Christianity Archives - Page 29 of 39

Apathy

Gather all your skill and remember why you are doing the things you are doing. Apathy is born out of a lack of reason and purpose.

With age comes apathy, so it seems. The Church is filled with the apathetic, the people who think doing the least amount of work is acceptable. The people who are content to sit in the pew and do nothing; to never improve or progress. These are people who utterly and completely lack zeal in every aspect of their faith. They do not share the faith, they do not talk about the faith. You can count on one hand the contributions they have made to the Church over the past 50 years.

“So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.”
Revelation 3:16

“Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.”
Romans 12:11

These individuals put the “pathetic” in apathetic.

You must not be this individual. You must be the person who is focused and improving himself. Does this mean you are always going to feel like doing what is right or feel like sharing the gospel? Absolutely not. Emotions are for women and weak males. Zeal is focused effort on a task, and it is divorced from emotion.

Gather all your skill and remember why you are doing the things you are doing. Apathy is born out of a lack of reason and purpose. Make sure you have a purpose. Ensure that you have a reason. Apathy is a slow-rot disease, you will not notice how much you have decayed until you are destroyed by the small, trivial matters of life. You will be like a rotten tree that is blown over by a gentle breeze.

Apathy will continue to exist until it is opposed by an outside force. Men will be content in their ways until some event large enough to disrupt normal life knocks them onto their heads.

Mantra

Apathy is for the dead.

Application

The best way to face apathy is to recenter your focus on your goal. Take your mind and aim it at the end state that you want to achieve and focus on it. If you truly want to achieve that goal, you can be reignited mentally to get there. If you do not truly want to achieve that goal, you will experience burnout, lack of motivation and apathy.

Find out what your skills are.

“Following your passion” is a moronic phrase because most people do not know what their “passion” is. I say follow your skills and natural inclinations. What are your natural talents? Identify the goals that really motivate you to take action. Not everyone is going to be motivated to do what is right by the idea of heaven, many will be motivated by the fear of hell. To rid yourself of apathy you have to identify what really motivates you to take action.

Identify your true goals.

You will become apathetic if you spend your time trying to achieve your parent’s goals. Do not become a doctor or lawyer just because your friends and family tell you that you would be good at it. You must make a decision for yourself based on what you truly know about your own skills and what you want to achieve and spend your time doing in life. Creating an intrinsic purpose is the way to defeat apathy.

Conduct yourselves like men.

Service

Service is inconvenient. It is not really enjoyable. What most men in the Church call “service” looks weak and unmasculine. We have transformed service into something feminine, and then we are surprised when men want nothing to do with it.

“Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”
John 12:26

Service requires a small ego, or at least the ability to pretend like the ego is small. Many personality types do not enjoy service, this is an unavoidable fact. Good. There is no need to enjoy doing the right thing, there is only the need to do it.

Service is inconvenient. It is not really enjoyable. What most men in the Church call “service” looks weak and unmasculine.

We have transformed service into something feminine, and then we are surprised when men want nothing to do with it.

The problem that many Church people have with service (as with many other spiritual actions) is the idea that everything we do must be some great, grand and glorious event and that is must feel good. We serve in “Community Outreach Day” when the entire Church comes out to make a big show to the community about how righteous they are. We are required to have these “Huge” Bible studies with people or take half the Church out to door-knock (which is the spiritual equivalent of putting money in a bank with 0.02% interest as a way to generate income).

What if we focused on consistent, small daily disciplines instead?

Just mention the Church to a coworker instead of smothering him with the gospel and having him hate you. Pray silently in public before your meal, that can be a conversation starter. Serving others does not have to be a ballroom dance complete with dresses and metro-sexual males.

Also, serving others can begin with serving yourself.

The man who checks himself into rehab or starts an Alcohol Anonymous program is absolutely taking several weeks to focus on himself, but he is doing it so that he can be better equipped to serve his family. No one would call that man selfish even though he will spend weeks in rehab. Because people understand that he is bettering himself so that he can be better for others. The same thing applies in the smaller aspects of life. You must improve yourself before you can expect people to want anything to do with you. You must improve your value to society if you want to be competitive in the marketplace and be able to support a family. Work on yourself so that you are no longer a loser.

Taking time to improve the self is a necessity. No one wants to be served by a loser.

Mantra

Service of Self is Service of others.

Application

Do not make a big deal about your service. Most people do not care, though a few might notice. When you serve, do it quietly and professionally. Serve in humility. Do the small things. Quote a verse to someone, but don’t mention the book, chapter and verse immediately. Just mention the Word. You are planting small seeds in the mind, not forcing them down the other person’s throat. The sower scattered the seed, He did not uproot the earth and force the seed down (Mark 4).

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Why Age is Irrelevant to Wisdom: Be a Wise Old Man

The old stereotype of the wise old man is becoming less and less of a reality, as more and more men from an extremely unwise generation (Baby Boomers) become old, and then attempt to impart what they consider “wisdom”. In essence, the majority of aged men today are foolish, and the “wise old man” makes up the minority of the elderly population.

The “Wise Old Man” is an image that has faded into nothingness because men can live full lives and grow old without accumulating any wisdom.

“Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
1 Timothy 4:12

“Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days”.
Job 12:12

Weak Men in the Church have two philosophies when it comes to a discussion about age. There is the group that thinks the young can do nothing simply because they are young. Then there are the old men who think they don’t have to do anything because they are “too old” and that the young should do everything. So they just sit around and complain about the state of the world, never getting off their fat, lazy buttocks to do anything about.

The old stereotype of the wise old man is becoming less and less of a reality, as more and more men from an extremely unwise generation become old, and then attempt to impart what they consider “wisdom”.

In essence, the majority of aged men today are foolish, and the “wise old man” makes up the minority of the elderly population. It is no longer safe to take advice from just any old guy, because there is no longer a guarantee that he is actually wise.

The young man has an extreme hunger for wisdom, or at least rational thought, and it is not being supplied by the older men in the Church. The rise of great intellectual thinkers like Dr. Jordan Peterson are proof of this. Examine the demographics of the audience of Dr. Peterson and you will find it is all young men in the 20-34 year age bracket. The so-called “millennials” have created a demand for wisdom and rational thought. They have created a demand for intellectualism instead of the “Church standard” of emotionalism or dogma. Emotion and tradition are for the weak. The young have become wiser because they pursue the rational.

Men can use their brains no matter what age they are. Old age does not automatically confer wisdom, at least not anymore. Old people advise young men to go to college so they can “get a good job”. That may have worked back in the day when only 5-10% of individuals had college degrees. Today that number is closer to 33% or more and it is rising rapidly. Going to college is not a foolproof plan for success in life as it once was in the past, but the aged have not mentally adapted to the times and the new era. All men must adapt or die.

All of this is to say that age is not relevant to being a wise old man.

You cannot excuse yourself from God’s work because of your age. You do not get to sit in the pew merely radiating heat from your buttocks and try to count that as your contribution to the Church. Conversely, your youth is not an excuse to avoid work. You cannot consider being in the “youth group” a contribution to the Church. Youth groups have done more harm to young men than arguably anything else. Because it wasn’t enough for young men to be around their peers eight hours per day at state sponsored indoctrination camps, otherwise known as “school”, but now in addition to that they have to spend time around people their age in the Church as well. Young men will adapt to whatever circumstances they are in by blending in with their environment. They will not “rise to the occasion” or be the “light of the world”, they will act like who they spend the most time with. Spend time with men of character, no matter what age they are.

Mantra

Age is irrelevant. Adapt or die.

Application

Work to stop judging the value of someone’s opinions based on how old they are. Age alone does not dictate what is truth just as consensus does not determine truth. Age is irrelevant when it comes to wisdom. The fact that there are so many unwise old men is evidence of this. Wisdom is not acquired passively, you must think rationally and integrate experience.

Consider the merit of the ideas of others, question everything, and use your own God-given mind to determine what it is that you believe.

Do your best to gain knowledge and experience while you are young and learn to think before you are old. Make it a goal to be the Wise Old Man. Keep your mind as active as possible. Accept nothing that anyone says without first examining it with the highest levels of intensity. Question every facet of everything you hear.

Study human beings and human nature. Learn how people operate and discover the political games they play even in the Church. Gain self-awareness by examining yourself daily. Evaluate your character every day by looking for your flaws.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Blind Faith

Man will question what he believes; to deny this is to deny human nature. Man needs substance: to see, feel, hear, and experience. Faith provides none of these, which is why it is called “faith” and not “knowledge”.

Blind faith is popular in the beta church. It requires no work and no thought. It is in the same category as people who focus far too much on grace, minimizing their own mandatory responsibility to do good works. To question the blind faith is “heresy”. To doubt the traditions of men is “apostasy”. This is what the beta male teaches his sons and followers.

“The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.”
Proverbs 14:15

Tradition must be doubted because it is exactly that: mere tradition and not Biblical law.

The radical conservatives have deified tradition and liturgy and set themselves in opposition to progress and growth. “The old ways are better”. Changing one’s mind and opinion is too laborious for these lazy thinkers. Changing the mind without polluting it with pusillanimous emotions is even more difficult. For this reason the beta males have become complacent and set in their ways, never questioning what it is they believe, and claiming that those who do question the faith are blasphemous.

This is blind faith, it is a hallmark of the weak, pathetic shell of what once was masculinity, and it must be burned down. Man will question what he believes; to deny this is to deny human nature. Man needs substance: to see, feel, hear, and experience. Faith provides none of these, which is why it is called “faith” and not “knowledge”. There are people in the Church who are uncomfortable with this and would assure you that they “know” what it is they believe. The truth is that if we could know with absolute certainty what was coming after this life, there would be no need for faith. Therefore, the Creator has seen fit to test humanity by giving them just the information they need and no more. Man is free to learn what he can about the world through science in order to improve his faith, but he is still required to have some form of faith because he will forever lack 100% of the knowledge of his existence.

What men must fight against is not faith, rather having blind faith. Men must realize they are free to question what they believe, and that they should question their faith. Questioning the faith is key for growth.

If you reject blind faith, you put yourself in the 99th percentile of Christian people.

You put yourself in a different position than other betas. Now you are no longer the stereotypical, stupid Christian. You think differently, and walk and act differently as a result. Think Rationally about your faith, and that will be enough to put you far beyond the level of most beta Christians.

“Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, He must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear” – Thomas Jefferson

Mantra

I think freely, and believe that which is true.

Application

Take time to think about your faith. Not the light, easy thoughts that everyone thinks about (such as grace, hope and love), but the difficult thoughts. Why did God create man knowing ahead of time that most men would go to hell? If you cannot answer this question in your own mind, how then will you be able to answer it when others ask you? Think about the questions that make you the most uncomfortable. That discomfort is growth of the mind, and consequently, of the faith.

What most people do not realize is that the more you question your faith, the more you will be able to answer about your faith. If you ask a question about the faith and can provide yourself with a rational answer, it is no longer a question. In this way you can reduce your doubts, but you must be willing to go through the discomfort and fiercely examine your faith regularly before you can expect to acquire any of those insights.

Be very aware that most of the people in your Church have blind faith.

The only reason they still attend worship is because they are in the habit of doing so. It would only take one small plague or catastrophe to send most of them scurrying like rats back into the darkness where they already secretly live. You need to call attention to this whenever you can. Address blind faith in the comments you make. Defend the necessity of scientific thinking. Science and religion are friends.

Question with ferocity those who claim to know things for certain. The only people arrogant enough to think they have existence figured out are atheists, and they have the blindest faith of them all.

Understand that some people in the Church are going to say that you are a “bad Christian” because you are questioning your faith. Realize that those who refuse to do the labor of thinking are lazy Christians. Be willing to show these individuals the problems with their thinking. Many Christians (like most people of the world) lack even a fundamental level of self-awareness. They do not realize how inconsistent their own thinking is, and you must draw attention to those inconsistencies.

KEY: If what you believe is the truth, then you can question it as many times as you please and it will still stand strong as a rocky cliff is unmoved as it is pounded by ocean waves.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Continue Reading: Demagogue

Learn Lessons From Secular Men

Christians think we should only model ourselves after other Christians, and never after secular men. That would be to our detriment if we were trying to learn how to be successful in the world.

“Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.”
1 Corinthians 10:11

“If you know the way broadly, you see it in all things”
Miyamoto Musashi

Most people in the Church would shriek in horror if you so much as mentioned the idea that you have men who inspire you who are not Christians.

You are inspired by a non-religious war hero? “How dare you!”

A secular athlete inspires you to take better care of your body? “Heretic!”

A successful man of the world provides a good model for material success? “You materialistic fiend!”

The thinking in the Church is often so dogmatic and narrow minded in many facets that it handicaps the faith socially. No one wants to be around those “weird, religious people”. Who wants to spend time around people who constantly demonize the world instead of improving it.

I think there absolutely is something to be said about being a “peculiar people” as a result of behaving righteously, but we take it to a whole other level when we go out of our way to be peculiar.

It’s the difference between someone who studies to get a good grade and someone who studies to understand a subject.

In going out of our way to be peculiar we have placed the peculiarity itself above the Christian disciplines and practices that cause us to be peculiar in the first place. We make peculiarity the goal instead of making righteous the goal. Our focus should be on being Christians first and foremost, and a by-product of this lifestyle just so happens to be peculiarity.

All of this to say, it does not rob us of our peculiarity when we learn lessons from secular men, either historically or ones who still live. It is not wrong to learn from secular men, we do it all the time. It is not wrong to be inspired by secular men, because often secular men are more successful than religious men. This is a result primarily of statistics, because there are far more secular men than Christian men. It just so happens that successful people are more likely to be worldly. This does not mean we cannot still be inspired by them.

The second reason for worldly men being more successful than Christian men is the fact that the majority of 21st century Christians lack the work ethic of our Christian forerunners in earlier centuries.

People use the Bible’s command to avoid worldliness, greed, and materialism as an excuse to justify their slothfulness.

We should also remember that lessons come in two primary parts: Learning what to do, and learning what not to do. We can learn both kinds from men both inside and outside the church. Every man is a walking lesson, regardless of his spirituality. Just because someone does not have salvation does not mean we cannot learn from them. Why do you think we study history? Be a man by learning from all men.

Mantra

Every moment has a lifetime of lessons.

Application

First you have to rid yourself of prejudice. You think you are better than others because you possess salvation. Wrong. You are just as much of a loser as them. What are you without salvation? Nothing? Then your worth has nothing to do with you, and everything to do with the gift of salvation that has been given to you. Rid yourself of ego; embrace humility.

Find some role models who inspire you. You may have a hard time finding great role models in the Church.

Every Christian wants to tell you to have good role models, yet none of them want to be role models themselves.

List out men who inspire you. Write them down as a list and then to the side of each name write out the characteristics you find inspiring. No single man can be a role model of everything. Take all the traits you find most admirable and then think about what that would look like if one man possessed them all. You are now visualizing the ideal man. Try to imitate this Ideal Man every day, and you will find that you improve.

Every interaction with your fellow man is a learning opportunity. You will either learn how to be or you will learn how not to be. Both are equally valuable because they catalyze action. Learning is rooted in awareness and vigilance. You cannot capitalize on learning opportunities if you are not aware of their existence. Once you notice the lesson, you must apply it. Without these two foundational principles, growth will be limited. Be a man, learn always.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Page 29 of 39

« Previous 1 … 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 … 39 Next »