As a leader of Men's Ministry, I find myself talking to a lot of men throughout the week. Certain themes keep recurring in men's lives, or at least the men in our surrounding area. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to spend some time talking about these three themes that need to be addressed and focused on in our every day life and in our church: 1) Discipleship - moving men from milk to meat (Hebrews 5 & 6), 2) Biblical Stewardship and 3) Sexual Purity. Mathew 28 is pretty clear when Jesus tells us to go and make disciples. My home church believes in reaching the disconnected and growing the connected. They believe that we should meditate daily on the Word of God and also to find regular prayer time and quiet time with God. The thing that I see so important to discipling others is to be grounded in the Faith and to believe in Scripture and to let the Holy Spirit create a new in you and your walk with Christ. O B E D I E N C E (Obey God's commands, Believe in His Word, Edify yourself through memorizing scripture, decide to allow Jesus to be Lord over you ALL THE TIME and in every situation, invest in biblical stewardship from the inside out, empower others by sharing what the word is teaching you, never compromise yourself in any situation, commit to holy living even when you make mistakes along the way, evangelize others all the time). This is a trait that Jesus himself obeyed to the cross, even when he asked for this cup to pass from him, "but your will be done, Father."
Men are so easily assaulted on a daily and in some instances an hourly basis. Before we can take care of discipling and biblical stewardship, I believe that we have to commit to sexual purity of the mind, body and soul in order to protect ourselves and to move closer to God, after all, he is Holy and will always be. Therefore, we cannot defile our temples, yes our bodies are a temple of God that we have to keep pure in order for the Holy Spirit, who indwells in us, not to be grieved by our impurities. Some of you may be married and may be addicted to pornography or fantasies about other women when you are with your wife or simply away in your own dark place. Others may be single, widowed or divorced that have all the life struggles coming at you from every direction. The very notion of sexual purity is mind boggling in this technological world. Everywhere you turn, you cannot escape the onslaught of sexual immorality. I heard a statistic the other day that didn't even surprise me, that your grandfather in his lifetime did not encounter anything like what we encounter on a daily basis. Think about that and meditate on who you want to be Lord over you (see Galatians 5 here).
The final thought, once we start working from the inside out, is biblical stewardship. To put this in to one word, would be simply put as Contentment. That is, being content in every situation, whether rich or poor, hungry or full, poor in spirit or rich in spirit, the very essence of contentment is what God calls us to be. This can occur through obedience to his Word. I am not saying that this journey is going to be easy, but if you truly looked at these three themes, then Lance and I would believe that you are on the right road to leave a legacy for your children's grandchildren to follow. Think about that for just a moment, "what legacy do I want to leave my children? To love the Lord God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength and to love their neighbor as their self. That would truly qualify anyone to be a Legacy Dad. Looking forward to hearing some of your thoughts (other themes) on this topic.
Blessings to you all!