Risk

by Kenny Luck

Published 18 April 2006
Do you dare let Jesus take control of your life?

Predictability. Control. Safety. Comfort.
Jesus challenges God’s man to throw all those words out the window. Because, when it comes to your faith, all the energy spent eliminating risk from your life actually becomes a barrier to progress in your spiritual journey.
Jesus said, “If you try to keep your life for yourself you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake…you will find true life” (Mark 8:35). There really is no such thing as the “safe life” when you are committed to Christ–when you seek to become God’s man. Instead, Jesus personally challenges you to bet your life totally on him.
Risk is for men who are ready to go to the next level in their faith–and ready to say goodbye to playing it safe when it comes to radically trusting their Savior.

Look for the Risk Workbook– a hands-on guide for personal or group study!

 
Your sexual needs are far different from your man's.
And they may be more dangerous.

When does an affair begin? Not with the first forbidden touch…but with the first forbidden thought. Unexpectedly, you find yourself enjoying a powerful emotional bond with another man. You feel like you matter to someone again. And the door you thought was locked so firmly–the door to sexual infidelity–is suddenly ajar.

The only way women can survive the intense struggle for sexual integrity is by guarding not just your body, but your mind and heart as well. Every Woman's Battle can help you learn to do that.

Using real-life stories and examples from her own struggle, Shannon Ethridge helps women like you–whether married, engaged, or planning to marry someday--to:


·     Understand the four unique components of female sexuality
·     Discern the common myths that keep women standing in the line of fire
·     Design a new defense to protect every aspect of your life
·     Cultivate an unimaginable level of intimacy with your husband or husband-to-be
·     Develop an affair with the one and only Lover who will truly satisfy your innermost desires: Jesus Christ
 
Written in the honest style of the best-selling Every Man Series but with a uniquely female perspective, Every Woman's Battle will lead you on a lifelong path to true joy and fulfillment—sexually, emotionally, and spiritually.
 
Includes a comprehensive workbook for individual or group study.



“I’ve worked hard to get where I am. I’ve overcome great obstacles. I’ve earned it.” No one had a greater right to say those statements more than King David. He rose from the fields of Palestine to the palace of power and privilege. He’d made it. But now that he was on top, would he continue to grow spiritually in the midst of his success?

Self-sufficiency is a temptation every man faces. But we can’t be both self-sufficient and on the move spiritually at the same time. Just as in David’s life, God often allows us to experience the consequences of self-sufficiency so that we can rediscover our need for his leadership and empowerment in our lives. In the end, the crushing blows we face serve to humble us…and forge the basis for the next wave of spiritual momentum in our lives.

Being God’s Man…in the Search for Success will help you–whether in individual or group study–come to grips with the attitudes and actions you must own as you move forward to achieve God’s goals for you in life.

How satisfied are you with your life?

Men like you are finding it tougher than ever to be content with what they have. They compare themselves with others and continually come up short. The soul-gnawing result is discouragement and disappointment.

Lasting contentment comes only from a transformation of your mind, emotions, and will. It also takes a personal encounter with the God who can make you content.

In Being God’s Man by Finding Contentment, you will track this struggle for a new identity through various biblical passages. Like Jacob, you will not be fully settled and content until you lay to rest your past and take up a new identity in Christ. Jacob became a new creature, a man on a mission for the Lord. His struggle was over. He knew why he was here and what he had to do. His life took on purpose and meaning that transcended the striving. Yours can, too.

Special Features:
·Practical studies facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
·Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
·“Real Life” case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men’s lives
·“Standing Strong” section gives you the opportunity to form and express your action steps with God and your group

How to be God’s man in relationship with a woman.

Few men would ever embark on an important project, a significant career change, or a major athletic challenge without gathering all the tactical knowledge possible to insure a good outcome. Yet, when it comes to relationships with women, most men fail to apply the simple principles that make them successful in other areas of life.

It may be easy to get into a relationship with a woman, but it’s not so easy to make the relationship work well. It takes energy. It demands effort. It requires education and understanding.

God is available to help. But there’s a catch: God’s man must connect with God’s purposes before he can truly connect with his wife (or wife-to-be). God uses the marriage relationship to promote growth in men’s lives, because it shows us our character gaps and drives us to Him for solutions.

If you want true intimacy and connection with a woman, you’ll need to grow up and graduate from God’s school of character. This book, Being God’s Man by Understanding a Woman’s Heart, is the perfect start.

Special Features:
·Practical studies facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
·Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
·“Real Life” case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men’s lives
·“Standing Strong” section gives you the opportunity to form and express your action steps with God and your group

God’s Word is clear about the importance of godly friendships–and how God designs them to complete us spiritually. If you ever hope to win the battles you face in your spiritual journey, you must be connected to godly men.

The problem is that many men today act like they don’t need friends–and they’re paying the price. Risking relationship is not easy for men, but it’s a non-negotiable for God’s man. When you stand with others who share your spiritual goals, you achieve them faster. That’s God’s way.

Godly friendships create consistency, provide care and support, stimulate healthy confession, produce new connections, and make you complete in Christ. They produce positive changes in your character, convictions, conduct, and commitment to do life God’s way.

Learn how to build and benefit from friendships with godly men. It starts with Being God’s Man…in Pursuing Friendships.

Take up a new calling. Walk a new path. And experience life’s greatest adventure.

Will you discover your true reason for living, enter the battle, and become a new man in Christ? Or will you settle for less? To live more purposefully, to experience a full life, to become more, you will have to become someone else and walk a new path.

This kind of attitude is what the Navy Seals look for in a man: Rogue warriors. Unconventional. Committed. Guys who will do anything to win the battle and stay true to their new identities. Walking this new path requires men who won’t shrink from the battle.

In spirit, the Apostle Paul was this kind of a rogue warrior for God’s kingdom. He was tough and uncompromising and he held to a code that marked his life. He lived on purpose, not by accident. He surrendered his life and became a support for others. If you choose to become this kind of man made new, unwilling to compromise, then let this great apostle lead the way.

Special Features:
·Practical studies facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
·Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
·“Real Life” case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men’s lives
·“Standing Strong” section gives you the opportunity to form and express your action steps with God and your group

You may be single by choice or circumstance. You may plan to marry and have a family, or you may sense a call to lifelong singleness. Even so, your situation is God’s will for you now. What will you do with it? What will you learn from it? And how will you survive the temptations confronting singles in this world?

You know firsthand that single men face unique spiritual and moral struggles. Character is the cornerstone of being God’s man as a single in today’s culture. To live successfully out of a commitment to Christ, you as a single man must master the issues of sexual integrity, isolation, contentment, spiritual battle, and identity in Christ. Being God’s Man…as a Satisfied Single is designed to help you do just that.

If you think God’s values and the world’s values can co-exist, think again.

You have to live in this world. But if you want to be God’s man, there’s a catch: You can’t be absorbed or influenced by the world. You have to stand strong as a man of God and resist the world.

Men like you who are getting serious about their walk with God feel a deep, intuitive conflict of the soul…where unholy alliances with the world, which were once acceptable, must now be broken. That’s not easy. But here’s solid, trustworthy guidance for you from men who have been there, too.

In Being God’s Man by Resisting the World, you’ll take a look at Christ’s template of values as revealed in the Sermon on the Mount. Every man who seeks to understand and train in these values will experience a greater connection with God. So forget what you know, focus on these truths, and start living large spiritually.

Special Features:
·Practical studies facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
·Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
·“Real Life” case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men’s lives
·“Standing Strong” section gives you the opportunity to form and express your action steps with God and your group

David was to be the future king of Israel. And yet, as you’ll see firsthand in this compelling Bible study, the journey to that goal was filled with dangers, delays, and difficulties.

Just like David, every man has a dream of who he wants to become. But getting there is a different story. Hardships and losses can destroy the faith–and even the life–of a lesser man.

Many men fail to realize their dreams because they choose comfort over character, image over substance, and escape over endurance. But a man who knows how to embrace hardship and learn to mine it for God’s purposes will see his godly dreams come true.

Hardships are inevitable. Embracing them is a choice. God’s dream for you is at stake. And Being God’s Man…in Tough Times will equip you to overcome life’s difficulties in the power and wisdom of God.

More than ever, families are desperate for spiritual leadership. And that starts with you, the husband and father. Are you equipped and ready to assume the role and responsibility God has for you? Being God’s Man…in Leading a Family will help you accept your calling and experience God’s blessing as the spiritual leader to your wife and children.

In this study–for individual or group use–you’ll discover the six keys to true spiritual leadership in the home:

1.Deciding: Taking ownership of your own spiritual journey
2.Demonstrating: Modeling a relationship with God
3.Displaying: God’s love in your relationship with your wife
4.Displaying: God’s love in your interactions with your children
5.Daily spiritual leadership through fostering spiritual connections in the home
6.Daily spiritual leadership through serving

Being God’s Man…in Leading a Family is the Bible study that could revolutionize not only your life, but also the lives of your wife and children–and impact generations to come in the wisdom and strength of God.

You’ve already been set free by Christ.
When are you going to start experiencing that freedom?


What does it look like when a man lives out a truly authentic, loving walk with Jesus Christ? It looks like freedom.

The Apostle Paul, a man made new by the gospel of Jesus Christ, presents one of the clearest images of the godly man in action. He’s committed to a life of faith, focused on the Spirit instead of the flesh, set free to love others. No longer focused on himself, he demonstrates his faith by serving others. You can be that kind of man by claiming your freedom in Christ. Being God’s man means being set free to exemplify Christ’s love.

Being God’s Man by Claiming Your Freedom will stimulate personal reflection and honest dialogue with God and other men. The goal is that you will strive to be God’s man in every way–feeling his heart for others, and doing his will obediently and joyfully.

Special Features:
·Practical studies–for individual use or group settings–facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
·Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
·“Real Life” case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men’s lives
·“Standing Strong” section gives you the opportunity to identify action steps for lasting change.

How to maintain your godly boundaries even under pressure.

When you’re faced with an imminent threat, your body releases adrenaline. Your heart beats faster. Your muscles tense, and all your senses switch to “Go.” But what happens when your spiritual well-being is under attack? Do you stand strong in your desire to do God’s will…or run for the hills?

The path of faith is tough traveling. Fighting to hold on to God’s purposes under adverse conditions is inconvenient, impractical, and thoroughly unpredictable. Standing firm under pressure reveals our true convictions about God, about everything.

In Being God’s Man by Standing Firm Under Pressure you’ll examine one man–named Daniel–and his band of brothers who demonstrated how not to compromise under pressure. They didn’t let misfortune, temptation, manipulation, intimidation, or even death shake their faith into compromise. Instead, they faced each new challenging circumstance with courage and trust. As God’s man, you can, too.

Special Features:
·Practical studies facilitate personal encounters with God and other men
·Questions encourage genuine reflection and help build godly convictions
·“Real Life” case studies show how the truths you discover have worked out in other men’s lives
·“Standing Strong” section gives you the opportunity to form and express your action steps with God and your group


All men are tempted to compromise. But not all men do. Some have learned the secret of being undivided between what they believe and how they actually think and live.

They possess integrity. They’ve gained new perspectives on the trials and temptations they face, new tools to help them survive automatic human responses to challenging situations, and new actions which produce humility and flexibility in God’s strength. You can be a man of integrity too.

Confession breaks the power of temptation in men of integrity; connection with other men sustains the victory. Being God’s Man…in the Face of Temptation will help you–whether in individual or group study–confront this pervasive problem in God’s wisdom and strength. And begin to live the undivided life.

Live life the way Jesus did. To the extreme.

You’re asking tough questions:
 
• Does faith do more than keep me from the fun everybody else is having?
• Why do I think about sex so much?
• Why should I obey God when nobody else does?
• What's definitely okay and not okay with God?
• Does God really expect so much of me?

You want solid answers to your deepest questions? Every Young Man, God’s Man will answer them all.

It's time to go to the dark and difficult places in your heart, and stand up in God's power in all the battles you face. With Every Young Man, God’s Man you will find yourself full of spiritual confidence and courage. You'll see how faith makes sense in the light of who God is and how much He cares about you. And the bottom line: You'll discover that it doesn't get any better than living as God's man--confident, courageous and completely His.

Get ready for some gut-punching honesty and real-life stories about how to be God’s man. Right now.

Now with workbook included!

Guys Aren't the Only Ones Fighting a Battle for Purity

The world you live in promotes sex as the answer to just about everything. The pressure to go along with the crowd is greater than ever before, and it's easy to compromise in little ways that are a lot more harmful than they seem. You and your friends may become caught up in destructive relationships or sexual activities without even knowing how you got there. You just want to be normal–to fit in, to be liked, to look attractive to the opposite sex. But are you paying too high a price?

This counterpart to the award-winning Every Young Man's Battle can help you:

· learn how the sexual battle begins in your heart and mind
· understand your hunger for attention from guys
· recognize and avoid the potential pitfalls awaiting young women on the journey toward adulthood and possibly marriage
· find out how the media, novels, fashion, internet chat rooms, and body and beauty obsessions influence your sexual choices–and what you can do about it
· guard your mind, heart, and body against sexual and emotional compromise
· develop a deeper, more satisfying level of intimacy with God

Whether you have so far protected yourself emotionally and sexually, feel that you've been robbed of your purity, or have given in to temptation in some way, this book can help you achieve or reclaim sexual integrity. It can also guide you through the temptations and pressures of young adulthood while demonstrating how you can live your life to the fullest–without regrets.

Includes a comprehensive workbook for individual or group study.

Powerful Tools for Guarding Your Body, Mind, and Heart
 
Remaining pure while single isn’t easy in a culture that encourages a woman to use her body to gain power, respect, and personal fulfillment. The longing for emotional and physical connection can gradually and subtly lead you into compromises you never intended to make. But you can resist the pressures—or reclaim your purity—by building a strong foundation of integrity.
 
This book, ideal for study with Every Woman’s Battle, is designed specifically for single women and will give you the tools you need to resist temptation and discover true fulfillment. Through practical and biblical lessons you’ll be equipped to:

· understand the unique components of female sexuality
· discern your personal areas of vulnerability
· design a defense plan to protect your heart and mind, as well as your body
· allow God to satisfy the desires He placed within you
 
Each weekly study section—designed both for individual and small group use in eight-week or twelve-week tracks—guides you deeper into God’s Word, then helps you personalize and apply the principles that will help you live in sexual and emotional purity.