This is the fourth article in a four-part series . . .

If you have been paying attention, and if you have read the previous three articles over the previous three days, you have been wondering what all this was building up to, and where it was all going.  The only problem with the Fearless Christian life is that I believe so many Christian men wrongly believe they are there.

Go back to the Floundering Christian life for a moment, and realize that when you ask God to use you, and God begins to take you into the deeper waters, there is panic.  There is unease.  There is a complete loss of control.  When God intervenes, and we are taken back to the safety of the Favored Christian life, there is a tendency to pat ourselves on the back for having made the effort - never to try again.  As God calls us again though, we begin to resist, and there is the danger.  God wants us to grow, and he will nudge us to grow, and He will call us to grow, but God will never force us to grow.

Peter walked on water!  He also got distracted, sank, floundered, and had to be rescued.  How Jesus responds to him at that moment is telling.  It is not a clap on the back and a "You did really well out there for a few moments!" comment followed by other accolades.  His words are ones of disappointment of what could have been . . . Matthew 14:31  "And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?"

It is a powerful story, because later this same Peter continues to Flounder.  Ready to die with Christ one moment in the Garden of Gethsemane as soldiers come to take Christ away, he soon denies he even knows Christ by the fireside and runs away . . . runs back . . . returns to his old life as a fisherman . . . back to the favored life he once knew where all was safe, everything was OK, and the floundering could cease.  However, Christ was not finished with him yet.

How many fearless men in the Bible can you name?  Moses, fearless before Pharaoh.  Abraham, fearless to offer his own son.  Joshua, fearless to raid the land of Canaan.  Paul, fearless before many trials and afflictions.  What makes these men fearless?  For some, the time of their Floundering is aparrent, but for others the Bible does not focus on this and it is less clear.  Still, I submit to you that each of these men had their doubts, their fears, their time to flounder before coming to the point they were fearless.  Why do I say this?  How can I know this?

Return to the pool.  Go back to the time of learning how to swim.  Floundering in the water, flailing wildly, desperate to extricate yourself from the situation, you slowly built the foundation and the mechanics of swimming.  I remember those times, but I also know that today I am comfortable jumping into any body of water with the sure and fearless knowledge that I can swim.

God has a greater purpose for every man's life, and it is not to continue to live the Favored Christian life either.  I believe God wants to use you, too, but to get there, God has to take you into the deeper waters and allow you to Flounder.  There He can teach you, train you, allow you to learn who you really are, and where your talents and strengths God has given you reside.  Coming through all that, you gain a knowledge of your purpose, your place, your identity, and who you really are as a Christian man.

The problem is, too few are ever willing to enter the Floundering Christian life, and so they rush back to the Favored Christian life as quickly as possible.  There are some out there though, dissatisfied with the Favored Christian life, who know there is a Fearless Christian life to be lived with a name and an identity, but they do not want to Flounder.  They resist the unknown, and so they enter and step back, again and again, trying to work up the courage to surrender to the process God has for them.  Of those who enter the Floundering Christian life, it seems all too few ever emerge Fearless.

Look around you.  Who among you has given up and allowed "Failure" to be stamped on their life?  Who among you would rather live the "Favored" Christian life?  Who among you resist the "Floundering" life?  Though they want God to use them, they refuse to endure.  Who among you, is truly Fearless?

Reposted from MenRising.com

This is the second article in a four-part series . . .

I cannot emphasize this point enough, so get ready.  I REALLY like it when everything goes my way.  I have to admit it feels good just to see those words in print, think about what they mean, and envision instances in the past where it has happened.  Living a favored life . . . seems like it would be the be-all end-all of what would end up being a truly wonderful life.

Ever wonder what it would be like to live in the White House?

Now there is a favored lifestyle I think any one of us could get used to.  I have read of Presidents past and First Ladies too, who have noted that lifestyle as one of the greatest perks of being in that office.  Everything kept spotless, great food prepared by world-class chefs, beautiful art and artifacts, wonderfully appointed rooms and furniture, and on and on and on the list goes.  For the guys need I say anything more than “bullet-proof limo” “Air Force One” and “Secret Service Body-Guard detail”?  How cool is all that!?!

Everywhere you go the roads and/or the sky is cleared, and people make way.  While we may not get to have that life, we do try in our own ways.  We get the best house we can, the best car we can afford, and whatever else we think will make us happy in this life.  We accumulate these things around us, and consider ourselves blessed with what we have.  Granted, some people are of meager means and do the best they can with what they have, while others can afford quite a bit more, but in the end, we all eventually become used to whatever life we have.  We content ourselves and call ourselves blessed and highly favored, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Except . . . we are not here to live a favored life.

A whole lot of Christian men will have gone to church this past Sunday.  Some wear really nice clothes while others simply wear the best clothes they have.  They carry their Bible under their arm, a smile on their face, shake hands and make small-talk with everyone they meet, keep the kids in line, and sit with their wife.  They stand up and sit down at all the right times, sing when it is time, listen attentively to the preacher, and when it is all said and done, they go home.  They love their church, their pastor, and consider themselves blessed and highly favored, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Except . . . we are not here to live a favored life.

Again, let me repeat and be very clear.  There is NOTHING WRONG with having things in this life.  There is not a single “thou shalt not” when it comes to having a nice home, a nice car, nice clothes, and whatever else there is in this life.  There is no commandment against having and living a favored life, however, when that becomes the focus and reason for living, that is when things get off-line.

Luke 12:16  “And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:  17 And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?  18 And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. 19 And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.  20 But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”

There is a time for the favored life.  Where would a baby be without the favored life?  However, every child must grow up.  The favored life is not something we should seek to keep permanent.  Understanding that all belongs to God and that everything God has given us should be used in His service, then we begin to see a greater purpose for the things we have in this life.

Clinging to the Favored Christian life is not God’s plan or purpose for your life.  When things get just a little “out of favor” how do you respond?  Do you find yourself asking, “What’s wrong, Lord?!”  “Why me!?!”  Do you try to hold on to the favored life you are living?  When things go “wrong” do you try to make them “right” again according to the life you want?  Is God trying to teach you or show you something?  What if there is something greater than the Favored Christian life to be had?

Reposted from www.MenRising.com

“Humble me, Lord.”  How different would your Christian walk and spiritual life be if you prayed that prayer every day and meant it?  What would it look like if God were to humble you?

Two stories stick out in my mind when it comes to humility, and both of them have to do with tanks.  The first story comes from a soldier on the battle field of World War One, called The Great War at the time (there had not yet been a World War II), tanks were just really beginning to come into their own as a tool on the battlefield.  Before tanks, armies would line up on either side, and dig in with mazes of trenches with barb wire and machine gun nests.  In between them was “No Man’s Land” which was a space of land neither side held, and where both sides had equal access to fire the full force of their weapons.

When the tank came along, it changed all that.  As a soldier recalled his first encounter with a tank, he said the experience was both terrifying and humbling.  All the prepared defenses were useless.  The tank rolled through No Man’s Land, through the machine gun fire, over the barbed wire, and caved in the trenches on top of the men who were underneath.  Lines of soldiers followed, and his unit was in an immediate state if disarray.

The second story takes me back to June 4, 1989.  In Beijing China, in a plaza called Tian-an-men Square, students rose up in protest, and were fired upon and killed by Chinese government forces.  At one point, after much of the square has been cleared, tanks begin to roll into the square.  A single column of tanks grinds to a halt, not because of overwhelming opposition, but because one single man resolved to block them or be overrun, stands in their way.

As he stands there, the tanks rolling directly up to him, I am the one humbled.  He stands there in protest, and we can only assume because of the events preceding he is there on behalf of the Chinese students previously murdered by their own government. In my mind, he also personifies humility in the sense that he has come to the point that, in his own mind, he has given up everything.  Had he any reservation within himself for himself or the things he owned on this earth, doubtless he would not have been there, yet there he stood.

I wonder how many Christians would be willing to make such a stand.  Too many times, even I admit I am too preoccupied with the things of this world, trying to hold onto the status quo of my own life, trying to do the day-to-day things that make ends meet, and sometimes I forget what my real mission in life is as a Christian.  It is worth remembering these stories, because if we pray “Humble me, Lord” it may just happen that God sends a tank over the defensive lines in our lives we have so carefully prepared, so that we may hold no thing on this earth in reserve in a stand for Him.

How different would your life be if you sincerely prayed, “Humble me, Lord” every day?

- reposed from www.MenRising.com