Everman United Methodist Men's Breakfast

This month our devotion is from John Eldredge's book WILD AT Heart, Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul. A book that invites men to recover their masculine heart, defined in the image of a passionate God. And he invites women to discover the secret of a man's soul and to delight in the strength and wildness men are created to offer.

"The heart of man is like deep water..." Proverbs 20:5

"Dear Lord - do we really need another book for men?

Nope. We need something else. We need permission. Permission to live from the heart and not from the list of 'should' and 'ought to' that has left so many of us tired and bored.

Men need a deeper understanding of why they long for adventures and battles and a Beauty - why God made them just like that.....

Eve was created within the lush beauty of Eden's garden. But Adam, if you'll remember, was created outside the Garden, in the wilderness....

Man was born in the outback, from the untamed part of creation. Only afterward is he brought to Eden....

.....when a man comes to the mountains, he comes home.

Adventure, with all its requisite danger and wildness, is a deeply spiritual longing written into the soul of man...

It is fear that keeps a man at home where things are neat and orderly and under his control. But the answers to his deepest questions are not to be found on television or in the refrigerator...

He is called out, called up into something much bigger than he ever imagined....

The soul longs for passion, for freedom, for life....

Where are all the real men?

You ask them to be women.....

The result is a gender confusion never experienced at such a wide level in the history of the world. How can a man know he is one when his highest aim is minding his manners?....

Walk into most churches in America, have a look around, and ask yourself this question: What is a Christian man? Don't listen to what is said, look at what you find there. There is no doubt about it. You'd have to admit a Christian man is.....bored.

Rober Bly laments in Iron John, 'Some women want a passive man if they want a man at all; the church wants a tamed man - they are called priests; the university wants a domesticated man - they are called tenure-track people, the corporation wants a...sanitized, hairless, shallow man.'

We have not invited a man to know and live from his deep heart...

But God made the masculine heart, set it within every man, and thereby offers him an invitation; Come, and live out what I meant you to be....

Men and women are made in the image of God as men or as women....

Gender simply must be at the level of the soul, in the deep and everlasting places within us.

....there is a masculine heart and a feminine heart, which in their own ways reflect or portray to the world God's heart.

What makes you come alive?

What stirs your heart?

.... in the heart of every man is a desperate desire for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.

A boy wants to attack something - and so does a man, even if it's only a little white ball on a tee.

Life needs a man to be fierce - and fiercely devoted. The wounds he will take throughout his life will cause him to lose heart if all he has been trained to be is soft.

Every man wants to play the hero. Every man needs to know that he is powerful.

Like it or not, there is something fierce in the heart of every man.

....adventure is written into the heart of a man.

If a man has lost this desire, says he doesn't want it, that's only because he doesn't know he has what it takes, believes that he will fail the test.

....there is something wild in the heart of every man.

There is nothing so inspiring to a man as a beautiful woman.

Not every woman wants a battle to fight, but every woman yearns to be fought for.

....she wants to be wanted.

Every woman also wants an adventure to share.

So many men make the mistake of thinking that the woman is the adventure. But that is where the relationship immediately goes downhill. A woman doesn't want to be the adventure; she wants to be caught up into something greater than herself.

...every woman wants to have a beauty to unveil.

There is also a deep desire to simply and truly be the beauty, and be delighted in.

Do you see me? asks the heart of every girl. And are you captivated by what you see?

The world kills a woman's heart when it tells her to be tough, efficient, and independent.

Walk into most churches in America, have a look around, and ask yourself this question: What is a Christian woman? Again, don't listen to what is said, look at what you find there. There is no doubt about it. You'd have to admit a Christian woman is.....tired. All we've offered the feminine soul is pressure to 'be a good servant.' No one is fighting for her heart, there is no grand adventure to be swept up in, and every woman doubts very much that she has any beauty to unveil.

God gave us eyes so that we might see; he gave us ears that we might hear; he gave us wills that we might choose, and he gave us hearts that we might live.

A man must know he is powerful; he must know he has what it takes.  A woman must know she is beautiful; she must know she is worth fighting for.

Your heart may feel dead and gone, but it's there. Something wild and strong and valiant, just waiting to be released.

For if you are going to know who you truly are as a man, if you are going to find a life worth living, if you are going to love a woman deeply and not pass on your confusion to your children, you simply must get your heart back."

From the book, Wild At Heart by John Eldredge

 

"If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.."

2 Corinthians 5:17

 

How is it with your Soul?

Early Methodist began meeting in small groups asking this question, "How is it , with your Soul?" in order to live out their belief as a disciple of Christ. John Wesley by his preaching helped form these meetings so that fellow believers could help each other to become transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Each month the men of Everman United Methodist Church meet for breakfast and provide a safe, welcoming environment to share with other men their adventure in "heading up into the high country of the soul, into the wld and uncharted regions and track down that elusive prey." Man's Soul and his relationship with God.

 

"One beggar showing another beggar where the bread is."

 

NEXT MEETING JANUARY 2010