June 17, 2009

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

So far this week I have talked about the need to have a godly man whom you can model your life after. I said that you need to "see one to be one".

Yesterday I identified one such man, Noah, of the Old Testament. He is the first man on record to have a boat, a real big boat. And he may have been the last guy who could really afford a boat. Anyway, I mentioned three manly things that I admire about Noah and this morning I want to talk about the first of those three.

The first manly thing that Noah did was to please God.

Our current model of manhood says, "Go after whatever pleases you. Life is about the pursuit of pleasure."

It was precisely because of that attitude that Noah had to build the Ark. Everyone other man on the face of the earth was living for pleasure and doing whatever he pleased. That did not please God. In fact, it so offended the holiness of God that He decided to send a flood and wash away all the wickedness.

Enter, Noah.

In stark contrast to all the wicked men chasing their lusts, God saw Noah living life to please God. That was all He needed - just one good man who was committed to pleasing God.

As men, you and I have people we have to please. You'd better please the wife and the family and you'd better please the boss. Those are givens. But above all, the primary way to "man up" is to please God.

So, how do I do that?

Let's learn from a man who did it.

First, to "man up" takes faith. ".....without faith it is impossible to please God...."

Everyone believes in something, so by definition, everyone has some sort of faith. But Noah knew that his faith needed to be anchored in God. For Him, God, who was unseen, had to be more real than the people and things he did see. That takes a spiritual connection with God. Noah had that, and he had it because he was righteous. It is sin that separates us from God and clouds our spiritual vision. Noah keep sin out of his life and remained righteous. How did he do that? By obeying God. God is pleased when we demonstrate our devotion to Him by doing what we know He wants us to do. It takes a real man to live out the invisible in visible ways. Noah did - and it floated his boat!

Second, to "man up" you need to "diligently seek Him".

Everyone is seeking something. Some men chase fame. Some chase fortune. Some chase females. Noah chased God. He was not content having God as a casual acquaintance. The more he discovered about God, the more he wanted to know. He believed in a personal God Who knows us and wants to be known by us. Noah understood that there is a God-shaped hole in the center of our being that nothing else can fill or satisfy. When the world around him was living like hell, Noah was chasing heaven. That takes a real man!

Third, to "man up" you need to believe that pleasing God is life's greatest reward. Every guy has his eyes on some prize. The prize may be a position or a promotion. It might be a pleasure or a possession. But the real question is, "when I get this prize, will it be worth it"? If you are going to devote blood, sweat, tears, and time to win a prize, you better hope you don't get disappointed. Noah wasn't disappointed by pleasing God. Noah, at this very moment is enjoying his reward. Actually, so are we! Because he chose to obey God and build the Ark, he survived - and so did we. Noah got the earthly prize AND the eternal prize.

The best way to "man up" is to please the "MAN". Noah shows you how, so you have no excuse. "Man up"!

June 16, 2009

I am glad I grew up in the era that I did because we had real men back then. We had John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Kirk Douglas, Stan "The Man" Musial, Humphrey Bogart, Ronald Reagan, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Henry Fonda, Mr. Clean AND - the Marlboro Man. You didn't mess with those guys. At the risk of sounding like a crotchety old dude, I've got to ask, "Where are these guys today?" Manly men are few and far between these days. What ever happened to testosterone?

From where I am sitting, manhood has drifted into two extremes - the feminization of manhood and the fantasizing of manhood. On the one side we have the GQ, Calvin Klein, and Adam Lambert image of manhood, while the other extreme is the James Bond image of a macho, muscle-bound dude driving a hot machine and making it with hot mamas.

Where does that leave the rest of us who don't want to get waxed and have no desire to go wild and womanize. Square in the middle?

As one square to another, let me offer another face to manhood. Allow me to direct your attention to Noah from the Old Testament account in Genesis. Here is a man who "floats my boat". I focus on Noah because if he had not "manned up" we would be not having this conversation.

Hebrews summarizes his life like this:

"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Hebrews 11:7

My image of manhood is a guy like Noah. I don't know what he looked like but I am thinking Sean Connery-ish. It doesn't matter so much how he looked but it is more about what he did. From this one verse we see some impressive stuff:

1) He pleased God

2) He protected his family

3) He preserved the human race

That resume works for me! What will you do today that will please God? What are your plans to protect your marriage and your family today?

Over the next few posts I want to challenge you to focus on manhood from a faith perspective.

Ready to "man-up"?

June 15, 2009

"When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. "I am about to go the way of all the earth," he said. "So be strong, show yourself a man, and observe what the LORD your God requires: Walk in his ways, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and requirements, as written in the Law of Moses, so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go, and that the LORD may keep his promise to me: 'If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a man on the throne of Israel." I Kings 2:1-4

Solomon knew how to be a man because he had seen the example of a man in his father, King David. There really is a lot of truth in the statement, "To be a man you have to see a man."

We are visual people. What we see and where we fix our focus and what we visualize influences us. I go on various golf instructional websites and watch videos of good golfers swinging the golf club so I can fix that image in my mind. My body can't produce a good swing if my mind hasn't memorized one.

There never would have been a Tiger Woods if there hadn't been a Jack Nicklaus and there wouldn't have been a Jack if there hadn't been a Ben Hogan and there wouldn't have been a Ben Hogan if there hadn't been a Bobby Jones. They became great golfers because they saw great golfers.

I never had the benefit of a father to watch as I was growing up. My dad was never around and my step-father was not involved. What I learned from them was how not to do the "dad thing". Early in my live I decided to try to be like my Heavenly Father and different from my earthly fathers.

God was faithful to put some men in my path to help model manhood and fatherhood. I am eternally grateful to men like Ralph Westafer and Jim Poyner and Ray Lyne and Paul Mills and Steve Wright and Forrest Gearhart who helped me know what a godly man looked like. They let me see one so I could be one. Not only did I become a better man because of their examples, my boys became better men because of what I gleaned from these men. They influenced at least two generations - probably more.

Did I want to be like my father? No. Would I want my boys to be like me? Yes, except better. And I owe that to these guys and others.

So, if there are any men reading this post today, my challenge is this - "Be one so others can see one."

June 14, 2009

"That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." James 1:7-8

Can a Christian believe in evolution? Is it possible for the two ideas about our origins to be reconciled or melded into a coherent explanation? Could God have used evolution to create the world?

Let's take a logical think about that.

Obviously, a confessed believer fully accepts the biblical account of creation as conclusive truth. To believe otherwise would be to conclude that part of the Bible is untrue. That doesn't work because if any of the Word is untrue then all of it is untrue. So, that presents a HUGE problem.

For Christians, the final arbiter of faith is the Bible, the Word of God. Does the Bible answer this question? Did God anticipate this debate and offer us some guidance?

Yes, He did!

In addition to the Genesis account of creation, consider these Scripture references:

* In Mark 10:6, Jesus quotes from a Genesis passage when He says, "From the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female'."

God didn't "morph" them or evolve them, He hand made them!

* Paul writes in Colossians 1:16-17, "For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist."

* John 1:10 explains, "He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not."

Still not convinced? Let me ask you a couple of questions. Why would you not want to accept the biblical account of creation with God as the Creator? If you know Him you know He is well able to create anything He desires. Evolution at best, marginalizes God's handiwork and at worst it denies it. Why would you want to do that?

Let's let Jesus have the final word on this issue. As usual, He asks this probing question, "For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me. But if you do not believe his writings , how will you believe My words?

So, what part of "God created" don't you understand?

June 13, 2009

"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God." Psalm 14:1

One of the big themes of this week's posts has been the contention that behind the push for Evolution and against Creationism is the promotion of an anti-God agenda. Most of the prime movers of this agenda show an arrogance and a ignorance that refuses to acknowledge God and to demean the intelligence of those who do.

When the Psalmist wrote the Psalm I referenced above, he was referring not to the intelligence or the intellect of a person who denies the existence of God and His role in the origin of man, it refers to his morality. The word "fool" means "morally deficient". Question the morality of anyone who denies Creation.

Early attacks in this movement began with attacks on the veracity of the Bible and then challenges to the Christian foundation of our nation. Fortunately, there are still a few courageous and principled men who are willing to stand for the truth. Watch this and be encouraged.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpQOCvthw-o

Know what you believe. Know why you believe it. Live like you believe it and stand courageously for it!

June 12, 2009

"Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe." I Corinthians 1:20-21

Evolutionists try to infer that those of us who believe in Creation and Intelligent Design are simple-minded fools. They imply that we are intellectually inferior because we "cling to faith and religious fables".

The purpose of this post is to show that Christians who believe in the Genesis account of Creation do not have to be intimidated by evoluntionists. We ARE people of faith, but it takes a giant leap of faith to embrace the "Big Bang" and evolution as the origins of the universe.

Consider this reference to former atheistic evolutionist, Fred Hoyle, was an astronomer who, in 1953, figured out the preconditions necessary for the formation of carbon. He reasoned that the likelihood of this happening by chance, as the Big Bang theory suggests, were phenomenally low, and this revelation lead him to convert from atheism to a belief that the universe reflects a "purposeful intelligence." Hoyle admitted that the 'probability of life originating at random is so utterly miniscule as to make the random concept absurd.'" Again, Hoyle's conclusion does not prove that there is a God or an Intelligent Designer; however, it is important to note that Hoyle's intellectual honesty about evolution led him to the conclusion that it, too, required a great act of faith. Hoyle's conclusions then, suggest that it takes as much or more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in a purposeful Designer.1

Hoyle is not alone. Over the past century and a half, paleonologists have examined an estimated 1 billion fossils representing 250,000 to be the oldest in which fossils of living creatures have been found. Interestingly, all of these remians foudn within the Cambrian rocks are fossils of fully formed creatures. Life-complete, fully mature creatures - appears en masse.

This "Cambrian explosion" - the term coined to refer to the puzzling fact that these creatures seemed to have "burst on the scene" -- brings to the surface a fact particularly troubling for the evoluntionary theory. Each of these living forms appears suddenly - completely developed - in fossil record, not through gradual transition as evolution would suggest. Charles Darwin himself recognized that the earth's fossil record does not reveal this long-sought "intermediate varieties." Regarding this complete lack of transitional fossils, Darwin had to admit, "This, perhaps, is the most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory."

So, with a complete and honest examination of the evidence, it takes a greater leap of faith - and logic - to believe that God did NOT create the universe. Who is the fool and who is the wise man?

1 -"The 10 Most Common Objections to Christianity" - Alex McFarland, pp. 58-59

June 11, 2009

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." Hebrews 11:1-3

To believe in creation requires faith. Accepting the evolutionary theory of origin also takes faith. Because faith is defined as "being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see". Neither creationists or evolutionists have seen their "first cause" each is certain of its existence. Creationists put their faith in Scripture while evolutionists put their trust in science. Which do you think forms the best foundation?

Frank Crick is a Nobel-prize winning biologist who helped with the discovery of DNA. He is a man who has devoted his life to science and has invested great faith in it. Here is a quote from him relating to the origin of the universe, "An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to almost be a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have to have been satisfied to get it going."

Science journalist and author, Charles Siefe observed, "It seems like a tremendous conincidence that the universe is suitable for life."

Coincidence? Miracle? Random chance occurance? What is the origin of our universe?

One thing is sure, the tolerance for error in the beginning of the universe was extremely slight. Astro-physicist, Lawrence Krause, for instance, wrote that if the force of gravity were changed by 0.0000000000000000000000000000000001%, both the planet Earth and the sun would be nonexistent.

Honest examination of the facts and the evidence and the mathematical probabilities strongly favor supernatural creation as the origin of our universe. But your final answer will come down to where you place your faith. And faith is based on what you hope to be true.

Evolutionists hope that God does not exist and that the universe spontaneously exploded into existence. Why would they not want God to be the Creator of the universe?

Again, I hearken by to my two main reasons offered previously:

1) They want to be in control of their own lives.

2) They want to sin without having any consequences.

If, as Scripture records, God is the Creator, then He is in control and we are accountable to Him. But, if the scientific theory of the "Big Bang" and evolution are correct, then their is no God and we are in charge.

That is the essence of sin. St. Paul expressed it this way:

"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened." Romans 1:19-21

I would caution you against hoping God away from the creation process. If there is no God and if all that we see in our world and universe is an incredible coincidence, then where is our security? If it all came together via a random occurance of matter and energy, what is to keep it from all coming apart? How can you have hope in the midst of that uncertainty? If we can only be certain of the moment in which we live then what is the purpose of living? If we are gods, what has our diety gained us?

If you are trusting in science, has science ever been wrong? Are you sure that you want to pin your hopes on something as inexact as science?

"Faith is the substance of things hoped for...." Be careful what you hope for.