Transparent Freedom

There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
Job 1.1

In a single nightmarish day, Job faces the ultimate test.  All the wealth and blessings he knows are tragically taken away one by one.  Job experiences relentless, incessant adversity but remains steadfast.  He is rugged enough in his character and trust in God to stand firm and to choose worship over complaint.

Job continues to be our model of endurance as well as an insight into the sovereign care of God.  He continues to inspire us today to be consistent in character and steadfast and trusting an unknown future to a sovereign known God.

1. Pay Close Attention to Your Character

Job was not sinless, but he had a reputaiton as blameless.  (Job 1:8).  Job was upright.  He stayed on the straight and narrow. Because: He feared God.  He took God seriously.  Making the package complete is the reputation Job has for hating evil and turning away from it. 

Character is king.  Job earned his from a life of consistency and integrity.  What is your reputation for character?  How would the people who know you best describe you?  Do they know you for integrity?

Don’t leave yourself vulnerable to Satan’s slander.  Live blameles and upright (Phil. 1:10 and 2:25) in the righteousness of God (Rom. 3:21-26).  Fear God (2 Cor. 7:1) and turn away from evil (Prov. 3:7 and 1 Thess. 5:22).

2.  Serve the Suffering

In chapter 29, we get a glimpse of Job in his prime:

When I went out to the gate of the city, when I prepared my seat in the square, the young men saw me and withdrew, and the aged rose and stood; the princes refrained from talking and laid their hand on their mouth; the voice of the nobles was hushed and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth.
(7-10).

And why was that?  Were they blown away by his abundant wealth?  That may have played into it, but as the text continues, we see that it had more to do with Job’s character as an upright man:

When the ear heard, it called me blessed, and when the eye saw, it approved, because I delivered the poor who cried for help, and the fatherless who had none to help him.  The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy.  I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban.  I was eyes to the blind and feet to the lame.  I was a father to the needy, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know.  I broke the fangs of the unrighteous and made him drop his prey from his teeth.  
(11-17). 

This is what biblical manhood does.  It serves needs and advocates for justice as the hands and feet of God.  Like Job, be diligent and masculine in your response to needs and in “breaking the fangs of the unrighteous” to free their prey.

3. Cover Your Home Spiritually

Job was not only a man of high character who was a great success in business and the community, he was also a dedicated family man.  Job was a dutiful dad.  His essential concern was for being the spiritual leader of his family.  (Job 1:4-5).  From Job we learn: be alert spiritually, get up early and intercede on behalf of your family, and be continually faithful.  Be engaged.  Be a dutiful shepherd for your family.  Parent from your knees.  Beg God to intervene and protect your children’s hearts so that they can be used mightily for His purposes.

4. Place Your Complete Trust in God

Adversity is what most distinctly reveals character.  It exposes who you really are.  In Job 1:13-19, we see the goodness and peace of Job’s life tragically interrupted with attack, destruction, loss, and death. 

How would you handle that?

Here’s how Job responded: “Then Job arose and tore his robe and fell on the ground and worshiped.” (Job 1:20).

This is the primary difference between secular manhood and biblical manhood.  As Job loses all his wealth and provision and then contemplates burying all ten of his children, there’s no indication that he just stuffs his emotions and tries to act tough.  Instead, he tears his robes as a sign of contrition, shaves his head to symbolize the glory departing from his life, and then falls on the ground…and worships.

Job responded to the worst kind of adversity in a way Satan could not have imagined.  He not only did not break, he showed contrition and worship.  Will you be rugged enough to have unceasing, unconditional worship to God even if all the perks and success in life go away?  Will you still place your full confidence in God?

5. Don’t Complain

What comes next in the text shows us the theology informing Job’s ruggedness in the face of loss. 

“And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return.  The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord.’” (Job 1:21).

Everything is on loan from the Lord: your money, your home, your career, your wife, your children, and your physical abilities.  The Lord gives and He takes away.  We set our affections on things above–not on things of this Earth (Col. 3:1-2).  Our response in all things should be to bless the name of the Lord. 

Job’s endurance was based on his hope of redemption: “For I know that my Redeemer lives,” he says, “and at the last he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God.”

(From A Guide to Biblical Manhood, Stinson & Dumas)

This Week’s Resource: Mars Hill Real Marriage

Next Week: Act Manfully (6), Lessons from David and Solomon

Read Full Post »

“The ultimate problem that all human beings face is that God’s omnipotent wrath is against them.”

-John Piper.

We can not fathom our offensiveness.  We can not fathom our debt.  There is no way of knowing exactly how much we deserve the wrath of God.  But still, try. Try to know.  

Let the weight of your sin become real in this moment.

Pause for a moment.  Your sin against God is real and it does not just get swept under the rug.  

Now read this slowly.

1 John 2:1–2

My little children, I am writing this to you so that you may not sin; but if any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

“The ultimate good news is that there is a way to have the wrath of God averted—and that God himself has made the way.”

-John Piper.

“Jesus Christ the righteous” has made “Samuel Miles the sinner” into “Samuel Miles the righteous.”

And He does the same for you.

He is your advocate.  You are not your advocate.  He is.  

Rest in this reality today.

One last Piper quote,

“He stands before his Father in heaven, and every time we sin, he doesn’t make a new propitiation. He doesn’t die again and again. Instead he opens his portfolio and lays the exhibits of Good Friday on the bench before the Judge. Photographs of the crown of thorns, the lashing, the mocking soldiers, the agonies of the cross, and the final cry of victory: It is finished.”

“It Is Finished” says our Advocate.  Live like it.  

Read Full Post »

In the first three chapters of Genesis, we see that Adam is given the authority and responsibility to lead.  And that hasn’t changed.  If you’re a man, it’s not optional to be a leader.  It’s your God-given assignment and identity. 

The following are the five prototypical areas of leadership that come from the story of Adam:

1. Lead Spiritually

“Where are you?” God asked Adam in the garden.  God was holding Adam responsible for his family.  God held Adam accountable and He will hold you accountable.  If you’re married, you are responsible for your wife and children.  You will answer for their spiritual condition.

Additionally, you have responsibility for the local church.  Men are called to lead there with noble, humble leadership.

Men are to exercise spiritual leadership with maturity and good stewardship because we are going to be held accountable.

2. Lead in Exercising Dominion

God gave Adam a primary leadership responsibility in the work of taking dominion and subduing the earth.  (Gen. 1:26-30).  God has given you a domain somewhere.  All of your leadership should demonstrate some aspect of taking dominion as you bring order and structure.  Men order their lives, homes, families, and local church.  This isn’t dominance or dictatorship.  It’s responsibility.

What does your trunk, garage, closet, or desk look like?  A life that is consistently characterized by disorder is evidence of a general pattern of passivity in the domains God gives you to work and keep. 

3. Lead in Production

“Be fruitful and multiply” are God’s first words to man.  God blesses mankind with the means and the direction to be fruitful.  As with the other areas, this is a shared task.  Men and women are both to be fruitful and they each have a role in production, procreation, and provision.

But Adam has a leadership role to bear.  “If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 5:8.  Men bear the responsibility of providing–of knowing where the house payment, the groceries, and other provisions are going to come from.

4. Lead in Establishing a Family

God set a pattern with Adam of men taking the lead in forming new families.  What God communicates in Genesis 2 is–here’s how I created the first family, I took some dust and I made a man and then I took part of his side and I made his wife–but in the future, a family will be established when a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife.  This is the way it’s going to be from now on.  The man will take the initiative to leave his family and go create a new family.  And men have to lead in the initiation because once they form a family, they are responsible to lead the whole thing. 

5. Lead in Fighting the Curse

In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve fall and mankind is cursed along with the serpent.  The work they were called to do remains, but the curse brings great challenge and frustration to that work.  The story of Adam’s fall reveals three distinct areas where men have to be aware of the challenges of the curse:

• Struggle in Marriage
  God tells Eve, ”Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16b).  There’s not a new relationship introduced here, just a new challenge–and men and women are going to have their most serious challenge here.  It’s going to boil down to conflict over these roles: who’s leading and who’s following.  Her temptation will be to usurp your authority and you’ll struggle to get it back.
• Thorns and Thistles
  The next challenge is in the area of work. (Gen. 3:17-19).  Adam is now going to have to deal with thorns and thistles and till the ground by the sweat of his brow.  Even though we’ve developed pesticides, tractors, harvesters, and numerous other means for overcoming the curse over the years, we still have thorns and thistles in our work.  Our work is still frustrating enough to require the sweat of our brow.  So, don’t be surprised by the challenges you face in your work or in any effort to be productive and fruitful in life.  Expect thorns and thistles.  But keep working.  Embrace the work God gives you withough excuses.  Don’t grumble or complain.
• Extremes in Leadership
  And finally, we see in the story of Adam two sinful temptations for men called to lead.  First, we see in Adam’s fall the temptation to abdicate leadership.  He hid.  He blamed.  He did not lead.  He was passive.  Adam shifted from being Eve’s protector to focusing on his own preservation.  (Gen. 3:9-12).  The next thing we see in Adam’s story is the temptation to abuse leadership.  (Gen. 3:16b).  Instead of using their leadership to provide and protect, men are tempted to look down on those they lead, to be abusive and to use their authority to only care for themselves.

God has given you notice of where you’ll have problems as a leader.  You have to watch for those vulnerabilities and cultivate an instinct of engagement to overcome the temptation to either abdicate or abuse leadership.

Your leadership will now have challenges and temptations, but you still have to lead.

(From A Guide to Biblical Manhood, Stinson and Dumas)

This Week’s Resource: Mars Hill’s Real Marriage Campaign has officially begun!

Next Week: Act Manfully (5), Lessons in Manhood from Job

Read Full Post »

A man is someone who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously, and expects a greater reward–God’s reward.

Robert Lewis

Certainly there are many definitions of “man” out there, but ask the simple question, “What is a man?” to almost any group and you’re bound to get ambiguous answers, humorous stereotypes, or blank stares.

The definition above from Lewis is a simple, universal, four-part expression that offers a great answer to the question–one we ought to memorize, live by, and pass on to our sons.

Reject Passivity
Unlike Adam passively allowing the enemy to destroy, Jesus Christ initiated.  Jesus refused to be passive when sin encroached upon the created order.  He was spiritually and socially aggressive.

Look at the action words in Philippians 2:5-8 that describe Christ’s redemptive activity:

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.  Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Accept Responsibility
There are three primary areas of responsiblity that men must embrace with enthusiasm: a will to obey (God’s will as revealed in the Scriptures), a work to do (not just in the work of his job, but also the work in his home, church, and community) and a woman to love (his wife).

Lead Courageously
Men were created to lead!  It’s not a choice; the only question is whether you are leading well or poorly as a man.  Leadership demands that men have the courage to master their passions and bridle themselves with the principle of truth.  The courage to lead with truth rather than surrender to feelings always separates the men from the boys.

Expect the Greater Reward
Real manhood was designed by God to be liberating and a means of great reward.  If you think the call to manhood is a call merely to heavy responsibility and dutiful sacrifice, then you’ve completely missed the example of Jesus.  Yes, real manhood is at times rigorous; it demands courage and requires sacrifice.  Nevertheless, it is primarily a call to life!

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:1-2

It was the “for the joy set before Him.”  There is joy in this life from acting manfully, and even greater: the fullness of joy forevermore after this life.

A man is someone who rejects passivity, accepts responsibility, leads courageously, and expects a greater reward–God’s reward.

(From Raising a Modern-Day Knight, by Robert Lewis)

Next Week: Act Manfully (4): Lessons in Manhood from Adam. 

Read Full Post »