Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. [...] There is trust in God, but no following of Christ.

In another place, he writes:

Only a man totally commited in discipleship can experience the meaning of the cross. The cross is there, right from the beginning. He has only got to pick it up. There is no need for him to go out and look for a cross for himself. [... It] means both death and life. [...] (98-99)

These are bold claims about discipleship. Some might even say they are radical and, perhaps, stretching the truth. Yet, I believe that Jesus’ call is remarkably consistent with this value of discipleship. He did not call people to be “message-carriers” or “friendly with God” or even necessarily, “holy people that I like.” While God has certainly given us the Message of the Gospel, called us His friends, and is making us a holy people for His possession, those things all fall under the strange words that Jesus first commanded His first disciples: “Come, follow Me.” We have yet to understand the full implications of that and, as it stands, we will never truly discern to that depth. Yet, as we have been called by Christ, so we must answer. The call of discipleship is radical, self-denying, Gospel-centered, and totally alien to everything we want for ourselves. It’s a call to be like Jesus and to do what He does. So let us answer.

True Christians are people who acknowledge and live under the word of God. They submit without reserve to the word of God written in “the Book of Truth” (Dan 10:21), believing the teaching, trusting the promises, following the commands. Their eyes are upon the God of the Bible as their Father and the Christ of the Bible as their Savior.

[...] Why does this description fit so few of us who profess to be Christians these days? You will find it profitable to ask your conscience, and let it tell you.

Steven Curtis Chapman and Family on GMA 08/06/08

Steven Curtis Chapman and family appeared on the Good Morning America show (ABC) on August 6, 2008, as well as Larry King Live (CNN) on August 7, 2008 to discuss the loss of their daughter, Maria Sue, and the famiy’s struggles since that tragic event in May. In spite of their loss, or mayhap because of it, the Chapman family has and continues to move forward with a faith in Jesus Christ that is worthy of imitation. Please continue to pray for the Chapmans, but also learn from their example of glorifying God in times of grief, and preaching the Gospel all the more, relying on God for strength and grace to get by.

My good friend, Tim Sweetman, a board member of Regenerate Our Culture, rebelutionary and well-known blogger, has just been published by Focus on the Family’s Boundless Magazine with his article No Little People. In looking at the reality of how “small” we can feel in the presence of “great men and women of God”, Tim shows us how even the smallest people have the great privilege of being tools in the hands of God, if we but submit to Him and His will. So, be sure you get over to Boundless and read this article, and work at applying it to your attitude and actions!

The 2000 billboard hit by Jon Bon Jovi, It’s My Life typifies rather clearly the attitude that today’s men and the boys now becoming men take with regard to their relationships to others:

It’s my life,
It’s now or never,
I ain’t gonna live forever,
I just want to live while I’m alive.
(It’s my life!)

Possession, provision and protection of self form the core values presented. I own myself. I’m providing for myself. I’m not letting anyone get in the way of myself. As we have already seen in Hard Rock, every man has built into his own personality and way of thinking a sense of independence and separate-ness from others, particularly other men. These three values or actions form the foundation for how we as men demonstrate our masculinity. It is rooted in what we posses, what we provide for, and what we protect. Apart from these three, there is no other thing that has any hold or claim on our commitments, much more our lives.

Of course, just helpful proverbs and truthful statements are most effectively conveyed by humans in the form of example and story. In thinking about this issue, however, one ancient Hebrew story came to mind that would demonstrate how pervasive the values of possession, provision and protection are in the souls of men (and by men, I refer to males of the human species):

There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

So let’s talk about these two men. One is rich and one is poor. For most of us, one of those will trigger a reaction against one or the other. We are naturally inclined to be suspicious of either the rich or the poor man. And how is one rich or poor? It’s a judgment of his possession, his ownership.  A man who is the master of plenty is rich, but the one who has trouble owning the little he does have is poor. Basic stuff, right? Each has possession - whether great or little - of something.  Not only that, but each clearly provides for that which he possesses. The rich man provides much for the many herds that he has, and the poor man provides as much as he can for the one lone ewe lamb that he has. Yet, when it gets down to it, only the rich man is able to effectively protect his possessions entirely but, however, does this at the cost of the poor man. Clearly unjust.

Some of you may have recognized this story. As a matter of fact, this parable is told by Nathan the prophet to King David in 2 Samuel 12. It is used by the prophet to convict David of his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and the subsequent murder of her husband, Uriah. David, of course, repents, accepts the consequences from the LORD’s hand and surrenders to the will of God. But, for all the good that resulted from it..the poor man, Uriah, is dead and has gained nothing from this. Here’s the shocker, though…as men, I believe we ought to be imitators of Uriah the Hittite in his role as possessors, providers, and protectors.

From Scripture, we know very little of Uriah the Hittite. Apart from the David and Bathsheba scandal, the only piece of information that we have for certain is that he was numbered among David’s “mighty men” in 2 Samuel 23 and 1 Chronicles 11. Even the normally rich Jewish tradition has little to say about this man’s history in these passages. So, what we would learn about Uriah, we must learn from 2 Samuel 11. So, pursue with me what about Uriah we are to imitate and read that chapter now.

And, instead of expositing or questioning, I want you young men reading this to write your own responses. Get your friends involved. Get your fathers involved. Get your pastors involved. Let’s try to lay hold of God’s example and challenge to us in our masculinity in the person of Uriah the Hittite.

[Re]Connected on the Rebelution Conference

A man’s word is his bond. We’re all familiar with the cliche and those of us from Christian backgrounds, or (truthfully) “moral” backgrounds, would even claim to believe in the truth of the statement. But let’s step back from the statement. There’s another’s word that is your bond. Did that test something of your independence? Your manhood? Rightly so. We’ve always been told, taught and felt that a man’s his own man and no other man’s bond can lay hold of him justly. What I’m referring to, however, is not the bond of man, but that of God’s Word. God’s Word is our bond. Period.

Much has been discussed (read “argued”) about the authority of the Scriptures through the 19th and 20th century, particularly with the rise of Christian liberalism, neo-orthodoxy, fundamentalism, evangelicalism and, now, Emergent and the emerging church movement. Those terms may mean nothing to you, or they may stir your blood. In either case, suffice it to say that groups of Christians took remarkably different stances on how, where, and in what the Bible has authority over our lives. Were we to go back through 3,000 years of Judaic theology, and even further with the life of the Hebrew Scriptures, however, there really only comes forward one answer with regard to the authority of the Word of God: it’s total.

That said, it is not totalitarian. It is, in fact, holistic and benevolent, working in our lives as the tool of God’s grace and the clearest means by which He communicates with His Creation. Countering much of the apathy of today’s Western culture, the Scriptures demonstrate to us the frequent, effective, and gracious interest of the Creator God in human beings which, He claims, are made in His image. Preposterous much? If that is what you think, consider a few realities around you.

Whether you are premodern, modern, postmodern, post-postmodern or entirely unsure of where you fit with the above, the reality is that you accept and acknowledge some form of authority in your lives. It may be tangible - like yourself, your parents, your church, your government - or conceptual - Scripture, logic, rationality, instinct, goodness. It may be personal choice or socially enforced on you. Whatever the case, we are not creatures apart from authority of every kind. Even the rebel has his own authorities.

It is not my purpose here to make an apologetic for why you should put yourself under the authority of the Word of God. That has been done far better than I could ever do, by Mark Dever and Dr. Al Mohler at this year’s New Attitude Conference. By all means, listen to their messages and hear the strength of their case, if you doubt that. No, for the rest of the series, I will assume that you have a basic commitment (at the least) to the authority of Scripture as it pertains to every area of life.

It does, however, have great relevance and authority over what our masculinity looks like. While many today have argued that gender roles and the like are culturally-defined, not something that is essential to Biblical understanding of life, the truth of the matter is that we cannot ignore that the Scriptures speak to this topic, with authority that is timeless and defining for our lives as we pursue God’s grace. It is as Abraham Kuyper once stated (paraphrased), “There is not one square inch of life over which Jesus Christ does not stand over and shout, ‘Mine!’” He does this in our masculinity and, if we love Him, we will obey what He has commanded (John 14:15) for us in this area.

What claim has Jesus Christ over your manhood? To begin with, He is your Creator. Were that not enough, He is the only one to live the human life in perfection and total righteousness, thus bearing dominion over all men. Still more, He redeemed you by His suffering on the cross, bearing all of God’s wrath against your sin. Still more, God has placed Him as King over all of heaven and earth, and will give to Him all the kingdoms of the earth in the future. So when He comes to judge the living and the dead, will He have your allegiance? The truth is evident: Jesus Christ has every claim over your manhood and, indeed, your entire life. Does that offend your independence? Good, because our desire to be independent from God must die, and that quickly. Get with it. God’s Word is our bond.

1. Pray for the advance of the Gospel. There will be many teens at the conference, some of whom have never heard the Gospel and some who really don’t let it change how they live. It needs to be our primary concern that the Holy Spirit would work through the Gospel’s centrality and power to transform them.
2. Pray for the continued discipling of parents and youth. Conferences are a lot of fun, but that’s not really the point. It should be our hope that all the fellowship, listening, worshiping, and book-buying that happens will be a launchpad for new avenues and inroads in discipleship for believers as they are challenged by Alex, Brett, and their father, Gregg.
3. Pray for insight that will be an aid to [Re]Connected. I would be remiss if I did not expect this conference to benefit the ministry and expansion of [Re]Connected in its content and development. Matt and I need much wisdom and direction, continually, in order to see this fulfill God’s will and serve the Kingdom, as we hope to do.

Thank you, in advance, for your prayers. God bless!

In the Gospel,

David Ketter

Go to college. Graduate with $25,000 in savings. Get a steady job. Meet a pretty girl. Talk to her dad. Court. Get married. Buy a house. Live life (and all to the glory of God, to boot). That’s the “big picture” image of what many a conservative Christian young man has envisioned for his future, and for what a responsible, “manly” Christian life looks like. After all, it meets what we typically define as the roles of manhood - provision and protection. Contrast it with the more common “big picture” image of masculinity these days: Go to college. Party. Graduate. Start working to pay off loans. Date around to find Mrs. Right. Propose. Get married. Live life. Now, it’s important to note that these are basically only “ideals” of either side that is given here. Yet, it is still essentially getting at the roles of protector and provider. In essence, all are agreed on what manhood involves principally.

John Piper, in his book What’s the Difference? (Crossway 1990) defines masculinity in this way:

“At the heart of mature masculinity is a sense of benevolent responsibility to lead, provide for and protect women in ways appropriate to a man’s differing relationships.” (22)

If the problem were in agreeing on definitions, then this would not be an issue to address in the Church. Yet, what has proven to be the case, time and time again, is that men are not really pursuing these roles Biblically and with discernment. We assume that making lots of money makes us good providers. We assume that living in a suburban neighborhood or installing a security system and not letting our kids run rampant over all creation makes us good protectors. We assume that if we love our wives, love our children and devote ourselves faithfully to seeing them prosper in that regard, we are going to fulfill what God has called us to do. Even though I speak as if I am married and have children, I am not. I am one single guy, who isn’t currently “courting” or “dating”, with the hopes of being a husband and father in the somewhat-near future and yet, I find it impossible for us to separate our masculinity from how we function in the family. The truth of the matter is, brothers - whether you are married, engaged, courting/dating, or single - we are failing at Biblical masculinity if we think that by providing and protecting in the ways presented above, we are fulfilling God’s design and intention for us in the Creation!

In 1 Corinthians 16:13, Paul commands that the men there to “act like men”. In another place, he expresses desire for men (1 Timothy 2). In yet another place, he exhorts the men to relationship (1 Timothy 5). Still more he urges men to action (Titus 2:6). Even more amazing than these words of the Apostle Paul is the writing of John in 1 John 2, as he writes and addresses men specifically with the echoes of God’s voice flooding from every word. There is much that the Scriptures have to say to men…and about men. And I suppose that were one to write on every thing, you could easily produce a series of books, not simply a short series. The point is, gentlemen, we have a need and we need to recognize it. When it gets down to it, most of us do not have a Biblical framework for expressing our masculinity, even if we can baptize our framework with Biblical terminology.

I plead with you then, for the sake of your sisters in Christ, for your wives and children, for the good of the Church, for the good of your fellow men and, above all, for the sake of Christ, take time to hear the Word of God. Let us search out the Word for His intentions, designs, and amazing plan for us. Let us see where God has forbidden our entrance, and where we should flourish. Let us see and understand more deeply the significance of God’s good creation of gender. Let us call on God to give us wisdom and insight to lead and live well in the light of the glory of the Gospel of God in Christ Jesus. Brothers, will you join me in this adventure? There is more to come and much more to see in the Word of God.