Against All Odds, Part 2

The title gives you a clue that we are looking at the topic of being “against all odds,” a rightful description of the hero in 2 Samuel 23 named Adino. He had the “Rambo” experience of facing down 800 Philistines at one time and he kick serious backside. If you have forgotten the story, it’s just below this blog. Let’s continue…

The characteristic necessary to advance someone to this level of heroism is simply tenacity. You see it in his resolve to not give up or give in to the pressure of the hordes of opponents coming at him. It is an uncommon characteristic unique to heroes – they just “hunker-down” and refuse to quit. It’s “to the death” and they have no intention of dying! They cannot look at the odds-maker’s report, the pundits, or the press, they are in this to win regardless of the personal sacrifice or the buckets of sweat required. You just can’t help but admire this characteristic even if you don’t like the guy. It’s very rare.

 

Unfortunately, we ARE in an “against all odds” scenario today. The church is now the underdog, the one the odds-maker is betting against. Looking at the current statistics in church growth and development clearly explains this paragraph more succinctly. We are now in the lower 30^th percentile in the nation. And that’s in the Bible belt! We are fighting uphill against immeasurable numbers and each year that continues to become more and more frightening. This once Judeo-Christian, ethically-focused land has all but abandoned her former cultural norm in favor of a more socially antagonistic mindset that blatantly stands against basic Christian doctrine and principles. Today it is at least 800 to 1, and we are looking more outnumbered every day. Get yourself in shape, mighty warriors, because the battle is just cranking up!

Adino is translated as "slender," or "spear." You would think it meant "super-buff, gun-show, or ripped," or something of that nature. However, it shows a principle that is a part of the true makeup of a hero of God - the power not found IN the man, but "WITHIN" the man! The power of Almighty God working through the natural fabric of a simple, slender man that has chosen to sharpen himself with the 'whet stone' of God's Word, making every strike with precision, not wasting effort or energy since the battle demands that he work on such a way so that he remains standing in the end. This is the Adino of today! This is the demand for men of God today! We need men with tenacity.

Big, Bad Benjaminites! Part 2

The passage of Scripture that we are studying in this continued look at “Characteristics of Biblical Heroes” is 1 Chronicles 12:1-2 (it is in the previous blog in italics). The Benjaminites were unusual in that they possessed the ability to fight and fire weapons with both hands. We looked at this importance of this characteristic in the last blog, but there is still much we can learn from these big, bad boys. We each are equipped with skills, abilities, talents, and natural tendencies that are unique and specialized and we have these qualities through the combined “blessings” of giftedness, aptitude, experience, and upbringing. That is what makes each one of us so different. The “Weapons of our Warfare,” is still the Sword of the Spirit, the infallible, inerrant, living words of Holy Writ. How we utilize, wield, and display our own personal technique of “Sword play” is as unique as each one of us, allowing those individual “blessings” to create our own style of methodology in Weaponry. What we must do is learn the Sword and then allow that knowledge to permeate our own talents, thinking, and skillset. Such a person is indeed formidable!

Studying these Benjaminites also reveals that they were the first group to respond to David’s leadership. This quality of immediate response to a calling or need is attractive and shows initiative and commitment. Chronicles also describes them as blood kin to the present king, “Saul’s brethren,” making the current affairs of state quite personal being directly related to the sitting leadership. They confronted the reality of Saul’s lack of obedience, irrational use of military resources, and poor decision making skills. Notice how they looked past the “blood is thicker than water” tendency and saw that David would provide the type of godly direction Israel needed. Application? Heroes do not give family or acquaintances a pass just because they are personally close. Equally as important they take the initiative in creating the environment for change. These two attributes together illustrate a critical attitude in the heart of a hero.

 

The take away this week is the fact that we could all do a better job increasing our skill in using the Weapons of our Warfare, the Scriptures. We you consider that Jesus used this very weapon when tempted by the devil (Matt. 4, Mark 1, Luke 4), who are we to think that we could somehow do a better job with some other tool?! There is not a better exercise program we can engage in than to the one that extends our reach, builds our strength, and widens our target by the acquisition of God's Holy Word in our hearts and minds. In essence, Biblical strength training and conditioning IS the breakfast of Spiritual Champions!

Are You Running Off Potential Heroes?

If this is your first visit to this blog it might be best to read the short edition right below this one to get some perspective. The topic at hand is how we are unwittingly driving away or emasculating our true male heroes from the modern church. To start with I want to clearly point out that this is not an attack or even a hint of disrespect leveled at our “women folk.” They have historically been the ones to carry the weight of actual church ministry and have always outnumbered their bearded counterparts. They were the only ones to show up at the most important grave side gathering! We are indebted to them and this is not an attack on their contributions or their value to the church. The person of the Lord Jesus was unique in that He perfectly represented the natural strengths found in both sexes. My point here is that He demonstrated a complete picture, both necessary elements for a healthy church – (1) the caring, accepting, forgiving Nurturer, and (2) a confident, strong, disciplining, masculine Leader.

Today, we only have half of that combination in most of our churches. Church life has become very emotive, feeling, and nurturing with strong emphasis on deeds over creeds.  Yes, we all know Jesus was “meek and mild, gentle and kind,” but He also cleared the Temple, making a whip out of cords and driving out the money changers, overturning tables, and notice, no one stood up to Him! He called one of his best friends “the devil,” and don’t forget the 30 years of grueling carpentry work! He did NOT look like those Renaissance pictures of some girlie-man with long hair, frail and effeminate. That image is not the Son of God that was beaten and bloodied, whipped and crucified on a rugged tree, hanging for three long hours. When you compare those classic paintings with the description of Him in Revelation 19:11-16 you just have to scratch your head.

Have you noticed the current move in our society to render real men impotent? Owning guns is now considered a Neanderthal practice, hunting is viewed even worse, and contact sports is doing all it can to lower the aggressiveness so to eradicate any possible injury although the very nature of the activity is to crash wildly into each other in an effort to win. The word I’m looking for here is RISK! The most content men alive are those that have been given a larger-than-life challenge and the opportunity to achieve that impossibility (a definition of risk). However, when men are not challenged at home, at work, or at church they can easily slide into taking other “secret” risks. These can develop into aberrant behavior and suck the very “hero-style” life out of them leaving them disillusioned and in their wake destroyed sons, daughters, and families.

A key ingredient in the development of a hero is a nebulous “something”- it’s this larger than life quality that he is willing to die for as well as live for, and it requires a large dose of risk before it clicks. This, of course, is melded with godly fear.  Without it, men go back on the shelf, living out their “manliness” vicariously through some fictional TV character or worse, some professional sports icon. The bottom line is without this hero mentality they DO nothing. You may have unknowingly shelved heroes, not to mention overlooked the supermen that are in your community, men that will never darken the door of your church because they believe “stallions go to bars and geldings go to church,” and you give them no reason to think otherwise!

Here is my first observation that points the finger at how the church has contributed to the “emasculated men syndrome.” Some of you are NOT going to like this! Just try to critically observe the “worship” music that has become very popular in many of our contemporary settings. This is NOT a rant on contemporary music; however some of the lyrics are extremely feminine, speaking of love affairs with Jesus in words that no real man would ever consider using with another man. Just stop and read some of those lines. You need to realize that men visualize Christ as our Commander and Chief, our King, our Lord, and believe it or not ladies, this is a type of male intimacy. But when almost every song is touchy, touchy, feely, feely we are unable to sing those words with any self-respect. To us, those words come out as forced, disingenuous, and it’s like an affront to how He created us as men. There are plenty of contemporary songs that appeal to men (i.e., the “Promise Keepers” litany of albums) but they are rarely used, opting for the more “emotionally charged” songs. I’m just asking for some consideration, a balance, more songs on His character, nature, holiness and less on how we feel about Him.

This phenomena in music is completely unintentional, but with men making up less than 34 % of the average church membership, and even less of them actively involved, it’s time for us to start contemplating what is keeping away those “mighty men of David.” We desperately need strong, biblically-seasoned, male heroes. This is observation number one, and there are several more to follow. Stay tuned!

Where Are Our Heroes?

Heroes. The Bible is full of them! Some are globally popular, like David, the giant killer. But there are others, like Benaiah who killed a lion in the pit on a snowy day, who are basically unknown and stay in relative obscurity. The stories of burning passion mixed with super-human strength are actually quite common across the pages of God’s Word but they seem to lie unread, untapped, and thus left in oblivion. It seems that in every age there are these tough hombres that saw themselves as capable men, able to make a difference by defending Israel and the Kingdom and fighting against immeasurable odds. I read about them, study them, and then stop and ponder – where are these guys today? Is the only location for these “gladiator” style super-heroes on our sports channels? Oh, please, NO!

Let me whet your appetite by giving you some examples of such biblical heroes. There is a man called “Adino” that was challenged by 800 Philistines and he routed them all by himself (2 Samuel 23:8). Man, I want THAT guy on my team! There are the Gadites that crossed the Jordan during the monsoon season, when the river was overflowing its banks (1 Chronicles 12:15). Hey, it’s hard enough to cross the Jordon in normal conditions, and these guys did it when the flood warnings had been issued. I’d take any of them to be on my defensive line and pity any quarterback or fullback that gets the ball. These men are beasts! Or how about Eleazar that stood up and attacked the Philistines until his hand was so weary it literally stuck to his sword until the battle was over (2 Samuel 23:9). You talk about a committed warrior, a true man of principle, yet this guy’s name is virtually unknown.

I spoke of David and his famous battle, but did you know that he fought 4 other giants later in his reign as King? Check out 2 Samuel 21:15-22 and see how he obviously needed all of those “5 smooth stones!” I mentioned a man named Benaiah that fought the worst of enemies (a lion), in the worst of places (a pit), in the worst of conditions (on a snowy day). He also fought two lion-like heroes of Moab and a spectacular Egyptian to become one of the mighty men of David. He is briefly mentioned in Scripture but what a great role model. He was brave (willing to fight the most deadly of enemies), creative (he wrested the spear from the Egyptian and used it against him), and showed initiative (he went after the lion, not waiting on the lion to come to him). What father would not want to model and teach these attributes to his sons! But I must ask the question again - Where are these guys today? Where are the Davids, Adinos, and Eleazars?

I believe these guys are here today! I believe in the hearts of many of our young men (and matured men) is a longing to be more. To be the lion killers, the nation-savers, the ones that will answer the call to fight against all odds. I believe our culture has been slowly and meticulously emasculating our men removing all the tools and environments that create these heroes. Unfortunately, I also believe our churches have unwittingly done the same thing. In the weeks to come I will address some of the current trends that I believe are rendering impotent the seeds of heroism in our men. These are dreadfully desperate days and we need heroes, fully devoted risk-takers to stand in the gap, face the impossible odds, and allow their hands to grow weary while slinging the Sword, never giving up. Unless there are some significant changes in our “training fields” this battle will never even begin. Bear with me.

Shift from Non-Christian to Anti-Christian Culture

Check out this very short description of some superheroes that served under King David! "...the sons of Issachar, who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do (1 Chron. 12:32)"  Man, that's pretty much all it says about them, but they were so necessary. What they had can be summed up in one word - VISION!

I don’t consider myself a “son of Issachar,” nor am I a “prophet, or the son of a prophet,” and my prognostication skills have never been my strong suit, but I would like to look at an important trend facing the future church.

The Shift from “non-Christian” to “Anti-Christian” Culture

Most people living today in America do not remember Bible reading done in their public schools. They may have  heard about it but have no personal experience of a thoroughly Judeo-Christian ethic being the norm of all of society. It dictated how the family lived, how the “village” operated, and it was all directly connected to the church. Our society was a moral haven, not that everyone was a Christian, but the acceptable bar of behavior centered on the precepts of Scripture and especially the Big Ten. That is why the French historian, Alexis de Tocqueville made the famous phrase in 1840, “America is great because Americans are good.” Well, Lexi, times have certainly changed!
 

For the last half century our common struggle has been the world’s encroachment on our children, the humanistic philosophies stealing the hearts and minds of our future. We have watched a non-Christian world slowly bleed out our sons and daughters spiritually, leaving them morally incompetent and inept. Although you may still see yourself in this fight, the times have changed yet again. No longer are we living in a non-Christian culture, we have changed the address to an “Anti-Christian” culture. Today we are considered wrong, nay I say, evil, for having Judeo-Christian principles that guide our lives. We are boldly and loudly called names like intolerant, homophobes, Neanderthals, flat-earthers, and “hate-criminals” if we hold to the basic ethical doctrines of God’s Word. Any moral challenge we give to an aberrant behavior from a Biblical perspective is met with vicious outrage, even borderline violence, which is considered a just reward. Our Christian students are not only fighting the immoral onslaught of secular hedonism and rampant sensuality, they are fighting for their lives. One reason most are very timid about sharing their faith is not the embarrassment, it’s because of the popular opinion that Christians are the new Nazis. We are no longer at odds, we are at war, and the culture is the one waging it! What used to be a line drawn in the sand has become a rampart with bludgeoning repercussions. It’s no longer the 90’s!  

If a man makes a poorly produced “YouTube” video that portrays Mohammad in a bad light he will spend over 3 months in jail. Would he have been given the same treatment if he had done the exact same thing defaming the person of Jesus Christ? Think about it. On April 7, 2009 in an unclassified Department of Homeland Security report, “right-wing extremist” were considered a major homegrown threat to national security. It goes on to clarify groups such as Christians, returning US Soldiers, supporters of far-right candidates, homeschoolers, and NRA members should be assessed as a high level of threat. The outcry was deafening and because of that they have since pulled this report, but the fact is our government sees us, Judeo-Christian ethic, Bible believers, as a national security threat! Because we stand for something holy we are now guilty of hate-crimes! How long before they issue another such declaration and there is no outcry? The new culture is Anti-Christian!