We’ve raised $193,328.53 of our $225,000.00 goal. That’s 85%!
As the men go, so goes the culture. The degradation of women, the fatherless culture, and the breakdown of families mark an alarming state of manhood in our culture today. We want to help build Godly, responsible, noble men in urban culture. Man Up will be ReachLife’s next major curriculum project. It is currently in the research phase.
Gifts earmarked for ManUp! will be set aside specifically towards a groundbreaking curriculum aimed at building up Godly men in the urban community.
Today a friend of mine graciously gave me a copy of Tim Keller’s book, Counterfeit Gods. Normally I don’t do this, but I was so intrigued with the title of the Epilogue (Finding and Replacing Your Idols) that I started reading there first. Keller poses one main question in this section, namely, “How do we discern our idols?” Here’s the outline of his very helpful and very challenging response:
1. Look at your imagination. What do you think about in the privacy of your heart?
2. Look at how you spend your money. Patterns of spending reveal idols.
3. Look at what you are really living for. What is your real–not professed–god?
4. Look at your most uncontrollable emotions. When you pull your emotions up by the roots, you will often find your idols clinging to them.
Please take a second and check out Katalyst new album Death by Design.
Die If I Have To and I Got Proof produced by your brother Alex Medina! Love the direction he took on the tracks. We are currently working on the Die If I Have To Remixes album. Be on the look out for that but in the meantime check out:
So a brief introduction of myself before I get into the good stuff. My name is Kenneth Tejeda and I’m Alex Medina’s favorite cousin! I’m currently a Pre-Seminary major at Cedarville University, while I’m not sure what it is that God is calling to specifically in the future, I know for certain that he is calling me to some kind of full-time ministry. So be in prayer for me while God carries out his plans and I try to live in accordance to the plan he has set out for me.
Alright, so three weeks ago I was playing basketball and ended up tearing my ACL in one of the games. I’m due for surgery at the beginning of May when I’m done with the school year, so till then I’ll be stuck in my dorm with a whole lot of time on my hands. At first I hated that I couldn’t go ball out but then realized how much of a blessing it was. I’d been struggling with finding time to sit and meditate on the Word and just spend time in communication with God, so whenever I did get to throw a prayer up it would always be for God to open up some time for me to spend time with him, well he did just that! (HA!) Well it truly has been amazing and today I’d like to share something that is heavy on my heart and what I believe God is calling many of us to, which is Singleness.
I was raised in a family that is very family oriented and everyone is pretty much married or in some kind of relationship. So the pressure is there to find a mate that not only meets your standards, but your family’s as well. Then comes our cultures views of singleness from the view of a man/woman. From a man’s point of view, a single man in our culture is considered as possibly homosexual or just not dominant in his masculinity. But as a man/woman of God what does it mean to be single. Is it good or is it bad? The answer to this question is found in 1 Corinthians 7:7, “I wish that all men were [single] as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” It is clearly a gift from God, but how is that so? In my opinion singleness provides the opportunity to fully devote yourself to God and what he is or has called you to. That isn’t to take away from marriage and the beauty that is found in it, but I as a young adult who is single and still has plenty of time to find someone to marry, I am currently devoted to singleness and devoted myself completely to Christ and the ministry that he began on this planet and left to his bride, the church. There is so much more that I can say about this topic, but what I want for you to take away from this blog is that those of you who are single, be encouraged because you are blessed to be single and given the freedom to give yourself completely to Christ without the stress of a relationship/marriage/family, and those of you who have the gift of marriage, take full responsibility and care of what you have been given, because you are a picture of Christ and his bride, the church. So if you’re either married to someone that God has provided for you or married to Christ and his church, know that we will only find true joy and peace in the love that is found in a relationship with the Almighty God.
Be Blessed!
Ken
**Something more to help you sleep better at night (Please note sarcasm): Margaret Clarkson has no doubts in her own mind after six decades of singleness: “I may not blame my singleness on God. Singleness, like homosexuality, suffering, death, and all else that is less than perfect in this world, was not God’s original plan for his creation. It was one of the many results of man’s fall.” Thus Jesus’ singleness would not be sin but a participation in the calamities of the fallen world, like his mortality.”
