Who do you and I emulate? Who do we act like or follow after? Are you your own, self-made man?
As a woman, do you respect and love the word “Father,” or does it bring back haunting memories of your childhood?
Are we self-made, or Christ-made?
If we all need a friend, then we must try to be a friend first to someone.
Who is the someone?
1st Corinthians 15: 33…
“Do not be deceived: Evil company corrupts good habits.”
Obviously, we need to be cautious in who we hang out with and allow to influence us.
I know from experience.
We can become like those we spend time with.
Word of wisdom for some of us today.
All you have to do is ask any high school student about their peer group, and you will find out quickly who is who, and what each one believes.
Mostly, all will agree that they like the same music, and hang out in the same places.
It is either a den in one of their homes, or a den of iniquity.
Not much middle ground here when it comes to influences from so- called friends.
If this scripture is true, and it is, then our company we keep can corrupt what is good in us.
The Bible says, “turn away from them.”
In other words, run for your life, as if it depended on you failing or succeeding in life’s endeavors.
Jesus Christ needs to be your best friend.
Corrupt is defined as: broken, illegal, selfish, and self-less.
Degenerate, nefarious, vicious, and villainous.
I like the word “iniquitous” because it implies absence of all signs of justice or fairness.
By us spending time with those who are tearing us down, not building us up, we are tainted.
Little by little the poison of corruptions bleeds into our souls.
The grip on our “right” beliefs (Godly ones) inevitably fade over time. This decay of one’s moral convictions cannot keep us from disaster.
Do not be misled.
We are not teenagers any longer. It is time to grow up and get up off our pity parties; it’s time to stop using the blame game for an excuse for our self-inflicted, moral wounds.
As has been stated in previous stories, the wounds we create are the hardest to heal.
Why?
Because we did it to ourselves.
No one to blame there.
It is called moral and ethical suicide by hanging. We put the spiritual rope around our own necks.
Can’t jump off the chair with our spiritual hands tied behind our back and avoid that death in our hearts.
Proverbs 27: 17-19…
“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Whoever keeps, and nurtures the fig tree, will eat its fruit; So, he who waits on his master will be honored. As in water, face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.”
All you and I must do is look into a real mirror at home.
What do we really see?
I am talking about beyond the shaved face men.
I am referring Ladies, beyond the eye liner.
What does your heart scream as you investigate its ventricles of venom that exist from the rattlesnake of regrets?
The disease of brokenness and heartache can only be rendered by Jesus as we “rend our hearts, not our garments.” (Joel 2:13).
I see it all the time in over 40 years of prison ministry.
A young 20-year-old inmate is in one unit, while his father is doing time in another unit.
Primarily in Texas, but I see it in every place I have preached in America. Even overseas.
An uncle, a cousin, and a brother are in prison at the exact same time as the young man.
Why?
Because, in part, it is the father who gave his ungodly attributes and teachings to his son.
“Like Father, like Son.”
The son repeated what he learned from his Daddy.
He knew better when he came to the age of accountability.
But it was engrained in him early on.
In prison, like in the free world, we learn to hide behind a mask of insecurity.
Our true identity is hidden away, and our souls become different.
The picture on our spiritual driver's license, has someone else's face there.
We have become a pretender.
Not wanting to, but it is in our DNA.
We are not who we say we are.
Our lives do not match what is on the inside of our hearts.
What mask do you wear today when you try to hide all your junk in your spiritual trunk?
Are you hiding behind the façade of being a friend who is fake?
Are you emotionally divorced from your family for whatever reason, or reasons?
We can’t build better and stronger friendships if we can’t identify with the reasons why we wear masks.
This is also like the game of “hide and go seek.”
“Come out, come out, from wherever you are.”
Where are you spiritually, really?
When the lights go out at night, (unless you are in jail or prison reading this, they never fully go out) what do you see in the dark?
Idioms:
“A friend in need, is a friend indeed.”
“Two peas in a pod.”
“Birds of a feather, flock together.”
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out!”
At the end of your life, if you and I have enough true friends we can count on one hand, we are blessed.
Five things to ponder.
One, your best friend should be Jesus, if you know Him personally.
Develop this love relationship the best you can over time.
It will last forever, so be diligent and work out your Salvation daily.
Two, your spouse if you are married.
If you got married and you were friends back then, this friendship should grow stronger, not weaker.
Three, Children will always be your children.
However, your responsibility to raise them and train them began and was partially completed once they left the nest.
We will support, love, and guide them as best we can. It is still up to them to grow up and mature in the Lord.
Four, your adult children will always be your children, and in a healthy way, they can be called friends too.
Only in the context of relationships with the Lord. Like Father like Son.
Five: “NON- family” friends, is self-explanatory.
Control your time, (men especially) that you spend with all your buddies.
Do not neglect the weightier matters of home, wife, children, or even the stepchildren.
If you are single, spend time with Jesus more than you spend time playing golf, or hanging out killing time.
Time is too precious to waste.
Women, if shopping and going to the salon with your girlfriends becomes an addiction, perhaps you should wonder why you are away so much.
Is it because you want to be away from “him” because you would rather be comforted by your peers, rather than avoid the arguments waiting for you at home?
Just a thought. If that does not apply, hit delete.
Soloman points out the value of a true friend and brother.
He says that a true friend is always loving, and a brother helps in trying times.
True love stands in unfavorable circumstances. (Proverbs 17: 17).
Paul was Saul until his “road to Damascus experience.”
Blindness for a few days was good for Saul. The blindness left once he became Paul the Apostle. He was a Christian killer before God knocked him off his horse.
He was a persecutor of Christians, but ended up a preacher.
He was a true friend to all who read his letters he wrote from prison. All the churches, and to Timothy, a young pastor.
Paul was an example of a true friend.
A friend in need is a friend indeed.
Paul taught this young pastor Timothy the ways of Jesus.
He saw the big picture beyond his incarceration.
Philippians 2:17 proves this.
“But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith; I am glad and rejoice with you all.”
Paul celebrated his friends but kept his eye on His best friend. Jesus.
Philippians 2: 19-24 (read it when you can) describes Paul, being like a Father Figure to Timothy saying that even though he could not come to him shortly, he was contented NOT in Timothy (understanding his absence), but in His Christ!
PRIORITY.
I will end with this.
Acts 14: 19-21…
“Then the Jews from Antioch and Iconium, came there; and having persuaded the multitudes, they stoned Paul-dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. However, when the disciples gathered around him, he rose up and went into the city. (hit with rocks till half dead) And the next day, he departed with Barnabas to Derbe. And when they had preached the Gospel to that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra. “
(That is a bunch of walking with broken bones and bruises).
He went to Iconium and Antioch too.
Paul was able to preach the day after being stoned, almost to death.
What are our excuses for not doing God’s Will today?
Sinus headache? Bad news from home?
Situations and trials do come. It is what we do while in these trials that matter.
Either get up or lie down.
In 2 Timothy 4: 17…
“But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me and that all the Gentiles might hear.”
It is no wonder there are not many fathers in this generation in 2025.
Yes, there are thousands of Godly men doing God’s will.
I am talking about the limp-wristed, time wasting, excuse making men who call themselves men.
It is no wonder so many young men end up in prison that I preach to.
I have surveyed and even asked this question many times to the congregations in prison.
“How many are here who never knew your biological father?”
Sixty percent, and many times more, raise their hands.
Like Father, like Son.
In this case, I plead not.
Not guilty.
Because what is a young boy to do?
If he has no father, where are the pastors, and men in the church to help nurture them?
Either nurture or ignore the little tykes.
Teenage boys, without a Father Figure, are not tykes.
They are vulnerable to sin, without a Godly example.
Moms can only be Moms.
They do fill that void, to a degree, and it is admirable for them to try.
God did not want them to carry the burden of being both parents to their children.
Many mothers should be honored more than just on Mother’s Day.
Every day to them, without the man side of life, have heavy bricks upon their spiritual shoulders. Often working two jobs to make ends meet.
Bless them for all their efforts.
I am not speaking to those who do not want a man in their lives because they have been burned up in the wake of the forest fire of divorce or abandonment.
Man-abuse plays a big part too in being alone for them. Single moms are to be treasured, not ignored.
“Daddies, where art thou?”
If the cycle of “Like Father, Like Son” is to be changed for the good, then it takes a revelation.
Not a village raising your children.
It takes a man to be a Daddy.
Any male can make babies, but it takes a man of God to be with his children, whether they are a part-time dad, paying child support, or a dad with full visitation rights.
Life has hurt many families, and stress over money and other things, has torn apart the fabric of our Nation’s cloth.
It is not a shameful thing to be divorced.
God is a God of restoration.
Our nation needs its fathers.
Our churches need to preach about this fatherless generation.
“If not now, when?”
This may be Gen-Z's turn to lead our nation someday.
What about the generation that preceded them?
Generation X was deemed that because society gave up on them.
Jesus will not give up. Never will the Lamb of God ignore any sheep.
No matter what generation you are in, or was raised up through, you are valuable.
Either you are a dad, a son with a dad, or a son without a dad.
No matter the case, your Heavenly Father is your friend.
He is not your foe.
Be like Him. Be like His Son Jesus.
Do your best, and someday, if/when you have children, raise them up with Jesus at your home.
Then you can declare, if you have a boy,
“Like father, like son.”
In a good, healthy, and Godly way.
Not perfect, but peaceful.
If you have daughters, then it is “like father, like daughter.
It all applies.
Let us all pray for this generation.
We need our dads.
I needed mine. I lost him when I was eighteen.
I am 69 now, and Jesus Christ is the best Dad I could ever ask for.
He even tucks me in at night through prayer. I sleep, because He never rests. He is available 24/7.
