every man's battle video

The Every Man's Battle Video study is designed to be an integral part for men when it comes to living a life of sexual integrity. The book, workbook and DVD (all included in the curriculum kit) make a complete resource to help men win the war on sexual temptation - individually and corporately.

This kit is a fantastic resource for every men's ministry to have and use. The authors (Steve Arterburn & Fred Stoeker) quote a stat that 10% of men have no temptation with lust and 10% are sexually deviant. That leaves 80% of all men who vary in their struggle with sexual purity. I do not find myself in either category of 10%, but squarely in the high end of the 80%. I found this material to be incredibly helpful in theory and in practice. I began working through this curriculum a few weeks ago when it first came available and I can honestly say that not a day has gone by where I did not rely on one or more of the principles from this kit to keep my eyes, mind and heart clean and pure.

The premise is that this is a fight that every man faces and that every man can win. It is not something that goes away as you get older, or married. It is a sin that, left unaccounted for, will grow and fester. Mr Arterburn and Mr Stoeker present their material in an easy to understand way and filled with Scripture. They define sexual purity as not receiving sexual gratification from any other source than your wife. That is abnormal to our cultural mindset. Pornography, masturbation, sexual fantasies, extra-marital affairs and sex before marriage are accepted and even considered normal.

God calls us to be holy, to be pure. And if God calls us to this, than it is something that, through his power, we can accomplish. I firmly believe that this material in the Every Man's Battle will help significantly. Check it out for yourself. Below is a trailer from the video series. If you struggle with purity or are involved in a men's ministry, this material will be of great use to you.

dream

Dream is the second book by Kenny Luck, the Men's Pastor at Saddleback Church. Risk is his first book and the first book in the God's Man Series. In Risk, Mr. Luck writes about the willingness to trust God with everything. As men, we have a desire to provide security, predictability an to be able to control a certain amount of our lives. Mr. Luck writes that we need to let Jesus have all the control and throw out the concept of having a "safe" life.
Dream continues in the spirit of Risk and leads men to shape their vision away from themselves and on to God. Many times we have grand dreams of what we will do, of empires to create, of legacies to leave. Mr. Luck wants men to keep those dreams, but for the glory of God, and not ourselves. He writes that we need not throw away the vision we have - God gave us that - but to exchange for whose glory we do it, whose legacy we are leaving.
One of the best chapters in this book was "Leaking Jesus". There are some very vivid illustrations of leaking things which Mr. Luck uses (let's just say a diaper is involved), but the idea is that who we are will eventually leak out of us. What he wants for men is that we are so in tune with Jesus that when we are pressed, when the road gets tough, instead of leaking our human weakness, we leak Jesus' strength.
This is a very action oriented book, with many places for practical application as well as a workbook available to enhance your individual study or go through with your men's group.

Samson and the Pirate Monks

I update the website at NextStep Resources & not only does that mean that I add new & upcoming books to our website, I get to keep up on on all the new books that come into the store. So I get to see all the new stuff. Well, this book came across a couple weeks ago & the title immediately caught my attention. So I did the two things I always do when a book interests me. I look at the back & see who wrote a blurb about it & I looked at the table of contents. From the title and one of the blurbs on the back, I knew this was going to be a book I read. Dan Haseltine is the lead singer from Jars of Clay (my favorite band) and I have read many of the articles he has written and found him to be a great thinker.
But, I have to say, I had no idea what this book would be about. The brief description on the back of the book speaks of a Samson Society & promised that the book would not be boring. The fact that the author (a pastor's son & former pastor himself) retells his story as a sex addict had me wide-eyed & stupefied at the end of the opening chapter. The vulnerability with which he spoke pointed to his having come back from the depths & being restored by God, family & church.
This is a very sad story but ultimately one that brings hope to many who struggle with sexual addiction. Mr. Larkin also disavows his self-entitlement which so many of us who grow up in the church (especially those who grow up in pastor's families) have. This book also is a ministry tool in that it shows how to start a Samson Society in your community where men can live in authentic brotherhood, as the subtitle implies.

Becoming a Dad

I picked up this book because in a few short months, I am “Becoming a Dad”. This was not something that my wife & I were trying for & has taken us completely by surprise. So, I am trying to get my hands on some of the best books on the subject. For Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me The Expectant Father. So far, these are the only two books I have looked at. The Expectant Father goes through each month of the pregnancy & shares what is happening with the baby’s development at that time, the range of emotions & physical changes your wife probably is going through each month and different aspects of pregnancy from a father’s perspective. It is a helpful book, but I found Becoming a Dad much more uplifting & helpful.

Becoming a Dad is written by Stephen James & David Thomas who have seven children between them. It would be helpful to fathers who are expecting their first or eighteenth child – or even not expecting at all, just a dad. The subtitle promotes it as a “Spiritual, Emotional and Practical Guide.” It definitely fits that bill. Each chapter walks the reader through those areas & helps you find your role as a father.

While having numerous tips, heads-ups & lists, the real value that I found was in the spiritual dimension of the book. Chapters cover a range of questions from “What if I Screw up Another Person’s Life?” to “Do I Want to Be a Father?” to “What if My Wife Loves the Baby More than Me?” The tone of these questions seem to imply a sense of being overwhelmed & even helpless, but they lead you into God’s design for biblical fatherhood & a strong dependence upon Him.

Over and over, the authors say that the key to being a great parent and father is to be a great husband and man of God. These are the first and vital things that need to be evident & in place as a father. They also say that “the secret to being a great father is being willing to learn from your children.”

This book is a great resource whether you are an expectant father or an empty-nest father. You can pick up a copy at nsresources.com for 20% off.