What does it mean to be a man? When did you become a man? In this corrupt generation, what is a boy to do? In many cultures, they mark manhood by unique rites of passage. What do we do in our culture? That depends on who you ask. Some boys are taught manhood comes with their first beer, others with their first conquest of a woman. Then some believe enlisting in the military, having your first child, or winning a sports competition is the pathway to manhood.

My friend Mike Schultz and I developed this podcast series, A Record of Manhood, to ask the question, “When did you become a man?” Interviewing six good men from various backgrounds, we looked at their stories to consider what it means to be a man and when they knew they had become men.

What is the plan of God for my life? How can I mess it up? What is included within that plan? Do difficulties suggest I have missed the plan of God for my life?

This podcast devotional kicks off a new series where we are looking at the book of Ephesians throughout the months of October and November. Each episode will feature a different theme in the rich insight of Ephesians.

For years I struggled with the idea of the grace of God. I’m not talking about grace as the unmerited favor of God. That is a correct definition of the grace of God, but it’s also not enough. There is more to it than that. Paul and the writers of the New Testament talked about the grace constantly. The early church, its leaders, and its average joe-blow members knew how to identify the grace of God by looking at situations and people. In short, the descriptions of the grace of God that I found in the New Testament did not match my personal experience.