The Unchanging Nature of the Gospel

    There are mornings when I wake up and for some reason I’m just not excited about getting into the Word that morning, or I’m just not looking forward to doing ministry that day. We all have days like these. There are other days when I’m the exact opposite; I wake up excited about having time to spend with the Lord and I’m motivated to live out what I learn from the Word. I’m not unusual in this sense at all; anyone who says that they wake up excited and can’t wait to get into the Word every single morning is lying. Also, there are times in my life when everything seems like it is going wrong. It’s as if it is impossible for one thing to turn out good for me. Once again, this is something that we all experience. In most cases, I end up allowing these circumstances to influence a negative outlook on the rest of life, especially my spiritual life.

     Looking back on how I’ve reacted to these feelings and circumstances, it just seems ridiculous to allow that which is temporal in my life to dictate how I view that which is eternal. It’s something that we all do. But I am so thankful to God that He doesn’t work according to how we feel. It’s not as if God becomes less of God just because we don’t “feel” His truth that day. God’s goodness doesn’t decrease just because our circumstances might not seem “good” to us. This tendency in our lives is a product of the culture that we live in. One of the main messages that flows out of our culture is to do follow your heart or just go with your feelings. We, as Christians, end up transferring this mindset into our spiritual lives and it distorts our view of God and His Gospel.

     But I urge you to cling to this truth: The truth and power of the Gospel are not dictated by how we feel about it or by what our circumstances may say. I have to preach this concept to myself over and over each day. Praise God that His Gospel of salvation is always true regardless of how we feel about it. Rejoice in the fact that no matter what your circumstances may be the Gospel is always powerful. Why is this? Because the Gospel is God’s Gospel. We serve a God that is immutable; He never changes. Therefore, the good news that is the message of our salvation will never change because the Author Himself never changes. God, thank you that You are eternal and thank you that Your Gospel that saves us is eternal. I am humbled by the fact that you work completely outside of us. You don’t need us, yet You choose to use us. “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!” (Psalm 115:1).

“Where Have All the Men Gone?”

     Over at the New Attitude blog, Justin Buzzard has posted a must-read post on biblical manhood. He offers three short starting points for pursuing biblical masculinity in our lives. The three points are as follows:

“1. Establish a clear conviction of what it means to be a man from God’s Word. This requires effort and diligence in our study, prayer, and purposeful application. This is important because biblical masculinity undefined will inevitably become biblical masculinity unpracticed.

2. We must create and maintain an example worth following. We need to fight our sin, be doers of the Word We can serve our churches, our sisters, wives, children by being compelling examples of godliness (Philippians 3:17, Hebrews 13:7).

3. We must cultivate a holy ambition in our lives for the work of the gospel and kingdom work. We need to lead with zeal (Romans 12:8), to have a passion and unending enthusiasm to know Christ and the power of His resurrection (Philippians 3:7-12). This ambition should drive us to work hard and be courageous in the work of the Lord (1Corinthians 15:58) in the uniquely masculine ways God has called us to. “

     I love Justin’s point when he says, “…biblical masculinity undefined will inevitable become biblical masculinity unpracticed.” I think that’s so true and so evident in our churches today. Many people are asking the question of why guys aren’t stepping up to fulfill their God-given roles. I think one of the main answers to that question is because not very many guys have a solid, biblical understanding of what it means to be a godly man. Obviously, this is an area in which we as men will constantly be growing, but I think that gives us a place to start. In order for us to start living lives of biblical manhood, we must first define what biblical manhood is and where else are we to look except in the Word of God.

     There are some great resources that have been made available for this very purpose. I encourage you to visit CBMW’s Website (The Council of Biblical Manhood and Womanhood). You can read Justin’s full post here.