Saturday Men's Lecture

The Trenton church had a great Saturday Men's Lecture today (June 16). Guest speakers included Bobby Schrimsher (Lakeland, FL), Dan Chaney (Perry, FL), Tommy Peeler (Tampa, FL) and Mark Beans (High Springs, FL). Our theme this year was Characteistics of a Godly Man.

Bobby talked about "Humility" as the attitude of being worthless without God yet we are made in the image of God. In the words of John the Baptist, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). Jesus is the perfect example of humilty. I like how Bobby said: "Jesus left Heaven to wash the dirty feet of His disciples" (John 13). When we learn to be humble then we will become like Christ.

Dan Chaney gave a stirring lesson on courage. He called for men to be courageous as men, and as husbands and fathers to lead the family as Joshua did. Appealing to Joshua's call to lead the people after the death of Moses (Joshua 1) and then seeing the fullfillment of his courage in Joshua 24. This man of God made a decision to follow the Lord, announced his decision, impacted others by his announcement and then commited his whole family to the task. We can do no less as men of God.

Tommy Peeler challenged the men to rise about the circumstances of anger that plague our lives. Based upon the appeal of James to "be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger" (James 1:19) Tommy showed through Proverbs how often God exhorted men to learn the folly of uncontrolled anger. I thought a great point was that whenever "slow to anger" is found outside of Proverbs it referred to God; showing that when we learn to be slow to anger we are being like God. Another great quote: "Silence cannot be misquoted!" Great lesson.

Mark Beans presented a lesson on "Gentleness." His approach was very unique and at first I was unsure how he was going to bring his point home - he did though. Our text was 1 Kings 19 when Elijah fled from Ahab & Jezebel. The prophet finds himself in a cave and the Lord comes to Elijah and asked him why he was there. After offering his excuse, the Lord said, "Go out and stand on the mount before the LORD." And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper." (1 Kings 19:11-12). Mark then showed how the Lord dealt with Elijah the spirit of gentleness and the lesson was great.

It was a great series and I look forward to the next one in 2013. The audio of these lessons will be available on the web site (www.trentonchurchofchrist.com) and if you would like a CD of the lectures just send an email (kerux@bellsouth.net) and we will send them to you.

Thank you Bobby, Dan, Tommy and Mark. And thanks to those men who came (three men travelled three hours). Everritt - you did good son in putting this together (just remember we start with a prayer next time :-).