Where to start?

When I first came to Church, my life was a mess. I was a wreck, and it seemed that so was my second marriage and our children were suffering also because of the breakdown of the family unit. Everything I had tried to do to make things right, failed and I had to accept that I was out of control and lost. Thank God.

No, I'm not being sarcastic. I mean it sincerely. Thank God. One good thing about being so broken and so low is that there is absolutely no doubt that it was God that rescued me, and my family, guiding and cultivating us, transforming us, loving us, placing good godly people in our lives to edify and support us, and so much more. So, I say, thank you Jesus.

Because of where I was in my life, (a working man, a father and husband), getting things back on track proved not to be easy. I was such a mess and my family was in such a poor state that I felt dis-heartened and like a puppy chasing it's tail. God though, knew where I needed to start and whilst in prayer He hit me with several scriptures.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Genesis 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

That first and the last scriptures hurt a bit at first (until I swallowed my pride) because it made it painfully clear that if I wanted to get anywhere I needed first and foremost to wise up and start fearing God (and not just the reverential fear, but the turn pale, shake in your boots and prepare to be smacked hard fear too). Why? because ultimately, wisdom comes from Jesus. There is worldly knowledge and wisdom, and then there is Godly knowledge and wisdom. Worldly wisdom will get you no-where and I know, because I tried doing things the world's way for many years. But if you really begin to fear God, you will start to grow in wisdom and gain good knowledge and then things start to become clearer. I needed wisdom and I needed knowledge.

The last scripture, Gen 2:24, pointed out to me that I needed to go and work out what it was to be a man as I had failed terribly in being one. Let me say it like this so I leave no doubt. You need to be a man before you get a wife and have children. There is no other way. Men get married, men raise boys, not boys get married and boys raise boys. How could I be a good husband or father if I was not a good man? I couldn't, and that is why I knew (through these Scriptures given to me in prayer), that God wanted me to go back to the very basics and learn how to be a man.

Initially, I was very fearful of this, because I wanted to "fix" my marriage first and work on me later when I had more "time," but God, in his wonderful mercy and grace, kept my family together, (and with several fatherly cuff's to the back of the head), revealed to me that I needed to "fix" me first and work on becoming a good man.

Which is where that second scripture fits in and where I finish this Post.

I am created as a man, by God, in His image.
So what is a man?

Until next time...