October 25, 2011

Law of the Harvest: We reap after we sow, We reap more than we sow…”

By Pat Mancuso

Men of Fuel,

Please join us in person on Wednesday morning as we continue our series, the Law of the Harvest.

DR Carlson and Mark Joseph will be presenting on We Reap More than We Sow, and We Reap After We Sow.

Funny how our crops seem to multiply when things come out of the ground. Ever plant a pepper? One little seed can produce fruit up to 100 or even 1000x. Sadly, why is it when I plant something bad in my kids field, it comes back to haunt me 10 or 100x? Am I alone? One wrong word with my wife, due to something incredibly selfish and stupid, and I suddenly have a spicy Habanero plant growing from our garden. Ever eat a Habanero? Or bite into something you thought wasn’t supposed to be hot, and suddenly your mouth is on fire? And your like, “Jesus, where did that come from?” And He replies, “From your garden, you planted it a few weeks ago.” Heck, maybe even longer than that…

Thankfully, when we plant good things, we also reap more than we sow. Ever plant a cherry tomato? Wow, they just spring up and you measure your fruit per plant in POUNDS. That’s just how good things are harvested. Ask anyone who has good things coming, because they can’t explain it. When the good crops come in, there is no answer for the depth and the amount of the harvest, because its so much better and abundant than you ever could have imagined. Notice that the best farmers giving credit to God, not to their own ingenuity or creativity. The same holds true when you see a Godly family, where families are intact, children are happy and joyful, and wives and husbands communicate and are loving towards each other. Something greater is at work in their lives, and its not due to good luck or sunshine.

And while on the topic of something greater…we are proudly launching a new Fuel Facebook page. If you have a Facebook account, please go to https://www.facebook.com/MenOfFuel and “Like” our new page.

You can connect on this page to discuss the topic of the day, share it with friends whom you like to invite to our group, or just link up with other guys from our group.

Brian Moran has created this page and we will link it to our Men Of Fuel website, so that we can share what we do with other people simply by our “lifestyle evangelism.” Be bold, and post our latest blog entry on your Facebook status so that others can see what you are doing on Wednesday mornings, and give them a reason for the hope that you have…

Invest, Invite, and Like our Facebook page!!!

pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com  
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog
Join us at: https://www.facebook.com/MenOfFuel

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

—
See our blog at https://menoffuel.com/blog and leave your comments

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October 23, 2011

Recap: The Law of The Harvest: You reap what you sow

By Pat Mancuso

This week we explored the simple biblical truth of the Law of the Harvest; you reap what you sow.

In case you missed the haunting images of Moammar Gadhafi’s capture and subsequent execution, it could not have happened to a more a deserving guy.  Here’s a man who oppressed his own people for 42 years, personally presided over the execution of dissidents, bombed his own countrymen killing thousands of innocent civilians, while clinging to power. He had a history of authorizing state-sponsored terrorism, gave crazy speeches about annihilating Israel, ordered terrorist acts against Americans, with the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie and a Berlin disco.  The list goes on…

The funny part is that after years of cruelty he expected to be treated fairly by his people.  He was suggesting to his captors, “I am like your father” and questioned them saying, “Do you not know right from wrong?”

But what is ironic is that during this civil war, he repeatedly called the rebels overthrowing his dictatorship “rats” and yet when he was captured, he was pulled from a sewer, where he was hiding, and pleading for his life, saying, “Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.”

“Huh?”  Are you kidding me?

His crop just came in, full bloom.  It took 42 years to harvest this, but he finally reaped what he had sown.

Just because the seeds of our harvest have not germinated into a crop, we should not be deceived.  What we put into the ground, is what we get out of it; eventually.

If we are unhappy with the current state of the field we sit in; its time to weed it, and start planting seeds of life.

If our field is clear, and we have been sowing it with life-giving seeds, be assured, a good crop will come in, eventually.

We all reap what we sow, there’s no way around it.

We reap more than we sow, and we reap after we sow…and those are the topics we will explore these next two weeks.

Hope to see you next Wednesday.

Invest, and Invite!!!

pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

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October 20, 2011

Got Corn? The Law of the Harvest

By Pat Mancuso

Men of Fuel

Not long after my father retired from the Navy, my parents bought a 135 acre farm in Stanardsville Va.  Stanardsville is about a two hour drive from Northern Virginia and is about halfway between Culpepper and Charlottesville.  My father had grown up on a farm in Gainesville Wisconsin, so this farm was sort of homecoming for him.  So not long after painting a huge white anchor on the red barn (I am not kidding), my father started taking on additional “Farming” activities.
One of the first activities was planting corn in the lower field of their property, which was only second to buying all of the farm equipment needed to plant corn in the lower field.  I was there that day for “Corn planting day”, and I must say that planting corn is about as much fun as, well, planting corn.  I left the next day, and drove past acres of turned up earth, yet the next time I came back to visit my parents those acres of upturned earth were now covered with guess what?  You guessed it: Corn.
Now while that may seem like an exercise in the obvious, what if that same were true in our lives?  What if some of the things we were experiencing in our lives right now were not just random occurrences, but rather the direct outcome of a previous action?  If that were true would it benefit us to make the connection?  Would it allow us to change future experiences?
Come on out this Wednesday as we plant the seeds of our new four week series titled: The Law of the Harvest.


Invest and Invite,


D.R.

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September 27, 2011

The Weight of Our Words; Part II

By Pat Mancuso

Men of Fuel;

Last week we discussed the weight of words and the impact those words can have on the people and the environments around us.  We were challenged for one week, to only speak words of life…and I want to report that this effort was much harder than I ever considered.

To WAIT on my words…so that the weight of the words that leave my lips are encouraging and uplifting…

The words we use deliver a message of either life OR death; and the fruit of those words are what we eat…

So I can tell you, I ate some sour apples this week, as I chose to use some words and I reacted to situations expressing my frustration and anger…but there was a difference.  I actually noticed this time, and saw the consequences.

I was actually aware of the words I used, and I was shocked by how much easier it was to NOT levy a negative opinion, or express a dissatisfaction…because nobody really wanted to hear my negative words; rather, I just wanted to SAY them.

For example, when I chose to vent about how dysfunctional my son’s football league is run, I could hear crickets chirping in the background.  Nobody really cared, but me.  I was eating my own words of death…

So when speaking with my sons this week, I was much more deliberate and thoughtful in the words I used for correction.  Now, that did not necessarily pay dividends with their actions, but my reaction to them probably shocked them.  And I can honestly say, my youngest son sought to be around my presence a lot more this week.  He was drawn to his Father simply because I did not utter any words of death…but rather was intentional about speaking words of life, encouragement, and confidence.

Funny, huh?  Say a few nice words, and suddenly people want to be around you?

So that leads me to this question, “Who has two thumbs, a knuckle head, and sits alone at his son’s football game?”
Sadly, this guy.  But at least, now I understand why…

I know I am not the only one who was challenged this week, so I encourage you to join us this Wednesday morning as Dr. Clark continues the conversation on the “Weight of our Words.”

Invest, Encourage, Invite…

pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

—
See our blog at https://menoffuel.com/blog and leave your comments

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September 19, 2011

CURRENT SERIES: The Weight of Words

By Pat Mancuso

The Weight of WordsAbout 6 years ago I was at a retreat listening to a pastor speak about our identity in Christ. He handed out blank name tags and asked us to fill them in, but NOT with our real names, but rather a name someone else called us or a false identity that we assumed. Perhaps a name that we wrestled with that caused some shame, but really wasn’t true. Once we had that name, we were to stick it on our lapel and wear it.

I looked around the room and saw some men writing a few common themes down on their name tags; many guys wrote down “failure” because of their situation or frustration with their job or career path that they ended up on… or the fact that they suffered through a difficult or broken marriage; some wrote “unworthy” because of their inability to live up to the expectations heaped on to them by people in their lives…or wrote “unlovable” due to the brokenness of their relationships with their families.

Now, I am the King Of Rationalization, and have an unbelievable ability to maintain my confidence (blame everyone else, at all cost) and couldn’t bear to write down “failure” or “unworthy” or “unlovable.” Because frankly, at that moment, I didn’t see any of my own failures: I believed I was worthy, and I loved myself too much to write down “unlovable”. I thought “Huh, I guess this exercise isn’t really going to drum something very profound up within me…” So while the other men began to get stirred up, my mind wandered as the music played in the background, until of course I remembered a name my Father called me when he was angry with me. It had been easily 30 years since he called me that name, and probably 29 since I even remembered it. But apparently, I never forgot it. And somewhere deep down, hearing the memory of his voice call me that name again, REALLY began to bother me. My hands were trembling as I wrote down this name, and I reluctantly affixed it to my lapel. The emotions were swirling in my head. I love my Dad. We were always very close and still are to this day. My Dad was my hero growing up. But why would he call me that hurtful name again and again? What was he thinking?

At that time, I was 39 years old, and suddenly I am recalling a repressed memory of a hurtful name my Dad called me, and I am pissed, flustered, and moved to tears? I could barely talk. How could this name—this one little word– own me like this? Well as part of the exercise, another man walked over to me, tore off the label, crumpled it up and let me know that the name my father had called me was not who I was. It was just a word. And in that moment, I was able to let go of that memory and forgive my Father. He had no idea of the power of his words. And if I brought this to his attention, he’d be crushed. In other words, my words would do to him, what his had done to me.

Unfortunately it was this realization that made things worse, not better– because I was instantly overcome with guilt and shame as I thought about what my 4 and 5 year-old sons were going to be crying over in 30 years because of a stupid name I already called them. I mean, what baggage had I saddled them with already simply because of the words I said?

What was harder was perhaps the fact that I had never even thought about the impact I was having with the words I was using. The words that I threw around in frustration or anger. The words directed at my wife, my kids, my family or friends. Yet here I sat in a room full of grown men, weeping; a room full of proof that words carry a very significant weight with them. A weight that leaves an imprint years, even decades after they have been said.

Wondering what impact our words are having? Come join us this Wednesday as we begin our new series “The Weight of Words”

Invest, and invite,

pat

Pat Mancuso
patmancuso@mac.com
(703) 401-8302
FUEL
See our Blog at: https://menoffuel.com/blog

“It’s what you need to keep you going…”

Our mission is to create a comfortable, relevant and honest environment where men can explore and discuss aspects of life, purpose and faith.

We accomplish our mission by reviewing pertinent issues in men’s lives, examining them through relevant biblical principles, followed by a time of discussion with other men.

Wednesday mornings, September through May…and beyond
6:30 AM to 7:30 AM @ Hidden Creek Country Club, Reston, VA.

http://www.hiddencreekcc.com

—
See our blog at https://menoffuel.com/blog and leave your comments

**If you would like to add someone to the Fuel Email List, please have them send an email to:
Fuel_list+subscribe@googlegroups.com.  In the subject please type Subscribe.

 

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