by Chris Martin | Apr 22, 2024 | Articles, Mentors Corner
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every though captive to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:3-5). Paul’s admonition to the follower of Christ in the conclusion of these verses is to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” It doesn’t take a man much effort to conclude that he can only entertain one individual thought at any given time. He may quickly rotate between a few different thoughts at a rapid pace, but only one thought can be on the “screen” of a man’s mind at any given time. The Scriptures further instruct us that how we think, and what we think about (our thoughts) are of paramount importance to the believer. Proverbs 23:7 tells us “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” Correct thinking results in correct living, and incorrect thinking results in incorrect living. Thus, any man, by a function of exerting his WILL, can control what he thinks about and successfully take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” The WILL controls the MIND and what thoughts we entertain. A logical question is, how does a man do this? Paul gives us some helpful instruction earlier in the passage. First, in verse 3 Paul brings to our attention that even though we walk “in the flesh” (the temporal), this is not where we...
by Chris Martin | Aug 29, 2023 | Articles, Mentors Corner
Are you a F.A.T. man? One of the pernicious effects that a man may encounter after walking with Jesus for many years is the idea that he has reached the summit, that he understands and knows all that he needs to out of the Scriptures, and that subsequently, he has nothing left to learn. This “idea” is of course a lie that our enemy, the Devil, would take great joy in us embracing. The mature follower of Christ rejects this deception and listens to the Apostle Paul’s warning in I Corinthians 10:12 “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands, take heed that he does not fall.” Those involved in E2 may be familiar with the term “F.A.T. man”. If you are looking for men to invest and pour your life into, men to disciple, one does well to locate F.A.T men and then invest there. This simple acronym stands for Faithful, Available, and Teachable. However, before a man looks and prays for God to give him F.A.T. men to invest his life into, he does well to be consistently evaluating if he himself is such a type of man. A rhetorical question for your consideration: Am I maintaining a teachable spirit or do I think that I already have all of the Biblical knowledge and answers that a man can attain? A good barometer of a man’s true spiritual maturity is if he maintains a teachable spirit. Do you? St. Jerome rightfully observed that “The Scriptures are shallow enough for a babe to come and drink without fear of drowning and deep enough for a theologian to swim in...
by Chris Martin | Aug 9, 2022 | Articles, Mentors Corner
Evangelism comes naturally to some. They count it as a spiritual gift. For the rest of us it can feel like a challenge or even a grind as we flop around like a fish out of water, not knowing what to do or how to do it. We may not recognize the opportunities in front of us to be undertaken, regretfully seeing many of these opportunities in the rear-view mirror. Jesus commands us to “go make disciples” prior to his accession into the heavenlies (Matthew 28:18-20). Therefore, it is the responsibility of all men to be involved in evangelism, sharing the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ– regardless of spiritual giftedness. The obedient man of God is involved in evangelism. To say otherwise runs counter to Biblical teaching. It would suggest that a man does not need to be merciful, does not need to serve, has no need to be generous–simply because he does not identify any of these as his spiritual gift. Certainly, a lack of giftedness in a particular arena is not an adequate justification in neglecting obedience to those things to which God has commanded. Evangelism is for every one of us–not because God needs us. He alone builds His Church. He gave us evangelism because we need it. The man of God who understands this attempts to weave evangelism into the fabric of his day. Having a mind for evangelism helps a man daily “regard no man according to the flesh” (II Corinthians 5:16) and helps him maintain an eternal perspective throughout his day. “While we look not at the things which are seen, but...
by Chris Martin | Mar 7, 2022 | Articles
One of the early teachings that I was exposed to as a young man who was beginning to take his faith seriously was the benefit, and the need, for the man of God to “strive for obscurity.” After hearing this a few times, I felt compelled to dig into what I was being challenged to do. What does “obscurity” mean? How do I Strive for it? When can I know that I am successful or have failed in this endeavor? First, I needed to get my arms around what it means to be “obscure.” A summary research of definitions yielded the following: “the state of being unknown, inconspicuous, unimportant,” another definition reads “relatively unknown,” and yet another reads “the state in which somebody/something is not well known or has been forgotten.” These definitions certainly were a help to me in my understanding; however, this was not something that I was certain I wanted to pursue, let alone “strive” to be. To strive for something does not simply mean to focus on it or work towards it. It means “to struggle or fight vigorously.” This means that one must expend a great amount of effort, determination, and diligence toward the goal of striving to be being unimportant, in the background, unseen, unknown, etc. In reality, I am ashamed to confess that this goes against every fiber of my flesh that screams “here I am!” or “Look at and notice me!” or “Tell me how great of a man I am!” Jesus addresses this topic in Matthew 6:1-18 that we should give, pray, and fast in secret. At the heart of...
by Chris Martin | Aug 13, 2021 | Articles
The Apostle Paul instructs us in Romans 12:1 “Therefore, I urge you brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” Then again in I Peter 2:5 we are instructed to “offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” As followers of Jesus Christ, it is clear in Scripture that we are commanded to live sacrificial lives. This Biblical truth is one that many may hear and be aware of, but do we really understand and know what it means to live a “sacrificial life?” A working definition of sacrifice is “to give up something of current value for something of greater future value.” The baseball team readily understands this principle. With a man on third and no “outs,” they will next hit a “sacrifice fly ball” most every time. What this means is that the batter will intentionally hit a fly ball to the outfield to be caught, thus securing an “out” for the opposing team. This “out” in our illustration represents the “something of current value.” The “out” is sacrificed because it is then known that it will subsequently result in their runner on third scoring after the “out” was secured. The ability for the runner on third to score represents the “greater future value.” If we are called to live “sacrificial lives” what then does the Christian have to offer that is of present current value? I would suggest to you some of the things we offer as a spiritual sacrifice are our time, energy, mental capacity, emotional...
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