Entries from June 2007 ↓

A few months, I had the privilege of attending a one day conference put on by the Men’s Ministry of Grace Community Church. The conference was entitled Time To Act Like Men and it was a powerful day of preaching. We heard from John MacArthur, Phil Johnson, Alex Montoya, and Mike Fabarez. They all did a phenomenal job of calling the men of this generation to stand up and to be men in all the arenas that God has placed them in. I believe all Christian men should listen to these and if you choose to do so, be ready to be challenged, convicted, and called to biblical masculinity.

Time to Act Like Men Before God - John MacArthur
Time to Act Like Men in the World - Alex Montoya
Time to Act Like Men in the Home - Mike Fabarez
Time to Act Like Men in the Church - Phil Johnson

A psychologist gives her thoughts on how we should treat teens. They are quite insightful even though she is looking at the situation through a unredeemed worldview. Basically, she identifies many of the lies that teens and parents believe, but she neglects to attribute wayward actions to indwelling sin. But overall, a good read for adults (13+).

This be my brother, Nathaniel, at our youth ministry’s annual Steak-Out. What a better way to display one’s manliness than to squeeze the blood out of a piece of meat and grunt while doing it. Nathaniel, I salute the man in you.

ap·a·thy “Lack of interest or concern, especially regarding matters of general importance or appeal; indifference”

Apathy is killing the church. Each week thousands of people sit in services across the nation completely bored and then leave and go through the week without having anything to do with God. They really don’t care for the things of Scripture and they avoid recognizing their sin at all costs. Apathy deadens the spiritual nerves and turns hearts cold to love. It is evidenced by people avoiding deep issues and questions, denying the fruit of their sin, pulling away from accountability, and a broad lack of interest in spiritual things.

My initial thought when I think about apathy is that it doesn’t affect me. I want to think that it is affecting other people in another place. It is in the church across town, but not in my church. Those people you read about online are apathetic, but I’m not. I think I’m so ready to deny apathy because I’m in solid Christian environments - my church, home, and school are all biblical and great influences. Theses places don’t cultivate apathy, do they?

All people are capable of debilitating apathy. Why is this so? Because all have a sinful heart and that sin turns us away from that is divine. Sin hardens us. We then, as believers, have a responsibility to fight against such destructive tendencies. This fight does not call for a casual defense, but a passionate, vigorous, zealous, all-out attack against unbelief. We must daily evaluate our actions and thoughts because our flesh will allow apathy to creep in through small areas and it spread to other areas as well.

I only bring this up because I recognized serious points of apathy in my own heart this past week. At first it didn’t seem to be wrong and I did recognize it as sin, because I wasn’t actively doing anything disobedience. But I soon realized that I was allowing sin of selfishness and comfort to deaden my soul and it would continue shrivel if I didn’t do anything against it.

The author of Hebrews clearly understood this tendency within each human heart and he then urged the church to encourage and admonish each other in order to guard against it. Consider the following the passages:

Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Hebrews 2:1

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called to “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:12-13

“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:23-25

“But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.” Hebrews 10:39

“Consider Him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” Hebrews 12:3

In Matthew 17, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up onto the mount, which is probably Mt. Hermon. These select disciples then see Jesus transfigured in front of them and He is joined by two other men. The Gospel accounts tell us that it was Moses and Elijah, who appeared with Jesus. Peter then says, “Lord it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

Now I can understand that through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the identity of those men would be revealed as the authors wrote their accounts. But how did Peter recognize those men? Moses had died about 1400 years prior and Elijah left this earth in his chariot about 850 years prior. At the time that each of these men lived, the technology did not exist to paint, draw, or sculpt a portrait and preserve it. All Jewish people since the times of Moses and Elijah knew who these men were, but there was no way of preserving an image of them for future generations.

So how did Peter immediately know that the two men standing with Christ were Moses and Elijah? Did they have name tags? Did Jesus introduce them? Did the Spirit reveal it to their minds? Were they holding things which would have connected them with the biblical account, such as Moses holding a staff and the stone tablets? That doesn’t make any sense, I guess I’m thinking too much of flannel graph images. Anyway, I’m not sure how they figured out who those guys were, but praise God we have the inspired account.

Mt. Hermon, the best location for the transfiguration of Christ.