A Band of Brothers

I had some good topics in the back of my mind and I was planning to bust out a pretty good blog this week.  God has really been showing me a lot in the last few weeks and I wanted to share some of it with you.

BUT....

I'm really on spiritual high right now and so I thought I might share why rather than touching on the other subjects I had in mind.  It is Thursday night and I just left a little bible study group with some men who I who consider to be my closest friends.  Tonight was an awesome time of fellowship.  Think of some of the greatest fireside chats you have had with close friends at hunting camp and that would be pretty close to what went on tonight....minus the smoke in your eyes.

Tonight we didn't really bring an agenda.  We started by joking around and catching up a bit as it had been a few weeks since our schedules have allowed us to be together.  Then after we got some laughter out of the way and few good digs at eachother for comraderie sake the conversation sort of changed.  I posed the question, "What has God been up to in your lives lately?"  It was really cool to hear and to share the things that we all felt God was up to.  We came into the meeting with different backgrounds and feelings from the week.  For some the week had been great and some really felt God at work in their lives.  For others the week had been struggle.  Tough times and tough things that some were dealing with.  Then... just honesty.  None of us felt like we had to impress the others, no one talked like they had all the answers.  That is really rare.  If you have ever spent time with a group of guys you probably understand what I mean.

We read some scripture that pertained to the topics we were discussing.  I think God's word challenged us all in specific areas of our lives.  We encouraged eachother.  We discussed leading our families better.  We talked about walking in the Spirit and wondered how that might look in our lives if we did a better job of that!  The conversation flowed easily.  The honesty, the boldness, the conviction,....it was all really cool.  God was there with us and His presence was recognized in the room.  We ended with an awesome time of prayer that was interupted by a cell phone ring tone that was hilarious.  After a few laughs and some more jokes we jumped right back into prayer and finished the meeting strong.

Here is why I share this.  As men we cannot walk alone.  Not if we truly want to live as Christ.  For heavens sake Jesus did not walk alone.  The disciples did not walk alone.  We need eachother.  Iron sharpens iron.  If we are going to live for God and bring the kind of impact that He desires to our families, our friends and our world, well then we need encouragement.  We need help.  We need other men in our lives who know our stories, know our struggles, but also know and recognize the glory and the passions that God has uniquely placed in us.  Not just to hold us accountable but to affirm who we are in Christ and cheer us on to chase hard after that.

God wants this for every man.  He has a plan to bring a band of brothers around each of us.  So if you don't have one, seek one out.  Pray for it.  Sure it is awkward at first and you can bet that satan is against all of it.  You will have to fight for it.  I spent most of my life trying to walk with God by myself and I can tell you it is a heck of a lot better now with a few guys I respect who are in my fox hole.

-Scott