Your Manhood

I am currently reading a book by Michael John Cusick called, Surfing For God – Discovering the Divine Desire Beneath Sexual Struggle. God has been bring me back to one set of thoughts from the author. The author is breaking down the broken promises porn offers to men. Broken promise number one – Porn promises validation of our manhood without requiring strength. So he ask the question of men, “Where in your life do you typically feel the strongest and manliest?” Men answer in different ways. Work, helping others, playing sports, doing stuff outdoors. Michael makes the comment, “I’ve never heard a man initially respond by saying that he felt the manliest and strongest in relation to his wife, fiancée, or girlfriend.” This blew me over. We should feel strong and manliest with our wives, this is what God has intended. For some reason men don’t feel strong or adequate in the presence of a real live woman according to Michael. “One reason porn is so addictive is, it makes a man feel like a man without ever requiring a thing of him.” John Eldredge. Porn will take a man anywhere he wants to go, give him anything he wants to have. It will never reject him, never turn him away, it will never remind him of his flaws, or failures, it will always accept him. Porn empowers men. Thomas Aquinas’s makes the statement, “Every sinful behavior is rooted in a legitimate God-given appetite.” If this is true, men who act out sexually are really crying out to God. There are four basic needs every human needs to have met in their lives. Love, Acceptance, Worth/Approval and Security. Jesus is the only one who can fully meet these needs in our lives. But why are so many men turning to porn to have porn meet these needs. They are believing two lies. One, God is not good, and cannot meet their needs. Same lie satan filled Eve with in the garden. The second lie is, they believe the porn can meet their needs, which it will never be able to do. C.S Lewis made the statement, “Every time a man masturbates, he chips away at his manhood.” I would like to take that statement a little bit further. Every time a man looks at porn, It doesn’t chip away his manhood, it destroys his manhood.

The Power Of Little Things

Yesterday I listen to a local pastor’s Sunday morning sermon and he made a comment about the, “Power of the little things.” This pastor went on to share how God showed him what his greatest sermon was he had ever preached. His greatest sermon was not one to a church, but one to his son. He was helping his son learn John 3:16-17 and he said this was his greatest sermon he had ever preached. As a father I could relate to what this pastor was saying. I look forward to every night when I get to sit down with my son and read his little children’s Bible with him. As parents we have to be looking for the teachable moments in the little things, because these little teachable moments will stay with our children. It’s not the big things that are effecting our children, it’s the one on one, life on life, little things that are changing our children’s hearts and lives. Are children are watching everything we say and do; even the things we don’t say to them is impacting them both positive and negative. As parents we have to be training our children daily, because if we are not, others are. The little talks, hugs, kisses, daddies taking their daughters out on dates, mommies taking their son’s out on dates, snuggle time, it’s all powerfully effecting our children. Do the little things and do them well.

God Tends To Have Different Plans

This past weekend I help run a 3D archery shoot for Ironman Outdoors as a fundraiser for our chapter. We were starting to question if we should even have the shoot due to low numbers and not a lot of people signing up. However we felt God was calling us to do the shoot and we wanted to be faithful on our part, and God would be faithful on bring people to the shoot. Friday night one of our leaders received a call from a mom who wanted to bring her 13-year-old son to the shoot and wanted more information. Her son was very intersted in archery. Saturday morning we had seven people show up for the shoot along with the mom and dad and their son Tyler. God made it very clear very early that we put everything together and did this shoot for this one family and their son Tyler. Tyler showed up and you can tell by the way he was dressed he was into the skater culture. One of our leaders who is an archery instructor took Tyler outside to start working with him and immediately a big smile came across Tyler’s face. I watched Tom work with Tyler and his parents standing and looking on I thought, “There is a mom and dad hanging out with their 13-year-old son watching him shoot archery.” God made it clear to us that today was about them. When we came into eat Tyler would not set his bow down to eat, all he wanted to do was shoot. When we were passing out the awards for the top shooters we saved Tyler’s award for last. We gave Tyler the Sportsman ship award. There was another shooter at the shoot that had a youth bow, and wanted to give it to Tyler, so Tyler received a bow, a gift card to one of the local archery shops in Columbia, and we made him an official Ironman, of Ironman Outdoors. It was neat to sit back and to watch Tyler parents see us do all of this for their son. As I was sharing this with my wife she said, “Steven, archery may save his life one day.” God had Tyler at our shoot for a purpose and a reason, and we may never see the fruit of it. We had the mind-set of trying to have 20 to 30 shoots and make some money for our chapter funds, but God had something else planned. God wanted us to minister to Tyler’s family, and love on them. If God asks you to do something, and it maybe something as simple as paying for someone’s lunch in the drive through. Just do it, because we don’t know what He is doing or how He is working in people’s lives. I am so thankful we did not cancel the shoot, God had a different plan for us that day.