No Excuses

Gal 5:18-25 by No Excuses Coleman

18 But when you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

19 When self-indulgence is at work the results are obvious: sexual vice, impurity, and sensuality,

20 the worship of false gods and sorcery; antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, bad temper and quarrels, disagreements,

21 factions and malice, drunkenness, orgies and all such things. And about these, I tell you now as I have told you in the past, that people who behave in these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.

22 On the other hand the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness,

23 gentleness and self-control; no law can touch such things as these.

24 All who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified self with all its passions and its desires.

25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let our behaviour be guided by the Spirit
As I was finally returning to my Wills and Trusts note cards, after a two hour interlude of Subway and iphone scrabble (honestly, who knew “pia,” “jiao,” “bevy,” “qi,” “em,” “el” and “es” were words?), I was reminded by Chris that it was my turn to write the Word of the Day.

Apparently, while I was studying for this midterm, Chris had been studying effective guilt trip methods. Without rebuke, he reminded how many others are buckling down for this midterm as well.

This also reminded me that Christ died for our sins, not our excuses – not even the excuses of stressed out law students.

I prayed last night before bed for the first time in weeks. I pray often, to be sure. But I am a strong believer that prayer should begin and end our days. Indeed, I am strong a believer that spiritual “obligations” like weekly church attendance and routine prayer should be observed.

Obligation. It’s a funny word, there. Do we husbands and boyfriends complain of an obligation to stop by the store and buy flowers for the women in our lives? No, because we feel lucky to have such women to bring flowers home to. And maybe they don’t love us more because of the flowers, and we don’t say that we are “proving” our love with the flowers. But that one act of devotion refocuses our attention, away from ourselves and back to them. It brings us back to the simplicity of our affection – we’re not worrying about x, y and z, we are quite simply renewing our devotion (and, it puts a smile on her face too).

Actually, observing routine acts of devotion are as “obligatory” as physical exercise is to the body: No one is forcing you to do it, but without it, the body deteriorates.

Regular prayer, church attendance, sincere and personal requests of forgiveness for our sins, are, like regular physical exercise, actions that build up our spiritual “muscles.” These acts make us stronger and humbler Christian men. And, like regular physical exercise, these acts can be fun once we get up and force ourselves back to a consistent work out.

The only reason prayer has not begun and ended my days, is mental and physical exhaustion (read: excuses). I have missed church, and often gone days with little or no connection to Christ.

To weaker men, stress and hardship become the handmaidens of sin. I know the many hardships I’ve encountered these past years in law school, or past months and weeks even, can be met and even outmatched by several of the men of Engage. All the same, it weighs me down, and I unwittingly excuse myself from regular devotion.

The more we excuse ourselves from our spiritual walk, the more opportunity we leave for sin: We miss church, forget to pray, don’t make a Bible study, put off a simple act like writing a Word of the Day or fail to spend frequent and necessary time with Christ. All this neglect creates a hole; and that hole is most frequently filled by sin: drunkenness, sex, impurity, greed, jealousy, antagonism and rivalry, or what have you.

So, I wrote this Word of the Day, despite my ready-made midterm excuse. I’ll teach high school kids in Confirmation classes tonight, despite that midterm hanging over me. I’ll even pray before bed again tonight. With simple and routines acts of devotion, I’ll renew my vow to walk with Christ, and I’ll let the Holy Spirit – not the convenient excuse of stress – guide my behavior.

Hope…Don’t Misplace it

We’ve heard a lot about “hope” recently…and been let down.  It reminded me of a Word of the day I shared with the men of eNgage a couple of years ago.  I pressed this to encourage you, reader, to put your hope in the right place-where you won’t be let down, but where you will be blown away as you realize your hopes were so much smaller than what your Creator planned, and did, for you.  This is but a piece of the “Good News” of Christianity-if you want a fuller picture, let me know.  For now, enjoy this encouragement to put your hope in Jesus.

I want to share with you a devo is out of Isaiah 42:1-4 (also referenced in Matt 12:21), you can feel free to turn there or read the TNIV below:

The Servant of the LORD

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight;

I will put my spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.

He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.

A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.

In faithfulness he will bring forth justice;

he will not falter or be discouraged until he establishes justice on the earth.

In his name the nations will put their hope.”

I don’t know how many of you are wanting to be involved in politics or public service, but Lord willing I will run for an elected office or two in the future.  A recent speaker who spoke at Chapel for the undergrad pointed out that both McCain and Obama in their respective election night speeches exalted America as the “hope of the world”…so far I think God is humbling our pride by making us eat those words and see just what a “hope” our nation is apart from Him.  We do not send the rain so that the California Central Valley can send food to the world or so ranchers in Texas can raise cattle for meat that will nourish others—God does.  That train of thought led me to the above verse.

The verse is of course a prophecy about Jesus and there are a few things that I wanted to point out (in addition to what the Holy Spirit points out to you):

“He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.”

-The message and truth of Christ is what it is; it does not require eloquence or complexity or a feature length film with special effects and graphics to affect mankind.  It is powerful.  It is always relevant.  We as men are imperfect and irreconcilable to our Creator and doomed to spend eternity apart from him, BUT God sent his son Jesus to “redeem” us-sacrificing his perfect life to be tortured and crucified so that our sin would be atoned for and we can not only now spend an eternity with our Creator, but we can live our lives on earth with victory and freedom from the sin that once held us in bondage.  Those who surround us are hungry for this message.  We need only share it with them-simply and consistently.

“A bruised reed he will not break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out”

-No matter what has happened to us or the severity of the sin we have committed or if we have turned from God, Jesus is always freely offering to redeem us-we need only ask.  He will not give us any reason to turn from him-for he will always be treating us in love.  He will always graciously give us the choice to accept him or not

“In His name the nations will put their hope”

-The name of Jesus is powerful because of what it means to us and to humankind.  Jesus is our savior, our redeemer, our constant help in times of trouble, our lover, our protector, and he will never fail.  We may not be able to put our hope in our nation or in Wall Street, but we know that we can always put our hope in Jesus Christ.  No matter what you are concerned about, give it to Godand trust in him.  He can be trusted.  He is our hope.

God bless gentlemen

Jonathan

Sola scriptura, Sola fide, Sola gratia, Solo Christo, Soli Deo gloria

What is Masculinity?

What is masculinity? As a young man, I’d like to know.

Of course, I’m aware of the many cultural connotations. Society has done us no favors as young men; rather, it has foisted its own massive confusion upon us via everything from sitcoms to softdrinks. Is manhood about living as a couch-surfing dimwit or “Do[ing] the Dew”…?

Is it about nice cars, big buildings, big titles, and big paychecks?

Is it about beer, burgers, and professional athletics?

Is it about mixed martial arts?

Is it about women?

What is masculinity? Unfortunately, our churches have not done much better at helping us define it.

On this front, those of us who claim Christ seem to be facing two extremes: One familiar stereotype is the effeminate churchgoing man who is ‘nice.’ He also comes off as weak, passive, and passionless. His life seems boring and powerless, and his example is not attractive to men who consider themselves to be more ‘manly.’

But the reaction within Christendom to this faux pas masculinity has spawned a second familiar stereotype that, until recently, I did not realize to be equally as backward. I am referring to the hyper-masculine Christian strongman movement that has prevailed in the last decade. This formulaic approach to masculinity places a ‘Christian’ façade on much of Western pop culture, and its Jungian synthesis suggests that all men ‘need’ a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.

Does that sound familiar?

Admittedly, I happen to relate well to the concept. In fact, I have a five foot long Scottish Claymore in my bedroom that I got right after reading John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart for the third time.

But, what about my unmarried friends? Are such men not ‘masculine’ so long as they’ve yet to ‘rescue a beauty?’ What if they have no desire to do so? I don’t think the Apostle Paul would buy into this apparent tenet of masculinity, and similar hypothetical questions can be posed about the ‘battle’ and ‘adventure’ tenets, as well.

So, what is masculinity? I think that, as young men, now is our time to define it.

It’s not about distraction. It’s not about occupation or preoccupation. And, it’s not about women, or fistfights, or rock climbing.

Masculinity is about engagement, and that’s why we are calling the young men of our generation to eNgage!

Engagement is a middle ground between the stereotypes discussed above that challenges both types of men, and calls them toward Christ-likeness. Engagement reminds the effeminate man that, though ‘not by might or by power,’ God raised a mighty army by His Spirit (Ez 37:1-10). And engagement reminds the hyper-masculine man that God came to Elijah not in a mighty wind, powerful earthquake, or raging fire, but in a whisper (1 Kg 19:9-13).

Masculinity is not about being powerful or powerless – it’s about being a vessel to be used by God powerfully (e.g., a vessel capable of healing the sick and raising the dead).

And masculinity is not about being strong or weak – it finds its strength in unbridled trust in God (e.g., a trust willing to die a horrible death on a cross).

I believe that a truly ‘masculine’ man’s vision and purpose revolve around these two truths and result in the awareness that ‘in my weakness, He is strong;’ the reassurance that ‘where I end, He begins;’ and, the desire to learn to ‘end’ more quickly.

That’s Jesus’ example for us, and that’s masculinity.

-Jer