by Caleb Gordon | Jan 15, 2015
We live in a very strange world. We see the news headlines about young men who are falling prey to all kinds of evil.
We don’t have to ask the question: Is masculine culture broken? We already know the answer is yes. The real question is how do we combat it? How do we fight against a darkness that is attempting to take our young men and flush them down the proverbial toilet?
I honestly believe the answer is found in Eph 4:22-24:
“But that is not the way you learned Christ!—assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”
If you look at men who have a real encounter with Jesus, their lives are never the same. They walk away different from that moment. WHY?
Because God created every man (and woman) to have a relationship with Him. Our very nature is made in such a way to be able to encounter and interact with the God of the universe. The problem is that when sin entered the picture, it fractured the entire idea of this relationship, putting a massive hole where God was supposed to reside. So what is taking place on a whole scale level is men are attempting to fill that hole with anything and everything in order to find some type of peace. But you know what’s happening? It’s not working. Anything you attempt to put in the place of Jesus will never satisfy.
So what is to be done? Put off the OLD self…and come alive (be renewed) in JESUS (who is our life).
If I could tell men anything it would be this…Jesus is better. Jesus is better than anything this world has to offer…I know in the moment you think “No way. THIS is better.’ The only problem with that is we are temporary.
I know you think 80 years is a long time, but on the scale of eternity it’s not even a blink.There is coming a day when what you thought was better is going to seem so trivial and petty when you see the face of Jesus Christ.
What every guy needs to know is that Jesus can and will fill that empty void you have been trying to fill with everything else you have been trying to fill it with.
Take the advise of Eph 4:24:
“and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness”
You’ll sleep better this way.
by Caleb Gordon | Dec 29, 2014
Abide
Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. John 15:4
The enemy is all around us. He has one desire. To pick you off! To mess your life up. He wants you dead!
That being understood, how many of us attempt to walk out the door every morning in our own strength? Oh we say all kinds of flowery things..and we might even post scripture on our facebook (so that makes us super strong against the attacks of the devil, right?? ) Here is the thing…Jesus said to ABIDE in him. Abide means to remain or stay around. How many of us claim to know Jesus, but we’re not really sticking around? I’m going to say something that might sting a little… the abiding believer is the only legitimate believer.
A Christian who claims to follow Christ, but has no desire to want to know Him and be known by Him…there is a problem. I hear alot of Christians say ‘Man, I wanna be used by God.’ And that sounds good…but in reality I don’t really care if I’m used by God or not. There were alot of EVIL people who were USED by God.
I want to KNOW GOD! I want to BE KNOWN by GOD!
That’s what really counts!
Psalm 27:4 says:
One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
That’s what I want.
How do we get there?
WE HAVE TO ABIDE!! We remain…. we wait on the Lord. We stay rather than leave. Listen for his voice and He will answer you.
How do we Abide?
- Spend time in prayer. Ask for wisdom on how God wants you to abide with Him.
- Dedicate to time in the Word. Pick a good time to open the word and read and study it. (start with John 14 & 15)
- Join a body of believers that will walk with you in this process of learning to abide in Christ.
- Keeping a journal of your walk is very helpful.
Each moment that we are going forward in this we are getting stronger. Each moment that we are focused on Jesus Christ the more we grow to be more Christ like and that is the goal of this whole thing.
by Caleb Gordon | Nov 18, 2014
And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Gen 32:24
Have you ever had moments where you were just exhausted? Moments where there was nothing else left to do but scream out?
You had tried so hard to make certain things happen, or you ran from your past for so long and finally it was just like you said to yourself “I’M DONE!”
I think we’ve all been there.
If you read this story about Jacob in Gen. 32, this guy had been running from his past for a long time. I mean, he had lied, cheated and stolen from his brother and his family. Needless to say, he was not being invited to the family Christmas party on a regular basis.
Instead of pressing into God and attempting to find God’s grace, he had tried to fix it on his own. He was following his own sinful nature. And isn’t that exactly what humanity always attempts to do? We try to fix our problems with our own self effort, and that NEVER WORKS!!
Well, the moment where Jacob was totally transformed came in Gen. 32, and the reason he was transformed was not because he was trying harder…it was because God actually shows up and begins to press into his life, and it gets a little violent. But when it comes to sin…God is ruthless in exposing and drawing that sin out.
Look what happens as a result of God showing up in Jacob’s life…Jacob receives redemption. Jacob’s name is changed by GOD, from ‘Deceiver’ to ‘One who walks with God.’
Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Gen. 32:8).
WOW!! The song Amazing Grace comes to mind!
“Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.”
When God shows up, things change! For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6).
Jacob was weak and had been trying to find some answers, but he was looking for the answers in all of the wrong places. What is so amazing is that God had the answer the whole time, and He shows up at just the right time and leads him to where he needed to be.
This is why Grace is so amazing!
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God (Rom. 5:8-9).
God is in the business of changing people’s names! Stop trying to change your name! It won’t work.
The time for your name change could be today. God is calling… Jesus is pressing into your life.
The answer you’ve needed all along is standing right in front of you, His name is JESUS!
by Caleb Gordon | Nov 6, 2014
I woke up with this verse on my heart.
‘Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!’ -2 Cor. 13:5
I grew up in the church. My dad is a pastor. I have been around the church world my entire life. I went to camp; I went to youth retreats; I walked to the front of a church; I prayed prayers…I did all that stuff.
It was not until the summer of 1998 that it truly connected, and made sense. The pastor was preaching out of this text:
‘Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!’ -2 Cor. 13:5
‘TEST YOURSELF.’
Then he went to the following text….
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. – Matt. 23:27
Jesus was talking to ‘Christian’ people in this text. Jesus was talking to me.
I had the mental argument/fight in my head. You’re a good dude. You don’t need to be worried about this. You’re good enough.
Then the Holy Spirit would say ‘Caleb…you need to repent, you need JESUS!’
I came to realize that I was full of dead man’s bones…sure I LOOKED like I had it figured out…but I was only fooling myself and the people around me. The truth was I. was. lost.
I. WAS. Dead.
See what we have done in our country is we’ve fooled folks into believing that if they go to church a few time when they were kids, (maybe even while they are adults) and say a prayer that this will secure them a spot in heaven. That is a false sense of security.
David Platt says…
According to research almost four out of every five Americans identify themselves as Christians…But in this group of self proclaimed Christians, less than half of them are involved in church on a weekly basis. Less than half of them believe the Bible is true. An overwhelming majority of them don’t have a biblical view of the world around them. So researchers went even deeper then to distinguish men and women who are ‘born again Christians,’ as if there’s any other kind of Christian. But these are people who say they’ve made a personal commitment to Jesus, they believe they’ll go to heaven, because they’ve accepted Jesus as their savior.
And according to research nearly half of Americans are ‘born again Christians.’ But you look at this group of ‘born again Christians’ and researchers found that their beliefs and lifestyles and virtually indistinguishable from the world around them. Many ‘born again Christians’ believe their works can earn them a place in heaven. Others think that Christians and Muslims worship the same god. Some believe that Jesus sinned while He was on Earth. And an ever increasing number of ‘born again Christians‘ just describe themselves as marginally committed to Jesus.
So people you can use data like this to conclude that Christians are really not that different from the rest of the world. But I don’t think that interpretation of that research is accurate. I think the one thing that’s abundantly clear from those statistics is that there are a whole lot of people in our country who think that they are Christians, but they are not. There are scores of people—here and around the world who culturally distinguish themselves as Christians and biblically are not followers of Christ.”
This was me.
I was that guy who thought because my dad and mom were leaders in the church I was golden. I thought I was totally fine. I thought because I was involved in a youth group I was OK. I thought because I knew some Bible verses that I was going to make it. I thought because I had my name on a Sunday school role that I was in the clear. But in reality I was in deep weeds. I was a hell-bound religious man.
God’s Word revealed my brokenness and sinfulness. It revealed my game playing. It revealed my attempt to justify myself…and when I truly examined myself…I realized I needed a savior. I needed to be brought to life.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. – Matt 23:27
Once I realized I was dead…I found comfort in this… (Romans 5:6-11 )
I think a lot of people in church are doing this very thing. They look like they have it figured out. They talk like they have it figured out. But in reality they are only fooling themselves.
Jesus said to examine ourselves. Ask yourself these questions:
- Are you MORE in love with Jesus today than you were a year ago?
- Are you more committed to the cause of the Gospel of Jesus Christ than you were 5 years ago?
- Does sin bother you, I’m not talking about OTHER people’s sin. I’m talking about YOUR sin. Does it bother you?
If you answer NO to any of those questions above I think you might want to look at Luke 14:25-35
I would much rather have someone who wrestled with this idea, and know for certain that they were saved…than to walk through life in a fog of false security due to their accomplishments and find out that hell was now their home.
God has called us to examine ourselves. Please do that today!
Jesus loves you, and he want you! You need to do is REPENT. God promises he will forgive you!
by Caleb Gordon | Oct 13, 2014
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 2 Peter 1:3
We are in a strange place in our culture.
There are a lot of churches that say in their mission statement that they really want to help change the world.
I know a lot of Christians who say they want to change the world…but when opportunities come we shrink away.
I can think of at least four times last week where I could have shared my faith with someone who I knew was lost, but I did not.
WHY?
I mean I believe with every fiber of my being, that Jesus is the one who could totally transform and revolutionize their lives. Why am I silent?
I’m so guilty of doing just this very thing: Having a desire to change the world, but not really wanting to act on that desire. How horrible is that?
I mean, come on! God has granted me everything I need when it comes to knowing about ‘life and godliness’ …why in the world do I not yell it from the tops of building that I have the answer? It’s gotta start somewhere…
I really want to change the world. But how can I do that? Most people think that when it comes to changing the world we must go to Africa or some other country in order for that to happen. Actually, it needs to start in my circle of influence. It needs to start with people I know. I need to share the Gospel with people I’m around and let it build and go out from there!
I actually need to show people I love them, rather than just saying it. This is easier said than done, nevertheless I need to begin here and actually invest in peoples lives with my life, so that they can see the love of Jesus Christ rather than just hear about it.
I need to extend a helping hand rather than a judgmental hand, not saying that we excuse sin, but we need come to realize that we are all sinners, and we all need to find the grace and mercy of our Savior and our Lord by confessing and repenting of our sins. If Christians were more concerned with people’s futures rather than their pasts, the church would be more likely to make a lasting and ETERNAL impact on their lives.
Pray for me as I walk in and through this.
I don’t just want to love an idea…I want to live that idea out in my everyday life!