If a man-eating lion got loose in this country, it would starve to death. An epidemic of shallow manhood has swept through this land, and the damage has been devastating. Men have been sold a lie that says sacrificial masculinity is a waste of time and perpetual youthfulness and self-centeredness is the road to fulfillment.
Whether it be through media, education, or some other outlet, the role of men in the world has become twisted, perverted, and diminished to the point of being unrecognizable. We are in a war, and that war is against the very identity of men. Trying to live in a world that is hostile to you is a monumental task, to say the least. From boyhood, lies are told and expectations placed, all of which come from a place of sterilizing the masculinity of young men.
From the rampant overuse of the word “toxic” to the overwhelming majority of boys being taught by women how to be men via the public education system, and the all-out assault on masculinity in the realm of media, the odds are firmly stacked against the youth of our nation becoming anything more than slack-handed and limp-wristed cotqueans.
If all of this sounds overdramatic, you need this book more than anyone. Many people are simply asleep to the reality of where we are in history and how relentlessly masculinity is being attacked. Our world is aching for strong, stable, resilient men who are sure of their identity, convinced of their calling, and ready to take responsibility. These men are what the Bible calls “oaks of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:3). Men like this are deeply rooted, able to withstand the blowing winds of cultural and political change. They are fathers, not seeking after selfish gain but obeying the Lord when he commands them to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). They are brothers, rubbing shoulders with both fellow believers and unbelievers, spreading the Kingdom through relationship.
They are also men of conviction who stand firmly upon the objective truth of God’s Word, the only “lamp for the feet and light for the path.” (Psalm 119:105) The pages of Scripture are filled with these kinds of men, ones who trusted in a mighty God and lived righteously for him. That’s essentially what “The Man of God: A Biblical Portrait of Mature Manhood” is about.
Keying in on the mission
The stated vision of Kavod Family Ministries is to “restore families and transform communities.” The key to the success of the God-ordained vision is simple: men. The restoration of the family begins with the activation of husbands and fathers into their calling as spiritual leaders. The transformation of our community into a God-honoring and God-glorifying place will never happen until men step up and begin to work and serve in the ways that the Lord has called them to biblically. To that end, we felt that instead of pointing fingers at the failures of men and simply identifying issues, we would best serve those around us by putting something together that was a sort of clarion call to men everywhere to stop, return to the Word of God, see within it the biblical portrait of what a man is supposed to be, and then run after that.
First and foremost, Jesus Christ is the preeminent picture of godly masculinity. But when we continue to search the Scriptures for how we are to live, we see several passages all throughout the Word that give us glimpses of it, but nowhere is it explicitly stated in an all-encompassing way. Instead of compiling a bunch of verses to scrap together a description of what men are called to be, we settled in the elder qualifications listed in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. While not all men will be elders in a local church, all men are called to pursue meeting the qualifications of an elder.
The whole point of Paul’s charges to Timothy and Titus regarding the elders is to find mature, godly men in their dark and pagan towns who could faithfully lead and love. Those are the same kind of men we are looking for today: gentle, kind, strong, devoted, and sober-minded men who are pursuing mastery of self by the power of the Holy Spirit. It is those kinds of men, who look like our Lord Jesus Christ, that will ultimately lead to the restoration of the family and the transformation of the community.
It was a burden of mine to write this book in a simple, devotional style that encouraged easy digestion and thoughtful application. The chapters are short and the applications straightforward, which will hopefully leave men with no excuse but laziness for not doing something with the book. This is only the first of more books to come, but it is foundational for everything that comes after this to be built upon who the Word of God says you should be.
Men, this is for you. There is no shaming or browbeating in this book; it is simply my thoughts and feelings about what God has called us to be. What’s the worse that happens? You actually read it and change the world?