Equipping And Encouraging Men Of God—Adopted Sons And Heirs Of The Kingdom
We are warriors for a “heavenly kingdom” that’s at war with actual enemies in a fallen, worldly kingdom. We’re not playing defense, we’re on the offense, “tearing down strongholds” and “taking captive our thoughts”. (2 Cor 10:3-5) We lay down our lives for our enemies’ salvation, but we also must protect the flock from wolves who seek to devour us as well. Being a well qualified “warrior” for this kingdom takes great wisdom, training, and Godly character. We’ll discuss it all here in this category – everything from how we battle selfish desires, like porn, that would destroy us, to false profits preaching bad doctrines. For a complete description of our categories, check out the Categories page.
Conversational content with reformed disposition; by men, for men.
We’ll send a messenger pigeon each Saturday with a summary of the week! It’s as free as grace!
If you want to grow in spiritual maturity, you need accountability. However, many of us need to refine the way we think about accountability—less grilling each other in zeal and more trustworthy brothers affirming each other in Christ for the glory of God.
It’s true we are offered free forgiveness because of Jesus Christ, but don’t be confused or mislead: to be a true follower of Christ will cost you everything. If you see no change and no costs since following Jesus, you probably aren’t actually following him.
It’s a major point of confusion in our society. The way we speak of women, and the way we allow speech about women, indicate the level of respect and dignity we ascribe to our fellow divine image-bearers.
This Humble Beast and Desiring God collaboration video is an honest and hard look at the reality of tens of millions of babies being murdered in their mother’s womb since 1973, and, most importantly, a plea to the person responsible. Yes, person.
I believe one of the most important tenants of being a Godly man is a man who plans and executes. I love what Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” God wants us to have plans and He wants to be a part of them.
Our natural instincts drive us to try to be in control and handle life ourselves, but God’s word tells us a different reality and condemns are natural instincts. We have to make a choice as to what we depend on.
Jesus is much more confrontational, unpleasant, and “unkind” than I would have imagined. His ways and words would often be condemned in many of our churches. But, even though he’s not always nice, he’s always good.
As is the natural course of life, things devolve and deteriorate over time. Because of the influence and presence of sin, everything is in a perpetual state of decay. And for all our technological advance, death is still undefeated.
Doing “big things” has become a distraction at best and trap at worst for men in our culture. It’s glorified everywhere we look. Jose tells of his personal discovery in college as to what the true key to success is and what we can each do to truly achieve it.
Young men have many reasons we may not receive the trust and leadership we think we should have, but I’ve recognized from failures both in myself and others I’ve lead, two extremely common and vital traits we must demonstrate rightly to be the leader we think we can be.
We finish our exploration of Psalm 51 as we learn from David’s failings in sexual sin plus his repentance and restoration in his relationship with God. We see a lesson for ourselves in the difference between outwardly pleasing God versus the joy of true repentance.
Psalm 51 is one of the best guides for us men after we have fallen to sexual sin. If you have recently failed, pick up your “sword” and read this Psalm through. Pray it through. It reveals an excellent way to react to our sin each time we fall.
How does Jesus deserve, and demand, to be responded to? The famous triad of Liar, Lunatic, or Lord attributed to C.S. Lewis is arguably the overarching question of Mark’s Gospel.
Living under leaders who do not honor God is a difficult reality, but it’s a reality given to us with specific instruction from God’s Word to trust God’s sovereign wisdom. This calling is currently becoming more difficult than we’ve ever known, yet more crucial than ever.
Is there really a shortcut in the Christian life? We can truly desire holiness, righteousness, and godliness (and those are good things), but if we try to skip the years of practice and instruction that it can take to get there, and if we try to appear more mature than we are, we are hypocrites.
When it comes to sharing our faith, some of us should reconsider our approach a bit. The older I get the more I can look back on times which are quite embarrassing despite how noble my intentions were, and yet, I realize how much of it I caused myself in pride and foolishness.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a triage is defined as “the assignment of degrees of urgency to wounds or illnesses in order to decide the order or suitability of treatment.” If the symptom is cynicism, then 1 Corinthians 13:13 remains the eternal prescription, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.”
Daddy Deprivation. That’s the term Blake Wilson (Senior Pastor of Crossover Community Church in Houston, Texas) calls the trend he’s witnessing today among young people in the church. It’s a phenomenon that Pastor Eric Mason calls an “epidemic of fatherlessness.”
Struggling with sin can be so discouraging it can lead us to question if we’re members of God’s Kingdom at all! This is why it’s important to have a right understanding of how we’re in God’s family, what keeps us here, and what we’re to do with the sin in us until Christ returns.
Our responses to difficult people, and life in general, reveal how well we commune with the Holy Spirit and have our security in Jesus Christ. Our responses may also be the best witness of Jesus that we have with the difficult person. So, we must do this rightly.
We exist because of volunteers and generosity.