Of Great Concern

I saw an article today that told of the Ontario Minister of education telling the Catholic school board that they cannot teach pro-life, even though they are a religious based school and it is part of their faith.  Whether you like the catholics or not you have to see that this is a matter of great concern.  The idea that any religious group should be told by the government that they cannot teach their faith should concern us.  It would be different if this was a matter of a group that was teaching "hate" or "violence" but this is not related to teaching against the laws of our country.  

This is another evidence that these supposed laws like ones about "abortion" are actually now being used to restrict freedom and not to grant it.  So instead of such laws that are contrary to the Christian faith, allowing those who have a different belief to not be restricted in this area, instead now faith groups are going to be restricted unless they teach what the government says is ok.  This sounds really scary.  

Not only is this a poor precedent but this particular issue is of great importance.  The teaching of the sanctity of life and the precious gift of children is deeply rooted in the Bible.  Yet our society has decided that human life is not very important, it can be thrown away like trash.  Yet we have groups that seek to preserve and conserve the eggs of birds and their nests, we have scientists that look for signs of life in strange places and even on other planets, they would see the smallest microbe and proclaim life, yet a child that has not yet been born does not rate as life.  This is a sad state and a matter of great concern.

Our politicians went out on a limb to attempt to re-open this discussion and I applaud them.  Yet many groups claimed they did not respect women due to wanting to make sure life is properly defined.  But what about the unborn female?  Currently there is no protection for the unborn female in Canada.  A family with a background that puts greater value on male children can elect to have a female child aborted.  This is a horrible situation, that we would allow gender selection in our country is so very scary.

We need to be a people who really think these things through, the decisions of that past did not see the big picture and now we are in a situation that should give us Great Concern!

Preacherman

HIT Men Re-fresh

The HIT Man Code

As a HIT Man I will ...

• Choose to follow Jesus Christ as taught in the Bible as the man He created me to be.
• Love and support my local Church and Pastor(s) in the Mission and Vision God has given them.
• Not walk alone, I will stay connected with other HIT Men for encouragement, support and accountability.
• Promote the growth of Men to be who God has made them to be, Christ followers, God Worshipers, Bible believers, Family leaders, Community makers, Care givers, Warriors for Truth, Protectors of those at risk and committed to growth and replication of Biblical manhood.
• Keep the confidence of the other HIT Men, we deal with our issues together and will not give way to gossip. This is not about secrets it is about Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency.
• Not leave a stumbling brother to fall or leave a fallen brother for dead, we will seek to bring repentance and restoration to all HIT Men.
• Work together with other HIT men to establish this ministry in other Churches, my local Church is not the end but the beginning.

Men, let us take this commitment seriously.  The strength of the local Church is to be founded on the Word of God and centered on Jesus, we are to be led by the Holy Spirit, and God in His Word has given us a role to play.  Men are called to lead, care, support and be active in the ministry of the local Church.  Care for your families, live out your faith at work and in the community and work to help lead the Church forward.

The HIT men is not about any sort of "para-church" movement, the HIT men is about re-invigorating the local Church by challenging Christian men to start to follow what the Bible says for them to do.

Amen!

Preacherman

Do not loose heart, be the man God has for you to be!

Men,

Do not loose heart!  Be the Man God has created you to be!  Follow God, connect with a local Church, read your Bible, Submit to the Lordship of Jesus, Commit to care for and serve your wife and family.  Be a real man.  Live with responsibility, work hard, walk with solid character and integrity, be known as a man of truth and one who walks in the ways of justice.  Do not be another person who just moves through life, get involved, make a difference.  Seek to grow, learn to lead, be a difference maker.

God does not want you to be a boy for your whole life, time to grow up, time to step up.  God wants us to be tender hearted men who protect and care for those in need and who also prepare themselves for battle as warriors.  Do not fall for the lies of this world and the weak minded anti-christian view of manhood.  Be a Biblical man, not macho or prideful but a strong, humble, caring, warrior.  

Let's step it up and press on!

Preacherman

Priorities....priories...priorities?

Life, such a complex existence and yet we often seek simplistic clarity about life and how we are to live.  As men it can be so very easy for us to lose sight of what is really important.  Most of us were raised with a teaching that s men w are to work, provide, succeed, make a career and a life, etc...  This is really important for our young men to be taught, men are to seek to live out such things.  Yet for some reason we miss the big picture.

The BIG picture is this... We are really here to honor and glorify God.  This is why we were created, it is why Jesus came and suffered and died for us.  As Christian men we are to live under the lordship of Jesus.  This is another way to say we are to live directed to glorify, honor and obey God.  So does this mean we are to drop everything and become monks our missionaries?  No, actually it us not that easy.  Yep I did say easy!

We hear about setting priorities inn life and having balance, but this is not actually a Christ focused teaching, rather it is a man centered teaching.  Christian living is not about balancing priorities, it is about fully living for God.  This is not a balancing act, it is an act of full submission to our Lord.  This is the foundation for healthy Christian living.  So if e fully focus on living for God based on what we find on the Bible, then everything else will fall into place.  If we are living in submission to Jesus, then we will properly love and care for our families, we will work hard, we will seek to live and share the gospel, we will serve as leaders in our homes, the church and our communities.

If you are not sure how to start, it begins with repentance and fully submitting yourself to Jesus.  Then you need to be in the Word and you need to get connected with a local Church that will help you grow and stay the course.  If you find yourself making decisions based on what is easier for you or what gives you comfort or pleasure, then beware as you may be living based on your lordship instead of Christs.  If you are making decisions based out of a desire to gain wealth or stuff, then beware as you may be living under your own lordship instead of submitting to Jesus. 

If you want to have a vibrant, passionate, growing faith, then it must start with your humble submission to Jesus as your Lord.  Not just as a part of becoming a Christian, but as how w are to now live.  Men we are called to lead inn this.  Let's start today!

Preacherman

2 fear God is to please Him

Today I am pondering a lot, questions about why I do what I do, and other such deep concepts of life.  Often I forget that Jesus died and paid the price for all of me.  So now my life is His, I am no longer my own. 
Well this same Jesus is the almight God of the universe with all authority.  It is He who will judge me and it is by His life, His blood, His resurrection power and the gift of His Spirit, that I can live and exist and know for sure where my eternity is.  So this Jesus holds my life, my very existemce in His hand.

I am called to serve Him, but often I instead seem to try and keep people happy.  I is an ongoing problem that we seem to have as people.  We get off track from serving God and instead try to keep people happy.  When I read the Bible I do not hear about a calling to keep people happy.  Instead I hear of a unyielding calling to follow God through a relationship with Jesus Christ.  This is to be a 100% sold out life style choice.  I need to be first and foremost a follower of Jesus.  The problem we often have is we then say second I will be the husband I am supposed to be, third I will be the father I am supposed to be, fourth I will serve in the Church, fifth I will be a good employee, etc....   


This thinking breeds a tendency to begin to organize our time and commitments based on this list.  Yet because of the realities of life it often gets turned upside down.  Today I am more and more convinced that it is a broken model and not a good instruction about what it is to be like living as a Christian. Instead I have decided to take a different road.  Here is the model I am encouraging you to follow.


As I know God more I learn to fear God more, as I love God more I learn to worship God more, as I understand God more I obey God more.  The source of this learning and growth must come from a healthy connection to the Body of Christ through the learning of His Word.  As we are established in this Faith we are called to live in it fully, nothing held back, "all to Jesus I surrender" is what the old hymn says.  This is what my life needs to be based in, 100% for Jesus.  So when I love and serve my wife I need to do so fully in obedience to Jesus.  When I interact with my kids I need to do so fully in obedience to Jesus.  When I go to serve at Church or at my workplace or with my friends or whatever I do I need to do all things through 100% obedience and submission to Jesus.


So the question we need to guide us is this "Is my life, my choices, my time, my behavior, honoring to Jesus, is it in obedience to His Word?"  The concept is that I need to know that I am honoring the God of the universe and if people are not too happy with me at times, then that is ok.  If God is ok with me, then I need to feel ok with things as well.


So fear and obey God and Him alone, follow His Word and if people are not happy then too bad for them.


Preacherman

Men - Protectors

I have recently been reminded that men are to be "protectors".  Sure to some it is obvious and natural but to others this concept has been lost and gone with things considered to be "old school".  It is easy to understand when we look at Bible verses that talk about Husbands caring for their wives and families.  Whether you are looking at the language of Ephesians, Colossians, 1 Peter or the rest of the Bible we can see clearly the importance of a man's role as a husband and father.  This is important and we need to be those men.

Yet even for the single guys, this is true.  It make sense for a father to want to protect the purity and reputation of his daughter.  Not only is this natural but it is Biblical.  Fathers are to be protectors and it is good and to be encouraged.  Of course when that father hands his daughter off to a good Christian man in marriage, he as a father is giving his daughter to another man and expect him to become her protector.  So now the Husband is there to protect his wife, not only physically but also her reputation and heart etc...  These teachings and transitions are good and Biblical.  But what about the single guys?

Well the Bible teaches that we are the "family" of God and as such we are all brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.  So as brothers we are called to not only support each other as men, to walk together and challenge each other so that we grow strong in the faith.  But we are to be protectors of our brothers and  our sisters.  As single Christian guys we are to protect the ladies.  We are to protect them physically, sure, but also their hearts and reputations.  We are to help them so that they do not feel remorse or shame because of things that would dis-honor them and our God.  So this means that Christian single guys should not be looking to date every single girl they find at Church, youth group or young adults.  Christian guys are to be seeking to protect their sisters from such "predators" and instead help them to be prepared for being wives.  This means that the guys need to work on being godly men, who are going to be good husbands.

So, guys, it is time to really think through your decisions.  Things may seem fun and harmless to you, but your decisions are not "neutral".  You are constantly making decisions that will either honor God and protect and build up others or you are making choices that are sinful and hurtful.  Sure you might think your choices are only hurting you, but for sure they are damaging to your relationship with God.  Also your poor choices are damaging others, today and for the future.  You see, our sin has consequences.  Yes in Christ we receive forgiveness of our sin as we "repent" of it.  "Repent" means to stop going in the sinful way and turn around and head in God's direction.  But the natural consequences of sin are still there, relationships are still damaged, reputations are still poor, your mind is still full of polluted images, pregnancy can happen, addictions are still there, etc...  I hope you get the idea.

Guys you are either living as a "Godly Man" who is a protector or you are sinning and damaging yourself, your relationship with God and His Body (the Church).  So I would urge you all to become who God has made you to be and to fight against the "old self" or the "natural man" and instead become a "Christ like warrior".

Let us fight on together.

Preacherman

Men of Prayer

We will often times at the HIT men talk about being a man of prayer. This last week at our Wednesday night meeting we looked at 1 Peter chapter 3 and had some good discussion about the first 7 verses. The reminder I want to focus on here today is from 1 Peter chapter 3 (I would encourage you to read it all) and verse 7.

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. - 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV)

If we seek to truly be men of prayer, those who commune with our Lord Jesus in a real, regular, tangible way. Those men who spend time worshiping and weeping in prayer with the fierce passion of broken hearted repentance. If we desire to be such men of prayer, then how we treat our wives seems to be not only related but important.

Often we have quickly accepted the message about how individual our faith is as a relationship between me and God. While this is true, we have often neglected the Biblical teaching and application about marriage and family. The Bible teaches that in marriage the 2 people will now be as 1 person. The idea here is that as a married man you are not to live a separate life from your wife. The intent is that all areas of life will not affect each other and has the potential to add value or cause hurt to the relationship. This is true for our spiritual state and relationship with God. If I am not treating my wife in a manner that honors God and re-enforces the Biblical teaching on marriage, then I place myself in a position of disobedience and my prayer life will be hindered.

So men, do not delay in your desire to be the man of prayer you are called to be. Do not allow the current or past issues with how you are treating your wife to cause you to stop in your path to being a man of prayer. Instead become repentant to God for your disobedience and sinful ways, then repentantly apologize to your wife and family for your mis-treatment of them. Make the commitment to be different, to be a Biblical man, and continue your journey to be that man of prayer.

Let us not grow weary in striving to grow and become the men God has designed us to be. For those who are single, consider whether the life you are living is preparing you to be the husband that your future wife will need you to be? Consider the Biblical teaching on manhood and follow the same path as the married men with regard to manhood. This will also help your prayer life to not be hindered.

Press forward into battle!

Preacherman