The cover picture for this article is from a new movie release about some men who decided to take the opportunity to do the courageous thing and challenge a terrorist on a french high-speed train. The possibilities of them dying was more than real, but the opportunity to make a difference was theirs to use or throw away.
While attending the recent “Strong Men’s Conferences”, one of the first messages brought forth was about men needing to see themselves differently. I believe women have the same problem, although it may affect them in a different areas. The area we all seem to struggle in from time to time, to different degrees, is FEAR. We all seem to struggle with this area in different ways, but the end result is still the same. We live less than God designed us to live, which leads to less than we hoped for in life.
This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a “Strong Men’s Conference” at my church in Charlotte, North Carolina that was both inspiring and challenging. Men in particular need the challenge to rise above the day-to-day things of life and focus on one key question……Are they acting like men or lambs?
Growing up in grammar school, grades 5-8th, I had a favorite book I would always check out of the library which was, “Air War Over Hitlers Germany”. It had tons of picture of B-17 bombers fighting during WWII. My reading skills were pretty poor back then, but I could look at those pictures all day long and dream of being a pilot or door-way gunner fighting against the evil of Hitler and the Nazi’s.
Even growing up in a non-religious family, I knew you have to confront evil or evil will overtake all that is good. At every school I attended before high school, which were five, there would be one bully that would terrorize all the other boys. One particular bully ruled for two years at one school, until we all graduated to high school. He would always pick a fight with a guy smaller than himself to prove he was the toughest. This time, now in high school, he picked a fight with a kid that was trained in boxing and the smaller kid cleaned his clock! The bully lost his reputation and transferred to another school because of shame and embarrassment.
Watching the riots in Berkeley University California today, I am saddened for the place of my birth. I grew up in the violent 60s & 70s near Berkeley California, so I know the nature of the culture, but is still saddens me to see California continue to spiral down into spiritual darkness.
Jesus explained that he was sent to deliver man from darkness, but man often refuse to embrace deliverance. Often people are not in spiritual darkness because of ignorance, but rather because of refusal to move towards the light of God.
