Man Up

Looking around the world today I see a big problem! Where are all the men at? We have so many guys(including myself) who sit at home in front of the tv wasting away when we could be out making a difference. What has happened to us? There has been this song that I have been listening to and it reall has been convicting me and I wanted to share it with you. It is by the 116 Clique(yes it is a rap group). The song is called "Man Up Anthem". Every word in this song is truth so I wanted to post the lyrics and the youtube video of the song and I wanted to get your feedback on it. Where do you thing all the men have gone. I also will be posting a video of Mark Driscoll talking about the problem of video games today. Hope you enjoy.

Here are the lyrics to the song if you would like to follow along.

All:
MAN UP! 

Lecrae:
Momma want some more Obama in me the hood want PAC hip hop wanna see the
Common in me. And since is a senseless contradiction I end up a misfit tryina fit In. This ends when I stand up and see the hands of the standard: holy is
The lamb huh(holy is the lamb) Now we holding you to man up cause we were made
In his image start looking at what you came from. 

KB:
Right after Adam every atom in our anatomy had to make adamant after what
Adonai is against. Let me take you back to the tree in Eden, if you read it you'll see that eve was deceived but Adam is the one who let it in.(Man up) Standing Leading no, we ain't leading we (Bump that) Basically little boys with
Muscles and a mustache! The femininity, we need a remedy that God made a
100 percent (strength) masculinity 

Trip Lee:
Where the men at, seems like they all lost, none of them are on the scene, 
Seems like they died off. They extinct but my dream is to rise up, we
Chasing the prize of the King the divine boss, but we fell away, now we
UnGodly  we lose and we really got the blues like Navi, I wanna celebrate the dudes that's beside me fellas lets elevate we through with the lobby
[ Lyrics from: http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/0-9/116_clique/man_up_anthem.html ]
Tedashii:
Go ahead I say boy Get your shine on. and if a sucker try to block you get your 9 home and
What I heard you gotta do to be a man now, stand up for yourself so I took
It in my hands now. And that's the problem man we busy trying to solve it
All the while we walking dead man somebody bring the coffin, boy drop
Peach fuzz now you think that your a man cause you feeling yourself you
Need to man up!  

Sho Baraka:
Sex and models, and tipping bottles back a pile of excuses right next to
Your bottle caps. A rolladeck filled with names that you ain't to
Please next to the stack of money, building up a heart of greed. Ice on his
Neck give the jokers a cold shoulder, you drunk off pride plus you loving
The hangover. You gotta whole lotta stuff that won't amount to gain life
Will never make sense cause you never made change

PRo:
You got it Twisted sick life and fever, little man live to stack doe
Keebler. Man up! Get up out of the treehouse leave the cookies alone it's
Time to eat meat now. Trying to show you a new way to live now, no charge
You can call it a freestyle. without Christ you know how your man is, was
Born in a mans body like Tom Hanks in BIG.

Andy Mineo:
Being a man got nothing to do with age. You can be a boy till the day you
Lay in your grave. None of us behave in the image of who were made, cause
We fallen the ways it's better known as depraved. Running from
Responsibility really we crave the easy way out of places that call us to
Pull our weight. Man there going through everyday decisions are made, 
Responding to the call God's giving em from the... 

All:
Man Up! 
Andy:
Let the process, begin separate the boys from the men
All:
Man Up! 
Andy:
Doesn't matter how you started partner, it's about how you end
All:
Man Up! 
Andy:
Jesus is the model follow us we go follow him
All:
Man Up!  
Andy:
We-we the last of a dying breed it's time that we 

All:
MAN UP!  

And now here is the video from Driscoll. Let's start a conversation about this. The Lord has really been convicting me on this and I hope it convicts you guys too. We need to man up! Start acting like MEN!

Convicting stuff said right there! Get off the couch guys! I'm talking to myself here too! The Lord has shown me that the battles are not won on the couch. They are won out in the field. In Luke 10:2 it says, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few..." We need to be the workers men! Where have we all gone? What can we do to change this? Get off the couch!! 


One extra video that I wanted to add. It's a little long but so good. Mark Driscoll talks about what it means to be a man! If you have 25 minutes to spare watch this video.

In the End

Another year has come to an end. This year has just flown by so fast. It seems like just yesterday it was Easter time and we were celebrating what Jesus did on the Cross. Now it is December and we are celebrating what He did by sending His Son down to this earth in the form of a baby. What a miracle that was! As we come to the end of the year I just wanted to reflect on what a great year it has been.

I feel like over this past year I have grown more in the Lord than ever before. To bring me to a point where I must completely rely on Him is quite a feat in itself. When I was working at Safeway I relied on myself for a lot of things; but when that ended I came to the realization that I can't do things on my own. The Lord needs to be the focus on every aspect of my life. I need to rely on Him for everything.  I came to realize that God will provide for our needs. The wants in life don't matter. God will take care of you and guide your steps through the rest of your life.  Trusting in the Lord for my every need was never a strong point but after this last year I believe that this has become one of the strongholds in my life now.  I must trust my entire life to Him and not hold anything back. Why? Because He deserves my entire life.

Another aspect that the Lord has instilled in me in this year is discipline.  Discipline with my finances, my time, mu schedule, school and the way I handle situations.  I have never been a person who is very disciplined. Procrastination is such a big problem for me and I have realized how bad I am over this last year. One bad quarter at school really showed me that. But the Lord is gracious and He has shown me what I need to work on and has given me the tools to try to improve them! I'm not sure if I have made much progress but I'm working at it at least.

I am just amazed by the opportunities God has given me to serve and minister this year. This was my first full year as head of the worship ministry and it had its ups and downs but I feel like I learned so much in the leadership department. I had to learn how to step up as the young person and lead people. Now as intimidating as that was I found myself not as scared as I thought I would be. The Lord showed me that this was where I was supposed to be and I needed to work hard at my calling and trust in Him through it all.  And through all this He showed me just how faithful He is. For the past 8-10 months we had been praying for the Lord to bring along another worship leader to help lead the people in church. It took a long time but God provided a great couple who has such a love for the Lord and they are very talented. They just want to serve in any place that they can. I thank God every day for them. Through that God opened up a door for me to serve in the Junior High ministry where I have a chance to teach the Word. What a humbling experience that has been. I never thought I was worthy of preaching the Word but the Lord showed me that He can take the weakest of people and use them for great things. Without Him I wouldn't be able to do that at all. He is so faithful and good!

I am so blessed by the family and friends that I have around me.  My family has been so loving and stood by me so much this year. I can't even begin to thank them enough for all that they have done for me. It has been such a humbling experience to be apart of the fellowship at Calvary Creekside. To see what God is doing around there is unbelievable. It brings me to my knees in adoration everytime I think about it. I thank God every day for the people that I have grown close with over that last year. There are so many people that have touched my life over this last year and I am so thankful to have had a glimpse this year of what God is capable of in everyones lives. This time of year always brings me back to remembrance of the things that God has shown me. I hope that you can look back on this last year and praise God for the people around you and His faithfulness towards you. He deserves all the glory forever and ever!

"In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making know to us the mystery of His will, according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth."

Ephesians 1:7-10