Nailed in Place

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On my first visit to Malaysia I spoke at a businessmen’s breakfast and shared about God’s call for men to be men. A learned man in the audience was so touched by my message that he asked me to take his speaking engagement at a luncheon that day and to share the same message.

One point I made strongly in that message was about being “nailed in place”. This issue comes from places where men were commissioned to be men. It is used when David commissioned Solomon to be king. It occurred when God called Joshua to replace Moses.

The actual term in the English translations is the call to “be strong”. The original Hebrew word, chazaq, means to “fasten” something in place or to take hold of something with no intention of letting it go. I use the term “nailed in place” to emphasize that real men, men who are fulfilling their godly destiny, do not change. Real men are nailed in place in terms of their commitment, faithfulness, determination to trust God, choice of values, and so on.

Western culture’s values are constantly shifting. Godly men do not change their values with the culture. What was evil and repulsive thirty years ago, is still evil and repulsive to them. What they stood for when they were full of zeal, is what they still stand for today.

Sadly, Christian men have allowed standards to crumble around them. What they once thought inappropriate, they now allow. What was once deemed offensive is now tolerated, or even promoted.

Western culture has slid downhill in succeeding generations because men who should have been nailed in place just kept stepping backwards with each new onslaught. Rather than holding ground they gave ground. Instead of seizing and fastening upon unchangeable things they went along for the ride and never regained the things they gave up.

It is time for a new generation of men to rise. It is time for men who will be “strong”, because they have fastened themselves onto things that they will not give up. It is time for such men to not only stand firm, but to work together to build stability and godly depth into their society.

I expect, however, that repentance might be a good place to start. Something like, “Lord God, forgive me for being weak in the knees and for compromising things which You want me to hold firm.”

Doing business with God is a powerful way to become strong. Then you can lend a hand to others who are looking for a mentor – someone who will stand up for what they believe. 

Your Family Score Card

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Keeping out of the public eye is a major challenge for celebrities, politicians and notable people. The Paparazzi love to snoop into the private and personal lives of well known people. Many people deeply resent this intrusion and the incredible pressure it brings.

Guy Sebastian went from relative obscurity to international fame due to winning the first Australian Idol competition. A few months later he was travelling in a car with his uncle and was spotted by people in other vehicles. The attention he drew was embarrassing and intrusive. He slumped out of sight and remained hidden for most of the journey. A man was once approached by a security officer in a store, because he appeared to be heavily disguised. The man turned out to be Michael Jackson, just wanting to go and do what normal people could do freely, but which his popularity made impossible.

While that kind of popularity really cramps a person’s lifestyle, there is another scrutiny of each person’s life that we need to be aware of. God is watching us and our family. In fact, your family is on your personal score card.

Consider these examples from the Bible. When a man was being considered for leadership in the church his wife was to be evaluated. She was to be a submissive wife who did nothing to ruin his reputation. She was to be a sober and reliable woman. The man’s children were to be obedient to him, so it could be said that the man properly ruled his whole household.

The Apostle John also pointed out that it is not what people declare to be true that should be believed, but what you see them do in their family life. If a man says “I love God” but hates his brother the man is a liar. Family life is a more true reference point than the grand statements which people make.

So, don’t think you can leave your family life behind and go off to earn your own fame and reputation independently. That doesn’t work with God. God knows if you are jealous, resentful, spiteful, intolerant, unforgiving, manipulative, contentious or the like. God sees what you do in the privacy of your own home, and He remembers how you were in your childhood family. Your family is a big part of your personal score-card.

I like to put it this way. Your family is like the early childhood lessons of your education. If you fail in these earliest of classes then you never really graduate. All the lessons that you do from then on are compromised by the failures of those early classes.

If you resent your parents, despise your sibling, won’t forgive a family member, compete and dominate in your home, then you have failed the earliest lessons in life. You will go on to do those same things in your work, marriage and future family.

You should have learned to forgive, love, care for others, be generous, suffer loss, trust God no matter what, be at peace with all people, and so on.

Did you fail the earliest grades of life? Have you come out of your childhood with bad responses? If so then you need to go back to those things and put them right. Ask God to forgive you. Put your heart right toward your parents, siblings and extended family.

While your family is on your score-card, it’s a score-card you are able to change. You can put things right and change your personal record, turning ‘F’s into High Distinctions.

How’s your Family Score-Card looking today?

Godly Seed – with a Heart After God

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Parents have the challenge of raising “Godly Seed“. Each child is to become a Child of God, by faith in Christ and a life of godliness, worthy of God as their Father. Malachi 2:15 instructs us that “God created marriage because He wants GODLY SEED.”

“The issue of “seed” is significant, since a seed REPRODUCES itself in succeeding generations. Just as an apple tree creates new apple trees through succeeding generations, “godly seed” will produce new godly seed through succeeding generations. God is not looking for “good kids”, “nice people”, “good citizens”, “successful people” or any such thing. God is looking for “Godly Seed“!!!

So, what is a “godly seed” that will produce another “godly seed”? The answer lies in the “heart“. Godly Seed children have a “heart after God“. David the shepherd boy is said to have a “Heart after God’s own heart” Acts 13:22. Don’t mistake godliness for certain prescribed behaviours. Godliness is not a ritual, liturgy or external display of approved actions. Godliness is in the heart, or it does not exist at all.

Godliness reflects a relationship with God, based on faith in God and trust in the Salvation that is ours through Jesus Christ. It involves a “heart after God”, which longs for God’s presence and operates in the fear of God.

Parents, your challenge is to create godly seed. But before you go off putting legalistic strictures on your child, so they behave in a worthy manner, stop and recognise that your focus is not the actions, but the child’s heart. And a word of inspiration for you – Don’t expect to guide a child’s heart toward God if you have not already won the child’s heart.