Currahee

Tonight I had the honor of watching Band of Brothers with some guys from Edgewood. We watched the first episode entitled Currahee. For those who haven't seen the Band of Brothers series I highly recommend it. Anyways, there are many things one can garner from each episode such as leadership insights, fellowship, and much more.

One thing that hit me tonight was the great things that can happen when men are united for a cause. We all know that the men of Easy Company helped wipe out Hitler and the Nazi regime. The closing scene watching the men fly out to make the jumps on D-Day can be pretty inspiring and just shows how much the men were willing to sacrifice for the cause.

One can only imagine what the world would be like if Christian men sought the Lord and united in the cause for the glory of His cross.

The meaning of Currahee is "We stand alone". For us, Christian men, we stand alone, distinct from this world, and through God's initiative look to usher in His kingdom into this world.

Family Ties

I came across this article on Yahoo! and found it to be quite an interesting read.

The article's main point was that people between the ages of 13-24 base much of their happiness off of their relationship with their family. This is interesting because many of the things that supposed offer happiness, such as money, were shown according to the poll not to be a basis for happiness of young people.

This study only furthers the need for Godly men and women to raise good families whose center is built upon the gospel. While I do not know much about being a parent I hope that parents can teach their kids to place the Lord first in their lives and have them look to God for their acceptance and that parental acceptance would not become such a huge idol in teenagers lives as it has been in mine.

The Seriousness of Sin

I came across this quote from D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones while reading through his Studies in the Sermon on the Mount. In it he describes what he views as the final explanation for the state of the Church (which he wrote in the late fifties early sixties, but still applies, if not even more so today):

"I cannot help feeling that the final explanation of the state of the Church today is a defective sense of sin and a defective doctrine of sin. Coupled with that, of course, is a failure to understand the true nature of Christian joy."

I cannot help but agree with Lloyd-Jones in his assesment that the Church does not have a correct view or doctrine of sin. This coupled with our society's emphasis on the self further leads churches to not even preach on sin and instead exchange the message of the gospel for one of behavior modification. The more we realize how sinful we as human beings truly are the more conviction of our sin we will experience. However, also as Lloyd-Jones points out in another quote it is only when we have this deep conviction of sin can we ever realize our need for a Savior. This conviction leads to conversion.

Probably the greatest tragedy in no longer preaching sin or having a correct doctrine of sin is that as a result we no longer have a correct view of what was accomplished by Christ on the cross. When one takes sin seriously he also realizes how glorious the cross is. When we see our sin the cross is our only hope. I can only pray that I will continously be able to say as the Apostle did when he wrote,

"But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ" -Philippians 3:7&8

The Achievements of Men

In the wake of Barry Bonds breaking Hank Aaron's home run record I have been reflecting on my own feelings towards the record and sports in general as well as society's.

While I certainly do believe that Bonds cheated and used steroids to pass Aaron on the all-time home run list I found myself getting wrapped up in my own feelings of resentment towards the record being broken. While I do not believe that having a negative opinion of the record is necessarily a bad thing, for me I found myself being more concerned with that perceived injustice than many other injustices worldwide.

This is probably because sports is such an idol in my life and American culture in general. I love sports, but I feel that to a certain extent they have given the men in our culture an excuse from spending more time with their families or church and have distracted their attention away from God. How many men's, myself included, top priority on Sunday is to watch their favorite football team play rather than living for the glory of God? Additionally, sports provide so much room for boasting in the self rather than in the Cross of Christ. We see them as an escape from reality, a chance to be the hero on the field rather than seeing that Christ is the true hero in our lives and only in Him will change in this world ever be effected.

While I will still continure to love and enjoy sports I need to make sure I do not place them above the gospel. I guess all of this should make me realize that I need to concentrate more on what God has achieved rather than what man has done.