Manhood

This is Hans Schile from the Finishing Well Podcast.

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This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not For God, stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick. Welcome to If Not For God with Mike Zwick.

And Mike, what has God got on your heart today? Well, you know, you've got a, is it the Man Camp or what is the name of it? You confused me with Nikita. Okay. No, I'm not the Russian nightmare.

I'm just little old Robbie. But anyway, we have Masculine Journeys Boot Camp. It's coming up November 18th through the 21st. Okay. We're very, very excited about that as always. And you've had a chance to attend that with us, you know, several times.

And I plan on coming to this one. Yeah. Yeah. How cool.

And Nikita himself, even though he does Man Camp and he just got done with the Man Camp, is going to be there in attendance with us. Oh, sweet. Yeah, sweet. Yeah. In the camp, it's the Masculine Journey. That's the show that you have. And this camp is associated with that, right? Yeah, absolutely.

And it's very much a picture of what happens. John Eldridge wrote the book Wild at Heart. Great book, by the way. Great book for any man.

The subject we're talking about today is, you know, Satan came after, you know, the whole idea of masculinity. And so John Eldridge's book did a whole lot in our generation for giving us an idea of, you know, what's at stake there. And so he's been doing these boot camps in Colorado for years. And so Sam and Darren and the guys at Masculine Journey had been out to these boot camps. And so they wanted to model the same type of thing, which we teach the same stuff.

It's just a matter of we have our stories versus John's stories or the presenters that they have there at their Wild at Heart boot camps there in Colorado. That's it. One of the things that when you were talking about this, we were talking about, what does it mean to be a man? And there's actually a Bible verse. It's 1 Corinthians 16, 13.

And it says, be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. And so I really started to think about it a little bit. And I said, you know, what does it mean to be a man or to act like a man? And so, you know, of course you go online and you see some stuff and, you know, first of all, you have to have a beard, right? You have to have a beard.

You have to lift a lot of weights, huge amount of testosterone, drink a lot of beer, chew tobacco, spit. And obviously we're kidding about that, but I mean, there are a lot of things out there that I think kind of tell us what it, what the world thinks that it means to be a man. But, you know, in the word of God, where it says to act like men, you know, one of the things that I thought is being a man is to stand firm, stand firm to your convictions, even when nobody else seems to agree with you. You know, I've heard an old expression and it said that God plus one equals a majority.

And I started to think about it. I said, no, God plus no one equals a majority. Like even if nobody is with God, then, then, then it, it, it, it equals a majority. But, you know, I think that we're in a kind of an age now where, um, it's kind of fashionable and kind of chic to, I guess, be argumentative with other people or to say, Hey, I'm, I'm going to believe this no matter what.

And it's, it's almost like people say stuff on the internet that they would never say to somebody's face. And so standing firm to me, that's not what it really means. Um, but what is standing firm for the faith or, or standing firm in your beliefs? What does that mean to you, Robbie? Well, that's a loaded question.

I love that. Well, I, I think that there's something a lot deeper going on there and, you know, Jesus must've said, if you find an interesting little study sometime, go through the Gospel of John and see how many times Jesus referred to God as his father. And so, unfortunately, so many men out there have not had the fathering and nor do they relate to God as their father. And you can't of course do that until you're in Christ. And obviously that's the whole reason, if not for God. But, but the idea, um, unfortunately for many men is they've never been welcomed into what I would call a biblical picture of what a man is.

Right. And, and, um, I, I heard about an event that was done actually in Colorado and these guys were welcoming their sons that they had this campfire and they were bringing them in, you know, like we welcome you into the family of being a man and begin to, you know, disciple them into what that actually be, is. And as I was listening to it actually went to tears because, you know, I was 13, nobody welcomed me to be a man. No, I didn't even know, have any concept of, of what that actually meant. And again, we, as fathers have this unique fun thing and you being a father even recently of helping our children deal with, right, their gender. Yes.

Yes. I mean, God knows how much everybody wants to confuse that, but it's interesting how much a man, when I'm, you know, you can pass on masculinity, but a woman can't pass masculinity onto a man. Only a man can pass masculinity onto a man. And interestingly, a man helps a woman that be established in their femininity as well.

And so, you know, very, from the very beginning, God made us male and female. And the neat thing to stand when you look at that biblically, is there's in Hebrew to see that picture is, is absolutely outstanding. And it has to do with the way a tree stands, right? It's standing right.

It's at a right angle and is pointed up. The only way that a tree will ever grow is towards the sun. And the only way a Christian will ever grow is if we're pointed towards the S-O-N. S-O-N, the sun, yes. And I don't know if you ever noted it, but that all, when you, when you look at redemption, the picture of what trees mean, okay? Because originally there was this whole idea of, you know, there was a tree of knowledge and there was a tree of, right, life. Well, the tree of life is made of wood and it was the Jesus that hung on that, right? The ark was made of wood that saved Noah, right?

All the sacrifices had to be burned over what? Wood, right? And so, this idea of being right and righteous and standing as a tree, right?

With your roots down in the ground, second out that living water. And then your, you know, your branches aiming towards the S-O-N. It's a beautiful thing.

It's a beautiful thing. You know, somebody should write a song where they say, on Christ, the solid rock, I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. But, you know, I was talking about, thinking about what we're talking about and I was, looked up a couple of Bible verses on standing firm. It says, Ephesians 6-11, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the evil schemes of the devil. Ephesians 6-13, therefore put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, we're here, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything to stand.

1 Peter 5-9, resist, but resist him. Firm in your faith, knowing that the same experience of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world, who are in the world. You know, it's interesting, we talk about, I've talked to so many people and they said, well, we're going to get out of here before it really gets bad. I said, well, that's interesting because there's a whole lot of Christians all over the world for the past 2,000 years who have been in the middle of it and through a lot of persecution when things got tough. And, you know, just being honest, some of them stood firm and some of them said, you know, hey, I'm going to get out of the way. Philippians 1-27, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I will hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

And finally, Philippians 4-1, therefore my beloved brethren whom I longed to see my joy and crown in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved. I was actually thinking of a story of, do you remember the Boko Haram? There was this thing a few years ago, I think it was back in Nigeria where these girls were, they were kidnapped. Do you know what I'm talking about, Robbie?

I don't, but that's okay. Neither are our listeners, so you can tell us. But it was, they made this whole thing bring back our girls. And what they did was they kidnapped a bunch of girls who were Christian girls, Boko Haram, who was a Muslim group. And what they did was they said, look, they said, you can either deny your faith and we will let you live, and then we will marry you off to these Muslim men, or you can stand firm in your faith and we're going to kill you. And one of the girls who actually finally gave in and said, okay, yeah, I'll marry you and I'll deny the faith or whatever, she told a story of this other girl named Monica.

And what happened to Monica was Monica was only 14 years old. And when Boko Haram told her that she had the choice, she says, I'm not going to deny the faith. She said, I'm going to stand firm in the Lord. And so what happened was, was they said, okay, we're going to kill you.

They buried her up to her neck in dirt or sand and they stoned her to death. When her father, who was in Nigeria, was a pastor, he found out about this. He said, I am so glad that my daughter did not deny her faith in Christ.

He said one of the proudest, he said the proudest moment of my life was that when she stood firm for the faith. And that's a 14 year old girl. You know what I mean? This is sometimes, you know, we always talk about acting like men, but you know, when I, when I think about standing firm, I'm reminded of that girl.

And you know, right now, I mean, there's, there's a lot of pressure to conform in the United States. I mean, I know you were talking about gender where, you know, they're saying, well, you can, you can be this gender, you can be whatever gender you choose, but you know, the word of God says that God created the male and female. And if, you know, if somebody else says that's not true, then that's their belief, but that's not what the word of God says.

And the word of God doesn't change. And so, you know, I heard Pastor Chad recently, he was on a, one of his Sunday sermons, and he said, you know, he was talking about Daniel chapter three, where there were three of them who would not bow down, Chad, Rach, Meshach, and Abednego. And he, he said that when the leader, I think it was Nebuchadnezzar, said, okay, I'm going to give you a choice where you can, you can bow down.

And if you bow down, we'll forget the whole thing ever happened. But if not, he said, we're going to throw you into the fire. And he said, what they didn't say was, okay, we're going to grab a couple of lattes, we're going to go to Starbucks, and we're going to try to find some middle ground on this whole thing and try to work something out. They said, no, they said, we don't even need to discuss this matter.

It's not up for discussion. They said, we know what the Word of God says, we're standing firm in our faith, period, end of story. And they didn't know how the end of the story was going to end, because they even said, they said, you know, God will save us, they said, but even if he does not, we're going to stand firm. And so, and that's one of the things that I think about when standing firm. And I don't know about you, Robbie, but I've seen that when, when I've stood firm, there have been people who may not have agreed with me, but they will respect you for sticking to your beliefs. And I'm sure you've seen that as well. Yeah, there's again, you got a whole mouthful in there. And when you were mentioning the things I couldn't help but, you know, sometimes I get to interview people, I can't disclose all that I know.

And I'm trying to honor that as much as I can right now. But there's a lot that's gone on in Afghanistan in the last few months. And what I know to be the case, without disclosing too much, is that there were lots of folks that had an opportunity, literally, very special, clear opportunity to get out of Afghanistan. And these were people of God, they were, you know, and they had their opportunity. But what they chose was, no, if things are going to get really bad here, these people are going to need us. Right.

And so they were standing firm. But it's interesting thing when you think about the commandments, as you know, there's 613 of them, mitzvah, and you know, the way the Jews look at that, but they boil down to two, right? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, right? And soul, and with all your might, but then the other one is to love your neighbor as yourself.

And so it's an interesting thing to stand firm does not mean hitting your neighbor or in some way becoming aggressive. It's actually how do I love this person? Which the girl who got buried in the sand was, you know, still considering how can I love these people around me in spite of the fact that they're persecuting me. And those people in Afghanistan, they're not fighting the Taliban necessarily, although I'm sure I mean, or the, you know, brotherhood or whatever that what they're doing is they're trying to figure out how to love these people.

Because they too are deceived. And that's all about what Ephesians six is all that standing that they're talking about is, is actually standing in the spiritual realm because he says our battles not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces in high places. And so, so much of our standing, from my perspective, it is standing in Christ. In a spiritual sense, in other words, in prayer, in in, which is very, very difficult, by the way, or it is for me anyway. I've probably said it before on your show, and I'll say it again, is that one of my quests in life is, is this, this, this man who lost his wife, and he used to, you know, not pray much until after that happened. And then he started to pray.

And every time he prayed to God, he said it was like picking up the phone and calling God and the after his wife had been gone more time, he kept on picking up the phone and calling until one day he never hung up. Well, think about that to be so in prayer. And this is, this is my quest that to be so in prayer, that even in these situations, where all sorts of shenanigans are going on, can I be in prayer and be in Christ, and and love like Stephen, as he stood there being stoned and saying, you know, hold this in not against them. You know, or Paul is as he was in their jails, you know, sharing Christ with them and leading them to Christ. So it's an interesting thing that that manhood is a different and only because of the fruit of the Spirit and because being in God's Word and all that, that you can have an opportunity to love in an outrageous way with that.

I agree. And you know, one of the things that Jesus said was he says, if somebody smites you on one cheek or slaps you in the cheek, turn the other cheek. Um, and I think we see as men sometimes that we need to fight, we need to stand up, you know, and it's seen as kind of the manly or the macho thing to fight, or to go to war or whatever. And and the Bible, the Old Testament talks a lot about war.

And it even says Solomon says there is a time for war. But when I was watching a video series on on the TV before I came to do this show, there was a guy who was speaking and he says, sometimes he says, it's harder to turn the cheek. He says, it's almost easy to fight.

That's what you want to do, right? I mean, you want to, you want to get in a confrontation, you want to stand up, you want to fight somebody, you want to stand up for what you but sometimes it means to hold your tongue. And sometimes it means even, you know, our friend, Jeff Hoover, I mean, he was in he was in another country. And there was a guy who punched him in the face. It was over a parking spot or something.

I think he was in Lebanon or something. And, and and Jeff is about six foot four, big guy. And he didn't see Jeff stand up and get out of the car till afterwards.

But Jeff probably could have taken this guy. But Jeff said, No, he says, I want to act like Jesus. And he said that he he turned the other cheek, he didn't hit the guy back. And he said, after the whole thing happened, the guy apologized to him. And they he was he, Jeff was even able to share Jesus. And I thought that was pretty cool.

It's really cool. And but it illustrates a really neat point, we do want to fight. And you know that you're supposed to be fighting.

But the interesting thing is what Jeff was doing was really fighting. Yeah, I mean, he was fighting as the spiritual battle up against what he felt like his flesh was telling him to do up and asking God, what do you want me to do in this situation? And, and the fight to hold on to this sense of, you know, God, what would you have me do in this situation? And, and, and, and, and getting that type of insight is truly what we refer to and what we actually teach at masculine journey boot camp is spiritual warfare.

Yeah, right. And we fight through prayer. That's how we fight. That is how we fight.

I mean, that's, that's how we fight our battles. I mean, I, I heard a story. Have you ever heard of Charles Blondin? No, he was a he was a tightrope Walker. He would walk across the tightrope. And he did it over the Niagara Falls in the 1850s 1860s. And so he would literally he would go across and walk on the tightrope. He would sit in the middle of the tightrope and he'd cook himself an omelet. He, he walked with a wheelbarrow over his head. I mean, he, he walked with a wheelbarrow, he would carry stuff over his head.

And people would watch him and they would just see him do these amazing feats. And they would say, you know, and he said, Do you think that I can walk across Niagara Falls with with with even somebody on my shoulders? And they said, Yes, absolutely.

You can do it. And he goes, All right, I need a volunteer. And there were crickets.

There were great. Nobody did it. And so that's, that's kind of the difference between saying, Okay, I believe in something and actually having faith because you could say, Yeah, I believe you can do it. But hey, when you're talking about me being on your shoulders, and me having the possibility of, of, of falling off your shoulders, that's real faith. And so, I guess in the same way, that's maybe that maybe that's what we're looking at right now, as men, is to say, Okay, and we've talked about this before, there's the idea of standing firm, there's the idea of acting like a man, and it all sounds good when it's somebody else or when it's kind of out there.

But what about when the mirror is, when the mirror is pointed towards ourselves, then it then it becomes a little bit tougher? Well, we, you know, speaking of masculine journey, we have for years, actually, had this concept of asking God at this time of year is beginning to be November, right? And, you know, God, where are we going next year? You know, what, what, you know, as we continue to grow to be the man that you want us to be, and we accept God as our Father, and we walk into that fatherhood, because Jesus is the way to that to seeing God as our Father, where would where are we going?

And so last year, as I came into this time of year, I was praying that same thing. And God said, Robbie, in 2021, I want you to engage, that's the word, okay, engage. And I thought, well, now that's interesting.

You know, I can, you know, I'm thinking Top Gun, right? You remember the scene with Maverick saying, Engage, Maverick, engage. So I'm like, yeah, that's my whole problem. I'm not engaging. And it sounds, and it's very much a masculine concept.

Right? And so I was intrigued. And so as I began to work through that, okay, God, let's engage in 2021. You know, the first thing you told me to do? Robbie, I want you to memorize the 13th Psalm. Excuse me, the first one was the 16th Psalm. Okay.

Right. I got done with that. And I said, okay, Rob, where are we going next? I want you to memorize the 13th Psalm. Well, my initial thought on that was, man, I hope it's not a long one. And in God's humor, when I turned to the 13th Psalm, you know what the first words of the 13th Psalm are?

What's that? How long? It actually says how long, oh Lord, right? Will you, you forget us forever?

How long will you hide your face from us? But after I finished, this is God's sense of humor. After I finished the 13th Psalm, you know what he said?

What did he say? I want you to memorize the 119 Psalm. Now that's varsity right there. That's the longest, that's the longest chapter in the Bible.

Yeah. And it's, it's eight verses on, on every letter. And you may know my love for Hebrew. So where he sent me was definitely into my heart's delight. But oh my goodness, you remember I told you my quest, or I feel like where God has had me was, could I get to the point in prayer that I don't hang up? Well, if you work on memorizing scripture, that's what you're getting inside your heart.

What's that? God. I mean, he is the word and the word is God.

And so as all these things go in there, you know, it starts to happen is you can hardly look at a situation. And now I know you well enough to know how much scripture is in your heart. You hadn't sat there and memorized it like I'm going to memorize the 119 Psalm, but you've memorized tons, because I can see whenever I say something, something clicks in your, in your head and the next thing you know, I know where that is in the Bible and you're thinking because it's all in there.

Right. And so can you imagine that as you begin to see more, especially the 119 Psalm, which they say was completely spiritual warfare. So here's King David. Do you think he went, do you think Satan had a bullseye on his back? Oh yeah. Do you think he undergo, he underwent just a little bit of persecution. Yeah.

I mean, you know, whatever we have to face, we have to face, but you know what he did? 119 Psalm. Right. That was, you know, that was his prayer. That was in, and if you really, the more I've done it, the more I realized, oh, this was it, you know, remove from me the way of lying that that's one of my favorite verses. We talked about it here on your show a couple of times, but see what I discovered was, oh my goodness for me to stand when you're standing on the word of God, you know, you go, oh, I know what this is. Yes. Yes. I know where I, where I am and, and like, oh my goodness, what God's given me through this, but you couldn't be more right that, you know, and for such a time as this, how do we get, you know, more prepared?

And, and I think it's by attending bootcamps and, but it's also by, you know, spending time with God and putting in falling more in love with Jesus. Right. And, and let him put him, put you on your, in other words, I didn't come up with that great plan here. Robbie, you're going to do this, but by just simply asking God, where would you, where are we going this year? Yes.

And then he takes me where he knows I need help. So if somebody wants to go to the bootcamp, is it too late? No. And you can maybe share a cabin with Nikita Golov with Mike Zwick.

I mean, how fun is that? But yes, it's coming up. It's at Carolina Bible Camp in Mocksville. It's November 18th, which is the week right before Thanksgiving. So that Thursday, Friday, well, you get, starts Thursday evening.

Okay. And then, so all you need to take off is Friday. How would you sign up? You just go to masculinejourney.org.

Masculinejourney.org. And, you know, since we're talking about it, standing firm and being a man, you may say, well, what is all this Jesus stuff about? I just kind of changed the radio station, but, um, you know, Jesus said that, uh, he said that I am the way, the truth and the life. And it says in scripture that all who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And so if you've never called upon Jesus is to be your personal savior today, I'd like to invite you to do that. Um, just repeat after me, Lord, I, Jesus, I, I, I repent of my sins, which means I'm sorry for them.

I turn away from them. Lord. I turn to you, Jesus. I give my life to you, Jesus, and, uh, take me to heaven when I die in Jesus name.

Amen. That's the, if not for God, right? If you heard that and you prayed that like, wow, you get to have God as your father. Cause it's just, as Mike just said, I'm the way and the truth and life. No one comes to the father except through me.

So men, I know if you're like me, you want to be welcomed into that fellowship of fatherhood. Well, there's the way Jesus, if not for God, The pandemic has reminded us how fragile and unpredictable life is. Have you thought about your loved ones and their financial security? If the unexpected happens plan for the future with P R C U a life since 1873, the Polish Roman Catholic union of America has been protecting its members and their families financially. Join P R C U A life today and take advantage of affordable life insurance plans, competitive annuity rates, and additional member benefits. You can even lower your income tax bill and boost your retirement income by opening a new P R C U A life annuity or transferring your existing account. Earn up to 3.75 APY with a one year guarantee and $500 minimum deposit. Visit prcua.org or call your local P R C U A representative at 336-776-7456. P R C U A life protecting life through all its stages. This is the truth network.