jfmen.com

Teach What You Know

2012-02-06T15:08:42Z

One of our biggest hold ups about leading our families spiritually is the sense that we don't know enough. Men hate to be exposed as inadequate for any task. We will avoid things to keep from being seen as inadequate. Satan uses this against us very effectively. He leverages our tendency, to convince us that we don't know enough or aren't "expert" enough to serve as the spiritual leaders, shepherds, mentors of our families. Consequently, great damage is done to us and our families as we abdicate our responsibility to lead.

A man named Apollos serves as a great example which we should follow. We find a great account of his activity in Acts 18:24-28 (read the passage for yourself). He was effectively teaching about Jesus, though his knowledge was limited. God was using him powerfully. He taught what he knew! Then, through Aquila and Priscilla, God taught him more. He learned and then had the more complete understanding of the gospel to teach from that point forward. Acts 18:27 says about him, "he was a great help to those who by grace had believed." You and I will also prove to be a great help to those we're called to lead, if we'll start leading and teaching right now.

If you only know one truth or scriptural principle, share it with, teach it to and model it for your family. You can be sure God will be eager to teach more to you! Don't buy the lie that you have to have it all together or be some kind of expert to lead your family spiritually. Don't abdicate your responsibility. God is with you. Your family needs you. Teach what you know.

An Invitation to Inspiration

2012-01-27T16:54:41Z

Guys - please take two and a half minutes to view my invitation to you - to a special night out which I believe will be a great blessing to you and yours.

Tom's Video Invitation

This next link will get you straight to the event registration page.

6:13 Registration

Finally, just in case you're interested - if you'd like to see a preview of Joe Kissack, our speaker, you can see him at this link

Joe Kissack - our speaker

But she. . .

2012-01-26T20:08:28Z

These are two of the most unproductive words a man could ever utter. They can actually exacerbate a bad situation.

The first and most important step a man has to take to be the leader in his home as God wants him to be, is to focus on changing himself, not his wife. The irony is that the only positive way to influence change in our wives is to realize change in ourselves.

I once spent many hours counseling a man going through major marriage problems. When I challenged him toward some God-ward changes he needed to make, he kept wanting to redirect the conversation toward her issues with "But she . . . " I don't know what he hoped I would do for him, but his consuming focus was on the countless ways she was at fault for their struggles. She was demeaning, nagging, unrelenting. She didn't try to understand him. She had ridiculously unrealistic expectations of him. She was hypocritical and hyper-critical - yada yada yada.

His focus on her issues didn't change her. He didn't change (which was their hope and he couldn't see it at the time). Their children are deeply wounded and they are miserably divorced today.

Guys, let's completely drop "but she"from our vocabulary and from our mindset, it's counterproductive.

One time Peter asked Jesus about John “Lord, what about him?” and Jesus answered, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me.” (John 21:21-22)

Your wife is human, a work in progress still, and yes, she may have a long long way to go, hear Jesus say to you today, "what is that to you? You must follow me."

I focus on me to change and grow

I focus on her to serve and know

Bold Moves

2012-01-06T17:19:19Z

As the days speed forward, my sense of urgency for the state of our nation and world continues to rise. I am increasingly convinced the day has come for men of God to be bold in their commitments to grow in their faith, pray for revival and awakening, and witness to the world ambitiously about the grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ.

To that end, I invite you to start this year making a bold move with me. Come join me on our mission trip to Honduras, February 8-12. The registration deadline is 9 days from now, January 15th. Below are the instructions for how to register.

Whether you've never been on a foreign mission trip before or not, this will serve as an unprecedented time of personal growth in Christ and fruitfulness for Christ. This is a multi-faceted trip from light construction to evangelism and other significant serving opportunities. Though the Men's Ministry is sponsoring it, it is open to women as well.

Take a few days off from work, make the financial investment and come! We'll be forever changed and will forever, in His strength, change the lives of others.

For Him!!

Tom

1. Visit www.johnsonferry.org

2. Click Mission tab (top)

3. Click “Register for a 2012 Mission Trip” (top right) – this will send you to JF Access

4. View mission trips or Click “Register for a Mission Trip” (top right)

5. If you are not logged into your JF access account, you will be asked to login or create an id/password.

6. Verify personal data (especially Birth Date). If you are traveling internationally, please update passport information. Only Global Ministries staff will have access to view this information for ticketing purposes. Click Submit when verification complete.

7. Select appropriate mission trip from the drop down list and complete registration.

8. Enter payment information for trip deposit.

9. Select Finish to complete registration.

Conspicuous

2011-12-19T18:00:29Z

The following chunk of scripture is full of rich meat and potatoes for our souls. I encourage you to chew on it awhile, but I want to draw your attention to two phrases for this entry. Notice those highlighted below. "As a bridegroom adorns . . ." and "as a bride adorns".

When a groom and bride dress for their wedding, in any culture, they stand out from the norm. They are conspicuous. Sometimes when I'm around the church building on a Saturday, I'll see a groom and his groomsmen milling around waiting for the ceremony to begin. They are conspicuous. Immediately I know who they are, why they're here, and what they're involved with.

To those of you my brothers whom God has saved, when He shed His blood for you and gave you salvation and righteousness, He intended those garments to be as conspicuous as wedding garments. Are they? I love Tim Tebow (why he didn't go to Vanderbilt is beyond me, but . . .) because He is a great demonstration of living conspicuous. Are you? Are we? We are supposed to be. We can, without being obnoxious. As Christmas approaches and a new year quickly dawns, put on your wedding clothes so all know who you are, why you're here and who you belong to. It's time for His people to live conspicuous.

Isaiah 61:9-11 says about followers of God, "Their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the LORD has blessed.” ¹⁰ I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations."

Join Me On Mission Liberation

2011-09-07T14:56:39Z

    This Summer I had the privilege to go to Bratislava, Czech Republic. While there, I came accross this amazing statue. It clearly commemorates the struggle the Czech people endured while subjugated under totalitarian communist rule. The inscriptions loosely translated mean "he who dies in the fight for freedom does not die", and "after the battle, fredom does not die". What a powerful truth the Czech people have embodied over the last few decades. Freedom has prevailed there.
    This truth experienced in the political and economic realms by the Czechs is paralelled even more powerfully in the spiritual realm. The freedom the gospel of Jesus Christ gives cannot be stopped. The freedom force of the saving grace of God transforms and liberates oppressed souls everywhere it is proclaimed.
    In this sense, every Christian man is a freedom fighter: serving, sacrificing, demonstrating, and speaking the gospel of freedom. The scriptures say, 2 Corinthians 3:17 "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." Galatians 5:1 "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."
    I'm leading a special liberation mission October 12-16 to the Dominican Republic. We are going to live and speak the gospel to many people there. The force of freedom will surge powerfully in and through us as we serve alongside Dominican believers reaching those who are today spiritually subjugated by the power of sin. I ask you to join me. The registration deadline for the special current price is tomorrow night, September the 8th. Please click on the below link and register right away. I believe it will be the trip of a lifetime.

Dominican Mission Trip Registration

Our Freedom Matters

2011-07-05T15:20:22Z

Men

I'm sending you a link to a powerful talk about the American spirit. I believe Christ-like character traits lived out extraordinarily through the lives of our citizens, often Christ-following citizens, are most responsible for American Exceptionalsim.

Enjoy this short speech. Listen for important truths about communication. This has application to our marriages, our parenting, our working and out witnessing. Listen for the commitment to the value of every individual human life - a hallmark of the judeo-Christian foundation of the United States in jeopardy today. Listen to the willingness of men to sacrifice themselves for others, also at the core of Christ-likeness.

Enjoy, and may we be inspired to live and influence for Christ and the freedom which honors His creative design lodged deep in every human heart.

Brig. Gen. Steve Ritchie

Call to Me

2011-05-13T15:13:00Z

God invites us in Jeremiah 33:3: "Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know."

C.S. Lewis once wrote, "If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

Like in Lewis' quote, Jeremiah 33:3 offers us the promise of grandeur. God will show us great and mighty things which we do not know. When God says that, He means "great and mighty things" by His definitions of "great and mighty." He has promised to unleash His supernatural wonder and power in, around and through us, in our day, in our world. When He says, "which you do not know," He means outpourings of His Spirit which will blow our minds. He will answer our prayers with bigger and better answers than we even have the imagination to know to ask for.

The one thing He requires of us to receive these unfathomable blessings from Him is, "Call to Me." The New Testament tells us we have not because we ask not (James 4:2). Why is getting people to pray the hardest thing to pull off in Christianity?

I want to challenge you:

* not to have too weak a desire for the great things of God

* not to be half-hearted creatures

* not to be like ignorant children content to make mud pies

Let's pray! God may indeed grant a great outpouring of His Spirit in our community, in our day. Let us come together and ask Him for revival and awakening!

Here are the details of a great opportunity for us to come together and seek Him. I hope you will join me tomorrow morning.

What? Pancakes & Prayer-Walking or Prayer-Driving (your choice)

When? THIS Saturday, May 14

Where? Room 108 (formerly The Net) just inside north covered drive-under

Time: 8:00 -10:00 a.m.

Eat: Pancake Breakfast and coffee

Cost: No charge

Road assignments with maps and prayer guides will be ready for you. Prayer-walk or prayer-drive it if it's raining. Already on a fire team? Go out with your team. Not on a Fire Team? Come and we'll get you partnered with other guys. Power in numbers. We'll be done by 10:00.

Please join me this Saturday for Pancakes and Prayer, and let's Call to Him on behalf of our community!

6:13 from 4-14

2011-04-20T14:08:00Z

Men

To watch Bryant's talk from our latest 6:13, click the link below

6:13 from 4-14

Revolutionaries? Go on Mission

2011-04-19T02:10:00Z

Men

another inspiring installment of what your life could be like - yes, you are called to be a revolutionary in this dark and decaying world which so desperately needs life and life more abundant

enjoy

click the link, less than 5 minutes

Men on Mission - Meet Revolutionaries

What is God Looking For in a Man?

2011-04-12T13:26:00Z

In First Samuel 16, verse 7, the Bible says, "But the LORD said to Samuel, 'Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.'"

In this verse we have a powerful insight showing that God evaluates us very differently than we tend to evaluate ourselves or each other. When comparing King Saul with anointed David, we catch a critical perspective which ought to shape our lives as men.

This Thursday night at our 6:13 program, we have the privilege of having our Senior Pastor, Bryant Wright, teach us from this powerful passage. I know our time together Thursday night will be time well-invested in our lives, our families and our futures.

Please join us at 6:13 for dinner in the Fellowship Hall - the cost is $8 and you may register at this link - 6:13 Online Registration

Or you may join us only for the program in the Student Center North from 7:15-8:30 - no registration required, no cost.

Me? A Revolutionary?

2011-03-16T13:41:00Z

If I could pull off only one thing as a minister to men, it would be this: to help men see themselves as revolutionaries.

Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth" (Matthew 5:13) and "You are the light of the world" (Matthew 5:14). By their very nature, salt and light change every environment they come into. They influence significantly wherever they go. That's who you are designed to be. Embrace your identity and role in this world as that agent of change and influence.

You're on a mission to change things with the love, truth, power and presence of God through you. Your family, work environment, neighborhood, country club, sports league, the world, whatever - when you are there, you're there as a revolutionary.

To illustrate and inspire, I like to highlight ordinary men, young or old who are living as revolutionaries. At 6:13 we typically include a "Meet a Revolutionary" segment. The link below is to the segment we showed at the last 6:13. If you'll take the time (it's just over 9 minutes), I trust you'll be inspired to live as salt and light.

Enjoy!

http://vimeo.com/20807203

Mercy!!

2011-03-15T17:38:00Z

Of the many pictures and images that are tearing my heart this week, this one stands out. Men, please! - as we drive around this week in our nice cars, and go to sleep in our nice houses, let us never forget that we are but dust, completely dependent on the mercy of God every moment of every day. Let us cry out for his mercy every day for ourselves, our families, and our world.

Psalm 103:14-16 "For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, and its place acknowledges it no longer."

Let us never allow ourselves to fall under the delusion of self-sufficiency, thinking we can provide for ourselves in our own strength. The cities we've built could all be rubble tomorrow. Let's live deliberately dependent before circumstances rudely remind us of our utter dependance!

Sidewalk Talk

2011-03-08T16:34:00Z

Less than three minutes, please watch men!

You can watch it here:
http://vimeo.com/20791152

My Fallback

2011-02-07T16:23:00Z

Sometimes it's hard to be a man. The weight of trying to be a godly man can get heavy. Have you ever felt the weight?

"I'm not enough like John Wayne; I'm not enough like Mr. Darcy (you'd have to have seen a serious chick flick to get that reference to male sensitivity).
I'm working too much; I'm not working hard enough.
They need more of me; I don't have any more to give.
I need to pray more; I need to volunteer more.
etc. . . etc. . . etc. . . "

We absolutely want to gain a clear understanding of biblical manhood and pursue it with great gusto, but, there are times we need to fall back on a very reassuring truth. God loves us and remembers our frailty. Just in case there are a few of you out there at a time of stress, striving to be godly men, struggling with guilty feelings about your shortcomings, I want to give you a word from God which I often fall back on. Meditate on what He is saying to you. Rest in Him. Fall back in His arms of grace and know that it's o.k. You're o.k. You're His!

Psalm 103:11-14 "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust."

Psalm 46:10 "He says, 'Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.'"

One translation in place of "Be still" says, "Cease striving". I like these reminders. Whenever I'm feeling the weight of the calling of biblical manhood, I fall back on these words from Him. His Word takes the weight off. I trust you'll let Him do the same for you right now, no matter what you're facing.

Compilation of Video Snipets From Read Thru

2011-01-24T18:00:00Z

Men - the Bible read through was such a huge blessing! I know the Lord used it powerfully to set the stage for the church's solemn assembly Sunday morning as well. We've compiled a montage of clips into three small videos which I've linked to here. Enjoy! The audio quality is poor, but you can reflect on what the Lord did through all of us joining together in an unbroken chain of reading His Word.

Read Through

It Is Finished

2011-01-23T07:17:00Z

Just over 78 1/2 hours after we started in Genesis 1:1, the unbroken chain of men reading the Word of God finished Revelation 22:21 at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning. There were around 15 people present for the finale. What a blessing.

May He continue to cleanse us with the washing with the water of the Word (Eph. 5:25-26) and may we be doers of the Word, not hearers only (James 1:22).

To God be the glory!!!

11:30 P.M. Saturday

2011-01-23T04:27:00Z

We're in Hebrews chapter 9

10:40 P.M. Saturday

2011-01-23T03:41:00Z

We're just now starting 2 Timothy!

I still think we're looking at a 1:30 a.m. finish.

I'm still loving soaking in the Word - we're going to finish with a flurry!

9:10 P.M. Saturday

2011-01-23T02:10:00Z

We're in Galatians chapter 4

It's definitely looking like a finish time of 1:30 ish, so if anyone want to make the midnight-1:30 shift, we'll need a few.