” Like Jesus, you are supposed to lose all fears; become courageous; able to resist temptation and reject compromise. Jesus was love personified; he was the epitome of humility; he radiated kindness; he was consistent and never did anything without seeking the counsel and direction of the Father through prayer. He was faithful to the very end. Those are the components of the Christian man’s culture; without which he though he remains a male, will never become a man.
Oh what wonderful God we serve! What an awesome Father we have!! Again and again, in my short walk so far with him, He has continually left me in no doubt about His sovereignty. And perhaps in nothing else does He demonstrate it more frequently than in His timing! That must be why the Bible is full of such phrases like, “at the appointed time”; “in the fullness of time.”
For five years, a certain international non-denominational men’s ministry had been in existence in Lagos and a few other cities virtually within the confines of the particular church into whose hands the vision was entrusted. For five years the stewards of the vision had dreamt, worked, as best as they knew how, to spread the vision beyond the walls of their church. For five years very little was achieved.
Then towards the end of 2005, God began to speak. He began to tell many of those involved that 2006 was the year. Yours sincerely was one of those. And I screamed it to whosoever would listen: watch out, 2006 is the year of the kingdom man in Nigeria I must have sounded like the proverbial broken record to many (are their still records!). Then in February, the network’s president under the unction of the Holy Spirit spoke. He said a men’s movement was about to be born. He called for a meeting away from the usual venue. When he spoke, yours sincerely knew that was the confirmation. And the team went to work.
On Saturday June 24 at the International Conference Hall of Etiebet’s Place in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria, that meeting held! Three hundred men drawn from across the kingdom, united in their love for God, hungry for a change in their nation, and determined to be instruments of that change, came together. Together they praised and worshipped God; together they soaked in the anointed teaching of the man of God. Together they received impartation and the prophetic marching order to unite across all dividing lines, constantly sharpen one another and thus become God’s threshing instrument in His project of cleansing Nigeria for His end-time use.
It was to be a four-hour meeting. It lasted a bit longer essentially because secular venues as usual do not recognize the importance of integrity, or at least most of their staffers don’t! The result was we started late. But did that deter the men? No way. These were men led of the Holy Spirit to abandon any personal agenda to operate with His own. These were men fully persuaded that being a man is a matter of choice and have made their choice irreversibly. I tell you this nation is in for a spirit-led and directed revolution!
Christian Men’s Network Nigeria was that ministry; the event was Luncheon with the President and the man of God who ministered at the event was Rev Dr Chris Tunde Joda.
Dr Tunde Joda! The one that we call ‘the coach’ never ceases to amaze me. When it comes to serving the Lord, particularly through imparting to others what God Has said to him, he’ll go anywhere, do anything in obedience to the will of God. This peripatetic man of God arrived Lagos early on Thursday morning to the relief of members of the Christian Men’s Network Nigeria of which he is President. The relief came from the belief that he had arrived just for the Luncheon with the President, then some 48 hours away. But before you knew it, he was on his way to Port Harcourt where some 3,000 youths had also breathed their sighs of relief at hearing that he had arrived Nigeria. You got told that those sold-out-to-God youths wanted the man of God all-weekend and you wondered if the Luncheon was not threatened! You wondered because you know that even in the Christian Men’s Network, the call of youth gets priority. That is so because, as CMN founder Ed Cole put it, new constructions are to be preferred to reconstruction, if you get my meaning! But Dr Joda would ignore neither. He flew in to Lagos on Saturday morning and headed right back to Port Harcourt immediately after delivering his message.
So what did he have to say? Or more correctly what did the Holy Spirit say through him? A lot! And that’s where we borrowed the title of this piece from. He spoke on the Culture of Christian Manhood which was the theme of the meeting and which you could say was really foundational.
“Culture is the trait that identifies you, the instinct inbred in you”, he began. “People are identified by their culture. That is why the Nigerian, wherever he may be would rather eat with his fingers than with any man-made contrivance. That is why the Chinese cherishes his chopsticks. Culture cannot be destroyed; it can only be developed. But a man’s real culture derives from his original heritage! Genesis 1:26 is clear about that! God made man in his image and after his likeness. So a man’s real culture derives from his heavenly heritage.”
But how does that translate to the way he lives during his earthly sojourn? Dr Joda likens that to apostle Phillip’s request in chapter 14 of the book of John. “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us (verse 8). To which the Lord answered “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father? (verse 9)”. So if man derives his heritage and therefore his culture from God, he only has to look to Jesus whom the Bible described as the express image of the Father (see Hebrews 1:30) as his model. That then is the rationale for the truth that manhood and Christ-likeness are synonymous, which Christian Men’s Network has proclaimed for over 25 years.
Therefore the culture of Christian manhood takes its root, stem, leaves and fruits from the character of Christ Jesus. The interesting thing, continues Dr Joda, is that that Culture became inbred in every man when he meets Jesus. “When you meet Jesus, you acquire a new gene; a different DNA from what you had before you were saved”
Like Jesus, you are supposed to lose all fears; become courageous; able to resist temptation and reject compromise. Jesus was love personified; he was the epitome of humility; he radiated kindness; he was consistent and never did anything without seeking the counsel and direction of the Father through prayer. He was faithful to the very end. Those are the components of the Christian man’s culture; without which, though he remains a male, will never become a man.
Dr Joda was characteristically blunt: If we are going to change our nation, he told his audience, “it will not be because we carry a Bible, no matter its size. It will be because we have imbibed the culture of Christian manhood. The culture of the world is sub-standard; it is weak, cowardly. You must resist the temptation to conform to the culture of the world. It doesn’t matter who else is conforming, you must STAND FIRM. And let me say this. All of this is not just that we can become better sons, brothers, husbands and fathers. It not just about becoming wealthy and influential and taking leadership positions in our country. Those are very important things, but none is more important than that you make heaven. So get your priority right; that is a major part of the culture of Christian manhood.”
Those men left the venue rededicated to taking their place as God’s men. Many signed on to join this evolving men’s movement. What about you? My dear brother-in-the Lord, are you living your culture? Think about it! Your family, your community, our nation needs real men, Christ-like men; men who know the truth and do the truth; men who go out courageously daily - doubting nothing, compromising nothing. It won’t be easy, but as we come together, iron sharpening iron, we will get there. And our families, our businesses, our community and our nation will never be the same again. Answer Christian Men’s Network Nigeria’s call today (weblog: http://christianmensnnetwork.blogspot.com; email: cmnnigera@yahoo.com; cmnnigeria@gmail.com). Welcome aboard.
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