Benevolence / Mercy

Zecheriah 7v.8-10: "And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, whow kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart."

Benevolence and mercy are all over the Bible. Old Testament, New Testament... we see acts of benevolence and mercy throughout. Of course, the ultimate showing of mercy is God giving us Jesus Christ as Saviour and ultimate sacrifice for our sin. But then, we also see showing kindness towards widows, orphans, the needy, aliens, servants, leaders, and everyone we come in contact with.

Benevolence and mercy are two things that should come naturally to the regenerated heart. These are not natural, however, to the heart of the unrepentant. Why is this? Because, when still mired in sin, we only look out for the one we think is tops in our own minds, "Numero Uno..." ourselves.

We must be vigilante about remembering what Christ did for us in His limitless mercy, and desire to show that exact same kind of mercy in our daily lives.

Courage

Deuteronomy 31v.6 - "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you."

As a man, I love movies that embody the characteristic of courage. Whether it's "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers," "Braveheart" or "Ferris Buehler's Day Off" (think about the courage that Ferris had in skipping out yet another day of school and facing great punishment with his trip in from the 'burbs to Chi-Town. "24," "The Shield," any football game or rugby match, bull-fighting, the books of Ernest Hemingway, and cigars are other things that embody courageousness. I say cigars because they remind me of Churchill (my favorite historical figure of all time, aside from Christ) and General Patton.

Christian men are called out to live lives of courage and valor. Plain and simple, we are not called to be timid (although we are all guilty of it) nor to be fearful (and there are plenty of things to fear, deep down, in the world that we live in). We are called to rise above this.

Deuteronomy has (seriously) always been one of my favorite books of the Bible. Maybe it's because when I was in third grade, at FBC Lubbock, learning the books of the Bible, I spelled it quicker than Ross Polk and Stuart Blalock. Maybe it's because, deep-down, I'm very much a legalist... in pretty much all areas of my life. Maybe it's just because it's one of the main books of the Law, and I have had spouts of desiring to be a lawyer at all different points in my life (in fact, I changed majors in college thinking that I was going to go into International  Law). This verse, though, is one big reason I enjoy the book of Deuteronomy, though.

We are called to be strong and to trust in the Lord, not to fear "them." Who is Them? "Them," in my opinion, isn't just a physical foe (like the Springboks), but envelopes all the things that the World tends to throw at us in its attempts to break our wills and hearts. In everything that we face in this life, we MUST remember that God goes before us. Truly loving and trusting in Him, we understand that all of the hardships and doubts we fear and must face are ultimately for His glory. We take great hope in this fact. But, in knowing that God is the one who goes before us, we have the freedom to trust in His strength, in His power, and ultimately, in His goodness towards His children. Knowing this, we can face any circumstance that life throws at us with courage.

Justice

Jeremiah 22v.3 says, "Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place."

The idea of "justice" has become more of a post-Modern, "Do what you think is right." statement in the world that we live in. Whatever the individual thinks about justice MUST be justified, right? I mean, that's there personal stance. And yet, how much injustice runs rampant throughout the world based on these flimsy ideas of everyone coming up with their own idea of what real justice is?

Justice is something that far too many of us won't take a stand for, for fear that the injust could come back around on us. We are weak and pathetic little people. The whole "...deliver from the hand of the oppressor..." part of Scripture gets left out of our lives because so many of our lives are based entirely on fear.

And yet, we are the most blessed BECAUSE OF injustice. It was not "just" (humanly speaking) that Christ should die for us. It was not "just" that He took the place of His elect. What is just is that the wages of sin is death, eternal damnation and separation from God, and that we're all headed to Hell without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

So, yes, fight against those who rob, murder, kill and steal. Take a stand against SOMETHING! And give thanks that we are not justified of our own merit, but rather by Jesus Christ. 

Bushido Intro

I'm pretty sure that I speak for the vast majority of men when I say that we love, and I do mean LOVE, having heroes (especially historical ones) who we can look back on and see a true commitment to what it means to be a man. Whether that be William Wallace, Winston Churchill, King David, or Andrew Jackson, we all have certain men who we can look back at and think, "Wow... I wish I could be more like that guy." Sadly, though, we live in an age where people have stopped really "thinking" about most things, period, so the idea of thinking about heroes in any sense than, "What a cool guy!" is a bit foreign to many men. This could be just one reason why men don't act like men should. But, I must say that there is great value in looking back, studying, and appreciating those who have gone before us, and seeing what qualities they lived out that we would do well to add or refine more in our lives.

There are several blogs and websites that I frequent almost on a daily basis. The official website for the New Zealand All-Blacks, Pyromaniacs, Facebook, Providence Church, City on a Hill Albequerque and a few others are on that list. One site / blog that I've just added to the daily list is called "The Art of Manliness." In a recent blog article, they talk about the Bushido Code. If you don't know, this is basically the code that ruled a Samurai's life in feudal Japan (not many men still really live by this code). There are eight main points, and I want to look at each one individually and how still very relevant these things are.

The Bushido Code is as follows:

1. Rectitude / Justice

2. Courage

3. Benevolence / Mercy

4. Politeness

5. Honesty / Sincerity

6. Honor

7. Loyalty

8. Character / Self-Control

Although these are things that men, globally, should probably live out, I want to look at how we, as Christian men, live them out from a Biblical perpective. Stay tuned for more...

-K-

Forgetfulness (Deuteronomy 4:9)

So I have a confession.... not that this will surprise many of you. I struggle with forgetting things. It seems that I've always got at least 217 projects thundering around in my head, and, if I don't write them down, I'll forget the majority of them. Some people call it adult ADD; I call it being spontaneously forgetful. Regardless, I was reading through Deuteronomy 4 this morning and saw the spiritual ramifications of forgetfulness, and how they even apply to this blog!

Beginning way back when, the Jewish nation developed a very strong culture of recounting the awesome works of the Lord, throughout their history. I mean, when you hear about the Exodus, the plagues, conquering other peoples, and the other things that happened in Israel's past, you can't help but think, "Wow!" The continual re-telling of these events only gave their children a stronger sense of the things that God had done. This was in order that the people may never forget.

We've sort of lost sight of the need to recount the awesome things that the Lord has done, though, in our day and age. It seems that many parents want to let their eleven and twelve year olds make "the choice" to be involved or no with things of the church. It's hard for me not to want to beat these people over the heads for thinking that their pre-pubescent CHILD is capable of making the best choice for their lives. It's like telling a small child to choose the occupation at a very early age (not too many of us actually grow up to be astronauts or Indian chiefs). 

Even in my own life, how often do I forget the things of God and think, "Why in the world did you guide me to this particular situation? How are you going to provide?!!" Then I'm slapped in the face and know that I have a lack of faith and strength and that nothing gets done on my own power so how dare I be so conceited and small? Same goes for even this blog... perfect way of communicating, yet, I forget. It is horrible to forget.

Before I digress into uncharted waters, we love you all, are thankful for those of you we got to talk to over our brief time in Lubbock, and look forward to hearing from all of you soon! Enjoy the September edition of "Holding the Line!"

-K-