Men on Fire

In 2004 Denzel Washington starred in Man on Fire, the story of a man consumed by vengeance. John Piper's new book Bloodlines tells of men on fire when their hearts are transformed by the gospel and they are consumed by fervent living for Christ. Check out this excerpt:

Apathy is passionless living. It is sitting in front of the television night after night and living your life from one moment of entertainment to the next. It is the inability to be shocked into action by the steady-state lostness and suffering of the world. It is the emptiness that comes from thinking of godliness as the avoidance of doing bad things instead of the aggressive pursuit of doing good things.

If that were God’s intention for the godliness of his people, why would Paul say, ‘All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted’ (2 Tim. 3:12)? People who stay at home and watch clean videos don’t get persecuted. Godliness must mean something more public, more aggressively good.

In fact, the aim of the gospel is the creation of people who are passionate for doing good rather than settling for the passionless avoidance of evil. ‘[Christ] gave himself for us…to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works’ (Titus 2:14). The gospel produces people who are created for good works (Eph. 2:10), and have a reputation for good works (1 Tim. 5:10), and are rich in good works (1 Tim. 6:18), and present a model of good works (Titus 2:7), and devote themselves to good works (Titus 3:8,14), and stir each other up to good works (Heb. 10:24).

And when they set about them, the word they hear form God is, ‘Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord’ (Rom. 12:11). The gospel does not make us lazy. It makes us fervent. The Greek for fervent signifies boiling. The gospel opens our eyes to the eternal significance of things. Nothing is merely ordinary anymore.

Christ did not pursue us halfheartedly. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the uttermost (John 13:1). His death gives the deepest meaning to the word passion. Now he dwells in us. How will we not pray for the fullest experience of his zeal for the cause of justice and love? ‘So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith’ (Gal. 6:10).


by Dave Brown, Director and Pastor-at-Large, Washington Area Coalition of Men’s Ministries

Tebow Told to Stop 'Jesus Talk'

As a recent guest on a Phoenix radio station, former Denver Broncos quarterback Jake Plummer shared his thoughts about current Denver QB Tim Tebow, While he appreciates what Tebow is doing to revive the Broncos, Plummer wants Tebow to shut up about Jesus.

 “Tebow, regardless of whether I wish he’d just shut up after a game and go hug his teammates, I think he’s a winner and I respect that about him. I think that when he accepts the fact that we know that he loves Jesus Christ then I think I’ll like him a little better. I don’t hate him because of that, I just would rather not have to hear that every single time he takes a good snap or makes a good handoff.” 

When asked his reaction to Plummer’s advice, Tebow told ESPN:

"If you're married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love her' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity?

"And that's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ is that it is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get an opportunity to tell him that I love him or given an opportunity to shout him out on national TV, I'm gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with him that I want to give him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity. And then right after I give him the honor and glory, I always try to give my teammates the honor and glory.

"And that's how it works because Christ comes first in my life, and then my family, and then my teammates. I respect Jake's opinion, and I really appreciate his compliment of calling me a winner. But I feel like anytime I get the opportunity to give the Lord some praise, he is due for it."

What makes Tebow say this? Why won't he take Plummer's advice (and perhaps millions of other football fans) and keep his mouth shut about Jesus Christ?  Well, it seems Tebow actually believes and lives out what the Bible says about a Christian's first love...

Colossians 3:17, 23
And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him…Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men…”

Revelation 2:4

Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.

A Tender Warrior's Prayer

We Were Soldiers is one of the great war movies of all-time. It is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once… And Young by Lieutenant General (Ret.) Hal Moore and reporter Joe Galloway, both of whom were at the Battle of Ia Drang in Vietnam. The film was directed by Randall Wallace who also did Braveheart, Pearl Harbor, and Secretariat and stars Mel Gibson.

We Were Soldiers graphically dramatizes the Battle of Ia Drang, the first confrontation between the American and North Vietnamese armies. The Valley of Death was a football field-sized clearing called landing zone X-Ray. There on November 14, 1965 Colonel Moore and 400 young troopers from the elite newly formed American 7th “Air” Cavalry were surrounded by 2,000 North Vietnamese soldiers dug into a tunnel fortified mountainside. The ensuing battle was one of the most savage in U.S. military history. The movie is a outstanding tribute to the nobility of brave men in harm's way, their common acts of uncommon valor, and their loyalty to and love for one another. Randall Wallace and Mel Gibson present Hal Moore as a Tender Warrior. Among the several scenes where Hal Moore’s faith is portrayed there’s one in a chapel where Moore prays with one of his young soldiers, who just became a father, before they both go to war. 

A Christian Man Finds His Identity in Christ by Tullian Tchividjian

This is an excerpt from his new book Jesus + Nothing = Everything (pp.132-133)

The gospel frees us from this pressure to perform, this slavish demand to “become.” The gospel liberatingly declares that in Christ “we already are.” If you’re a Christian, here’s the good news: who you really are has nothing to do with you—how much you can accomplish, who you can become, your behavior (good or bad), your strengths, your weaknesses, your sordid past, your family background, your education, your looks, and so on. Your identity is firmly anchored in Christ’s accomplishment, not yours; his strength, not yours; his performance, not yours; his victory, not yours. Your identity is steadfastly established in his substitution, not your sin. As my friend Justin Buzzard recently said, “The gospel doesn’t just free you from what other people think about you; it frees you from what you think about yourself.” You’re free!

Now you can spend your life giving up your place for others instead of guarding it from others, because your identity is in Christ, not in your place. Now you can spend your energy going to the back instead of getting to the front, because your identity is in Christ, not in your position. You can also spend your life giving, not taking, because your identity is in Christ, not in your possessions. All this is our new identity—all because of Christ’s finished work declared to us in the gospel.

Paul speaks of our “having been buried with him [with Christ] in baptism,” in which we “were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12). Our old identity—the things that previously “made us”—has been put to death. Our new identity is “in Christ.” We’ve been raised with Christ to walk “in newness of life”—no longer needing to depend on the “old things” to make us who we are.

When we truly see and understand all these aspects of what we’ve become in Jesus Christ, what more could we possibly ever want or need in our self-identity? Here in Christ we have worth and purpose and security and significance that make utterly laughable all the transient things of this world that we’re so frequently tempted to identify ourselves by.

Steve Jobs: What Christian Men Can Learn from His Life and Death

The late Steve Jobs was the iconic co-founder of Apple and one of the great CEO’s of his generation. He revolutionized the world of technology with the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTunes store and the billion-dollar Pixar conglomerate that produced box-office smashes such as Toy Story, Monsters Inc. and Finding Nemo. Little noted and discussed, however, is how Jobs, a self identified Zen Buddhist, also helped to spread of the Gospel.

Greg Laurie, Harvest Christian Fellowship pastor recently observed, "Steve Jobs helped pave the way for more people to hear the Gospel. Even as the Romans built a road system and established a common language in all their territories that was used by the Apostles to bring the Gospel to their generation, Jobs did something similar for our generation."

In the months before his death, Jobs began more earnestly contemplating God and the meaning of life. His bestselling biographer Walter Isaacson says Jobs told him in one of his forty-some interviews,

“Sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don't. I think it's 50-50 maybe. But ever since I've had cancer, I've been thinking about it more. And I find myself believing a bit more. I kind of—maybe it's because I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn't just all disappear. The wisdom you've accumulated. Somehow it lives on…but sometimes I think it's just like an on-off switch. Click and you're gone and that's why I don't like putting on-off switches on Apple devices.'”

Jobs was baptized a Christian and confirmed in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. He gave up Christianity at age 13 after he saw starving children on the cover of Life magazine and his Sunday school pastor couldn’t answer his question whether God knew what would happen to them. Jobs never went back to church and began to pursue Eastern religions even traveling to India in the 1970’s. He once said, “Different religions are different doors to the same house. Sometimes I think the house exists, and sometimes I don’t. It’s the great mystery.”

Dr. Al Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theology Seminar, writes, "Christians considering the life and death of Steve Jobs will do well to remember once again the power of an individual life.” READ MORE about Mohler’s view that Christians can learn a thing or two from his life.

In 2005, Steve Jobs gave the graduation speech atStanford University discussing "how to live life before you die." His simple yet challenging message are a window into his soul and his struggle of unbelief in the God of the Bible.

The classic 1984 commercialintroducing the Macintosh computer

Stay on the Anvil

When God wants to drill a man
And thrill a man
And skill a man
When God wants to mold a man
To play the noblest part

When He yearns with all His heart
To create so great and bold a man
That all the world shall be amazed,
Watch His methods, watch His ways!

How He ruthlessly perfects
Whom He royally elects!
How He hammers him and hurts him
And with mighty blows converts him
Into shapes and forms of clay
Which only God can understand.

How He bends but never breaks
When his good He undertakes
How He uses whom He chooses
And with mighty power infuses him
With every act induces him
To try His splendor out –
God knows what He’s about.

Author unknown.

Thanks to Ray Ortland for bringing this to our attention

Play the Man by Kevin DeYoung

Some of you have probably been following Effemigate—the latest controversy to follow Seattle Pastor Mark Driscoll. The timeline looks like this: a couple weeks ago Driscoll posted something on Facebook about effeminate worship leaders. Christian blogger Rachel Held Evans called Driscoll a bully. Over at the World blog, Anthony Bradley criticized Evans’ comments as libel. Even Brian McLaren added his two cents with a predictable morality tale about two kinds of “evangelicals.” In a subsequent post Driscoll called his Facebook line “a flippant comment.” He reports that his executive elders sat him down and challenged him “to do better by hitting real issues with real content in a real context.” This is wise counsel. Driscoll’s Facebook comment was bound to create more heat than light. It was an unwise way to talk about a serious issue.

I don’t need to say anything more about the controversy itself. Like most web-storms, this one will blow over quickly. But the issues under the issue (as Driscoll puts it) are important and worth considering.To that end, let me suggest three general principles that should guide our discussion of biblical manhood. READ MORE

What Breed of Man Are You?

What Breed of Man Are You? We need a new breed of men who will say "no" to more bucks when it means sacrificing their families. by Dennis Rainey

A motto I heard recently goes like this: Winners concentrate on winning, while losers concentrate on just getting by.
 
If that statement were carved into the granite at the front of a Fortune 500 company, you would nod your head in agreement. Inwardly you might say, "Now that's the way to run a business. I would imagine that company is really a company of excellence. They know how to do things right!"

Yet when it comes to the family, it's interesting that most homes today have to be characterized as losers. Too many marriages have become marred by mediocrity. Children are seen, at best, as a status symbol—a way to achieve something through them that we, ourselves, weren't able to achieve when we were their age.

Too many marriages today are concentrating on "just getting by." With "squeaking by" as the goal, it is no wonder so many marriages don't amount to much.

Denis Waitley in his best seller, The Seeds of Greatness, tells the story of his grandmother whom he idolized. She crossed an apricot and a plum tree. Grandmother Waitley called it a plumcot. This delicious fruit was perfected by the gentle, wise old lady after careful and tedious pruning and grafting of the two fruit-bearing trees.

As a boy, Denis learned a valuable lesson from his grandmother. She harvested a plumcot because that was what she planted.

What You Plant is What You Get
 
Marriage is a lot like that—we never get out of a marriage what we do not put into it.
One man confessed, "At work I concentrate on winning, and as a result, I am a winner. At home, however, I concentrate on just getting by."

It's no wonder he is losing.

As Americans, we think of ourselves as winners … we are used to winning, but too many times in the wrong places. As a result, we end up losing in the important places … at home.

Vance Havner has said, "Americans know the price of everything, but the value of nothing."
If a business goes bankrupt, it is the president or the chairman of the board who is to blame. Similarly, if the home fails, you and I are to blame. You and I, as husbands and fathers of our family, must master the ageless art of leadership and apply it to our families. If we ever hope to win at home, then we must focus on winning.

Spinning Plates
 
Too many of us, as the leaders of our families, are like the man who used to come on the "Ed Sullivan Show" years ago and spin the plates. This man would start at one end of a long table by placing a stick perpendicular to the table and spinning a plate on the stick. In consecutive order the plates would be placed … two, three, four, five, six plates. As the first plate slowed down, it would begin to wobble. I can remember denying the urge to want to jump through the TV and run to help the man by grabbing the plate before it fell off the stick and shattered into tiny slivers of porcelain pieces.

Now with the first plate wobbling in a near fatal orbit, the man would rush back and expertly spin that plate again as the audience breathed a sigh of relief. On he would go … seven, eight, nine. By that time, plates two, three, and four were now beginning to wobble. And just before you knew the man could not keep a dozen or so plates spinning, he would quickly scoop them up in his professional hands like he was carrying them to the cupboard and bow to the smiling applause of the audience.

Similarly, the roles we assume in life as a husband, a father, a businessman, a civic leader, a church leader, a golfer, a fisherman, all represent different plates in our lives. We begin spinning them early in our married life with plate number one being our marriage. Giving focused attention to that one place, the plate spins along merrily and does well. With the addition of plates number two (business) and three (children), efforts to focus become more difficult. Carefully we keep adding our plates until we finally step back from the table to see two or three of the first plates beginning to wobble badly. We have to make choices. Decisions. Decisions based upon priorities. Our family has needs, but we mistakenly choose to meet hose "material" needs by applying our efforts primarily to our business. The result … focus is lost.

However, most businessmen are not worried about starving. Most of us are concerned about status, significance, accumulation of more, and how they can feed the materialistic monster that lives within us. A good friend recently said, "Materialism is not what you have, it is what has you."

Too many husbands and fathers have become dizzy by the many spinning plates we have set up. We give our family an occasional spin just to keep things at "status quo." We focus on just getting by. The results? More plates begin to fall off the table. Children become strangers—children who are crying out for attention.

Mothers plead for help. Meanwhile, being the visionary leaders that we are, we ignore fallen plates and add additional plates. Yet the Psalmist warns, "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it."
There is no question why so many marriages and families are functioning poorly. Nothing that is alive such as a business, a school, a basketball team, or a family can function without leadership, energy, time, and most importantly, focused attention. Without these, the plates will begin to fall.

Being somewhat of a selfish man myself, there is nothing I would love better than to have my dozen ego-stroking plates spinning in addition to my family plates. However, I am constantly forced by the person of Jesus Christ to come to grips with my limits. I have been wrestled to the ground by Him on more than one occasion to be forced to answer the question, "How many plates can you keep spinning and still win?"
Another question which redirects me is, "Where do I want to win so badly that I am unequivocally unwilling to lose?"

"Which of those plates would I be willing to lose for the sake of my family, if need be?"

A New Breed
 
Today some tough questions face Christian businessmen and leaders. We have become a cult of Christian celebrities. We worship successful businessmen and pro athletes who can perform in the office or on the field. We pay little regard for whether they are a success in their personal and private lives. The time has come for a new breed of Christian husbands and fathers.

We need a new breed that will say "no" to more bucks when it means sacrificing their families. A new breed who will place a family grid between them and every decision that they make. A new grid of, "How will this affect my family?" A new breed who will determine how much is enough. We need a breed of men that will seek to establish relationships with their families before seeking fame in their culture. A new breed who will recognize that they need to leave something to posterity that will outlive them … proven character in their children. A new breed of leaders who realize that to succeed in the eyes of men, but fail in the eyes of God, is the ultimate waste.

One man has said, "It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail."

One last question—will you take upon yourself the challenge that Albert Einstein gave a group of young scientists? While addressing this highly motivated group of young men, he pointed to them and said, "Gentlemen, try not to become men of success. But rather, try to become men of value."

A Generation of Heroes

Satan watches for those vessels that sail without a convoy,” wrote Puritan pastor George Swinnock (1627–1673). Every individual knows he was created for community. Isolation is the Devil’s playground, and our Enemy is on the lookout for the Christian who thinks he can stand alone in independent isolation from the fellowship, accountability, and encouragement of faithful brothers and sisters.

Before the fall of man, even though the Lord God walked in close communion with Adam in the garden, our gracious and triune God knew it was not good for man to be alone (Gen. 2:18), and so God created someone who would meet Adam’s needs and relate to Adam in a way that, by design, God Himself did not. In His often-overlooked grace, God blessed mankind with the most beautiful, intimate, and joyous relationship that exists between mere human beings: holy wedlock between a man and a woman, who by design and covenant become one flesh. Nevertheless, even from that glorious union, He called them to multiply themselves into communities of families that would populate and dominate creation to share life and glorify God together.

God gave each of us an insatiable hunger to experience life together — life’s joys and passions and life’s sorrows and burdens. Men need men, and women need women. Younger men and women need to listen to and learn from the wisdom and experiences of older men and women. Older men and women need the passion and patience to sit down and tell their stories and lessons to the next generation. Women need authentic relationships with other women to form the enduring companionship of sisterhood that not only detests divisive gossip and grudges but defends, encourages, and bears the burdens of every woman so that no woman is left alone to fend for herself in serving the Lord in her many callings.

Even though many men are completely content with the community and companionship of images, games, and voices on a screen, men desperately need the camaraderie and fraternity of other men. Men are made to experience intimate and authentic, loyal and enduring friendships with other men — on the battlefield, in the foxhole, at the gates of the city, and at the coffee shop on the corner. And while no wise and truly humble man will ever consider himself a hero, each and every man of God by His grace is called to strive to conquer this world, his flesh, and the Devil, shoulder to shoulder with other men who together serve one another in a company of heroes as husbands and dads who serve by leading their wives, families, churches, and communities into fellowship with God.

By Burk Parsons is editor of Tabletalk magazine and associate minister at Saint Andrew’s in Sanford, Florida

Honoring the Legacy of a 9-11 Rescuer

This September 11 marks nine years since evil men turned airplanes into flying bombs and murdered 2,976 people in New York City, Washington DC and Shankstown Pennsylvania.

We all can recall where we were that day when we heard the news. Those incredible images remain etched in our minds. Evil spread its wings before the world that day but courage was also unfurled before us as we witnessed the fraternity of men at its best. When the lives of others were at stake, those heroes of 9/11 rushed the stairways and mounted the rubble to rescue them.

403 firemen, paramedics and policemen sacrificed themselves in a grand rescue mission at Ground Zero. There are so many remarkable stories of heroism that day but there’s one in particular that lingers over me to this day

In those final moments before the collapse of the Twin Towers, when people in them were doing all they could to save themselves, there was a mysterious young man who stepped out of the smoke and chaos. He wasn’t a fireman or a rescuer worker but just a regular guy who chose to put the wellbeing of others before his own.

The survivors didn’t know their rescuer’s name that horrible day, but they did remember this about him: he wore a red bandanna around his mouth and nose.

For seventy-six minutes the man in the red bandanna led men and women to safety down stairwells. He called out to them, “I found the stairs. Follow me.” He carried one woman on his back down fifteen flights of stairs. Once he reached the ground floor, he started back up. READ MORE