Not long ago our church had a local weekend student retreat for the boys. As part of that experience I was asked to write one of many letters that hung up around the room they were worshiping in. The letters were intended to be encouragement from older men in the church to the young guys attending.
Here is the one I wrote...
Guys :
I
wanted to take a minute and write you a letter that challenges you to start on a grand adventure today. An adventure that will
lead you to be the kind of man that God longs for you to be, not the kind of
man that the WORLD says you should be.
Being
a man isn’t about things like muscles, fast cars, knowing how to fight, dating
a lot of girls, drinking Bud Light, or making lots of money. Those are the things that our culture would
tell you to be consumed with so that you could be a “man.” No, real manhood is about
humility and sacrifice. It’s about your
worth, and ultimately God’s glory, being seen by others through the way that
you lay down your own selfish desires to do what God commands.
The
model for real manhood was obviously Jesus. He is the example that you can always look
to when the pressures of this world slam down on you and you are tempted to
embrace the attributes of manhood that the enemy has convinced most people to
believe in…
Jesus
is both the man who grabs a whip and clears the robbers from the temple AND
the friend who weeps deeply at the grave of Lazarus. He is the perfect balance of love and
strength, tenderness and firmness, mercy and judgment. Jesus is both the Lamb who, although
innocent, chose to bear our sin in the face of intense pain and humiliation
AND the Lion of
Judah who will return tattooed, with
fiery eyes, and a sword proceeding from his mouth to show his wrath to those
who did not trust him.
Jesus
is our model because his GOSPEL is our
example. In the work of Christ, God
gives us grace. Grace is getting what
you do not deserve. We deserve death,
but God gives us life through the Cross.
In the same fashion, you must strive to be a man who unashamedly stands
up for truth and who extends love and mercy to others, even when they do not
deserve it.
Cling
to the scriptures and to godly men as you walk through this adventure. There are spiritual bandits who will stop at
nothing to prevent you from reaching your potential. Ignore their whispers of temptation and look
to Jesus. Greater is He who is in you, than
he who is in this world.
No comments:
Post a Comment