A Boy Who was a Man

Christianity is not something that a man adds to his life. No, Christianity means that Christ is your life. It is not an every now and again part of life. It is your life. Jesus is not shy about calling us to follow Him. He doesn’t hide the terms. Jesus calls us to love Him above all others. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37-38). We need to examine our lives carefully. Do our lives clearly and convincingly demonstrate that we love Jesus more than anything else? Or do we use Jesus like a lucky rabbit’s foot that we pull out when we are in trouble? Men, what are you teaching your family about loving Jesus? Where would they say He ranks among your interests?

Let me tell you a story about a boy who was a man that is an example to all men. It is not a made up story or one I read about. It is the personal testimony of a missionary that I know who serves in his home country of Japan. I will call him Mr. Y. Mr. Y was born and raised in Japan. His father died when he was a teenager. In the Japanese culture, Mr. Y’s uncle became the male leader of the household. When he was 16 years old, Mr. Y heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and was saved. His family religion was Shintoism. Japan is an honor culture. You never do anything to bring dishonor to your family. Becoming a Christian was unthinkable. His uncle came to him and told him that he had dishonored his family and his father by becoming a follower of Jesus. He must renounce his new faith or get out of the house. Think about that. He was 16. His father was gone. He wanted to take care of his mother. But he was given a choice. Lose Jesus or lose your family. Mr. Y followed Christ. He had to leave home and get a job at a Toyota factory. He had to completely provide for himself. He was kicked out of his own family. Why? Because of Jesus. Is Jesus worth all of that? In our consumeristic Christian culture, where people shop for churches like they do for groceries, it is hard for us to wrap our minds around giving up everything to follow Christ. But that is exactly what Jesus calls us to do. We must love Jesus more than even our own family. No one must be exalted above him. Not our careers; not sports; not hobbies; not even our own families. Mr. Y was just a boy when he came to Christ. But he was really a man. He made the hard but right choice to follow Christ. He lost everything but he gained everything. His wife and daughters are all Christians today. His mother became a Christian in her later years. Would you follow Christ like that? Men, the answer can be found in your daily life. If you don’t follow Christ in the small details of life, then you will not follow Him when the price is high. Mr. Y was a boy who became a man. He stands as an example to us of what it means to follow Jesus.

Popular posts from this blog

Hiking in Torreya State Park

Recently, my wife and I went hiking in Torreya State Park. The park is named for a rare species of the Torreya tree. This tree is only found in 4 locations on earth. Torreya State Park is one of those locations. The park is about an hour away from our house. We have enjoyed hiking there several times over the years. The Torreya Trail is a 6 mile loop. Besides the famous tree, it has something else that you don’t often see in Florida. It has hills. Some of the hills are very steep and will give you quite a workout. There are gorgeous views of the Apalachicola River from the top of some of the bluffs. It is one of our favorite hikes in the area. It is hard to beat six miles of hiking in the woods. We had a great time! As we followed the Torreya Trail, there was something that was impossible to miss. Everywhere we looked, Hurricane Michael’s destructive power was on full display. Hurricane Michael roared through the area in October of 2018.   The park was closed for a long time. I am no
Read more

Just a Little Catfish Fin

It was the summer between first grade and second grade. I spent most of my time back in those summer days with my buddies at the creek near my house. We spent our time catching crawfish on most hot summer days. On that day, one of my buddies found a dead catfish. We thought it would be useful to lure crawdads from their holes. There was a neighborhood girl with us that day which was highly unusual. We waded down the creek in a single file line. The girl was in the back of the line, and she kept splashing as she walked. My buddy in the front of the line kept telling her to stop. She didn’t stop. He finally got so mad that he turned and threw that dead catfish at her. I happened to be standing between them. As the catfish sailed by me, its fin hit me right in the kneecap. It stuck me hard and broke off in my knee. I ended up going to the doctor for 2 weeks as they tried to get that fin out of my knee. They gave me shots in the knee every time I went there. I kept getting sicker and sick
Read more
  Farewell to My Friend This week, I did something that I never thought I would do. I attended the funeral of my friend. His name was Darrell, but only his mother called him that. He was always Phred to me. Phred was 54 years old. He passed away from COVID. He will become another one of those COVID statistics that you hear about on the news. But his death is not a statistic to me. It is very personal. Phred was my friend. In fact, I think it is safe to say that outside of my family, he was the best friend that I ever had. I met Phred right after I was saved during my sophomore year of high school. He was a part of our church’s youth group. He also worked in the children’s ministry of our church. He did puppets for children’s church. With his encouragement, I began to work with the puppets as well. He and I became the main 2 puppeteers. We had such a blast! We created characters and voices. He was Dum Dum. This was a Cookie Monster looking puppet that the children loved. Phred and
Read more