I ran across another great quote from a ways back (St John Climacus).  I thought it would be good to share it with other men.  “Let us charge into the  good fight  with joy and love without being afraid of our enemies”  In a day when a man can easily get defensive about his walk with Jesus and negative about the condition of the culture, these words are a great reminder.  It reminds me of Psalm 149:6, “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands.”  The implication seems to be  that men going into battle needing to have a positive attitude, enabling them to praise God while in battle.  That is a great attitude to have for battle.  What is our attitude in the conflicts of our day?

Men, there is no doubt that we are in a fight.  Paul reminds Timothy to,  “Fight the good fight of the faith” (I Tim. 6:12).  The Message tells us, “This is no afternoon athletic contest that we’ll walk away from and forget about in a couple of hours.  This is for keeps, a life-or-death fight to the finish against the Devil and all his angels” (Eph  6:11).  We are in a serious fight!!  Rev 12:12 give us a warning about the enemy that we face spiritually. “But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you!  He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” (Rev. 12:13).  The enemy has a lot of energy for the fight because his time is short.  It could be that warfare against biblical Christianity is intensifying in our culture.

So how will we fight.  The quote from St John Climacus tells us we are to fight with joy and love, while not be afraid of our enemies.   I believe strongly that men can not fight spiritually as they once did when there was a Christian consensus in our culture.  Culture is no longer sympathetic nor open to biblical truth.  So a direct, confrontational approach will not work.  There are many folks who have “tuned out” religion, while still be open spiritually.  Any man who is negative, judgmental, with a critical spirit will not be heard.  He will probably do more damage then good.

So fighting a good fight will mean having a positive attitude toward others.  The enemy hates  joy and love.  When you love your enemy, you are fighting with a powerful weapon. Whoever heard of a warrior loving his opponent.    Being joyful in the battle is counter intuitive to warfare.  You can’t get more positive then being  joyful in battle.  Love and joy are so powerful because they are in such short supply in our culture   A critical and negative spirit only drives people away.  So my encouragement to each man reading this blog is to do an “attitude check.”  Ask God for grace to go into battle with praise and a heart that is joyful (positive attitude) and loving (compassionate to others).

I have been mediating on Ps. 40 and 69 as  I have reflected on my spiritual journey this last half year.  “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.  He lifted  me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand”  (Ps. 40:1-2). The Message reads,  “He stood me up on a solid rock to make sure I wouldn’t slip’.  In Psalm 69, the Psalmist talks about the waters coming up to his neck  as he laments, “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold, I have come into deep waters; the  floods engulf me” (Ps 69:2).

None of us choose to get into the pit.   But it will happen to each of us from time to time.  Usually it happens when we are confronted with a life situation that is difficult.  You will know that you are in the pit, when you can say in the words of Ps 69:2 – the Message, “Quicksand under me, swamp water over me; I’m going down for the third time.”  It is not a good feeling.  I know, I have been there recently.  So what can I briefly share with men that will help them when they are “in over their heads” with no foothold, experiencing that sinking sensation.

Here are some of my thoughts.  First, don’t be the “brave solider” in denying your condition.  Men, we have to live with reality and not the illusion that this can’t happen to me.  God can only come along side a real life situation, not an illusion created by self-denial.  Do as the Psalmst; admit that you are slipping (Ps.94:18).  But don’t start to beat yourself up.  This can lead to self pity.  Yes, your weakness caused you to slip.  But God’s grace is available in our weakness.  His “power is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor 12:9), not in our strength.

Secondly, in your situation, “wait patiently for the Lord.”  This is not always easy.  In waiting you need to turn the eyes of your heart to the Lord. For  how long?  That is up to God.  How He delights in the fact that you are crying out to him from your  pit.  Cry out for mercy and grace.  Be real.  It helps when you have someone else praying with you ( I have my dear wife).  Tell him how you really feel.  Above all believe that he loves  you and will help you.

Thirdly, remember it is the Lord that will lift you up.  By faith you need to believe that your heavenly Father is going to reach down and pull you out.  No one can believe for you.  It might be humbling to admit your lack of faith.  It sure has been for me.  This is unbelief.  So confession is good for the soul.  Tell God you are going to hang on with the faith you have and wait for him to give you, “a firm place to stand.”  It is worth the wait.  You will be stronger, having been now prepared for next leg of the journey.

I have been reflecting on a quote from St Augustine. “Christ has gone from our sight, so that we should return to our heart and find Him there.”  There are times in our spiritual journey when we the presence of God seems to deminish.  The familiar ways in which we felt or understood God’s presence is absent.  It become a dry time, when the “lights” seem to go out.  This is normal for all growing believers.  The question becomes, “How do I practice my walk with the Lord, when He seems absent.”  Here I think Augustine’s quote can help

Remember, when you open your heart to the Lord Jesus, He comes and abides in your heart.  You have fellowship with him.  “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (I John 1:7). The light of his presence comes into your heart.  “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ make his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ” (II Cor 4:6).  Notice the light within you gives you an awareness of the face of Christ.  The light within you is constant.  It does not change with regards to your outward sense of God’s presence.  God is not absent.  The problem is our awareness of his presence.

This is when “seeking His face,” that is, the face of Jesus becomes a vital practice.  The Psalmist prayed, “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’  Your face, Lord, I will seek” (Ps 27:8).  He also said, “My eyes are even on the Lord” (Ps 25:15), implying it was a continuous habit, which was very intentional when he states, “I have sought our face with all my heart” (Ps. 119:58).  The Psalmist is speaking, of course,  about his spiritual eyes.  As he pays attention to his inner life, he will fix his eyes on Jesus, no matter what might be the  conditions in his actual life. This becomes an act of faith.

So I encourage men reading this blog, to cultivate the practice of seeking the face of Christ in your daily life.  He is present within you.  Actually he waits for your fellowship.  Make it a matter of your will, to turn our spiritual eyes, the eyes of your heart, unto Jesus who dwells within.  Thomas Kelly put it this way, “The religious person is forever bringing all affairs of the first level down into the Light, holding them there in the Presence, reseeing them and the whole of the world of people and things in a new and overturning way, and responding to them in spontaneous, incisive, and simple ways of love and faith.”

Not long ago, Dr. Anthony Bradley of the Kings College in New York wrote a blog entitled “The New Legalism.”  He had written on Facebook the following, “Being a ‘radical,’ ‘missional’ Christian is slowly becoming the ‘new legalism.’  We need more ordinary God and people lovers (Matt 22:36-40).”  His blog was in response to all the comments he received from his observation.  In his blog, Bradley suggested that many young Christians are smothered with a new legalism: “many young adults feel ashamed if they ‘settle’ into ordinary jobs, get married early and start families, live in small towns or as I Thess 4:11 says, ‘aspire to live quietly and to mind [their] affairs, and to work with [their] hands.”

This got me to thinking about the men who read this blog.  My sense is that most of you are dads, who work hard to provide for your families.  You go about your daily tasks, which often seem rather mundane.  You are committed to your wife and kids.  You don’t have a lot of time of extra time.  Yet you still desire to make a difference in your community.  So you are involved in your local church, or maybe volunteer in your community.  You might even find time to be in a small group with some other guys.

Maybe there are men reading this blog today who are being motivated by shame-driven pressure to be more radical and missional. You live an invisible ordinary life, wanting to make a difference in your family, community and church and you wonder if you are radical enough for Jesus. There is a tendency with men to compare our commitment with other men.  As a result you might be discouraged with your spiritual journey and a good candidate for spiritual  “burn out.”

I want to strongly speak a good word for being an “ordinary Christian man.”  The evangelical culture has traditionally placed an emphasis on doing the right thing and thinking the right thoughts.  There needs to be more thought given to simply “being.”  In my early 50’s I came to the realization that my focus was more on what I was doing for God, then what He was doing through me. I saw that my being with Jesus was more important then working for Jesus.  To much of my walk was about  Al and how “spiritual” he thought he was. I had to come peace that being “an ordinary Christian,” living for Jesus right in my everyday circumstances, was God’s will for me.

So men, take heart.  Being “ordinary,” that is, living a dedicated, domestic life as a husband and father, is a high calling.  Your faithful witness will impact not only your family, but other men in our community and church.  I say that a man who commits himself to be a “humble, loving follower Jesus” within his family, is doing a radical thing.  Why? Because this does not come natural to men, nor is it modeled well in our churches.  Remember God’s exhortation to us as husbands and fathers. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her (Eph 6:25).  This means giving up yourself for your wife, as Jesus gave himself for you.  Then the word about being a father.  “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord” (Eph 6:4).  That can be a full time job for a dad.

I don’t know about you, but I can only absorb so much of what is happening in our culture that disturbs me.  The problems that our culture faces, and the solutions that are being offered make me wonder what will happen to our nation.  In all the commentary, the reality of a sovereign God, who is in control of history and who has invited me to live my life under his lordship can easily be forgotten in the midst of all the voices wanting my attention. I must remember that  God has says, “Surely, as I have planned, so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will happen.” (Isaiah 14:24)  I am so thankful that I belong to the kingdom of God.  I always end up praying, “May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.”  That gives me hope and certainty.  Jesus and his kingdom has come and it will endure into all eternity. We may ask as Sam did in his conversation with Mr. Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, “What sort of tale have we fallen into?”

There is a danger for men to get caught up in their small story, with the need to control and understand, that we forget we have entered into God’s story, which is so much bigger.   Listen to this quote from a book entitled, “Deep Mentoring”. “We understand the plot line of God entering our story, but we fail to realize we have entered God’s story.  Our stories are too small.  And consequently our God is to small.” I don’t know about you, but that is a very convicting statement for me as a follower of Jesus when I get my spiritual eyes off the lord and unto my need to understand and control. Eugene Peterson reminds us that, “story is our most accessible form of speech.”  Story is the primary way in which the revelation of God is given to us.  From beginning to end, Scripture is written in the form of story.

God invites us to become a part of his everlasting story  by inviting our participation in what he is doing in the earth.  Jeremiah tells us, “For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer. 29:11).  The danger for men is our tendency to turn God’s story into information, to be used, rather then allow God’s story to transform our lives.  We can use “spiritual” information, to take matters  into our own hands, taking charge  of how we will live our lives.

Men, there is the real danger that we can so easily make up our own story of “salvation” that we miss what God is saying to us.  We must never forget that the God’s story in scripture is meant to draw us into a relationship with God.   Jesus tells us, “The Spirit can make life.  Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen.  Every word I’ve spoken to you is a ‘Spirit-word’, and so it is life-making.” (John 6:63 – The Message).  Allow God’s story to impact and expand your story.  Become aware of the ways in which you try to fit God into the “small box” of your story.

Men, did you know that there is a strategic new initiative that is designed to help dads across America coming on Father’s Day weekend in June.  A group called “The Fatherhood CoMission Summit” came up with an idea of a “Courageous Dads Simulcast.”  The 90-minute simulcast will be aired Friday, June 14th.  You can go to “Courageous Dads Simulcast” to find out how you to get involved.  Better yet, get a group of guys from your community or church to join together.  The event is meant to engage, encourage, and edify fathers; equip churches to champion the cause of fatherhood; and instill a vision for what Father’s Day should be in our homes and churches.

Dads need all the help and encouragement they can receive in our culture.  It is hard to find a strong father and caring dads portrayed in the dominant media.  Dads are more likely to seen as clueless, rigid, or the butt of constant jokes.  It seem like fathers are expendable, not necessary in the raising of  children.  But the reality is very different.  According to The National Fatherhood initiative: “Children in a father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor.  Children born to single mothers show higher levels of aggressive behavior than children born to married mothers.”

Chuck Colson, who was founder of Prison fellowship, make this observation, “Our prison systems are full of people who never had the example of a courageous father – or any father at all.  Over 70% of long-term  prison inmates come from broken homes, and young men raised in fatherless households are at least twice as likely to be incarcerated as those from intact families.”

I am sure I don’t have to convince the men who read this blog about the truth of the above observations.  Yet I am sure that you need some encouragement and support in your role as dad.  Many dads struggle with busyness, cultural pressures and unreal expectation in trying to be good Christian dads.  You are willing, but you need some support and encouragement.  Why not check out the “Courageous Dad Simulcast.”

Not long ago a coalition of over 18 atheist and secular groups, unveiled a billboard along a San Diego freeway, which read, “Atheism: A personal relationship with reality.”  ‘”We want to express how using intelligence to free oneself of the god idea can open the curtain to a inspiring new outlook,” said spokeswoman Debbie Allen. ” Atheism is positive and offers grounding in the real world.”  The billboard features a curtain with a painting of a sky exposing a stack of books.  “When you raise the curtain between the known and the unknown, there is nothing there but the natural world.  No wizards, no spirits, no deities,” Allen explained.

The message of this billboard screams for a reply.  There simply can be no personal relationship with reality without a personal Creator.   The universe is the result of a personal being, the Triune God of love. who created reality, that is, our world, in order that we might have a personal relationship with him.  The universe is very personal, the result of a loving creation of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who have lived in perfect loving relationship from all eternity. We are invited into this perfect relationship.  C.S. Lewis called it “The Great Dance.” In the beginning “God said,’ Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.'” (Gen 1:26)  Then we read in verse 27, “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Men, never forget that “personhood” is a precious gift bestowed upon by by our loving Heavenly Father.  Human intelligence comes up empty in an attempt to explain personal relationships.  Paul reminds us in I Cor 2:9, “No one’s seen or heard anything like this, never so much as imagined anything quite like it – What God has arranged for those who love him.”  (The Message).  When the curtain of awareness is opened, it is not “stack of books” that we contemplate.   But we hear the same words that the Father uttered to his beloved Son,  “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:12)

I pray that when the curtain lifted, that each of  us will see how much God longs for personal relationship with each man reading this blog..  Ponder these wonderful words from the Message (Eph. 1:4-6).  Just let them sink into your heart and soul.  “Long before he laid down earth’s foundation, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love.  Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!).  He wanted  us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift giving by the hand of his beloved Son.”

At the last “wild man” Saturday, I shared honestly with the men, that I had been in a cave, or an abyss, as I called it in an earlier blog.  I didn’t get very far in, but it was dark enough to give my wife some concern.  In my struggle, I continued to cry out to Jesus for grace and mercy.  I put my trust in him as best I could.  Today I would say that I am at the entrance to the cave, in the sunlight, wanting to move on.  I was surprise at the response of the men.  I have been the spiritual director of this group for years.  So as leader, I should have it together.  It was hard for me to humble myself and show my wounds.  But it caused a deep sharing by every other man about their own pain and the resulting time in a cave.

I was reminded of Paul’s words in II Cor 1:4-5.  “…who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.”  One of the lessons I am learning from my “cave time” is the realization that God can use my weakness for good.  When I am willing to show my “emotional scars” and the help I am receiving from God, it can be used in the life of another men.  It is also a good step in humility.  Men, I encourage you not to hid your scars.

Listen to what Brennan Manning has to say in this regard, “Christian who remain in hiding continue to live the lie.  We deny the reality of our sin.  In a futile attempt to erase our past, we deprive the community of our healing gift.  If we conceal our wounds, out of fear or shame, our inner darkness can neither be illuminated nor become a light for others.  But when we dare to live as forgiven men and women, we join the wounded healers and draw closer to Jesus.”

I hope this blog can be an encouragement to some man, who is existing in a spiritual and emotional “cave” to be willing to share his pain.  To hide is to flee from reality.  But as we share our struggle we help other in their struggle. This is what real life is all about.  We need to face the pain of our struggles, and not keep it to ourselves.  We become  “wounded healers,” helping illuminate the road to recovery for someone else.

Matthew West in song entitled “The healing has begun” has a verse that talks about “our beautiful scars.”  “There is a world full of people dying from broken hearts, holding unto their guilt thinking they fell too far.  So don’t be afraid to show them your beautiful scars.  They’re the proof, you’re are the proof.”   So don’t hide your scars.  Share it for your sake and for someone else who can learn from your story.  Don’t waste you pain.

There is a new movie, now showing,  about the baseball career of Jackie Robinson, who as we all know was the first African-American to break baseball’s color barrier.  He had to endure a get deal of racial prejudice when he broke into the majors with the Dodgers.  There were unbearable insults and even physical attacks on the field.  The film is entitled “42,” the number that Robinson wore.   What is given little attention in movie is the personal faith of Jackie Robinson, which gave him the strength and courage to go through his ordeal.  It is said that Branch Ricky, the general manger of the Brooklyn Dodgers was looking for a player “with the guts enough not to fight back.”

Both Ricky and Robinson had in common a devout Christian faith.  Ricky knew that Robinson’s strong faith would help him face all the injustice he would face.  Robinson earlier in his career had be mentored by a Methodist pastor who taught him,”that exploding in anger was not the Christian answer to injustice”.  He learned that a  life lived in submission to Christ was not weakness but actually heroic.  Before he got the the Dodgers, Robinson began to see that the path to justice  would come not through anger, hate and violence, but through love and restraint.

Each of us will face injustice and even opposition.  How will we react?  Our  first impulse is to defend ourselves, justify our position,  probably get angry, causing the other person to only get upset.  Men, it is not easy when relationships aren’t fair.  But with the Spirit of Jesus living within, we can cooperate with Jesus who has overcome the world by demonstrating the power of love to change lives. Paul exhorts us, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:21).  We are faced with a choice.  By the grace of God we can purpose to act in love and compassion.  It will not be accomplished in by having “the guts enough not to fight,”  but by yielding to the Spirit of Jesus within us.

Paul reminds us that we have one debt that we owe everyone.  That is the debt of love.  “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law” (Rom 13:8).  So when we make the choice to love instead of reacting negatively, we are fulfilling God purpose in our lives.  The reminder that we owe others the debt of love helps us practice caring for the other, rather then reacting when our rights are being violated.  We are called to love.  That is the will of God for us, plain and simple.  God gives us the capacity to do so, as we surrender to his will for our life.  May God not only give us the “guts” not to fight back, but rather the love to do so.

Some of you may have heard of Kenny Luck.  He is the head of a men’s ministry entitled “Every Man Ministries.”  At a recent “Ignite” conference he gave this challenge  to men.  “The world doesn’t need any more men that are simply “affiliated” with God or the Christian faith.”  What the world needs are men who are “activated” for Christ.  He challenged men to move from the audience in terms of their relationship with God to that of an army.  The big difference  being in an audience versus being in an army, one is in the fight and one is not.

He quotes Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:35, “Good things come out of the good man because of the good that is stored up in him.  Evil things come out of the evil man because of the evil that is stored up in him.”  “Faith is seen,” explains Luck, “by what faith does.  That is why men of God ignited, catching fire, is important – particularly the younger men – because there is such a crisis around the world when it comes to men.  The world is wondering where have all the good men gone?”  When Godly men get together there is something that is ignited.  Men begin to catch the fire from others.  Something is being “caught”  in the process

I believe this is an important point.  Men who become energized in their walk with God will have an influence on others.  It is the old principle of “iron sharpening iron.”  Men are “rising up” to take back  their communities for God.  As Luck observes, “Pain and suffering  caused by a  broken male culture creates a need and longing for men who bring hope, help, and health to the social darknesses plaguing them.”

Men are being called by God to rise above culture, self and evil  with a desire to be more Christ-like.  The way Luck puts it, men are being called to, “empower health in every space and in every relationship they can be means of a living and active faith in Christ.”  In  other words, men are going about their every day lives wanting to bring healthy change, as they attempt to reflect the love of Christ.  They are activated.

So the challenge is for us to be activated in our faith.  As we relate to other men who are “ignited” for God, we will be motivated to take back our culture for God.  We acknowledge that men have brought much darkness into our culture.  This we do not deny.  But we want to be agents of light.  I close with these words for Hebrews 10:24-5, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another..”  Look for men who are “activated” and join them on the journey