A letter

I saw this letter today that I think is worth reading. I do not know the writer personally, but I would like to meet him.  It is a great letter, and he makes many excellent points.

Dear young Christian fellows,
     There is something I feel that I need to take up with you. Let me start by saying that I am privileged to know a good number of you that continue to inspire me to follow Christ and serve those around me. I really am blessed to count myself among you. However, there is an issue I feel I should call out. Actually, there are several that should be called out. Please note that I am not writing this to claim that I am better than the rest of you, because that is certainly not the case, but I am writing this in hopes that some of you will take this to heart and be one step closer to being the men that God has called you to be.

     The first is that I have noticed a distinct lack of leadership and responsibility. I find this very troubling. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exactly a heroic leader myself, but where in the world have the leaders gone? Apathy has taken hold of far too many of you. I tell you, if this country has fallen to secular humanism, it is not soley because of the fine-sounding arguments and indoctrination coming from academia, it is because the Christian men have been apathetic, or worse, compromising. I have heard far more than enough griping about the shape America is in, and I have seen far too little action. Let us do something.

     Men of God are called to be active in every area of life. This includes politics, community service, evangelism, ministry, school, work, and every other part. We are called to be Christ’s representatives every day, not just on ‘church days.’ Get up and do something. You are not too young. You are not too weak. You are not too stupid. You have no excuse. God can work through you. I contend that God is not glorified when you complain about the way the world is and do nothing about it. Stop waiting for other people to do things for you. I do not care to hear about the circumstances that you think exempt you from taking action. There are no exceptions.

     The next issue I’d like to rant about is that far too many of you ignore Paul’s command to treat “younger women as sisters, with all purity” (1 Timothy 5:2). In all honesty I am disgusted by the amount of objectification and flirtatiousness I have seen. This needs to stop. I have seen far too many of you that view young women as potential dates instead of daughters of God. This is a selfish mindset because it looks out for your own interests, instead of treating girls with the respect they deserve. Take an honest look at your intentions. When you are speaking to a girl are you secretly, or even subconsciously, trying to win her affections to make yourself feel good, or trying to win a date, or are you honestly seeking her own benefit, encouragement, and edification?

     I tell you, God is not honoured when you try to win the hearts of his daughters as sport. If that is your goal, you are not only acting selfish, but also insecure and cowardly. If you feel the need to find your self-worth in the number of girls that like you; that is because you do not understand that God has called you to be a man that emulates Christ; a man that is bold enough to love one woman, and to be content with her love; a man that is secure in his identity as a son of God, and not needing to find affirmation from other people. Brothers, take an honest, objective, look at your heart. God has so much more in store for you than popularity.

     Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” When you try to win a girl’s heart for the sake of feeling good about yourself you are acting out of selfish ambition and vain conceit. Stop looking out for your own interests. Stop treating girls like a list of dating options. Start looking our for the interests of others. Treat them as sisters, and daughters of God, as they deserve to be treated. God values them more than you understand and I suggest that you value them as well. Act chivalrously towards them. Open doors, speak courteously (there is a strong difference between a compliment for the sake of encouragement and a compliment for the sake of flirtatiousness), cut out the dirty jokes, guard your eyes, guard your words, stand up for them, respect them (not just the one you want to date).

     The world is against you on this. Our culture has made vanity and disrespect expectations of us. But do not let that stop you. Just because you are expected to be that way does not mean that you have to be. Christ gives us the power to overcome the world and that includes our culture (1 John 5:5). Stand up and change the expectation. Do not submit to the expectations of the culture; but aim to set the standard.

     My last point is similar to the first one: stop making excuses and take responsibility. To quote Aaron Stern, pastor of theMILL: “Boys make excuses, men take responsibility.” Be a man. Own up to your failures and take responsibility for your actions. If a problem is your fault, do not rest until you have done everything in your power to fix it. If a problem is not your fault, do not pass it off to some one else when you can do something about it.The problems may not be your fault, but that should not stop you from dealing with them. Stop trying to justify your lifestyle and be a leader by taking responsibility and doing something.

     Forgo your pride and accept correction. When some one points out a problem you need to fix stop being defensive and trying to explain why it is not your fault. When you attempt to rid yourself of the blame by justifying yourself, you are most likely acting out of pride. Be humble and do something about the issue. Stop being cowardly. Instead of focusing on why you are not to blame, focus on how you can emulate Christ better, and do it.

     If you actually read this, and took it to heart, I owe you a handshake. Now stop being boys and start being men. Stop being apathetic and start being leaders. Stop making excuses and start taking responsibility. Keep striving to be the men of God that God has called you to be. I will be striving right along side you.

 Your brother in Christ,
_Jonathon Thigpen.

Living the safe life?

I read two books recently that have been very challenging me. They are "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan and "Radical" by David Platt. In future posts I hope to go into some of the ideas that are brought up in the books.  To give you a taste of what they are about I have added a video by Francis Chan.



Are you living the safe life?

Song of the Week.

This week's pick is a new song by Chris and Conrad.  Chris and Conrad came onto the music scene with the song "Lead me to Cross." It is a great song that is touching many people.  Their new song titled "Let it out" has started playing on the radio. When I first heard it I knew that it was a song that is worth listening to. It conveys a great message.  Here are the lyrics

How long can you keep building
Those walls around your heart?
And how long can you keep running
From who you really are?

Don't you know that he knows you
Sees everything you've done
So tell why you keep trying
To fool everyone?

Do you wanna feel true redemption?
And do you wanna be free?

Let it out
Let it out
Everything you've worked so hard to hide
Let it out
Let it out
Leave it at the cross where Jesus died
Take off your mask
Find peace at last
Cause He loves you more than you could ever know
Let it out

The weary and the broken
Be everything that's true
Admit how much you need healing
Let Him bring it all to you

Do you wanna have true salvation?
Do you wanna have peace?

Let it out
Let it out
Everything you've worked so hard to hide
Let it out
Let it out
Leave it at the cross where Jesus died
Take off your mask
Find peace at last
Cause He loves you more than you could ever know

Trade it all for love and freedom
Oooo Let it out
Trade it all for saving grace
Let the past go
Cause you can't know
It never will define you
Everything has made you
Nothings gonna be the same

Let it out
Let it out
Everything you've worked so hard to hide
Let it out
Let it out
Leave it at the cross where Jesus died
Take off your mask
Find peace at last
Cause He loves you more than you could ever know

When we are going through a hard time we don't want other people to see what is going on. Maybe it is some sort of sin we are dealing with. We want everyone to see the person that is perfectly fine from the outside. However, it is the things that we want to hide the most that we need to expose.  I am not saying that we tell everybody what our struggles are, but there needs to be trusted individuals in our lives that we have freedom to talk to.  It can be extremely hard to open up the darkest parts of our lives to someone, but it is essential for the healing process to begin. Don't hide anymore, let it out.