Society
12 Reasons Why We Need Godly Men More Than Ever
by on Oct 5th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
#1 - Manhood Matters to God
Ok, ok, I know that this first reason stands as the patented Sunday School answer, but if we fail to submit to this biblical fact then little else matters at all!
If you have ever served as a subordinate in any organization, be it an athletic team, a company, a church, or even a household, you know that our interests are secondary to the interests of the leader. The leader’s agenda is the agenda for the organization, and wise subordinates organize their efforts around seeing to that leader’s agenda.
God clearly has an agenda for His people, and He also has interests that never diminish from His heart. Therefore, as Christians, we must learn to orient our lives around His agenda, His interests, and His passions before we ever consider prodding Him to support our own personal plans. I have said this softly, but Jesus is much stronger in stating this fact when He demands, as a foundational act, that we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23-27).
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12 Reasons Why We Need Godly Men More Than Ever
by on Oct 6th, 2009 at 11:13 pm
#2 - Every Generation Must Demonstrate Its Own Faithfulness
I love history to a fault, and so it pains me to make this admission, but we cannot expect the men of God who have preceded us to serve in our place as Christ’s ambassadors to our generation.
My respect for my spiritual ancestors is tremendous. As I write this entry from my office desk, I have two biographies lying beside me. Both books record the lives of Balthasar Hubmaier and Michael Sattler, men who, under conviction of God’s Word, gave their lives as martyrs to proclaim Jesus. The longer I live and study, the greater my sense of indebtedness to faithful Christians of the past is grown. The fruits of their studies are treasures to read. The pains of their mistakes can save me from repeating them. The example of their faithfulness shows me that Jesus is worthy to live and die for. However, they cannot and should not be the chief voices and examples of Christ to the world for this time.
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12 Reasons Why We Need Godly Men More Than Ever
by on Oct 7th, 2009 at 8:40 am
#3 - The Lack of Intergenerational Relationships is Killing the Vitality of the Church
Last spring, a group college students, burdened by the need to challenge each other in the area of biblical manhood, organized a men’s conference at our university. To prepare for this conference, they surveyed several campus faculty and staff members to determine what messages were of greatest importance for men in their stage of life.
One young man, a person I respect very much, requested an interview with me about this issue, and I was happy to help in any way possible. His main question to me was, "What do you think is the greatest need among men in our generation?" My answer was, "You need the wisdom and guidance of the older generations."
Life as a male in American culture can be isolating and lonely. We spend the first twenty-plus years of our lives gaining an education in age-segregated classrooms. Our leisure time is usually spent enjoying a movie, show, or activity that has been prepackaged by the producers for a “target audience,” which is usually defined by age. If we are active in church, we find ourselves progressing through the discipleship ministries as we age. Then, when we reach “adulthood,” we engage in classes or small groups that are determined by station in life: singles, college group, young married couples, young parents, just plain married, just plain parents, senior citizens, etc. Very little of what we do is intergenerational, and what little we do in an intergenerational setting is not really designed for the meaningful building of relationships.
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12 Reasons Why We Need Godly Men More Than Ever
by on Oct 8th, 2009 at 7:47 am
#4 - Being a Christian in America Is Getting Harder
Maybe I am just alone or crazy, but the longer I live the more I think that times are changing in an irreversible way. The comforts and assumptions of former generations do not seem like they are going to work as well for us. I grew up being told by my parents and grandparents that I should get a bachelor’s degree and work for a company until I retired with good benefits and the promise of a nice Social Security Check. In the meantime, I could put money in a savings account to earn good interest or place it in the stock market and enjoy 10% returns for 40 years.
Yet, a bachelor’s degree earns a person very little in today’s market, which means that more schooling is necessary to feed a family (a.k.a. 4-8 more years of school debt with little to no income). Most companies do not keep you for 35 years, and even fewer let you leave with a strong benefits package. The interest on a savings account is a joke, and the stock market plunged 40% the year I invested 50% of my savings with little hope for a sustained return of 10% over the next 40 years. Oh, and do I even need to mention the useless notion of depending on Social Security to be waiting for me in 2045?
The religious values of American society are also changing, and we cannot expect to live under the same religious conditions as our predecessors. Christianity is no longer respected as in times past. Where it was once encouraged, it became accepted, then tolerated, and now it is despised. Based on that trajectory, the next step is to go from passive disdain to active hatred.
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Manhood On The Mind
by on Jan 13th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Well, now that everyone has returned for the new semester, and the routines of life are regaining their pre-Christmas patterns, I thought that I would send some articles your way that have appeared in the realm of blogdom since early December. As a side note, I will try to begin each week with a “Manhood on the Mind” post so you can keep up with what is being written by other Christian leaders.
"Nothing Can Unsex Me If I Don’t Let It" from Kevin DeYoung
I have learned to look forward to Kevin DeYoung’s blog entries because they are unpredictable, authentic, and well-written. In this particular entry, he shares a story from a First Things article in which a wife and mother is coming to grips with her femaleness while her husband struggles through joblessness and being the homemaker for the family. Here is yet another practical example of the reality of our hardwiring as men and women to be more than what society is trying to make us.
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A Message From Prison, pt. 1
by on Jan 18th, 2010 at 12:01 am
On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. composed a letter to the white clergymen in Alabama who criticized his protests against the social injustices committed against African Americans in Birmingham. Writing from prison, Dr. King sought to defend himself and his cause.
Dr. King’s letter is one of the most compelling pieces of literature in our country’s history, and every man would benefit from reading it. His passion for justice, desire for partnership with others, love for his fellow man, and courage in the midst of crisis makes this letter more than just words on a page. Every year, on Martin Luther King Day, I read this letter to be reminded of the importance of racial reconciliation and to watch a man fight nobly for what matters.
I thought that this week would be a good time to share some powerful excerpts from the letter so that you can have an idea of what he tried to convey. I tried to include his thoughts concerning his strategy, view toward his opponents, philosophy of justice, and his refusal to back down even at the cost of his own freedom. Because there are many excerpts, this post has been divided into three parts.
If you wish to read the whole letter, you can find it at this link.
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A Message From Prison, pt. 2
by on Jan 19th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Let’s continue to ponder some lines from Martin Luther King’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail."
As Christians, we must constantly and carefully live within the tension where are commanded to live for our God, do justice to our fellow man, and respect our political leaders. These three goals sometimes find themselves in conflict with one another, and here is King’s understanding of how Christians can stand up for what is right when it is against the law to do so. A key part of this is the man’s willingness to accept the punishment for doing what is right:
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A Message From Prison, pt. 3
by on Jan 20th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Today, we’ll finish off Martin Luther King’s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." I hope that you have gained some wisdom from reading and reflecting upon it. Again, in case you want to read the entire letter, here is a link for you.
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Manhood & Abortion
by on Jan 27th, 2010 at 12:58 am
The first time I ever saw my son, he was no bigger than a single grain of rice. Just a few millimeters long, my wife and I watched in astonishment as this little being’s heart was already beating at a rapid pace. Seven weeks later, we volunteered ourselves to let a pregnancy clinic train their nurses by performing fetal measurements on my wife through ultrasound.
For an hour, we watched our son, still less than a trimester old, jump, kick, raise his arm, and fidget whenever we pushed on my wife’s stomach. I counted all ten toes and fingers, studied his nose, viewed his heart beat through his skin while my own heart danced. The whole time, I was internally rejoicing and yet I felt as though we had intruded upon a most sacred space: the womb in which God worked His most profound creative act. David said he was fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-16), but I watched with fear and wonder what he could only see in the mind’s eye. God made a human and then spent nine months giving him a functioning body.