Anything by Fred Stoeker is a good book.  In fact, multiplied thousands have been changed by his Every Man’s Battle Series of books.  Hero is no different, except for the fact that it is co-written with his son, Jasen, who has conquered the young man’s battle.  He has dedicated his life to living purely and gives a clarion call for every other man to do the same.  What Hero reveals is that the battle over sin and temptation can be won and that young men can live purely from the start.  Hero takes you on a journey with Jason and shows how he has lived holy in an unholy world. 

Hero is a fitting title and is written as a challenge to be his woman’s hero through living righteous lives.

Here is a summary of the book

You already know it’s not easy being a single man in this culture today. But it is easy to be overwhelmed, to feel helpless and hopeless about living by God’s high standards for singles. It’s easy to cave in to the pressures of this sex-soaked world and accept defeat—blaming the media, the culture, even girlfriends who don’t know how tough it can be.

But many men have read books like Every Young Man’s Battle and Tactics and have committed themselves to stand strong and pure in the power of God, and to go on the offensive against the onslaught of negative stereotypes. Some have suffered. Some have fallen. But many have experienced victory—and you can be among them.

What makes those committed men so desirable to women? Be Her Hero is their motto. From best-selling author Fred Stoeker, along with his son Jasen, come the straightforward insight and real-life examples you’re looking for to help you take personal purity to its logical conclusion. Here’s straight truth with irrefutable evidence of what makes an ultimate hero to women who long for men of faith—men who stand by their convictions and make their world a safer and better place.

Are you ready to accept the challenge?

Author Bios:

Fred Stoeker is a best-selling author of several books, including Every Young Man’s Battle and Tactics, the president of Living True Ministries, and a popular conference speaker who challenges men to become sexually pure, to reconnect in true intimate relationship with their wives, and to train their sons to become godly men. A graduate of Stanford University, Fred lives in Des Moines, Iowa with his wife, Brenda, and their children.

Mike Yorkey, a writer living in Encinitas, California, has collaborated with Fred Stoeker in all his books for the Every Man’s series.

Jasen Stoeker is a popular conference speaker who challenges young men to be heroic in their relationships with women and to be a Christian, rather than just seem like one. Jasen is a graduate of Iowa State University with degrees in Computer Engineering and Computer Science and now lives in Minneapolis, MN, with his wife Rose.

 

You can pick up a copy here.

We have been doing some remodeling around the church, which is always fun.  The carpet was laid in my office Friday so I worked Friday evening and Saturday laying the trim.  I am by no means a carpenter.  I repeat, I am by no means carpenter.  I can put down trim and “make” it fit.  When I work by myself, no one will ever know how many missed cuts I have made, nor will they notice (hopefully) how bad I really am at this woodworking thing.  I have been reminded on occasion that I should stick to preaching. 

Nonetheless, I laid trim in my office.  I am not sure if the walls are not square or if I do not know how to cut, but when I get to a corner, it doesn’t always match up good.  This is why the Bible says that Caulk will cover a multitude of sins.  Maybe that is the Danny Cheney version.  Caulk covers the imperfections.  It hides the bad cuts.  It is alot like grace.

In our Christian lives, we often make bad cuts or have imperfections that need a good cover-up.  We mess up, we do things wrong, we make mistakes and it is awesome that God is a God of grace.  The Bible says, “Where sin does abound, grace does much more abound.”  Grace is the cover-up for our shortcomings. 

Now, we should always try to do better and do things the right way but when we fail, Grace is there to cover us.  I John 2 tells us that God has given us His word so that we might not sin, but if we do sin, there is an Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous.  What an awesome thought!  We are to do our best to live right, but if we fall short, there is one who forgives us.

From Kevin DeYoung, Just Do Something, pp. 50-51:

Passivity is a plague among Christians. It’s not just that we don’t do anything; it’s that we feel spiritual for not doing anything. We imagine that our inactivity is patience and sensitivity to God’s leading. At times it may be; but it’s also quite possible we are just lazy. When we hype-spiritualize our decisions, we can veer off into impulsive and foolish decisions. But more likely as Christians we fall into endless patterns of vacillation, indecision, and regret. No doubt, selfish ambition is a danger for Christians, but so is complacency, listless wandering, and passivity that pawns itself off as spirituality. Perhaps our inactivity is not so much waiting on God as it is an expression of the fear of man, the love of the praise of man, and disbelief in God’s providence.

HT: Between Worlds Blog

"It is often ignorantly and frivolously charged against Christian men that it is selfish in them to seek heaven and glory for their own souls; but no man who is truly seeking salvation will be moved by that accusation. When men really begin to seek their salvation, and to turn their faces to the glory of heaven, then it is that all selfish and ignoble desires receive their death-blow. It is not selfish, surely, for the diseased to seek healing, or the hungry food, or the prodigal his father’s house. So far from this being a sign that the heart is selfish, there is no surer sign that it is being sanctified."

Alexander Whyte, An Exposition on the Shorter Catechism, page 138.

HT: Ray Ortlund

Sonya and Hannah were helping me work around the church yesterday, or should I say, Sonya was helping me and Hannah was doing her own thing.  We went to check on Hannah, who had escaped to the nursery, only to notice that she had climbed into a baby toy.  Now understand that Hannah would never play in one of these when she was smaller.  When she is too big for it, however, she thinks it is a cool toy.  She was reverting back to her early childhood.

How often are we the same way in our lives?  We seem to grow until we decide that we would like to revert back to spiritual childhood.  We should be more mature but we react or act in ways that are from our early days.  Most all of us have had times when we have found it easier to be spiritually immature than to take the road of maturity.  We see this in our relationship with God, with others and with this world.

There are spiritual maturity tests that we can use to evaluate our lives.  Am I growing in the Word and Prayer?  Am I faithful to the church and ministry?  Do I respond to others with love and compassion rather than anger and frustration?  Are the fruit of the Spirit evident in my life?  Is my speech worthy of being used in a conversation with Christ?  Are the things I am involved in the result of small compromises or would they glorify God?,

So many times, the longer we are saved the more revert back to the old days.  The newness of our salvation wears off.  We begin slipping in our Bible reading and prayer, then soon our path leads us away from Him instead of to Him.  Are you maturing or have you been taking one step forward and two steps back?

I have been reading through the book of Joshua and am intrigued by the story of Israel’s crossing the Jordan river.  God told them to cross the Jordan.  He commanded them to set the priests and the Ark of the Covenant at the front and when the priests stepped in the water, it would roll back.  The priests obeyed and God responded by parting the Jordan as He had done with the Red Sea.

After Israel crossed, Joshua commanded the heads of the 12 tribes to get a stone and stack them in the midst of the Jordan, to be a monument of God’s miraculous provision.  Since the Jordan overran its banks for 2 months of the year, the Israelites could only see  the monument when the water was low or when the rain was withheld.  The water was at a lower level for ten months of the year, which allowed this monument to be visible.

The intention of this monument was to remind Israel of God’s power over nature and over their enemies.  This was in place so the fathers of Israel could show the monument to their children and they could re-tell the story of God’s provision. 

In our lives  there are things that God has done for us that we should build some monuments for.  Salvation, healing, miracles, being filled with the Spirit and many other things are momentous occasions in our lives.  It is those monuments that we build that allow us to tell others of God and His power.  It is these things that we look to and remember when the rain seems to stop and drought enters our lives.  The monuments become visible and we can cling to those things to help get us through until the rainy season.

Are there any monuments you can build in your lives?  Or is there one of these that you are clinging to while you are going through the drought?

Today on our day off we drove to Gentry, Arkansas to the Wilderness Drive-thru Safari.  It was a great surprise!  I have been to a few of these types of safaris that brag about all these exotic animals, but I usually leave disappointed.  Not so with this one.  It was the best Safari I have seen.  It had hundreds of exotic animals that could be seen through a four mile drive thru on their property that sprawled through the beautiful country of Northwest Arkansas.  The animals were out in the open where you could actually see them (unlike the zoo).  The park had a petting zoo that had many types of animals including, turkeys, kangaroos, zebras and prairie dogs.

There was a pony ride for Hannah.  The first time we went to the pony ride it was only $3.00.  As we were walking through one of the workers invited us to help ourselves to ride the pony (horse) as much as we wanted at no charge.  We had a picnic while there.  We brought our own food, but their concession stand was very reasonably priced.  By far, going to this safari allowed us to have fun as a family without breaking the bank.  It was well worth every penny.

You can check out the safari here.

Sunday afternoon, we drove to Devil’s Den State Park.  Don’t really care for the name but you could not question the beauty of our Creator there.  Before leaving for Devil’s Den, we took an afternoon nap.  When Hannah woke up she said, “I want to go climb a mount.”  So we took a trip to climb a mount.

It was a beautiful day with perfect weather.