2013 – Time for Men to Step Up

What does it mean to be a man? How would you define it?

When does a boy become a man?

When he turns 18? When he starts driving? Graduates from school? Gets married? What answer would you give a boy to that question?

I’m very excited to announce that beginning this January,  we’re going to try to answer that question, as well as other questions related to it. Using the new curriculum, Stepping Up: A Call to Courageous Manhood, the men of our church and our community are going to discover what it means to become the man that God has called us to be. Here’s a clip…

In the twelve years of this ministry to men, I don’t think that I’ve ever been this excited over a new study. I believe that there is a great need for a rediscovery and renewal of godly manhood in our culture today. I pray that God will use this study to make a powerful impact in the lives of the men who gather each week to participate… and therefore, also impact their families, workplaces, communities, etc.

Requirement to be a part of this study…

You are not required to be an expert on the Bible or Systematic Theology.

What you will need is the desire to become the man that God has called you to be… at home, at work, at church, in your community… and even alone. None of us has yet become that man, but that desire is a step up and a step in the right direction!

Here’s a little more about the study…

Many men find it difficult to identify acts of courage while slogging through the daily challenges of home, work, and community. Yet these are the very battlefields where courage is demanded of them every single day.

In this 10-session video series, Dennis Rainey calls men to boldly forge into courageous manhood. Stepping Up defines courage throughout the five stages of manhood and commissions men to honestly evaluate where they stand in their duties of masculinity. Rainey then prepares men to bravely master their life purpose by developing a strategic plan and establishing a winning vision.

You can master true leadership, develop a plan for your life and make a difference in your world.

(from the back of the study guide to Stepping Up.)

Our new study begins on Monday evening, January 7th (at 7pm in our Family Life Center)… or on Wednesday morning, January 9th, (at 6:30am, also in our FLC).

You do not have to be a member of our church (Southside United Methodist Church) to come and join us. This study is open to all of the men in our community. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to call me at 396-2676 or email me at D.Tedder@southsidemethodist.org.

Let’s pray that God will use this new study to help us STEP UP and STAND FIRM.

Blessings,
Dale

Read Full Post »

Faith and Courage

Assorted Scripture

What are two of the marks of our forbearers in the faith who were used mightily of God – against all apparent odds? These loved ones of the covenant had faith and courage.

There is a lack in our day of both. More often than I care to think about, doubt and fear have won the day and left God’s saints in a puddle of impotence and despair. I know this has been true of me. But this ought never be the case for God’s people.

When Moses sent an expedition to Canaan to explore what awaited God’s children in the land of promise, the report confirmed all that God had promised – it was lush and flowed with milk and honey…as advertised. But there was a catch. There was also quite an obstacle before them. In the land there were also “giants” who made the Israelites seem like hobbits in a land of orcs. The report from the expedition team was that, “We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them” (Numbers 13:33).

But this wasn’t a unanimous report. For in Numbers 13:30 we read:

Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

Caleb had faith in God and in his covenant promises, and therefore, could be as courageous as Frodo and Sam in Mordor.

David faced similar circumstances later on in redemptive history…with a similar response. As the Israelites shook in their sandals before the great Goliath and the Philistine horde, the young shepherd boy looked on in bewilderment. In what seemed like arrogance at worst and naiveté at best, this “king-to-be” just couldn’t understand why his people had not already taken the uncircumcised behemoth apart – especially in light of Goliath’s jeering and insolence before the living God. David queried:

“Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” (1 Samuel 17:26)

And so like Caleb before him, David volunteered to take Goliath on. So what if he seemed like a grasshopper before this giant of a man – all nine feet of him. David drew courage from his faith in the One who had never failed him before.

Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:36-37)

With faith and courage David faced the giant, and the rest as we say, is history.

What was the foundation for such faith and courage in the lives of Caleb and David? We are told in Jeremiah 1:8 and 19.

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.

Caleb and David knew in their day what God told Jeremiah in his. That is, that God’s people will be opposed…that’s a given. We will seem like grasshoppers in comparison. The “apparent” odds will be overwhelmingly against us. But God calls the weak, poor, small, seemingly insignificant hobbits of this world to serve as his subjects – his knights – to advance his Kingdom – even in the face of the enemy (perhaps especially so).

What are the obstacles you are facing? Is anything greater than the covenant-making, covenant-keeping Lord of Glory? It is this very God who promised never to forsake us. That in itself is our grounds for faith and courage – in the midst of insurmountable odds.

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. (1 Cor. 15:58)

Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13)

Stand Firm,
Dale

Read Full Post »