Tuesday, May 10, 2016

For Men Only

The following was written by one of our elders at Unity ARP Church. It is posted with permission.

TRUE HEIRS OF GOD TEND THEIR GARDENS
For Men Only: TEND AND KEEP, Gen. 2:15 THE GARDEN GOD GIVES YOU

Heirs need MEN to take on their God-given responsibilities as heads of homes – holy men, lovers of Jesus, lovers of wives and lovers of their heirs. Beloved family and friends, what has ever happened to the 21st century man? Sadly, see the demise of the home, the weakness of the church and the curse of society because most men have abandoned, forgotten and given up their Divinely-appointed responsibilities. Stop and really think about it. Why have our lives, our homes, churches and society imploded into chaos, sin, and despair? Yes, I know it is SIN, that root of all evil, death and corruption. Yes, it was at the Fall all was undone.
Beloved family and friends, please observe ever so carefully with spiritual eyes. For this is where all the problems of the world come from: men did not keep God’s instruction: Then the Lord God took THE MAN and put him in the garden of Eden to TEND AND KEEP IT, Gen. 2:15. We know well what happened and how our demise came about. Men as in Adam “resisted the will of God. The Word of God was rejected, and the way of God was deserted,” (A. W. Pink) and men, because of our disobedience, You shall surely die, Gen. 2:17. Because of our sin, we are today NOT TENDING AND KEEPING our garden. That murderer and liar, Satan, twists us into blind, dead fools, attempting to kill us; and we, men, have become the laughing stock of the world. Most of all we do not guard our hearts and especially our homes from the evil one. For the word in Hebrew, “Keep here means “hedge about; protect; guard; watch for those who lay in wait to harm” our gardens. Beloved men, mark this well; for this is the sin of our hearts. I pray that we would wake up and see the whole world laughs at us and rightfully so, placing us at the bottom of the family in respect and honor. Children are the masters of the homes; wives take over the morals and decision-making; fathers are the brunt of the jokes and ridicule – disrespected fools. The sinful world sees through our great sin, even from Adam, that we do not take the initiative to our God-given covenant responsibilities of tending and guarding our hearts and homes. So in pride we sought after sin and the pleasures of this world, to the point we have become aimlessly lost in sin. Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes his flesh his strength whose heart departs from the Lord, Jer. 7:5.
LET US SEE HOW WE ARE TENDING AND GUARDING THE GARDENS GOD HAS GIVEN US:
I. Our hearts need to be broken and new life enter in. We need to FLEE TO JESUS for help and forgiveness, pleading for restoration in the blood of Jesus. No excuses! No Adam blaming Eve or others. Stop sinning by grace; for every moment hold on in prayer for dear life. Study hard the Word of God. Attend a place of worship with sound preaching that stirs your soul to see your own sin and the need of Christ at all times, for all things.

II. Our Homes
  1. Do a lot of daily tending the garden of your homes; be daily in the Word with your wife and children.
Love your wife; care for her; pray for her. FLEE DAILY TO JESUS. Together read Scriptures with her; pray with her; both of you pray – pray together. That is first and foremost. Then lead your HEIRS to Jesus in family worship in respect and honor of the Lord.
  1. Keep guard: protect your home, your God-given garden
Do not allow the seeds of sin, disrespect, bad attitudes and anger kill the garden of your home. Be honorable in order to have honor. Be a protector of your home; do not allow your precious wife or children to wander where Satan dwells. Rule well your home in loving respect. Do not allow your home to be ruled by a wife or child or any other than Christ, through you, especially in spiritual matters. Men: you make the decisions; do not put your wife out in front to be your voice. YOU PROTECT YOUR HOME in loving devotion.

III. Our Churches: Men, stand up in faithfulness to Christ. Lead in the worship, teaching and loving care of the very body and bride of Christ. Men: love Christ! If you do you will love your wives and your homes as unto the Lord. Men in love to the Lord will find a church that Biblically cares for souls in loving devotion to the Lord Jesus and to one another. Men, be in leadership over your heart, over your home and over the church in truth and love to Jesus.
Finally, beloved, the world today needs men to tend to their gardens and with hard work in faithfulness to Christ guard their hearts, homes and places of worship with loving devotion unto Jesus Christ. Think of it men; it is wicked men not tending or protecting our God-given gardens that allows unfaithfulness,, bitterness, hatred, divorce, murder, pornography, homosexuality, abortion and violence to reign in our society. This is why the roles of men and women are reversed; this is why our lives and homes are breeding grounds for rebellious heirs.
Men, we need to turn this world upside-down back to the blessed order God has given us. Let us tend and guard our lives, homes and churches in Christ Jesus. We must be born again and today, every day, FLEE TO JESUS to enable us by His grace, to do this.
Blessed is the man YOU choose, Ps. 65:4
Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord, Jer. 17:7
Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Ps. 84:8
The righteous man walks in integrity. His children are blessed after him, Prov. 20:7
Oh, how glorious is the Lord!

Beloved family and friends, we need today a revival in the hearts of men in order to have Godly heirs!

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