Summary: As irritations, frustrations and trials crowd into our lives bringing out our bad attitudes, we are hit in the face with James’ almost impossible command, “Count it all joy when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness” (James 1:3). “Be joyful,” says James, “because when it hurts, God is building in you the Christ-like quality of steadfastness.” This same, priceless, attribute of Christ-like character, steadfastness, is identified by Peter as one of the eight in the golden chain of Christ-like virtues we’re studying. This epi ..read more

Summary: It is hard to image anything that would please Jesus more than hearing, “I want to be just like you.” Incredibly, the Apostle, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 1:3-8 that God has graciously given us a present—his divine power to partake of his divine, holy nature. He outlines 3 specific steps by which Christians access that divined power. The last 2 episodes examined steps 1-2. This episode examines step 3.  For Further Prayerful Thought:   In this episode’s review of last week we again looked at how claiming the specific promises of God to care for our needs frees us from having ..read more

Summary: Great men in the eyes of Jesus are those who fight the sinful attitudes of their hearts, self-centeredness, pride, resentment, lust, selfishness, impurity, rivalry, idolatry, greed, envy, selfish anger. They surrender in humility to God’s reclamation project of re-making them into the toughness of character that Jesus showed. They channel their masculine aggression towards overpowering the dark attitudes of their fallen hearts. This episode explores what the Apostle, Peter, taught about how to unleash the power God has provided to win this battle.   For Further Prayerful Thought ..read more

Summary: In the last ten years there has been an explosion of confusion among adolescent children about their gender. Girls doubting their femininity are suffering. Boys uncertain about masculinity are unsure of themselves. Alarming statistics reveal that the more confused children are about their gender, the greater is their risk of suicide. What should Christian men do about this crisis? This episode uses God’s command to us in 1 Corinthians 16:13 to answer that question.   For Further Prayerful Thought:  What do you see as the implications of God’s command, “be watchful,” regardi ..read more

Summary: Because of the Hamas attack on Israel two weeks ago, I’ve changed the topic of today’s episode to address a battle that all Christians are called to fight—the battle to shape our culture’s worldview to conform to biblical truth, instead of letting false worldviews blind our culture to reality, because we are silent. This episode examines how Hamas’ worldview is very different from that of the western world and why it led to the inhuman massacre that we have all witnessed.  For Further Prayerful Thought:  Contrast the worldviews of the Hamas terrorists with the worldview of ..read more

Summary:  No man wants to fail his wife or kids. Despite loud cries to the contrary in our culture, we men are assigned the position of head of our marriage, which means if we love our wives well, they will flourish. As those assigned the role of father, our concrete love for our kids is designed to prepare them to see and welcome the parallel but invisible love of God the Father. This strategic position means we must win the battle to defeat our own selfishness, building a pattern of denying ourselves to meet the needs of our wife and children. This episode examines how it is that we dai ..read more

Summary: This episode begins our October series on the battles men fight and begins with the temptation that survey’s reveal is at the top of men’s temptations—overcoming lust and if married directing their sexual desires totally towards the wife of their youth. We study David’s fall and the lessons we can take away from this biblical example. For Further Prayerful Thought:   How is the story of the weasel taking down the eagle similar to lust’s takedown of David? What are the outer conditions and inner conditions when sinful sexual lust is most appealing to you? How would you summarize ..read more

Summary: This episode raises the question, “Could it be that Satan and sin are racking up wins against us NOT because we’re NOT trying hard enough, but because we are not fighting with the right weapon?” Christ’s agenda of righteousness will never prevail in our own hearts or over the earth through trying harder. We must defeat the kingdom of darkness for “rightness” to spread. But such victory only comes through something called, PREVAILING PRAYER. This episode examines how to fight with this incredibly powerful weapon. For further prayerful thought. Do you agree that most Christians do not ..read more

Summary: This episode provides a biblical definition of the term kingdom of God and when that becomes clear, we will see why Jesus said that PURSUING THE KINGDOM OF GOD is the most valuable objective anyone could ever build his life around! For further prayerful thought.  Why is seeking the kingdom of God like a pearl merchant pursuing and finding a fabulous pearl?  What Scripture comes to mind to support the idea that the kingdom where Jesus wants righteousness to prevail is Adam’s kingdom, earth?  How would you answer, the objection, “seeking righteousness” is at its core dep ..read more

Summary: Hall of Fame NFL stars, besides excelling at unrelenting commitment to becoming the best they can be at their position, usually have developed a high football IQ, which helps them put playing their position in context. Jesus’ job description for his followers is to seek first the KINGDOM OF GOD and his righteousness. But it is impossible to go hard to succeed at this mission without a concrete understanding of what the kingdom of God is. What is the target on the wall? This episode seeks to develop our KINGDOM IQ—so we can better understand the mission that Jesus said was to be our to ..read more