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The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood Slavery is a word that carries with it images of a blight on our history as Americans. Slaves own nothing, for they are owned. They are literally held in bondage to another owner's will. They have no real decision making power. No ability to buy, sell, or trade. They have no ability to leverage their will on anything. In the New Testament, Paul uses the same word to describe followers of Christ. Slaves. When you decided to become a follower of Jesus, you became a "slave" to God and His righteousness (Romans 6). Here's the ironic X-factor of slavery in God's eyes: when you are bound to Christ, you become chained to freedom. He is your owner, and your owner has set you free from the imprisonment created by a heart that was once bent toward self-destruction. A follower of Christ, a true follower, a slave, still understands that he owns nothing. Understands that he still has a Master, and that his Master makes all the decisions. The difference is, those who are in bondage to Christ have been given the gift of being bound to the heart of God so that they are not bound to being tossed any which way the master of this world chooses them to go. We are bound to freedom, for it is truth that has set us free. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. - Jesus www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com
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The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood
A few days ago my (5) year old son Cole and I went to our first baseball game by ourselves. We've been to several so far, but this one was just us, and it was great. Quick aside ... Nashville Sounds, the Triple A affiliate of the Brewers, down by 2, bottom of the 9th, 2 balls, 2 strikes, 2 outs, 2 men on ... first baseman Joe Koshansky goes yard with a walk off homer. Stadium went nuts! The greatest thing for me was not just the Sounds glorious ending - it was actually getting to see one of my all-time favorite baseball players in person. Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg (Chicago Cubs), most likely the greatest 2nd baseman of all time, (9) consecutive Gold Gloves, is now the Skipper for the Iowa Cubs. About halfway through the game I noticed something. Sandberg ran on and off the field each time he came out of the dugout. Then I began to notice the rest of the team. Every player, every coach, hustled. Every player played with honor in some really small ways that you had to be looking for to notice. What really stood out to me was that each Cubs player wore their sox at the same height. None of this pants on the ground mess, no one player doing his own thing. What Sandberg has done with his men is not just tell them what he expects ... he models it for them. He holds himself to the standards of the men he leads every day. He leads with class. Class is a forgotten concept, yet Sandberg proves to us all that leading with class can be done. If we as men want to lead other men, we must model it, and modeling it is far more than "walking the walk" ... it's about your convictions saturating your soul to the point that everyone around you is affected by who you are and how you live. Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ. - Apostle Paul 1 Corithians 11:1 Extra Credit: if you loved the way #23 played the game, read his induction speech to the Hall of Fame. It's amazing. Ryne Sandberg Hall of Fame Speech. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood Failures do not measure a man. Failures may measure a man's decisions, but failures in and of themselves are nothing more than pathways to success in many cases; because, failures can often teach you more about yourself, and about God's nature, than successes are able to simply because failures force you to stop and think it through. Spiritually speaking, my life has grown very little in times where the skids are greased with oils of gladness due to the blue sky I may be under at the moment. Yet, when the sled comes to a halt because the skids are dry and the heart is broken from current circumstances, it's in those seasons where God has my full attention. Failures do not measure a man ... especially when that man is one who gets up from the deck and presses forward. In fact, pressing on is exactly what God intended us to do, because pressing on is the righteous action. It's spiritually "unnatural" for a man to go down and stay down. Rising up to face the future is where we find God's great grace. Faithfully moving forward is the actual stage where the journey is really meant to play out, for it's in that journey that we discover just how big this God of ours truly is ... yesterday, today, and forever. When men fall down, do they not get up? When a man turns away, does he not return? - Jeremiah 8:4 www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood
Reconciliation. It's a tough word. It's tougher than tough when you're the one who has been wronged. When you are wronged, you get angry. Anger is a natural human emotion. Every good Christian gets angry, and there is not one thing ... not one thing ... wrong with getting angry. The "wrong" comes in what you do with the anger. The storm of problems arrive when you give yourself permission to keep that anger inside your heart. That's the difference, you see, because there's a difference between getting angry and being an angry person. People are people. People are going to let you down. People are going to wrong you. It's what happens when you live life on this side of Heaven. On this side of Heaven, life isn't perfect, and we shouldn't expect it to be. On this side of Heaven, imperfect people act imperfectly. And that's why reconciliation is crucial to your personal survival. When you do not reconcile, when you choose to feast on wrongs done to you, it's you that ends up starving. God has given you a new life through Christ. God has called you to be reconciled to Him, and He has also called you to carry on the message of reconciliation simply by the way you live every day. Why reconcile? It's what people do when they know what it means themselves to be forgiven. "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation." - 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood
"Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." - Romans 8:1 None. Ever. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood There are many things that I "live for" which make life so sweet that I can't imagine life without them. Yet, if I were forced to give up so many of these little things, the last one to go ... the last one I'd cling to with a white-knuckled grip ... would be turkey hunting. Turkey hunting is a little thing, not a big thing. I know that. I'd never choose to hear the thunder of a gobble over the thundering voice of God, nor would I choose all the times I've slipped through the dogwoods and sounds of singing birds welcoming in the spring in order to set up on a tom over against spending time with my wife and son. It's just a little thing, but man do I love it. So if I had to let every small thing go, turkey hunting would most certainly be the last. I've learned so much about life, and life in pursuit of Christ, from my spring-time matches with the elusive feathered warrior. Not long ago, while filming a hunt with one of my greatest soul brothers, Steve Chapman, we ran up on a bird that is what I have come to call a Hollywood bird. He's just dying to be on camera. The hunt would have been over in 5 minutes after he flew down from his nightly roost, yet it took about 20 minutes before Chap was able to pull the trigger. The cause for the extra 15 minutes was a box wire fence. We didn't know it was there, but after killing the bird, we realized that he was searching all that time for a way through the fence so he could get to this sweet, sexy, long legged fantasy locked in his brain which was actually me singing words of deception from a mouth call. While shooting the post-hunt segments, Steve and I determined that this gobbler's barrier, the fence, wasactually his best friend. He spent 15 minutes determined to find a way through, around, and yet, in the end, flying over that fence to get to the thing he wanted so badly. That fence was, in fact, his best friend because it would have kept him alive had he stopped trying so hard to find a way to get past it. Many times a man chooses a path, only to find constant resistance once he goes down it. It's certainly true that sometimes such situations call for nothing more than sheer persistence in order to experience the glory at the end of the line; however, be sure to check your motives for wanting to run that path in the first place. It could be that God has placed barriers of resistance in your journey because He never wanted you there from the beginning. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood
Recently, or should I say, yet once again, God has been compressing my heart toward getting into shape. My perpetual joke is that around the age of 29 my metabolism decided it had enough and broke up with me, leaving me for some lean, mean, fighting machine of a 19 year old I'm sure. The thing about your body is that the Scriptures tell us that as followers of Christ, we are His holy temple. In the Old Testament, God resided in the temple. His address was there, and the temple was the place you came to meet with Him. In the new covenant of the New Testament, God's place of residence is in His people. We are His address. As one preacher said, "You can choose whether or not you want to go to church on Sunday, but you have no choice for worship. You worship by how you live every day, 24/7, because Christ lives in you." So my prayer is that God will recalibrate my mind to realize that even what I eat is an act of worship. That doesn't mean that I can't eat a piece of cheesecake, for I am certain that God loves cheesecake. It's not just about what I eat, and it's certainly not about body-worship (some fitness freaks run close to that line for sure). It's about recognizing that I do have a responsibility to present myself, to the best of my ability, as a bodily sacrifice to the Lord. Not to compare my biceps to another man - but to work to present my body ... physically ... to the Lord as an act of worship because He has taken up residence there. What I eat, what I let my eyes fix upon, what I say, even what I think ... is in one form or another ... an act of worship presented to God at the altar of my heart. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. - 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood This time of year I'm on the road quite a bit speaking, so this past Christmas my family got me an iPod Touch. Love it. Use it almost as much as my cell phone sometimes. I've been downloading sermons to it, and it's proven to be a great replacement for missing church so much. Not quite the same as being in church, but I still get to hear the Word this way. So I'm driving down the road listening to this fella and he asks this question, "Where will you be when you get to where you're going?" Can't say why, but that really gripped me. As Amercians, especially American men, we strive hard, and ever harder, all the time. Nothing wrong with that. Yet, the question loomed over me and then morphed a bit as I began to think, "Yeah, not only where will you be when you 'arrive' but 'who' will you be when you get there." A verse that has haunted me for almost a year now is John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." John was being branded as The Man. He was a hot marketing commodity in the prophetic community, and when Jesus came on the scene, people began to ask John why Jesus' ministry seemingly had more followers than that of John. The wilderness baptist was quick to let the world know that the greater Brand was fixing His iron upon the hearts of His followers, and this was the expected outcome, for John was just a marketing agent for another Man. Promotion is a weird and toxic thing if it's not carefully guarded. In my world, where exposure is a big deal, the product is most often YOU. You are the brand. Even more toxic when not guarded. I am forever drawn to what it means to learn how to find more and more ways to increase Jesus while, as John did, intentionally decrease myself. When I get where I'm going, I want my heart to be as free as John must have felt that day out in the country when he said to the masses, "He who comes from above is above all ..." www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood I listened to a friend of mine preach a message centered around a verse that is familiar to us all. "Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." (Psalm 119:105) He told me that quite often he'll ask his church, "Where are we going in our journey with God?" - and they respond - "We don't know!" It's not that my soul brother is trying to communicate that as followers of Christ we should neglect any attempt to plan. I think, in fact, I know, that my preacher friend is on target with his theology because the truth of the matter is we never really know where God is taking us. We can plan all we want, but how many of you reading this Man Minute today are in a job, a church, a relationship, a situation of life ... that you never, ever thought you'd be in today? I can say "amen" to that. When I signed on with Jesus, I never dreamed I'd be doing what I'm doing today. Never forget, friend, that being a Jesus follower means that you and I are ... followers. We don't lead God. He leads us. The older I get, the more I value a good plan. A good plan has kept me on target in many, many life situations. However, I never want to mistake "maturity" for what is actually a manic form of insecurity in being afraid to change courses simply because I have no clue what that course may bring. My wife, Michelle, is a self-professed, high octane control freak who values a secure daily plan. She taught me a great spiritual truth at a time in her life when she had no control whatsoever. I came home one day and she said, "You know, I've been reading Psalm 119. I crave security, but God has shown me that a lamp to my feet is not a spotlight shining miles down the road. It's a light to the path just ahead of my next step." Oh Great God ... deliver all of us from the addiction of wanting to know what You have coming in our future. Heaven is our home. The rest is just a journey. Teach us to have fun as we walk along the path. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com The Man Minute sixty second investments in Christ-like manhood Fast forward to your retirement party. People are shaking your hand, telling you they'll miss you. Saying things like, "You were the best in the world at what you did. Hey, do you remember that time ..." Fast forward again to the Monday after that party. Your colleagues at work are moving on as usual. Most likely, your replacement was already in place before you left. You went from having a host of people around you, and now, on Monday, it's just you. So the question is, if in life we spend all of our heart, soul, and time pouring ourselves into an organization, and yet those people are not going to be there for us in the end, then who deserves the best of our heart, soul, and our time?? It's a sad reality that many a man invests the "best" of himself into people who never intended to share the rest of their lives with him. And in doing so, he burns the very people that love him the most ... his family. You can be replaced by your employer by the end of the day, but you are irreplaceable to your family. Invest in those things which bring God the most glory and bring those around you the most joy. www.jasoncruisespeaks.com and www.outdoorministrynetwork.com |
Jason CruiseJason Cruise is the founder of Mission. Mission was created to "vindicate the fatherless" in a country known as Moldova. To learn more go to www.themissionvision.net Jason is a well known speaker traveling across the country sharing his love for Christ at wildgame dinners and conferences. Jason has created many valuable resources for the outdoorsmen to take them deeper into their walk with their Creator. These items include DVD's, Bibles, and Bible studies. Archives
July 2014
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