Please join me at the Brown Family Farm in Wake Forest, NC for the annual Old Fashioned Memorial Day Picnic. Bring the whole family on Monday, May 27! There will be activities for people young and old, including rides in restored military vehicles, hay rides, fun and games, a pie contest, and a special demonstration by Dan the Animal Man. The delicious Carolina Barbecue lunch is free to all who attend.

Veterans Bill Brown, the Price Brothers, and Bill Henderson, and Carlton McCleod, Joshua Harris, and Phil Cochran will be speaking.

Throughout the day, there will be music groups preforming bluegrass music and toe-tapping Gospel hymns. We will conclude the day with a special parade march to honor the veterans, with military vehicles, classic cars, children and adults in period clothing, representing various American wars, and war veterans in uniform.

At 3:00 PM sharp, we will observe “The National Moment of Silence,” where we will be silent after Dr. David Lanier, professor at Southeastern Seminary, and Civil War re-enactor reads a portion of  the casualty list for 2013.

It is always a blessing to find examples of men who finished well. David Livingstone is one of those men. The year before he died, his heart was still burning to obey Christ. On his 59th birthday, this great missionary to Africa made this entry in his journal:

19th March, 1872. Birthday. Lord, send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever any ties save the tie that binds me to Thy heart. My Jesus, my King, my life, my all, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee.

– from DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-1873)

Inscription: “This Engraving, for which I supplied the materials, represents my meeting with Dr. Livingstone at Ujiji, Lake Tanganyika; and is as correct as if the scene had been photographed.” – Henry Morton Stanley

The author of this Life News article concludes with this, “If the USA legalized euthanasia and had a similar killing count, the total number of doctor-administered deaths would be over 300,000 annually!” Christians have a way to think this through via one of the Ten Commandments – “Thou shalt not kill.” It is one of many verses in Scripture where God condemns this practice.

I just returned from the funeral of Howard Phillips, 1941-2013.

It was a rich time to be with the family and to hear well over thirty speeches from friends, family, and fellow workers.

Most people knew Howard as a statesman, but I did not know him that way. I knew him as the father of my friend. Doug spoke often of his father. It seemed to flow out naturally, effortlessly, and randomly – in the stream of consciousness, during private conversations, platform speeches, and casual moments in small, unscheduled collaborations. Boiling it down, he honored, praised, quoted, and told stories of his father. I knew Howard because he was my friend’s father.

I also knew Howard Phillips another way – as a fan of his son. I saw his love for his son on many occasions, since Howard was a regular participant in Doug’s conferences. He adored his son. I walked beside Howard on history tours and sat beside him at conferences. I went to hear him lecture. We were often in the same hotel overnight. Howard was an early riser and so am I. I would get up early and head to the restaurant for a cup of coffee and a newspaper and often Howard would be there, and we would talk over the news. He would often say, “Scott, thanks for being Doug’s friend.” I knew his love for his son was at the bottom of that statement, for he was a father who hoped for loyal friends for his son.

One thing is clear: Howard was a communicative father. What made him different was that he had passion in his heart, and he captured the moment for it. He seized time and used it to teach his children. This marks the difference between great fathers and poor ones. Howard would take command of the moments at the dinner table, on the road, in his office, and use them for  the discipleship of his children. Howard was a busy man, but he had the same twenty-four hours everybody else had. What set him apart was that he took time by the neck and squeezed it for all it was worth. The time that passive men let slip into irrelevant oblivion, Howard filled with content for his children.

He followed the example of the Psalmist who said, “I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old.” This is the essence of some of the great fatherhood passages of Scripture: Psalm 78:1-9, Deuteronomy 6:1-9, Ephesians 6:1-5, Genesis 18:19, and Malachi 4.

After hearing the speeches and especially listening to the testimonies of the Howard Phillips’ children, it was so remarkable to see how a father lived on in the heart of my friend. It helped me to understand Doug better. I saw why he is the way he is. I saw that many of the things I have learned from Doug over the years, originated in his father. I did not realize how often I was at the feet of Howard Phillips while listening to Doug. I did not realize that many of the things I learned from Doug, and used in my daily patterns as a father were actually patterns he learned from his father. In a way, I was a son of my friend’s father.

It is a holy thing to observe a father’s love for his son, and a son’s delight in his father. When we do, we are peering into an earthly representation of the relationships of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in Heaven. It is the prototype of God’s beautiful design for families. What I witnessed in the Phillips’ family was a miracle of the grace of God for how the heart of a father lives on in the heart of a son.

This is a reflection of the heart of the Gospel: the Father loves His son and is pleased with Him, while the Son honors his Father and delights in Him, while the Holy Sprit glorifies the father and the Son in their community of love. This is how the Father brings many sons to glory, drawing them in, and saving them through HIs Word made flesh, and then enfolding them into His kingdom of love so that ultimately a son would rest in the bosom of His Father. This is the essence of fatherhood, and you cannot truly understand fatherhood unless you see it as part of the great narrative of fatherly love that began in Heaven, and reaches to the earth through fathers who love and delight in and speak to their sons – like Howard Phillips, my friend’s father.

©iStockphoto.com/Anton_Sokolov

After many years of ministry to men, it is clear to me how simple men are. They all struggle with the same basic things. That’s one thing I like about working with men. Men are not complex. I have come across several summaries of the things that kill men off. I know a law enforcement professional who identifies these: Lying, Liquor, Lust, and Loyalty as the top four mankillers in his profession. They see these common denominators on the street all the time. I know an attorney who categorized them this way: Greed, Sex, and Power.  Here is my list: Fear, Lust, Anger, Feminism, and Abdication.

1) Fear 

He is constantly harrassed by fear because his god is not big enough to deliver him. He does not really believe that God is sovereign, so he is constantly obsessing over the threats to his security. He exists in a state of low-grade uncomfortability about himself and what might happen to him. He is an unhappy dad and a discontented husband. He is a lousy leader and no fun to be around. He sucks the joy out of the room – and the hearts of his wife and children.

Scripture: “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, even though the earth be removed…” (Ps. 46).

2) Lust

He has refused to starve the dragon of lust. Instead, he feeds that dragon enough tidbits to keep him alive and always waiting in the wings. This kind of man struggles with pornography because he has not had the resolve to deprive his eyes and ears of impure things. He watches movies that aren’t that bad and listens to songs that aren’t that good and as a result the dragon is strong and ready to devour. The fires of lustful passion are always smoldering ready to burst into flames at any time.

Scripture: “If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you” (Matt. 5:27-30). “Flee sexual immorality” (1 Cor. 6:18). “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things” (Phil. 4:8). ”I will sing of mercy and justice; to You, O Lord, I will sing praises. I will behave wisely in a perfect way. Oh, when will You come to me? I will walk within my house with a perfect heart (Ps. 101:1-2).

3) Anger

God keeps sending imperfect people into his life, and he is angry about it. He is angry at his wife, his boss, his pastor, his brother, and his friend because he never learned that all of life is exposure to imperfect people. He never learned how to love those imperfect people. He is always disappointed in someone. He’s a one-way perfectionist. He demands perfection from others but is oblivious to his own flaws. He never understood that God sends people to him for his sanctification, not to stroke his ego. It has not occurred to him that God sent these inadequate people in order to magnify His grace and mercy through him.

Scripture: “But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment” (Matt. 5:22). ”Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice” (Eph. 4:31). ”Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another” (Rom. 12:10). “For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (Jas. 1:20). Proverbs 18:14; 19:11; 22:24; 29:22; Ecclesiastes 7:9; James 1:19-20; James 3

4) Feminism

Many men are feminists at heart. They have “PMS,” which stands for “Passive Male Syndrome.” Except with men, it is not isolated to once a month. They get there honestly by simply growing up in a culture, breathing feminist air. Their brains have been pickled in feminist juices for so long that they don’t even know how deeply their thinking has been poisoned. From the time of their birth, they have been saturated with feminism via the media and their pagan education. When you breathe feminist air all your life as most of us have, it is almost impossible to be a real man. Its symptoms: They won’t lead. They won’t teach. They won’t cross up their wives.  They are afraid of their daughters. They won’t restrain their children. They are not willing to die for anything. They think, “Nothing is that important anyway. Hand me the remote.”

Scripture:  “But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man” (1 Cor. 11:3). “As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them” (Isa. 3:12). “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:25-27).

5) Abdication

God has created men to play a role in this world that is easily abdicated. He has been appointed by God to be the lover of his wife and the teacher of his children. But he is disconnected with his wife because they are going different directions. He is not teaching his children because he is obsessed with his own pleasures (usually technology or sports or both). He does not walk and talk and live alongside his children because his attentions are elsewhere. That world out there, outside his family is bigger and more important to him. So he abdicates the primary for the secondary. He can get away with this one his whole life long, and no one will confront him about it. The church won’t say a peep. His friends give him a pass. This last one is different in this sense: The first three mankillers will eventually grab him by the neck and throw him to the ground and destroy him. These last two will not be so obvious. These are the most socially acceptable mankillers. However, as it turns out, it will mean that his wife and children will be grabbed by the neck and thrown to the ground.

Death to the Mankillers

These five mankillers are always lurking at the door of every man’s heart.

Thankfully, there is only one solution for a man. With one blow, the mankillers are knocked unconscious. It is the heart of the matter. This one thing destroys the ache of fear, weakens the dragon of lust, soothes the burnings of anger, incinerates feminism, and turns the hearts of fathers to their children. Jesus spoke of it in Matthew 22:35-40:

Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

This is the heart of the matter: The power of Gospel love! Loving the Lord your God with all your heart is a summary of the message of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. It presents a clear statement about what it means to be a Christian. It describes the essence of genuine spiritual life. It is the foundation of all true faith. It exposes the centrality of love in the Bible. It explains the Gospel. It neutralizes mankillers.

I preached a sermon on this text, and you can listen to it here.

Take heed of evil examples among the godly; learn of no man to do that which the word of God forbids. Sometimes Satan makes use of a good man’s bad ways, to spoil and harden the heart of them that come after. Peter’s false doing had like to have spoiled Barnabas, yea, and several others more. Wherefore take heed of men, of good men’s ways, and measure both theirs and thine own by no other rule but the holy Word of God (Gal 2:11–13).[1]

[1] Bunyan, J. (2006). Vol. 1: The Acceptable Sacrifice (712–714). Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

©iStockphoto.com/BrandyTaylor

One of the most important things we teach our children is how to work – how to take dominion. We have to realize that we face a multitude of daunting obstacles. We must face the fact that we live in a particular kind of world where people underestimate what children can produce; where parents are content to outsource their children to institutions where they produce nothing of tangible value; where the population actually hates work so much that they work 8 hour days and live for the weekends; where they hate to see children working as evidenced by the child labor laws in your region. So how do you teach your children how to work? It is a long discussion. I will be addressing these matters at Kevin Swanson’s Economics Conference in St. Louis next month. But here, my friend Charles Churchill offers some sound wisdom on the matter:

Same Journey – Different Results. They left at the same time, but one would return and the other would perish. This is the story of personal life, family life, church life, and business life. It matters how you proceed. Here is a dramatic example: the 1911 Antarctic expedition led by Roald Amundsen and Robert Scott. The destination of both men was the South Pole, but the results of their two journeys were radically different.

In their book Great by Choice, Jim Collins and Mortin T. Hansen give a side-by-side comparison of the two men and their expeditions. They were very different, and they had very different results. Here’s some of their findings:

Roald Amundsen		Robert Scott
• Methods: Learned proven methods from the Eskimos.		• Methods: Used methods that were not fully tested like “motor sledges.”
• Preparation: Rigorously prepared for his expedition by training and even experimenting with “raw dolphin meat.”		• Preparation: Did not prepare well during the years approaching the journey.
• Tools: Used dogs in the Antrarctic.		• Tools: Brought ponies which to do not work well in freezing conditions.
• Disaster Ready: Prepared for unseen events with food, by using flags, and even by bringing extra thermometers.		• Disaster Ready: Did not use flags to remember the way back, didn’t have large amounts of extra food, only brought one thermometer.
• Steady Progress: Averaged 15.5 miles/day no matter what the weather was.		• Steady Progress: Would sometimes drive hard on good days and sit on bad days.

Even though they started the journey “within days of each other,” Amundsen arrived at the South Pole on December 15, 1911, 34 days earlier than Scott did on January 17, 1912.

In the end, God brought Amundsen and team back from his journey, but Scott and his entire team died frozen in Antarctica.

Great by Choice then gives an analysis of people whom the book terms “10Xers” or (“people who built the 10X companies”). The authors say that it is not the basic ideas of more or less creativity, vision, etc. that made some people stand apart but rather what the authors describe as “a triad of core behaviors: fanatic discipline, empirical creativity, and productive paranoia. Animating these three core behaviors is a central motivating force, Level 5 ambition.”

God raises up men and sets them down. However, we are to use the gifts of mind, body, strength, and soul that God has given us to act with discernment and preparation.

Proverbs 22:3 says, “A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished.”

As a ministry dedicated to biblical discipleship, we are excited to announce the 2013 NCFIC internship. Training young men in biblical leadership, theology, business and foundational skills is something that we are very passionate about. Our prayer is that the deposits made in these young men will help launch a new generation of disciplined church leaders and elders.

The NCFIC internship is a men’s discipleship program, which features various academic exercises consisting of reading, writing, and personal study. It also features local church involvement and mentorship by the men and families at Hope Baptist Church. It is engaged in ministry to churches around the nation through audio, video, conferences, and internet communications. Interns are involved in the daily agenda of the NCFIC offices and daily discipleship with Scott Brown and David Brown. They are fully involved in the activities and mentorship of Hope Baptist Church. It also includes a strenuous program of physical fitness. This internship is about personal transformation and deployment.

One of the most exciting parts of our work at the NCFIC has been what God has done through our intern program. We have seen God work in a mighty way through the daily discipleship, the hard work, the camaraderie, the opportunities, and the sacrifice involved in being an NCFIC intern. We have seen men grow, stretched, convicted, and transformed. Our goal is to send out young men who are sharpened, hardened and prepared for the challenges of the 21st century.

In 2013, we are conducting an intern class which begins on May 5th and ends November 18th. Please prayerfully consider applying for the 2013 NCFIC internship. The application deadline is February 28, 2013. Learn more about the internship and the application process.