When We Have to Do Hard Things

I had to come in and do some hard things today. When I am faced with difficult task, I am reminded of something my good friend Randy Stinson always says, “real men do the hard thing first.” I am encouraged by this and want to share with you an exerpt of an article where he talks about this in the context of cultivating manhood. After establishing that, “biblical manhood is modeled after the Lord Jesus,” he says the following.

One should not overlook the fact that the characteristics of biblical masculinity can and should be cultivated. It is easy to recall at this point David’s own life experiences. When standing before Saul in 1 Samuel 17:34-36 trying to convince him that he should be allowed to go out and fight Goliath, David brings up past experiences that have impacted his ability to take on this current fight. He has already killed a lion and a bear, and Goliath will be like them. Note also, this is not a self-reliant vision of masculinity, since he clearly understands (vs. 37) that ultimately God delivered him from the mouth of the lion and the bear.

God gives all of us opportunities each day to resist passivity and develop biblically masculine characteristics. Each of the challenges men face should be viewed as instruments in God’s hands that will help shape us as biblical men. These opportunities should be viewed with the same understanding exhibited by David. We must acknowledge that it is God who delivers and protects and cultivates. With that in mind, here are some ways men can, on a daily basis, cultivate masculine characteristics under the lordship of Christ:

Do the hardest task first: Attacking your hardest task of the day without delay will build your resistance to passivity. Waiting until the end of the day only reinforces your sinful tendencies toward passivity.

Make the hard phone call first: While this is similar to the first suggestion, it deals more with passivity within interpersonal relationships. Some men are willing to do the hard task first, but avoid difficult situations involving other people.

Run to the battle: One only needs to consider the life of the Apostle Paul to see that conflict is a regular feature of the Christian life. Men who think all conflict should be avoided, or who refuse to engage with those who would harm the body of Christ or their family, not only model passivity but fail in the area of protection.

Do your work now as opposed to later: From term papers to tax filing, the man who is cultivating biblical masculinity will not allow these things to rule him. He will exercise dominion over them by doing them in a timely manner.

Keep your domain in order: While most of us on occasion have a messy desk or car trunk, a life that is characterized by disorder is evidence of passivity. Your home, dorm room, garage, office and car should bear the mark of your masculinity as you subdue it and keep it in order.

Kill a bear or a lion: In other words, do something that is a challenge for you. It may actually be to kill a bear or a lion, but it may be a health challenge like running a triathlon or a marathon. It may be something as basic as riding a roller coaster or as edgy as snorkeling with sharks. It may involve debating the atheist at work or starting a Bible study at home. It may mean you need to finally share the gospel with your lost friend or deal with a family conflict that you have allowed to go on for too long.

Mind you, these activities do not constitute manhood. But, as you consider your own challenges and interests, they can help to cultivate a sense of willingness to reject passivity and embrace the characteristics of biblical manhood to lead, provide and protect. Don’t wait for some endorsement from the world and don’t embrace the feminized version of manhood espoused by our culture. Hear the words of a father to a son and “show yourself a man.”

I pray this is encouraging to you all in some way, much as it has been many times for me. 

Randy L. Stinson became Dean of the SBTS School of Church Ministries in August 2006.
He is also assistant professor of leadership, and vice president for academic innovation.
Dr. Stinson also serves as Senior Fellow with The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Southern Seminary Magazine | Winter 2005. Vol. 73, No. 3. Copyright © 2005 The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY.  publicrelations@sbts.edu.

Great Post by Timothy Paul Jones on Family Ministry.

Timothy Paul Jones » Family Ministry: Learning to Do Less So That Parents Can Do Moret.coParents in your ministry don’t have time to disciple their children—or, at least, that’s the way many of them feel when they look at their weekly to-do lists. In the survey that formed the foundations for my Family Ministry Field Guide, half of the parents in the survey had resigned themselves to th...


http://www.timothypauljones.com/2012/09/17/making-time-for-what-matters/

Where Were You

by Reid Ward

“Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” is a song written by country music artist Alan Jackson in the wake of the September 11 attacks. All of us who were alive in September 2001 remember where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news. I remember standing in the conference room of the church where I was serving, watching the images of commercial airplanes flying through a clear, cool New York sky and into the towers of the World Trade Center.
As I sit here writing this article on September 11, 2012, I am reminded of how important it is to remember. Remembering is important to society because as Edmund Burke, the 18th century Irish statesman said, “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.” History is important for the sake of remembering, of maintaining a firm grip on the past.
Remembering is an equally important concept in Scripture, because it contains the story of God  condescending to reveal Himself to man through actual historical events. God remembered Noah in the ark, in Genesis 8:1, and remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob, in Exodus 2:24. Then God commanded Israel to “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt,” when instituting the passover in Exodus 13, and to “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” when giving the moral commands of Exodus 20. At least 15 times God calls His people to remember in the book of Deuteronomy. Throughout the Old Testament, the waywardness of Israel is tied to their failure to remember.
Jesus constantly called His disciples to remember, and instituted the ordinance of the Supper by commanding us to “Do this in remembrance of me,” as we eat and drink. If we do not remember, we run the risk of becoming myopic, proud, self-sufficient, and eventually incurring our own destruction. The danger is not necessarily physical destruction, but rather a complete loss of identity, purpose, and meaning, or what Amos refers to as a “famine of hearing the Word of the Lord.”
A key scripture passage for understanding the importance of remembrance is Isaiah 46:8-11, “Remember this and stand firm,
 recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old;
for I am God, and there is no other;
 I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning
 and from ancient times things not yet done,
 saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
 and I will accomplish all my purpose,’ calling a bird of prey from the east,
 the man of my counsel from a far country. 
I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
 I have purposed, and I will do it.” Two major thoughts arise from these verses.
First, God is sovereign, or absolutely in control. History is in the most literal sense His story. Nothing happens at random or by chance. The hairs of our heads are numbered, and the details of our lives are threads in the great tapestry of His overarching providential plan.
Second, we as human beings cannot understand our place in the world without cultivating a vision of ourselves as part of this larger story. This is why the Bible contains so many exhortations to “remember” what God has done in the past, whether through the device of “memorial stones,” annual festivals, tassels, phylacteries, or the discipline of hiding His Word in our hearts.
Here we come face to face with the implications of man’s fallen nature. Man resists the idea of a sovereign God. He wants to control his own destiny, live inside his own little story, and free himself from all connections to an all-inclusive divine plan. He devises ways to propagate the deception of self-determination by taking the larger story of history into his own hands and turning it into a powerful tool for the manipulation of other people and the accomplishment of his own selfish purposes.
Historical revisionism operates on the basis of the premise, “If I can change your historical context, I can determine the way you view the present.” This strategy is consistent with George Orwell’s observation that “He who controls the past controls the future” and Karl Marx’s dictum, “A people without a heritage are easily persuaded.” Postmodernism, the contemporary philosophical perspective that rejects both revelation and reason, takes this process to an extreme conclusion by denying the validity of all comprehensive truth systems, including Christianity.
Remembering gives us a proper appreciation of historical context, our place in God’s “larger story.” It is fundamental to an accurate understanding of almost every aspect of our lives. History provides us with indispensable insights into the meaning of existence, God’s plan and purpose for the ages, man’s responsibility toward the Creator, and his duty toward his fellow creatures.
Stated simply, the postmodern perspective maintains that there is no larger story. Instead, everyone must tell his own story and invent his  own concept of meaning and significance. In other words, history does not exist at all except as it exists in our own minds, where it can be edited and tailored to further our own goals in the present. But this idea does not resonate in our souls, because we have a faith that is based on objective truth, and the historical events surrounding the life and work of Jesus of Nazareth. This perspective is not compatible with reality, because you do remember where you were when the world stopped turning on that September day.
http://www.morningview.org/2012/09/14/where-were-you/

Winds of Change

by Reid Ward

August 14, 2012

These are exciting and difficult times. Coming out of Promotion Sunday, I am mindful of how many of our families are going through significant change. Even this morning parents are posting about their children going off to school; some starting school for the first time,  some going into high school. Some are experiencing the real change of a child going away to college; maybe it is the first one, maybe it is the last one, maybe it is the only one.
Many of us are entering a new phase of life. In these seasons of transition, there are always the things we leave behind, and the new opportunities that lay ahead. It is important for us to be reminded that both are essential and necessary; all are valuable. Regardless of what our transition may look like, God wants to use this time of changeto grow and mature our faith. Many of us are leaving something behind, something good that has given us a strong spiritual foundation. But now a new door has been opened, and God wants to grow you and use you in a new way to multiply His kingdom. He wants us to come to trust Him, and not our comfort zone of life. That is primarily what God wants to accomplish in our lives through this time of transition.
It is also important for us to remember that none are incidental, or accidental; all are providential. God is in control, and He is doing something in our life. He wants to change us through changing our circumstances. He is growing us, challenging us, drawing us to himself and pressing us into the image of His son. There are many things that we need to leave behind; old things, hinderances, that need to be put off so that we might press forward in Christ.
He also wants to use that change to multiply our influence, as He opens new doors and expands the reach of our ministry. I have told our students, “We are loosing good people, who are going off to college, but God is going to use them in their new fields of service and multiply His kingdom.” God uses it in our lives for His purposes, for the expansion of His kingdom, and for praise of His glory.
Many of us are entering a new phase of life. In these seasons of transition, there are always the things we leave behind, and the new opportunities that lay ahead. In all of this, we must ask ourselves, “are we being faithful?” It is important for us to be reminded of the essential nature of the things we leave behind, while at the same time, trusting that nothing is incidental, or accidental; God is in control, and He is doing something in our life. Will we be self-disciplined, or will we require discipline from God? God will do His good work in us, in spite of us. However, if we are submissive to the will of God, we will be moldable, teachable, humble, and sacrificial. We must repent of our sin, pride, and rebellion, lest we resist God growing us, challenging us, drawing us to himself and pressing us into the image of His son. God is in control, and uses these seasons of change in our lives, to transform and conform his people, to multiply the ministry of His kingdom, and to bring praise to His glory.
Here are three questions that we can ask ourselves to help us to think rightly about these times of transition. How can God use this season in my life to grow me spiritually? How can God use it to multiply my ministry for His glory? How can I honor God in what is left behind; what must I repent of and leave behind? How do I need to trust God as He changes my circumstances; what must I bring forward as a foundation; what door of opportunity is He opening before me?

http://www.morningview.org/2012/08/14/winds-of-change/