Every Man Ministries

“This week we finish the book of James with a final encouragement and challenge. Will we be men who hope in our wealth? Who place our trust and faith in the things we’ve amassed, storing them up until they begin to rot and even condemn us? Or will we be men who trust fully in Christ? Allowing Him to direct our very lives?”

As Gods men we often find ourselves living in “tension”. We have two competing sets of desires that vie for control of our hearts: the desires of our flesh….and the desire to please the Father. Which one will win? The one we feed! In James chapter 4 we’ll unpack what a life lived in the Spirit looks like, as we continue to develop a Faith That Works.

“The speed at which words are shared in todays culture is dizzying. We tweet, text, snap and fire off emotional responses without giving them a second thought. Today our words go further, and last longer, than ever before. What encouragement does James have for how God’s Man should use his words? What impact can they have? How do we become men who use our words to build up, rather than tear down?...

Our culture makes snap decisions based on appearance. Are you like me? Can you do something for me? The Bible calls this sin “partiality” and James has a lot for us to unpack about it in chapter 2. We’ll also dive into our core passage for the series this week, as we seek to understand how our faith and our works dance together. While scripture is clear that our works don’t ever earn our faith, it...

“With a front row seat to his life, James had a unique perspective of Jesus. For most of his own life he didn’t believe Christ was who He claimed to be….until he encountered the resurrected King! He then penned this encouraging letter to the believers scattered throughout the empire, and there is perhaps no book that more properly encourages and informs the Christian life. How do we live amongst t...

A never before heard phrase that burst into our everyday lives as a result of the global pandemic was the term "social distancing." To defeat an invisible foe we had to create space between each other and we learned through structured enforcement by Federal, State, and local governments to keep our "distance." Do you remember that? This inculturated behavior combined with the separating nature of...

Behind the faces we see every day a battle rages within. All the questions life raises relentlessly nip and bite at our resolve, self confidence, and self perception. Do I have what it takes? Did I do the right thing? Does anybody care how hard I am working? Am I cut out for this? When will life not be a struggle? Not another obstacle...seriously? Why is this taking so long to close? Without answe...

Many hands make light work. Sounds good right? But most people don't want to appear weak, are too proud to ask, or have been under the weight of life so long they have become numb to real help. The fact of the matter is that every person you know is burdened by something. At a minimum, they are living on planet earth and there's the literal emotional and physical gravities of that. A broken planet...

Ever felt alone in your circumstances? Life has a way of making us feel like we are the only ones in the world going through stuff at times. Things happen to us that don't happen to others. Others hurt us while others have great life-giving relationships. We seem to suffer losses disproportionately than all of our Instagram friends. Then an insidious thing happens in our isolation and confusion -...

Every man has his Egypts. These are the symbolic seasons of life and circumstances where you felt involuntarily controlled by some thing, some person, or some situation that made you feel trapped and powerless. We have all been there in one way or another. Some Egypts even appeared fun at first until they weren't and they became places of self destruction. In a broken world no one makes it through...

How do you answer the question: where are you from? Usually, we will give a city or town and a state. "Trabuco Canyon, California," is how I would answer that question and then I would feel compelled to mention the nearest larger city and say: "On the east side of Mission Viejo." You do that to or, in some cases, if you live in a large metropolitan city you just say "New York." What is your connec...

On a planet of 7 billion people it is easy to feel...well... forgotten. So often circumstances, things done to us, choices we have made, sickness, or the simple realities of pressing responsibilities isolate us emotionally. This experience is universal - feelings turn into facts and we become vulnerable to lies about everything ...including God. He knew we would feel overwhelmed at times, lonely a...

Is there such a thing as healthy fear? Think about it. Without a healthy fear of fire, you can get third burns. Without a healthy fear of lions, you can become lunch. Without a healthy fear of electrical wires, you can be lit up like a Christmas Tree. Is there such a thing as a healthy fear of God? Young Lucy in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia is curious about the Lion named Aslan and queries Mr....

It is human nature to create a narrative or rationale to get what you want or live the way you want. My kids were legend at creating narratives, invoking the quetionable, and using like words like "everybody" or "all" to convince themselves and me that they needed the latest and greatest thing to fulfill their purpose for living. They took liberties with the truth because their desire trumped the...

Expectations are the unseen killer of relationships. Differing expectations litters a relationship with misinterpretations and massive frustration. When someone says "This shouldn't be so hard" when referring to a relationship they have, what they are really saying is "I had different expectations for it." Clear and communicated expectations, on the other hand, are a liberating and empowering forc...

DRIVING FORCES in our lives fuel the thinking and living of every man. These forces become the axis for our decision-making. A good example? Men will work hard to provide for their families - being a husband and father has power or force necessary to make a man work hard. By contrast, a DOMINANT FORCE in a man's life subsumes all driving forces into it, informs them, and shapes them. A powerful ex...

We call it multi-tasking. It means that you are able to do more than one thing at a time. Culture encourages it and it can work in some instances. We talk and drive at the same time. We BBQ and sip a beer at the same time. We hold our kids and eat at the same time and so on. But at some point our capacity to take on more things exceeds our physical ability to do them all at once. The same is true...

We work hard - really hard. To rest we divert from our work lives. We do family, collect friends, go to church, vacation, go out to eat, stream shows, do podcasts, socialize around craft whiskey, stay up on sports, become fantasy general managers, do our hobbies, and accumulate gear to do those hobbies - lots of it! It's a lot of output. It's a lot of energy. All that effort to get relief and rest...

The modern world is a noisy one. The most immediate consequence of a lot of noise is that you can't communicate with anyone in its presence. The immediate solution is equally simple if you want to connect with, hear what someone is saying, and advance the relationship. You remove the noise by removing yourself from it. Every one of us has done this. Think of being in a noisy environment and someon...

We live in a culture addicted to speed. We can't wait - or if we have to - an inner irritation cycle starts boiling inside. As a practice, we drive over the speed limit and don't give it a second thought. We see people texting while they are driving. We hunt the shortest check-out line at the grocery store. We are trained multi-taskers. We eat and email and keep eating with people. We glance and k...

When seeking to win a war, the first efforts of an attacking force wherever possible is to kill the communications capacity of your enemy. Separating a man or group of men from its strategic commanders and voices limits, isolates, and ultimately destroys their effectiveness. In your spiritual journey, your ability to hear from God is essential to living in God and for God effectively in your conte...

There are a couple of ways you can evaluate the insides of a man. One way is how he handles adversity and defeat. The other way is how he handles success, blessing and abundance. The Bible says there is a right and a wrong way to process success - one is through the lens of self and the other is through the lens of God's grace and presence. In a world that stresses making your failures opaque and...

The Bible says that humility is a like a spiritual super power - it connects you solidly and intimately with the power, presence, and grace of God. In fact, you can't have a healthy and growing relationship with God or fulfill his vision for your life without it as your inner disposition. In Part 3 of HUMBLE men's expert and pastor Kenny Luck dives deep into the next powerful reason every man shou...

God is clear - crystal clear. Humility is required to have a thriving relationship with him. It is also central to his #1 goal and purpose for your life - to be like Jesus. You can't be like Jesus, lead like Jesus, influence like Jesus or love like Jesus without a humble center of your spirit. He was royalty but he didn't need to wear a crown. He didn't need to cling to his clear advantages over m...