by Caleb Gordon | Sep 11, 2018
Depression and anxiety seem to be ruling the modern world today. Look at these stats. (source )
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
GAD affects 6.8 million adults, or 3.1 percent of the U.S. population, yet only 43.2 percent are receiving treatment.
Women are twice as likely to be affected as men. GAD often co-occurs with major depression.
Panic Disorder (PD)
PD affects 6 million adults, or 2.7 percent of the U.S. population. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men.
Social Anxiety Disorder
SAD affects 15 million adults, or 6.8 percent of the U.S. population. SAD is equally common among men and women and typically begins around age 13.
According to a 2007 ADAA survey, 36 percent of people with social anxiety disorder report experiencing symptoms for 10 or more years before seeking help.
Specific Phobias
Specific phobias affect 19 million adults, or 8.7 percent of the U.S. population. Women are twice as likely to be affected as men.
Symptoms typically begin in childhood; the average age-of-onset is 7 years old.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are closely related to anxiety disorders, which some may experience at the same time, along with depression.
It’s pretty clear our culture is struggling with fear and depression. We’ve clearly defined that there is a problem, but the question really is how in the world do we fight these things? How can we overcome these monsters?
Glad you asked!
Bottom line is this! We have to understand God better. I know that sounds like a really lazy answer, but in reality, if we understand what God has intended for us. He is our heavenly Father. More than that, he’s a PERFECT father who is not lacking in any area. Look at the following verses in Matthew 6:
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
You see what happened in this text. God is telling us here that if He does take care of grass and birds, who are simply just His creation how much more is He going to take care of his CHILDREN?
We have to know and trust what God is doing in our lives. And so often, I think that because we are looking at the wrong person we tend to get depressed. When we start looking at Jesus and stop looking at what’s going on around us things start to look at those things differently. When start viewing this life as a temporary thing and not an eternal thing. We start to change our actions and the things that we are wanting to chase after when we view Jesus as the end all be all.
When we view Jesus as our life everything else that might sparkle or seem horrible has a different appearance, because the KING is all we see.
If we are involved in His mission of spreading the His message to the people around us we will not have time to live in anxiety. The answer to understanding how to fight depression is realizing and understand that Jesus has given us everything we will ever need for life and Godliness.
“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 Pet. 1:3).
I mean I’ve struggled with depression. I really have. But the moment I got my eyes on the right Person, the other person’s issues did not seem that monumental.
Focus on JESUS! I mean it. Get alone. Spend time with him. Read his word regularly. Everything else will fall into place!
“But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you,” (Matt. 6:33).
by Caleb Gordon | Aug 23, 2018
I can admit, from time to time, I struggle with lust. I am a guy. Most guys have this kind of struggle, but here is the thing; it’s not an excuse.
I don’t get a pass on this. Just because I’m a guy does not give me the liberty to do what I want.
I was reading this verse on a recent morning:
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.
“But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:16-21).
God has provided you and me THE way to outrun and destroy this thing called lust (and you can put whatever else you’d like to put in there – anger, impurity, strife, etc… SIN IN GENERAL).
God’s Word is a sword that can defeat and destroy strongholds.
So, how do you and I do this? The answer is found in Eph. 6:10-18:
The Whole Armor of God
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints.”
Everything in this text is vital to overcoming sin in your life. You cannot win if you leave anything out of this. You have to be totally prepared for the war that is taking place in your life every moment of every day. The devil does not give up, neither does your sinful nature.
So if you want to walk in the spirit, it’s going to take some preparation, some study, some prayer, and some commitment.
Make these verses your anthem.
Stop making excuses and begin to lay a battle plan for victory.
Ready yourself, by reading, praying and walking.
by Caleb Gordon | Aug 15, 2018
The amount of stories that have come out in the last few months about church leaders who are either been caught with a cart full of money or caught up in some type of sexual scandal has truly been jaw-dropping.
It got me thinking. Why is this happening? These are spiritual leaders. Why are they giving in? After all, in 2 Cor. 10:4-5 it says “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God…” So why does it seem that we are NOT doing that?
I am afraid we’ve wandered into an area of comfort and familiarity that has blinded us to the truth.
I think that maybe many are experiencing what Hebrews 5:11 calls “Becoming dull of hearing,” so many of us are just going through the motions of church ministry that we have lost the wonder and awe of who God is.
When is the last time you took a moment to look at the majesty of who God truly is? When was the last time you viewed God the way Isaiah viewed Him in Isaiah 6:1-6? When we view God this way, we’re not going to play with the sin that is around us. We are going to see it for what it is, and we’re going to run from it, rather than playing with it.
The devil wants to take us out. He does not care how he does it, as long as he can do it. He is a patient dude. He is willing to wait as long as he can to rip you apart. In fact, 1 Peter 5:8 says that he is like a lion looking for someone to devour. A lion when hunting will take as long as it takes to hunt its prey and will pounce at just the right moment to devour that prey. The enemy wants to do this to us. This is why we have to be aware of what’s going on around us.
Think about this, we are new creations. We’ve been recused. So because of that Colossians 3 has given us the mandate to get our eyes off of ourselves and look at the majesty of Jesus Christ. When this happens we will kill our flesh. We will put our sinful nature to death because we are alive in Jesus.
So if you’re a pastor or church leader, read Colossians 3 with a fresh set of eyes and understand who you are and make the commitment to look at Jesus over everything else. Look at Him as the majestic Savior that He is, and the lusts of this present world will start to lose their savor.
“Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).
by Caleb Gordon | Jun 15, 2018
John Eldredge says that every man has one major heart level question, “Do I have it? Do I have what it takes to be the man I am dreaming of becoming?”
Every boy when they are little has a dream of being epic. Think of the games we play and think of the things we, as boys, dream up.
My son Noah loves wrestling. He loves the WWF/WWE. I have no idea where it came from, but it’s there. He loves the BIG guys. The massive strong giants that enter the ring. He says “Dad, I want to be that big.”
Every boy wants to be strong. I have never met a boy who looked at becoming a fragile weakling that no one respected.
Every boy has a dream of being strong and important. I firmly believe there is nothing wrong with a boy wanting to be strong. In fact, I encourage that in all boys. It’s in our nature to be a defender and strong.
Every little boy has some untamed tendencies, and there is nothing wrong with that. Men have a wild streak in them. They have a sense of adventure that is put in them by God himself. The world does everything in its power to pull that out of boys, and it needs to stay, but it needs to be balanced with love and grace. If you teach a boy to be strong but not to love, he can and will become a tyrant if you’re not careful.
The world is broken. Sin has come in and fractured everything, and often times, those dreams that boys have can become nightmares. You don’t have to look very far. The evidence of this is being played out every single night.
This is why it’s vital that young boys have a Godly influence in their lives. Our society tries to tell you and me that fathers are not needed whatsoever when it comes to influencing children. Women are told “You don’t need a man. You got this.” So we have women who have no desire for a man to be around, and they are encouraged by culture to make this a reality.
So we have no stable true men in the homes, and we can say all day long that men are not needed, but the data that is coming out about fatherlessness in our country is truly heartbreaking:
“Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.
“The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states ‘Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse.’
“Children of single-parent homes are more than twice as likely to commit suicide”
(Source fathers.com).
This data is devastating on a heart-level magnitude. Behind those stats are little boys and little girls with hopes, dreams and desires.
Men are important. We need Godly men to engage and be a part of their children’s lives if we are going to have any hope for the future.
I want to leave you with this story by Fr. Gordon MacRae:
Some years ago, officials at the Kruger National Park and game reserve in South Africa were faced with a growing elephant problem. The population of African elephants, once endangered, had grown larger than the park could sustain. So measures had to be taken to thin the ranks.
A plan was devised to relocate some of the elephants to other African game reserves. Being enormous creatures, elephants are not easily transported. So a special harness was created to air-lift the elephants and fly them out of the park using helicopters.
The helicopters were up to the task, but, as it turned out, the harness wasn’t. It could handle the juvenile and adult female elephants, but not the huge African bull elephants.
A quick solution had to be found, so a decision was made to leave the much larger bulls at Kruger and relocate only some of the female elephants and juvenile males.
The problem was solved. The herd was thinned out, and all was well at Kruger National Park. Sometime later, however, a strange problem surfaced at South Africa’s other game reserve, Pilanesburg National Park, the younger elephants’ new home.
Rangers at Pilanesburg began finding the dead bodies of endangered white rhinoceros. At first, poachers were suspected, but the huge rhinos had not died of gunshot wounds, and their precious horns were left intact. The rhinos appeared to be killed violently, with deep puncture wounds. Not much in the wild can kill a rhino, so rangers set up hidden cameras throughout the park.
The result was shocking. The culprits turned out to be marauding bands of aggressive juvenile male elephants, the very elephants relocated from Kruger National Park a few years earlier.
The young males were caught on camera chasing down the rhinos, knocking them over, and stomping and goring them to death with their tusks. The juvenile elephants were terrorizing other animals in the park as well. Such behavior was very rare among elephants. Something had gone terribly wrong.
Some of the park rangers settled on a theory. What had been missing from the relocated herd was the presence of the large dominant bulls that remained at Kruger. In natural circumstances, the adult bulls provide modeling behaviors for younger elephants, keeping them in line.
Juvenile male elephants, Dr. Horn pointed out, experience “musth,” a state of frenzy triggered by mating season and increases in testosterone. Normally, dominant bulls manage and contain the testosterone-induced frenzy in the younger males. Left without elephant modeling, the rangers theorized, the younger elephants were missing the civilizing influence of their elders as nature and pachyderm protocol intended.
To test the theory, the rangers constructed a bigger and stronger harness, then flew in some of the older bulls left behind at Kruger. Within weeks, the bizarre and violent behavior of the juvenile elephants stopped completely. The older bulls let them know that their behaviors were not elephant-like at all.
In a short time, the younger elephants were following the older and more dominant bulls around while learning how to be elephants.
So, why did I share this? The facts are there. If young men don’t have older Godly men to model true Gospel-centered masculinity for them, we will see the results that are happening currently in our culture. We’ll see young men doing things that destroy rather than build up.
We need Godly fathers (and father figures) to shine a light of hope to a dark and dying world. We need men who love Jesus above everything else and lead their families to the throne of God’s grace. Until this is done, don’t ever expect our world to change, because it won’t.
We need older men to show younger men that, yes they do have it. And the only reason that they have “it” is because Jesus gave it to them as a gift. That will transform the world.
JESUS is the answer!
by Caleb Gordon | May 24, 2018
Every man’s ‘gotta guy’ they know who can help fix their car or build their house or guide their finances. But most men don’t ‘gotta guy’ who can help them win battles for their spiritual health. This has gotta change.
The question I have you is, do you gotta guy? If not, go find someone who can help you to see how to fight your spiritual battles. Yes, it’s that important.
“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16 ESV).
So often we forget that we are in the process of moving out of this place. Every day we are one day closer to leaving the planet. We tend to lose sight as to what is really happening. We get so consumed with the daily pressures and hustles that we oftentimes lose heart in our efforts. We need, more than ever, men who will help each to reach the pinnacle of spiritual healthiness.
You need to step out of your comfort zones and invest in men who are in need. What would it look like if YOU, yes I’m talking to you, stepped up and found a guy who was drowning and you threw him a life jacket?
Now, in order for that to happen, we have to invest in our spiritual well-being. We work hard with consultants and gurus to get us the pinnacles of other parts of our lives, but we neglect our spiritual lives. If you were investing in your spiritual life, just think the kind of impact you could have on the men who were around you. What would it look like if you were the guru? Just think how our churches and our cities would transform.
I’m telling you, there will be a day when we will see everything in a clear light, and we will have wished that we had gone all in when it came to our spiritual healthiness.
It is vital that our spiritual well-being be a top priority. And here is the thing: YOU are the only one who can make it a priority. I read stories in the Bible where men and women encountered by God, and what once kept their attention is now considered as rubble. Why is it that we have trouble seeing this world as rubble? The honest answer is because we are not truly beholding God as they did. If we are honest, we view God as an add-on to our week. He’s not the priority. He’s the afterthought and how we view him is going to truly impact us in the long run.
The moment we begin to see God as He truly is, that will be the moment that our attention will truly shift to what matters most.
Men, I challenge you:
- To invest in your spiritual health. Get around other men who are going to bring out the best in you.
- When you are spiritually healthy, I challenge you to be that ‘gotta guy.’ Be the guy whom other guys look to for help.
Everyone in your radius of influence will benefit when you prioritize your spiritual health and vitality. When you prioritize, you will transform the world.