Tag Archives: manhood

Faith, Flesh Tamers Fitness

The Courage to Stand Firm

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What truth are we choosing to stand firm on? For what cause do we pour out our service and precious time?

I’ve started a new adventure and I’m about 12,000 words in. This will be my first book, and like any first thing I’m sure I’ll learn a lot while doing it. Then I’ll learn how to do it better later.

I’ve had some assistance along the way. I started with an idea and an inspirational source, then I had a professional writer help me get started with organizing my thoughts in words and placement. Then I took it from there.

I found a graphics design resource to build out the book cover and they did a fantastic job putting my articulated words into a visual eye catcher.

I’m currently having a couple more men review the current version of the book to give feedback. Of course, I’ve already had my dad review it and have incorporated some of that feedback. I’ll add a bit more too I’m sure. I haven’t even breached Ephesians 6 yet, but it will come as the Spirit moves the words around my mind and heart.

I thought today would be an appropriate time to share a small excerpt from the book as it is so pertinent for us as Christians to stand firm. Yet, we must understand upon whom we are Standing Firm and for what cause.

Our savior was courageous, and we too must be courageous if we are going to follow the example of Jesus. To be sure we will never be perfect as Jesus was. Yet, it is incumbent upon us to give it all we have and ask God to help us to have enough.

Where is the courage of our forefathers in the faith? Are we going to play the man or wilt like daffodils in the heat? It is as designed that we must have courage to endure ridicule and to lose the praise of man. For even our Lord was worshipped on the day He entered Jerusalem, only to be crucified on the next Friday! But for man, the first battle to be won is with his own flesh. The struggles of every man born into a fallen world. Here is where we start and here is where we find ourselves at mortal death.

For men, the first key component in this struggle is the truth. The truth that is Jesus and a Christian worldview.  Jeremiah 7:28 says, “And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.”  The knowledge, proper teaching and acceptance of Truth has perished. This is the sad result when men lose their courage, when a man is not manful.  Facing and believing the truth is one of the most important trials for man in this fallen world.  It is crucial to be an objective observer of what is, rather than what you wish it were.  A real man calls it like it is and refuses to look away from actual reality.  The most important truth is that of the God of the universe who created all things, came as a man to take on our sin, and then hung on a cross for it, rising from the dead three days later.  In so doing, He destroyed death, and now we await His return when He will not come humbly, but in blazing glory with His powerful angels to bring judgment on the earth and gather up His Church. 

True Manliness: The Courage to Stand Firm

Copyright 2021, Johnathan Sexton

Faith, Life

The Call to Christian Manliness (Truth)

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Internal Conflict. A state of being with more meaning for a man of imperfect nature. Yet in battle with an external force of borrowed legitimacy.

And in this life-long fight, to be waged by every one of us single-handed against a host of foes, the last armament for a good fight, the last proof and test of our courage and manfulness, must be loyalty to truth.

This is the most rare and difficult of all human qualities.

For when the truth is spoken it has been wielded as a weapon of destruction. Tearing down kingdoms and strongholds built on false doctrine and desires of foolishness.

Loyalty to truth, perfected over a lifetime, asks increasingly more of us. It sets before us a standard of manliness always rising higher and higher. Though the nature of men is of decreasing courage in the face of opposition.

And this is the great lesson which we will learn from Christ’s life, the more earnestly and faithfully we study it.

“For this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, to bear witness to the truth.”

To bear this witness against declared and open enemies is comparatively easy; but, to bear it against those we love; against those whose judgment and opinions we respect, in defense or advancement of that which approves itself as true to our own inmost conscience, this is the last and abiding test of courage and of manliness.

Copyright 2020, Johnathan Sexton

Adapted from True Manliness, Thomas Hughes

F3, Faith, Life

Playing the Man Means Being Peaceful Not Passive

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When men act like Godly men everyone wins.

Families are strong. Communities flourish. The local church is active as designed by God. And those truly in need are taken care of.

But passivity forced upon men by a godless culture has corrupted the view of proper manhood.

As men we must speak up and speak to. It’s hard. I know it’s hard because I want to just keep quiet and mind my own business most of the time. But often times that isn’t what we should do.

We become passive and disengaged because of fear really. We fear ridicule. We fear being ostracized. We fear being labeled something we are not.

But if we put ourselves last and stop worrying about what others may do to us or how we will be treated, then that is when He (God) will lift us up.

Put God first, family second, and put yourself third. And as we put Him first He will be the source of our strength and supply.

We have to live knowing that we do so for His glory always.

Be peaceful not passive. Stand up for what’s right. Stand strong for the truth in the face of opposition and fear. Pull courage from the source of strength that is our faith in Jesus Christ. Be a man after God’s own heart.