The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood I'm using this summer to slow down and plow down into the Scriptures using various study methods I've never before employed, and I'm loving it. My guide for this journey, Don Pierson, is a man of great heart and holiness. Don has a unique ministry: his full-time job is teaching churches, and the people in them, how to pray. He's called on by churches of all sizes and shapes. Think about that, and you'll soon see how important his job actually is. He teaches churches how to move beyond only "praying for the sick" and moves them into different levels of kingdom-based prayer.
Over the years Don has taught me so much about the life of a praying man. Recently he told me that Old Testament followers rarely, if ever, prayed the way we pray now. We tend to pray in ways that closely resemble a grocery list of concerns. Not so with the Jehovah-fearing Hebrew. They tended to pray for one thing. One thing consumed them so intensely that they prayed it through to the end. Don calls it, "your one thing." So, I started praying for my "one thing" this summer. God laid an issue on my heart, and it's pretty much all I'vebeen sending heavenward for the last several weeks. I'm telling you, what has unfolded since has, in the very least, been quite amazing in terms of spiritual awareness. You start seeing the hand of God moving, but in ways much smaller than in times past. Smaller? Yes, smaller. In my past, God would often have to do something loud and imaginative to get my attention. Now that I'm praying for my one thing until it comes to fruition, I find myself keenly aware of the smallest amount of His movement in this "one" area of my life. I watch for it. I anticipate changes He needs to make in me to see it through to completion. He has my attention in ways that I've been inattentive for so long, and that's the point of conversations with God. My heart cannot change unless I'm in a position to hear from Him. When "one thing" is your point of aim, then your aim has a much greater chance to be true. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com
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The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood July 19. 2010
I have several habits that need improving for sure, yet one good habit I've managed to develop is to surround myself with a few various men who own hearts that are deep wells of wisdom and strength. One of those valiant brothers is a man named Pierce Marrs. We eat lunch about once a month. At one of these gatherings we began to talk about fatherhood; specifically, about our son's personalities. Pierce has two grown sons: Nick and Nathan. Pierce said that between the two boys, Nathan was the one that gravitated a bit more to science fiction, especially if it had anything to do with battles. In his younger years, Nathan loved to create battle scenes where he could use swords, and that love for weaponry grew to a collection of various swords that he actually learned to use well. Pierce said that as a young boy, when it was time for bed, Nathan would often take with him a sword, or some sort of weapon, and place it by his bed. When Pierce would ask him about it, Nathan often responded, "I just want to be ready." While it may have been a young boy's imagination playing into the moment, Nathan's desire for readiness speaks mountains about the heart of the man who's heart was forming as he slept. Ready. Prepared. Anticipating the call that could come at any moment. Great men of God are never formed by a passive heart. You won't find passivity in David. You didn't see it in Moses. You certainly couldn't label Jonathan as possessing anything passive in his spirit. Peter, Paul, John, and Mark were contemporaries of that same caliber of heart that played out in the New Testament. Those men changed the world, and their story is still shaping our story today. That's how world changers do it ... they take what they have been given and they use it for the glory of His greater cause. World changers are at all times ... ready. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com |
Jason CruiseJason Cruise is the founder of Mission. Mission was created to "vindicate the fatherless" in a country known as Moldova. To learn more go to www.themissionvision.net Jason is a well known speaker traveling across the country sharing his love for Christ at wildgame dinners and conferences. Jason has created many valuable resources for the outdoorsmen to take them deeper into their walk with their Creator. These items include DVD's, Bibles, and Bible studies. Archives
July 2014
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