MEN: YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE THE WANT-TO

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.'”  (Matthew 16:24 NIV)

Most members of my generation are familiar with the classic Rolling Stones song “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” The lyrics may indeed speak truth in the world of human relationships and romantic love. We can’t always get what we want, but we might manage to get what we need if only we try hard enough. Tenacity pays off. Fair enough.

In the arena of spiritual growth, however, wanting turns out to be a fundamental prerequisite for making any progress at all. When our wanting lines up with God’s intention, that combination adds up to one powerful recipe. When the heartfelt longing of Christian men is the desire to walk in God’s way, look out, world! In that case, what we want is most certainly and powerfully what we are going to get.

For Christian men, wanting is absolutely the most critical variable in the equation. God will never force His hand if we fail to own the desire. Coercion is not in God’s nature, and bullying is not in His game plan. The Lord of the universe has always been gracious to respect the choices we make.

The ball is in our court. “You’ve got to have the want-to” may be a worn cliché in religious vernacular, but it turns out to be a powerful truth. In practice a large enough dose of want-to adds up to an enormously effective tool on the infrequently traveled road of ongoing spiritual formation. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men” 

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THE NEW SPIRITUAL MAN

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

A new spiritual man is emerging in America. He does not confuse faith with politics; he does not require exclusively sports-based metaphors to gain a spiritual yard or two; he is struggling hard to be authentically Christian and countercultural in the workplace; and he understands the language of servant leadership in the home. This man is less confrontational than those who seek to effect change via condemnation and acrimony because he is learning to remember that Christ teaches us to overcome evil with good. “Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2)

If he is married, the new spiritual man knows that his wife is his partner, not one more subject for his domain. If anyone asks about the dynamics of power in his family, today’s disciple has learned to share the truth about relationships that are grounded in the security and freedom of God’s invitation to fullness [in Christ].

We live as witnesses to God’s amazing and redemptive love. Relationships experienced in the context of God’s social economy stand as a living testimony to our salvation, and to our independence from the warped values and skewed priorities of this broken and unsatisfying world. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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DO WE LOVE JESUS? – Part 2

One day, as part of a series of messages designed to set a new direction and to connect with the heart of what is basic and essential about our lives as spiritual beings, my wife, Rebekah, preached a series titled “Do You Love Jesus?”

Evidently she caused quite a stir. Early the next day a gentleman wielding a lot of political clout strode into her office and demanded, “What do you mean by asking us if we love Jesus?”

“It’s a good question,” she responded. “So let me make it a little more personal: Tell me, ‘George,’ do you love Jesus?”

The man was beside himself. The very idea, the affront of the question. How dare anyone ask about such a personal and potentially emotional topic? Why, that was between him and Jesus.

The point, of course, is that our love for Jesus needs to be immediate, intense, and quite overwhelming. A deeply personal love, yes, but also a love that is profoundly visible. If we do not allow ourselves to fall in love with the Savior to the extent that our emotions, our thoughts, and ultimately our behaviors are all touched and enlarged by that love – then our spiritual journey will not take us much farther than tentative participation at best...

Love for Jesus changes us from the inside out. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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DO WE LOVE JESUS? – Part 1

“Jesus said to him, ‘Simon son of John, do you love Me?’”  (John 21:17a NIV)

One reason spiritual life is so vibrant at my church is because we have so many men who aren’t afraid to show their deep love for Jesus. “The Holy Spirit is loose in this church,” my good friend Jerry said one Sunday. That’s what happens when both women and men have the courage to let go of their cultural inhibitions and allow themselves to be touched personally by a living Savior.

Things haven’t always been that way. Indeed, a decade ago the number of faithful and active men involved was disappointingly low and mostly limited to those over fifty.  As a community of faith our corporate spiritual growth was significantly stunted.  You could walk into the sanctuary on Sunday morning, and all you could feel was the presence of hungry people waiting for something that wasn’t happening. Good people, yes, but there was little sense of vitality, no powerful rush of spiritual energy, and scant evidence of the abundant joy to be found when we claim and embrace our love for Jesus. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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WALKING IN INTEGRITY

"Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out."  (Proverbs 28:6)

Any time you commit to living a more godly life, you are entering enemy territory. Expect spiritual conflict. Whether it is fashionable or not, integrity involves a price, but the cost pales in comparison with the cost of compromise. People can ruin your reputation, but no one can take away your integrity. 

-- Paul Kroger, from an article entitled “Integrity at Work” in “New Man” magazine, Nov/Dec, 1994

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THE EMPOWERING SPIRIT – Part 1

In the history of human endeavors, there is a natural progression from “man” to “movement” to “monument.” A charismatic individual typically comes on the scene, mobilizes others to join him, and achieves great things. When the leader dies or leaves, his followers continue for a while in his spirit. But the movement generally lacks the founder’s dynamism and eventually loses momentum. Subsequently, it either fails outright or becomes only a monument to its former, departed glory. Man, movement, monument.

Christianity did not follow the “man-movement-monument” scenario. Jesus’ charisma cannot be denied. But when He died, He died alone. And after He rose from the dead, He had to appear to His disciples repeatedly to convince them that He was truly risen from the dead (Acts 1:3). He had to explain to them again that His kingdom was far different from the one they imagined. Even when He made His dramatic exit to heaven they stood staring into the sky (Acts 1:11)…

Prior to His departure Jesus told His disciples, “In a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit… you will receive power and will tell people about Me everywhere” (Acts 1:5,8). This power of the “Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead” (Romans 8:11) imparted to them supernatural power that made them compelling witnesses for Christ. 

-- Stuart Briscoe in the “Daily Study Bible for Men”

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NO MAN IS AN ISLAND

Men, I hate to break it to those of us who like to exercise worn stereotypes, but women are not the only gender to have benefited from the social revolutions of the past thirty years. Like it or not, John Wayne is long gone; sometimes manly men really do just need to have a good cry; and the idea that strong, silent men are supposed to “bite the bullet and get the job done, by golly, because we don’t ask for help from anyone…” is not only pathetically inappropriate but fundamentally contrary to God’s best intention for our lives.

Men who want to grow in Christlike grace need one another.

Men who intend to be the kind of followers Christ empowers through His strength and love more often than not discover their purpose and their power in community.

Besides, we were created specifically for relationship, relationship with God and with one another. We were created for communion with God and with other men. Being alone runs contrary to the most primary and basic intention of creation. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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COMPANIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another -- and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”  (Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV)

Jesus may be God Incarnate, Lord of All Creation, Emmanuel, Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Coming Messiah, Light of Life, and so on, but the Master Himself deliberately engaged His public ministry here on earth by surrounding Himself with a small covenant group of other men who knew and loved God. How much more should we place ourselves in the company of fellow believers?

Jesus is our model and guide. Understanding and committing to the same spiritual disciplines the Master found important in His ministry among us is no small potatoes. There’s no way we can close our eyes to Christ’s precedent: finding companions for the journey is huge. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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DAILY DEVOTIONAL LIFE

My research methodology may be unscientific, but the anecdotal evidence I have collected tells me that fewer than ten of every one hundred Christian men I talk with have an active, well-considered daily devotional life. That’s really a low number.

But here’s a piece of completely reliable corollary data that turns out to be remarkably interesting: 100 percent of those who do maintain a regular devotional discipline report that the daily routine pays off in ways that are nothing short of miraculous.

By miraculous I mean eternal, unremitting, awesome, satisfying, and unarguably life-changing. By miraculous I also mean a discernable improvement in their daily lives across the board. Relationships, parenting, work attitude, productivity, work satisfaction, effective Christian witness, love life -- need I go on? This is true even when the men I talk with believe they are just beginning to scratch the surface regarding their daily walk with God. The investment of just a few short but deliberate minutes, every day, makes a difference in the lives of Christian men that cannot be accounted for by any other variable.  

– Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”

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COUNTERCULTURAL FAITH-FILLED LIVING

Jesus said, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:27)

To be a Christian man in the twenty-first century is -- essentially -- to be countercultural. Faith-filled living always involves standing out as somewhat different from the run-of-the-mill. That is a large part of what Christ means by “carrying the cross”; that’s what it means to really live. It is -- usually -- surprisingly easy to follow the crowd, and once we fall into that pattern, it becomes astonishingly hard to buck the system. To be honest, I have to admit that following Jesus in this way turns out to be one of my biggest personal challenges, because for me the greatest temptation has always been that of the easy, carefree life. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men” 

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A DEEP LOVE FOR JESUS

“May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”  (Ephesians 3:19 NLT)

I recently interviewed a pastor while preparing a story for the local newspaper. As always, the visit was positive, and I enjoyed the meeting on many levels. We talked about his family, his career, his relationship to the community,… and the church he built and loved so deeply.

Then I asked the pastor about Jesus. I asked him about what still motivates him to keep on preaching after all this time, and I asked him why the message he delivers on Sunday should have anything at all to do with the day-to-day balance of our lives.

“Let me tell you about Jesus,” he said. And immediately his eyes filled with tears. He shared the simple testimony of how Jesus connected with his humble life and called him into service, and how his Savior remains so profoundly linked to every moment of his every day, and he couldn’t help but let the tears flow.

“I’m so sorry about the tears,” he said. “But I can’t talk about Jesus without being affected this way. I just love Him so much.”

He… used to work as a superintendent for an oil company. He knew how to handle himself. He was all man all the way through. Yet the love of Jesus touched his heart and his soul so deeply that it still brought tears to his eyes.

Such deep love for Jesus is the key to spiritual growth and the way we move ever closer to God. 

-- Derek Maul in “Get Real: A Spiritual Journey for Men”


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