Four parts? of a man

Our Wednesday night men's group has started going through the Men's Fraternity program created by Robert Lewis. Robert Lewis may be best known as the writer of "Raising a Modern Day Knight". The first year of this study is "The Quest for Authentic Manhood". We are trying to get an idea of what an authentic man is. This week we looked at the four faces of a man. First we looked at the king face, followed by the warrior face, then the lover face, and lastly the friend face. These faces are similar to Stu Weber's four pillars of a man's heart (King,Warrior,Friend,and Mentor). Both Weber and Lewis are looking for balance in men. Men get stressed out trying to be the "perfect man". The only perfect man to walk the face of earth was God Himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Since that time (and before), men have tried to match this perfection only to fall short. In this study we are looking to be balanced men. A balanced man knows he has limitations. A balanced man is striving to improve. On Wednesday we looked at the case of King David and the prophet Nathan. David had sinned with Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah killed. Nathan came to David with a story of a rich man who had taken another man's only lamb. King David responded that the rich man should be punished fourfold. Nathan, risking his life by speaking against the king, said to David-You are the man!. In this case, Nathan was showing the king face by his actions. King David could have done anything to Nathan but he repented of his sin. David put on his king face and accepted what he had done. David repented but there was still a payment due. The payment was to be four times what the original cost was as King David had pronounced. I think it would have been easier on David to give his own life than the punishment through his children (life of Bathsheba's son, rape of David's daughter by his son, death of another son by a son, and finally the rebellion of the son that killed the other). Talk about a soap opera! When a man is out of balance, he can do some terrible things. Each face of a man helps keep him in balance. A strong warrior without a righteous king can be extremely destructive. In the same way a friend without the balance of a lover can be a user of other people. A man with the righteous energy of a king, conquering energy of a warrior, the romantic energy of a lover, and the connecting energy of a friend is a balanced and positive man. A man that lives his life this way, is a man following the way that God intended for a man to live.