I thought you should see this story

Governor signs teen tanning bill

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_7732/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=f3spESBI

Sent from my iPhone

10 Things that 10 Men can do to change their City

My Pastor made a reference this Sunday to how Abraham tried to save Sodom from destruction. Abraham bartered God down to finding 10 righteous men in exchange for saving the city. As you remember Sodom was a very wicked city, not unlike some of the cities in which we live now. God said that He wouldn't destroy the city if there were 10 Godly men there.

There weren't.

The City was destroyed.

My questions is this: what could 10 Godly men have done?

They could have saved their city.

So in response to this, I want to challenge some men to step up and lead in a way that saves their city.  We as Christian men should be doing what we can to restore our city, not to destroy it.  We should be leading in a way that furthers the Gospel not hinders it.  For far too long we have sat passively by and watched as our cities crumbled while we did nothing.  We must not allow this to happen.

10 Things that 10 Men can do in order to change their City:

1.  Love Jesus.

2.  Worship Jesus.

3.  Love their wife.

4.  Serve their wife.

5.  Love their children.

6.  Keep their word.

7.  Serve their Church.

8.  Work hard at their job.

9.  Read their Bible.

10.  Hang out with other Godly men.

If 10 men could have saved Sodom, imagine what 10 men could do today!

Just think about it.

adam.

Where have the Heroes Gone?

2 Samuel 23:

 

These are the names of David's mighty men: 
      Josheb-Basshebeth, ^{b]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[b]} a Tahkemonite, ^{c]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[c]} was chief of the Three; he raised his spear against eight hundred men, whom he killed ^{d]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[d]} in one encounter.

 ⁹ Next to him was Eleazar son of Dodai the Ahohite. As one of the three mighty men, he was with David when they taunted the Philistines gathered at Pas Dammim ^{e]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[e]} for battle. Then the men of Israel retreated, ¹⁰ but he stood his ground and struck down the Philistines till his hand grew tired and froze to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day. The troops returned to Eleazar, but only to strip the dead.

 ¹¹ Next to him was Shammah son of Agee the Hararite. When the Philistines banded together at a place where there was a field full of lentils, Israel's troops fled from them. ¹² But Shammah took his stand in the middle of the field. He defended it and struck the Philistines down, and the LORD brought about a great victory.

 ¹³ During harvest time, three of the thirty chief men came down to David at the cave of Adullam, while a band of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. ¹⁴ At that time David was in the stronghold, and the Philistine garrison was at Bethlehem. ¹⁵ David longed for water and said, "Oh, that someone would get me a drink of water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem!" ¹⁶ So the three mighty men broke through the Philistine lines, drew water from the well near the gate of Bethlehem and carried it back to David. But he refused to drink it; instead, he poured it out before the LORD. ¹⁷ "Far be it from me, O LORD, to do this!" he said. "Is it not the blood of men who went at the risk of their lives?" And David would not drink it. 
      Such were the exploits of the three mighty men.

 ¹⁸ Abishai the brother of Joab son of Zeruiah was chief of the Three. ^{f]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[f]} He raised his spear against three hundred men, whom he killed, and so he became as famous as the Three. ¹⁹ Was he not held in greater honor than the Three? He became their commander, even though he was not included among them.

 ²⁰ Benaiah son of Jehoiada was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. ²¹ And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. ²² Such were the exploits of Benaiah son of Jehoiada; he too was as famous as the three mighty men. ²³ He was held in greater honor than any of the Thirty, but he was not included among the Three. And David put him in charge of his bodyguard.

 I have recently been looking back at the Old Testament and studying what kind of man David was.  We all remember him for killing Goliath (probably when he was around 15), but after that he became an outlaw.  He was going to be the next King but before Saul was removed he was on the run.  And as he was living in the wilderness, men came and pledged their allegiance.

Heroes of old.  Warriors.  Men.  They all came and fought and risked their lives for David.  David was the kind of men that other men could follow.  He was the kind of man that men would go to war with.  He was a hero.  As I look at the Church I see so many weak men who would no more go to battle for anything than they would go get a manicure.  We are sissifying the Church...

Where are the Men?  Where are the Warriors?  Where are the Heroes?

It seems they are dying. 

Greater Than; Less Than (John 3:30)

John 3:30, "He must increase, I must decrease."

Very few verses in Scripture present a better example of humility than this one. Here the Baptist is discussing with the Jews the fact that Jesus and his disciples are baptizing more than John is...typical of what Churches do today...we are never happy when others are doing better than we are...

But in response to this, John explains that Jesus is to increase...What does this mean for us today? John the Baptist came to bear witness to Jesus. He came to prepare the way for Jesus. John was the guy who sort of gave some legitimacy to Jesus' early ministry. People came from all over to hear him preach and, now, he prepares that he must decrease.

John the Baptist is declaring that his ministry is not as important as Jesus' ministry. John is stating that Jesus is to be made much of. John is expressing his desire to humble himself so that Jesus can do what he came to earth to do. Now that the true "light" has come, the "lamp" has no more work to do!

What must we do to Decrease:

We must understand that it is never about us.

JTB understood that. The Jews were coming to him to "warn" him that Jesus was gathering a crowd. His followers were growing. He was gaining influence. They thought that John was going to be upset at that. They thought that John was some sort of insicure prophet. But he wasnt. He understood that his ministry was not his own, his ministry was simply to prepare the way for Jesus. Our life is not our own. Our ministry is not our own. We simply live to prepare the way for Jesus.

We must understand that He is greater than us.

John knew that Jesus was the Son of God and deserved take the back-seat for no one. Jesus was the Light that the world needed to see, and because of that John didnt want to get in the way of that. Although John has an icredible ministry in the area, what was needed was the salvation that Jesus brought and because of that he knew that it was time for him to take a back-seat to Jesus.

We must understand that others are more important than us

Because Jesus (through his disciples) were baptizing others, we must understand that they were finding what they needed. John knew that he was not the answer to their problems...Jesus was. Because of that John needed to let Jesus' ministry grow. We must always understand that we will not always have the answers but we know the One that does.

He must increase.

We must decrease.

When that happens, people come to know Jesus.

Discipleship According to Karl Barth

I recently picked up The Call to Discipleship by Karl Barth. I knew that he was an ifluential Theologian, but had never actually read any of his work. I was blown away by his deep insight in the area of discipleship. I want to quote a lengthy passage from it, due to the fact that I could not do any better.

Discipleship is not the recognition and
adoption of a programme, ideal or
law, or the attempt to fulfill it.
It is not the execution of a plan of
individual or social construction
imparted and commended by Jesus. If the
word "discipleship" is in any
way used to denoted something general and not a cocrete and therefore a
concretely filled-out event between Jesus and this
particular person, the
command "Follow me" can only be described as quite
meaningless. For
the only possible content of this command is that this or
that specific
person to whom it is given should come to and follow, and be with,
the
person the one who gives it. In this one, and the relationship that it
establishes between him and the one he calls, a good deal more is
involved. But there is nothing apart from him and this
relationship...what
Jesus demands is trust in himself and therefore, in the
concrete form that this
involves, trust in God. He demands faith in
the form of obedience;
obedience to himself. This is the commitment to
him that constitutes the
content of the call to disicpleship...his summons
is, however, that they should
give to him and therefore to God a true and
serious and total faith: not a mere
acceptance of the fact that he is their
Lord nor an idle confidence that they
are helped by him; but this acceptance
and confidence as a faith that is lived
out and practiced by them; a faith
that is proved to be a true and serious faith
by the fact that it includes
at once their obedience...Faith is not obedience,
but as obedience is not
obedience without faith, faith is not faith without
obedience.

From The Call to Discipleship (Pages
12-17).