Dear Bros in Christ,                                         Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend. Brothers in Christ, this weekly encouragement is sent and meant to be an encouragement to all and to build up and edify in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oikodome means "Builder". The Lord has put this on my heart to send out a monthly Iron Man Oikodome {oy-kod-om-ay'} to build up and encourage the men who love and follow Jesus Christ in their walk with Him. Hebrews 3: 13  "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." PRAYER REQUESTS: If you have any prayer requests please send them and I will send them out to the bros for prayer, if privacy is needed I will send in a discreet way.

IRON MAN OIKODOME BOX TOP 122“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.” [JAMES 1:22-24NKJV]“Hear ~Do” Bros seems like it is so nice when we accomplish some task or thing especially if it is something we may have put off for a long while. We talked about doing it for a long time but never took any action to be a doer. While James I believe is telling us to not only hear the Word but to believe it and do what it says, to take action-be a doer, to live it daily and walk it out in our lives that we might demonstrate what God is telling us and showing us to do. Long before I became a born again believer I went to church once or twice a year and I remember I felt good after hearing a good message from the Word of God-the Bible. Usually the feeling lasted a few hours… I look back now and realize I was carrying so much guilt from the sin in my life that it was like I had a huge backpack on and I couldn’t hardly walk or stand under the immense load of it. So when I heard the Word it was like a quick crutch underpinning my soul for a few moments transferring the weight of the guilt, shame and sin away from my mind and heart allowing my mind to be focused on what God was saying to me… But the reason it didn’t last was because I didn’t heed what the Lord said in His Word, I didn’t receive it, so I couldn’t be a doer, but only a hearer and though it gave refreshment to my soul momentarily. I couldn’t fully realize it or receive it because my heart was not set on doing Gods will and acting on what He was saying to me. I didn’t want to follow God or His Word but knew hearing it made me feel better for a few moments.I like where James says “…deceiving yourselves.” Oh how easily we are deceived especially by ourselves: we hear something that is so good to our souls- it is so rich in blessing us and refreshing and full of life and powerful, full of love, mercy, and every good accomplishment the Lord intended it for and yet we do not heed to be doers of what it says… “But be doers of the word, not hearers only.” It’s more than hearing and receiving the word, its doing it and acting on it. James equates this to looking at ourselves in the mirror walking away and forgetting what we look like. Most of the time we glance in the mirror but we don’t look long or deep enough at our walk with God, we only look and hear long enough from our flesh-to tell us how cool we look, but not what God is putting in our heart to do and then doing it, being a doer. I know for myself I constantly need to be reminded to examine myself, to check my motives, to ask myself am I doing what the word says, I know I heard it but am I acting on it? Being a doer, is it part of my walk, and am I hearing only and being complacent-deceiving myself? “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock:” [Matthew 7:24 NKJV] Don’t be deceived bros be a doer-look deep and long to see if you are a doer of God’s word not only hearing His Word today but building your house on it, do it, be a doer of the Word! Everything else is sinking sand, amen!Agape,Daniel Wrightironmanoikodome.orgProverbs 27:17

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