. It takes a skilled and experienced climber to take this on role.

Just as it takes an experienced swimmer to rescue a drowning person, it takes a mature Christian to "rescue the perishing". Oh there have been times a non swimmer has jumped in the water to save someone and did it. Most of the time, there are at least two drowning victims when that has happened.

Jesus told us that we are "in" the world, but we are not a part of it. We can better understand this when we fully realize that as a Christian, this earth is not our home. The moment we trust Christ for salvation, we become an ambassador and we represent the Kingdom
of our LORD as we become a citizen of heaven. Ambassadors do not blend in with the crowd. When they are in a car going somewhere, the car is displaying the flag of the nation they are from. Everyone knows they represent another country. They also need to be a good representative of their country or they will be recalled and they may face charges.

My friend, who do you keep company with? Do they know that you belong to the LORD? Are they pulling you down so that you are starting to accept their behavior or that you are even acting like them? Does it bother you when they drink excessively? use profane
language? Talk of hate and revenge?

Do those you hang out with encourage a closer relationship with GOD or do they use God only when they want to feel good? You see my friend, just as the Pharisees were good at using God for their own advantage, some will claim to be Christians and they will even try
to project their own sinful behavior on others that are serving the LORD. In short, they do just as Jesus said they would do...they call good evil and evil good.

What really matters, is what does God say?

2 Corinthians 6:

16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. 
18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the
LORD.

Exodus 32:26
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.


Matthew 6:24
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

I do admire those that want to go into the depths of despair to rescue those at the bottom but I do urge you to become strong in the LORD first. Even the apostles spent a lot of time to mature in the LORD before they were sent out. Paul spent three years before he
started ministering to the lost.

Remember we are soldiers in the LORD's army and just as we do not send a new solider into battle before he is trained and equipped to do the job, GOD does not either.

One last thing, at times even well seasoned Christians are told to stop....and move on

Luke 9:5
And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.

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JUNE is Domestic Violence Against Men Awareness Month