Acts 26:20 - Prove it!
#mensministry
Morning friends,
Fall is almost here: busy, beautiful, hard to beat. We need to plan the diet around football feasts, the workouts, the school calendar, the work priorities.
Good. But what’s the plan for spiritual growth? A Monday-night men’s Bible study? A marriage course or deacon-discernment class? Something that deepens prayer, the Sacraments, Church history, or theology? Remember, you are not me, and I am not you. God is patient with each of us. We all must grow - each as God uniquely leads us.
My routine is simple: up early with a pot of coffee, slow reading through a portion of the Old Testament and a portion of the New, a few notes that turn into this blog, and prayer. In the evenings, I try to take in solid teaching or a short devotional. From January through August so far in 2026, I've patiently spent my Monday nights at OCIA and Holy Cross here in LYH. Much of it was beginner-level, and that was good for me. Alongside it, I read books on the early Church, the Sacraments, apologetics, Bible history, Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and most recently I'm knee-deep in a great OT book by Dr. Scott Hahn on covenant theology. If we follow the Lord’s promptings, He will give us more than enough to chew on.
Pray. Ask God where you need to be this fall. Be humble. As Tretiak says, you are never too good for the basics. Seasoned men still need the fundamentals. Daily.
I just finished Job and am now in the Psalms. Job is a gem. As you read it, you will recognize your own story: Satan’s attacks, suffering, and the quiet, steady work of God protecting and maturing His servant the whole time. God’s ordinary means of grace- prayer, marriage, reconciliation- really do break the power of sin. This line resounds for me like a glaring headline: “The fear of the Lord is true wisdom; to forsake evil is real understanding” (Job 28:28).
At the end of the book, God lets Job stand as intercessor and mediator for his friends, the very thing Job pleaded for someone to do for him early in the story (Job 9:33-35). God’s grace. God delights to use imperfect men to bless other imperfect men. Be that man today. Be the husband and father who steps in and prays. Prove you are a servant of Jesus Christ.
We pretend we know a lot. The truth is we are limited vessels. Yet God is generous with wisdom. He doesn’t want to hold us back at all. The truth is God is the author of freedom, and in Christ alone we have it. But don’t keep arguing with the Almighty. Instead, persist in repentance and remain in the grace of Jesus Christ.
God has given His Church a message of repentance and a commandment to unity in truth. You will know false teachers by their disunity and by how they reject Jesus because of their love of money. If we reject Christ and His one holy Church, we reject the very means He has appointed. Yet God remains patient and kind.
When we catch even a glimpse of Jesus’ power, love, and forgiveness, the only fitting response is like Job: humble repentance, “I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance” (Job 42:6). Job’s friends were genuine men of faith; God spoke to them as well (42:7). Like Job, let’s be men who aim to learn and obey, for learning without application is useless, like strapping on the pads without playing the game.
None of us knows how many days remain. Job at seventy still had half a lifetime of growth ahead. With whatever days the Lord gives us, let’s finish well. Fear God rightly. Forsake evil wisely.
Paul stood before audiences who thought him insane (Acts 26:24). Time will tell. Eternity will tell. Preach the truth anyway.
So here is the word for this morning: Seek God. Make a concrete plan to grow spiritually this fall. Keep asking, keep knocking. God will show you more of His mysterious goodness. Turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God. He offers forgiveness of sins and a place among God’s people to all who put their faith in Jesus Christ.
Some of my Baptist friends may not love this message, but I share it anyway. Scripture is clear: we must not only repent and turn to God; we must prove we have changed by the good things we do (Acts 26:20). So today, prove it. Fear God. Forsake evil. Do the good works that flow from a living faith.
Jesus does not offer easy words. He offers true ones: “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.” (John 6:53-58).
With that hard, nay, seemingly impossible, message, many turned away from Jesus. Don’t. Turn to Jesus! True bread, true wine: the Eucharist. That is remaining in Christ. That is the weekly and daily way we prove we belong to Him.
Jesus was Job’s Redeemer. He is ours. He protects, He restores, He will bring justice. In Him alone we trust. Plan this fall to grow in Jesus Christ and to obey Him humbly. Victory comes from God alone. It is our privilege, as it was Paul’s, to be servants and witnesses so that others may receive forgiveness and their place among God’s people. Prove His love and goodness by what you do.
Have a great Saturday!
David
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