Monday, March 10, 2008

Authentic Manhood

Here on Camp Victory, I've been participating in a men's study entitled, "The Quest for Authentic Manhood" by Robert Lewis of Men's Fraternity. The last two weeks we have studied what is God's definition of a man as He originally intended.

He uses two men in the Bible, Adam and Jesus. Obviously Adam didn't fulfill his role, so he is the model of what not to do. While Jesus is the model of what to do. There are four traits that God laid out in the first three chapters of Genesis that pertains to His original desire for men:

  1. Rejects Passivity
  2. Accepts Responsibility
  3. Leads Courageously
  4. Expects the Great Reward, God's Reward

Adam didn't fulfill this plan. When Eve was being tempted, instead of stepping up, he was passive. When God called him out, instead of accepting responsibility, he passed blame. Both of those showed his lack of courage and that he was looking for personal reward, equal with God, as opposed to the Greater reward, eternity with God.

Jesus on the other hand was definitely never passive. He accepted the responsibility of carrying the sin of the world all the way to the cross. He was the epitome of courage all the way to death. And His was able to do all that because He kept His eyes focused on the Greater Reward.

That is just a quick snapshot of two weeks of this 24 week course that has taught me so much about what it means to be a true Biblical man as God intended. If you ever get a chance to attend the study, I'd highly encourage it.

1 comment:

Mimi said...

I am confident and believe that any man who is following the disciplines in this study will greatly develop his relationship with God and his effectiveness as a Christian witness.

I pray that God will use this study to encourage more men to reflect the Lord through many lives for His glory.