I love sports films. The films I love the most are the ones where you get to see the relationship between a coach and a player.

There is something amazing about a coach calling a young man to a level of greatness he did not know existed. A recent favorite is a behind-the-scenes documentary by ESPN chronicling the Ohio State Buckeyes. Getting to see Ohio State’s new head coach, Urban Meyer, lead his team is extremely inspiring.

Meyer excels at getting young men to believe there is more in them than they ever knew. He constantly reminds the young men he leads, “It’s so easy to be average; it takes a little something to be special.”

You can see him pry into these young men’s souls when he leans forward and says, “What is in you? We are gonna find out.”

We, as men, need that man in our lives who will look in our eyes and call us to greatness. Why? Because we are prone to passivity. We are prone to mediocrity. This is nothing new.

We see the first man God created resort to passivity while his wife, Eve, was tempted and led astray in the Garden of Eden. I am personally very aware of this. I feel the temptation to be passive or mediocre when I get home from a long day of work and my family needs me. Or when I have the option to take a shortcut at work. Passivity dominates manhood today.

We need coaches to call us to the manhood God has intended for us. Men who do not have coaches tend to be unable to receive instruction and fall into foolish patterns of life.

“The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice” (Prov. 12:15).

The coaches in my life are not “yes men.” These are men I trust and have seen walk with Jesus in humility and honor. Just like Urban Meyer, my coaches sometimes get in my face, and other times they instruct gently. But there is one great difference between my coaches and Urban Meyer. My coaches are not pointing me toward a greatness that I am creating. They are pointing me toward the greatness that is Jesus.

You see, Jesus has died and risen so that I can bring Him glory. I bring Jesus glory by being the man He is calling me to be. My coaches are constantly point me the ultimate Man, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. They preach the gospel to me.

I can never obtain real greatness by pulling myself up by my bootstraps. I can never reject passivity by my own power. I cannot even find my manhood identity in my coaches.

A great coach points you to Jesus. Men, you need a great coach. You need a coach who will point you to the greatness that is Jesus.

Matt Patrick is the lead pastor of The Well Church in Boulder, Colo.

For the original article, visit authenticmanhood.com.

The murder of Evyatar Borovsky should be investigated in connection with the increase in terrorist acts along Judea and Samaria roads and shooting from the Gaza Strip toward Israel. You don’t need to be a fortune-teller to understand that this is a trend that is only going to get stronger.

The United States, the strongest power in the history of mankind, has grown tired. The spirit of liberty has waned; its strength to manage global crises has dwindled. It is hard for its civilians and leadership to carry the weight of more flag-draped coffins, unloaded under the cover of darkness from military planes arriving from Pakistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Libya and other places in recent years.

Military cemeteries across the U.S. are filled with the tombstones of brave fighters who sacrificed their lives on the altar of values, which most Americans don’t believe in anymore or aren’t prepared to die for. The difficult economic situation is also reinforcing these winds of isolationism.

For decades, the U.S. has debated the responsibilities of protecting democratic values throughout the world and caring for its own needs and the safety of its citizens. President Barack Obama doesn’t project the authority and leadership required to lead campaigns against hostile state-sponsored terrorism threatening world peace.

One disconcerting example of American conduct pertains to the use, or not, of chemical weapons by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad against rebel forces. The American administration was worried about confirming the reliable information provided by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that chemical weapons were deployed so that the U.S. wouldn’t have to intervene in Syria. This hesitation is the opposite of leadership.

Every time the U.S. realizes its own weakness, the White House dusts off the old Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

This is an attempt to gather support and sympathy at the expense of Israel, which will again be asked to make territorial and diplomatic concessions. The terrorists in Gaza and Ramallah understand this and embolden their terrorist activities, which will gain momentum as long as the U.S. continues to push a diplomatic process forward. On the roads in Judea and Samaria and in the communities near Gaza, Israelis are already paying the price.

Similar to the past, Israel finds itself under attack by global powers of evil. The winds of war are blowing across the Middle East and fanning the flames along Israel’s borders. One spark could ignite a conflagration, the consequences of which are anybody’s guess. For years now, the terrorists have searched for the opportunity to drag the world into a state of chaos by stirring up conflict between states and superpowers. The U.S. weakness only serves to encourage the organizers of global terrorism and strengthens their sense of victory.

Israel has no choice; there is no country in the world that will send troops to die in the defense of Israelis. Many in the world believe that Israel is the root of all global crises due to its refusal to commit suicide by accepting the demands of the Palestinians and their supporters. It’s hard for me to blame world leaders when there are journalists, in Israel even, who write opinion pieces justifying this delusional claim.

After 2,000 years, we won our independence, at the basis of which is our ability to defend ourselves. The Jews are no longer at the mercy of a patron’s protection, and they never will be. As the moment of truth arrives and as the threats facing Israel materialize, the Israeli government and the IDF need to deal with them, near or far.

Therefore, it is important for Israel’s leadership to insist on the country’s interests and for Israelis not to tire from paying the price of liberty.

Dr. Haim Shine writes a daily column for Israel Hayom. For the original article, visit israelhayom.com.

Heart disease is the number-one killer of American men and women today—and this is odd, considering that heart disease was an uncommon cause of death at the beginning of the 20th century.

While it’s true that more people died of infectious diseases in those days and often didn’t live long enough to die of heart disease, they also consumed much greater amounts of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. As subsequent generations began eating less fish and more beef, the rates of heart disease for those generations shot up.

Hippocrates said, “Whatever is good for the heart is probably good for the mind.” Let’s reverse his insight a little and say, “Whatever is good for the mind is probably good for the heart.” As you now know, my dietary program provides excellent benefits for your brain. You can also assume that it’s going to provide extraordinary benefits for your heart. In fact, that’s the reason I started my research 20 years ago.

I wanted to see if I could change the expression of my own genes, which were programmed for an early death from heart disease—something that occurred in my father, his brothers, and my grandfather. This led me to the concept of the Zone and to my continuing research to evolve and refine that concept.

One of the best ways to live a longer and better life is to reduce your likelihood of developing heart disease. If we could eliminate heart disease tomorrow, the average life expectancy of every American would increase by an estimated 10 years. Advances in medical care have cut the death rate from heart disease, but they haven’t touched the incidence rates. We are getting heart disease more than ever, and as our population ages, more of us will die from this condition.

We are simply not doing a good enough job of addressing the underlying cause of heart disease—a decrease in blood flow to the heart and an increase in inflammation in the arteries. These both result from an increased production of “bad” eicosanoids. Rather than putting your faith in the hope that some major surgery or new drug treatment will save your life after you get heart disease, why not just avoid getting it in the first place?

Protecting yourself against heart disease requires far more than just simply lowering your cholesterol levels. In fact, 50 percent of the people who are hospitalized with heart attacks have normal cholesterol levels, and 25 percent of people who develop premature heart disease have no traditional risk factors at all. Maybe elevated cholesterol isn’t the real cause of heart disease in the first place.

The best predictors of a future heart attack come from prospective studies that follow healthy people for a number of years to determine which ones go on to develop heart disease, and then to figure out why. Because these are expensive trials, very few of them are done. But those that exist have indicated that cholesterol levels are, in fact, a very poor predictor of future heart attacks. In fact, the likelihood of future heart attacks has everything to do with excess levels of “bad” eicosanoids—exactly the hormones that can be modified by my dietary recommendations.

A heart attack is simply the death of muscle cells in the heart from a lack of oxygen. This occurs when blood flow can’t reach the heart because of a blockage or clot in the arteries caused by a clumping of blood platelets, or because of inflammation that causes an unstable plaque to break off and block the blood flow in the artery. Sometimes a spasm in the artery blocks the flow to the heart, or the heart goes into electrical chaos and simply stops its synchronized beating on its own.

Causes of Heart Attacks

1. Clot formation
2. Plaque instability
3. Vasospasm
4. Electrical chaos (sudden death)

None of these four causes of heart attacks has much to do with increased cholesterol levels, but all of them have everything to do with “bad” eicosanoids.

When I first wrote The Zone, I was strongly criticized for asserting that elevated insulin levels were a major factor in heart disease. (This is despite the fact that diabetics are known to be at highly increased risk of heart disease.) People still wanted to believe that the vast majority of heart problems were caused mainly by dietary fat and high cholesterol levels.

Now the tide of medical opinion is beginning to turn. During the past several years, more and more research, especially from prospective studies, has shown that elevated insulin puts you at a greatly increased risk of heart disease. The reason why elevated insulin levels increase your risk of heart disease is that excess insulin causes your body to overproduce “bad” eicosanoids. This is why you need to combine insulin control with high-dose fish oil if your goal is treating heart disease. Only this one-two dietary punch can maximally reduce the AA/EPA ratio and thus restrict the formation of “bad” eicosanoids.

The Importance of Your TG/HDL Ratio

When I first started doing cardiovascular research in the early 1970s, two prevailing theories of heart disease fought for supremacy. One theory held that high cholesterol levels predominantly caused heart disease, and therefore that simply lowering total cholesterol could cure heart disease. The other theory was more complicated and had to do with looking at heart disease as a complex inflammatory process.

Scientists used to think we had to worry only about our total cholesterol level, but then researchers found this wasn’t a very strong predictor of heart disease. Next came the realization that there was both “good” and “bad” cholesterol. The “good” cholesterol was found in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) particles, and the “bad” cholesterol in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) particles. This launched a war against “bad” cholesterol, which is predominantly elevated by saturated fat.

In more recent years, scientists discovered two types of LDL cholesterol. One type consists of large, fluffy LDL particles that appear to have no potential to cause atherosclerosis or the development of plaques on the large or medium-sized arteries. The other type consists of small, dense LDL particles that are strongly associated with arterial plaques and this can increase the risk of heart disease. So now you have good “bad” cholesterol (large, fluffy LD particles) and bad “bad” cholesterol (small, dense LDL). Getting confused? Well, so is everyone else who is fighting the cholesterol wars, because we now know that the more bad “bad” cholesterol you have, the more likely you are to have a heart attack, whereas having a high level of the good “bad” cholesterol isn’t likely to have any adverse health effects.

How can you tell which type of LDL you have? All you have to do is determine your ratio of triglycerides to HDL cholesterol, which would be found as part of the results of your last cholesterol screening. If you ratio is less than 2, you have predominantly large, fluffy LDL particles that are not going to do you much harm. If your ratio is greater than 4, you have a lot of small, dense LDL particles that can accelerate the development of atherosclerotic plaques—regardless of your total cholesterol levels.

The importance of this TG/HDL ratio was confirmed by studies from the Harvard Medical School. This research found that the higher your TG/HDL ratio, the more likely you would be to have a heart attack. How much more likely? In one study, those with the highest ratio had sixteen times the risk of those with the lowest ratio. That’s a huge increase in risk of for the most common cause of death.

In contrast to our national wars on smoking and high cholesterol, you hear nothing of our battle plan for reducing elevated TG/HDL levels. Since a high TG/HDL ratio is a surrogate marker for elevated insulin, you can see why I was making my plea to launch a national war on elevated insulin many years ago.

Heart Disease Rx: Reduce Inflammation

If reducing inflammation is so powerful in reducing our death rate from heart attacks, the solution should be simple: add more fish oil to the diet. This idea was first posed in the 1970s by researchers who found through epidemiological studies that Eskimos in Greenland had virtually no heart disease even though they consumed a high-fat diet. Over the years, additional studies suggested that the more fish you consume, the lower your risk of dying from heart disease.

One of these studies was the DART study, which found that eating one serving of fish per week decreased heart attacks by 29 percent in patients who had had a previous heart attack. The researchers couldn’t definitely prove, however, that it was the fish oil in the fish that conferred these protective benefits, or whether there was confounding factor, such as that people who eat fish have healthier lifestyles in general.

More definitive proof of the benefits of fish oil was found in the results of the GISSI trial, in which patients with heart disease who took about 1 gram per day of ultra refined-grade long-chain omega-3 fatty acids had a 45 percent reduction in their risk of having a sudden fatal heart attack, a 30 percent reduction in their total risk of cardiovascular mortality, and a 20 percent reduction in overall mortality. Surprisingly, vitamin E (given by itself or in combination with fish oil) had no benefits.

The most powerful statement on the role of diet in preventing heart disease, however, comes from the Lyon Diet Heart Study. In this study, survivors of heart attacks were split into two groups. One group was put on a diet that followed the American Heart Association recommendations (basically the USDA Food Pyramid), and the second group was put on a Mediterranean-type diet (rich in fruits, vegetables, and fish; supplemented with short-chain omega-3 fatty acids; and very low in omega-6). At the end of four years, the two groups had the same cholesterol levels. There was, however, a more than 70 percent reduction in both fatal and nonfatal heart attacks in the group on the Mediterranean diet compared with the control group, who were allowed to eat hefty amounts of omega-6 fatty acids. This study was very damaging for the cholesterol theory of heart disease.

More important, during the four years the group on the Mediterranean diet experienced no sudden deaths (a term used to describe electrical chaos in the heart, which makes it stop beating in rhythm and is the primary cause of cardiovascular mortality), the primary difference between the two groups was the ratio of the arachidonic acid to eicosapentaenoic acid in the blood. The AA/EPA ratio of the individuals in the active group was 6.1, compared with 9.0 in the group following the American Heart Association diet. Thus, a 30 percent reduction in the AA/EPA ratio resulted in a greater than 70 percent reduction in fatal and nonfatal heart attacks, despite the fact that the TG/HDL ratio didn’t change for either group. This is why I believe that the AA/EPA ratio is by far the most powerful predictor of future heart disease.

As dramatic as the results of the Lyon Diet Heart Study were, I believe they could have been even better if the patients had followed my dietary recommendations. The group on the Mediterranean diet never reached an AA/EPA ratio of 1.5, which is similar to that found in the Japanese, who have the lowest rates of heart disease in the world. This is the ideal that I define in my dietary program. Also, the TG/HDL ratio was still elevated in both groups in the study, and this indicates that insulin levels hadn’t been lowered and that both groups were still eating diets too rich in carbohydrates.

My dietary program represents a considerable improvement over the intervention diets used in both the GISSI study and the Lyon Diet Heart. Where the GISSI study provided a little less than 1 gram of pharmaceutical-grade fish oil, I recommend five times as much. (You need at least 3 to 4 grams of ultra refined long-chain omega-3 fatty acids per day to lower triglycerides and thus lower the TG/HDL ratio.) While the Lyon Diet Heart Study recommended eating more fruits, I recommend 10 to 15 servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

For the original article, visit cbn.com. Excerpted from The Omega RX Zone: The Miracle of the New High-Dose Fish Oil by Dr. Barry Sears. For more information about Dr. Barry Sears, his incredible fish oil supplements, or the popular Zone Diet, please visit www.zoneliving.com.

This subject is for both husbands and wives. Why? Some may be surprised to learn that FivestarMan has an interested audience of women curious to know more about the quest for authentic manhood for the man in their life.

Shelly, via Facebook, asked this question recently: ”How do I show respect to my husband?”

To answer, I would say this: It would be very difficult to show respect to your husband if he first didn’t show his love toward you.

So let us first discuss the man’s role in gaining respect from his wife. The apostle Paul addresses this very question by directing his command to the man first: “Each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband” (Eph. 5:33, NIV).

Paul continues by equating the relationship Jesus has with the church with the relational and emotional needs of a healthy marriage. He actually prods the husband to understand that the love he has for his wife should be sacrificial—even to the point of death. That’s a very strong statement, and yet that’s exactly the kind of love a husband should strive to have and show toward his wife. To be honest, very few husbands have lived up to that standard, but it is certainly a worthy goal.

Men, know this: The greatest need of a woman is to be loved.

The apostle goes on to teach the power a husband’s words have on his wife. He says the words of a man have the ability to cleanse, even sanctify, his wife. This is why the words of a husband should be useful for edifying and strengthening his wife.

Yes, there are times a man’s words may seem like a rebuke or correction, but the spirit behind those words should be out of his love for her, never to damage or oppress her.

By the same token, a man should never allow his wife to speak derogatory statements over herself.

Why? There is enmity between the world system and the woman. It only takes a few minutes spent viewing television commercials to see the degradation aimed toward women. This skewed view makes many women feel they can never live up to the unnatural standards portrayed. A natural tendency, then, is to feel a sense of despair and condemnation. However, a husband has authority to speak kind and comforting words over his wife that will cleanse her from unrighteous condemnation.

And now for the women. Know this:The greatest need of a man is to be respected.

Paul instructs women that men need something different than the communicative emotion of love. Men actually need to be respected. Men value the position of honor and expect to be treated with it. The husband should live in such a way that merits honor, and in return his wife should show respect toward him. She should esteem him. She should listen and carefully receive from him.

God honors protocol. He will honor the fact that the husband is the “head” of the wife. God speaks through leadership, not around leadership. God will use the husband to speak instructional advice to his wife.

What if the husband is an unbeliever? “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God” (Rom. 13:1).

God has established husbandry as the authority of the home. The husband is the designed protector, provider and promoter of the home. Even though he may not be a believer, a woman should do her best to honor her husband’s role. (For more information regarding the protocol of authority, you may download a free copy of The Centurion Principle at fivestarman.com.)

So, how ought you, as a woman, show respect?

• Honor your husband. Do so by never speaking down to him or belittling him to any of your friends. Do not grumble against him.
• Encourage him by giving him gratitude and praise for what he does and what he provides for your family. A simple gesture of thanks goes a long way for a man.
• Think of creative ways to serve him and show kindness toward him.
• Do not nag at him. Proverbs warns of the nagging wife—even suggesting that it would be better to live in the corner of the attic or even in a dry and desolate place than with a nag. Don’t do it.
• Do not compare him to anyone else. Do not be snippy or sarcastic.
• Do not raise your voice to him. Speak to him in a respectful and honorable tone.
• Be quick to apologize when you are wrong. Do not allow strife to exist between you. Where there is strife, there is every evil work.
• Save some energy for him. I know you have a lot going on around the house, especially if you have small children. However, make sure you nurture your time with him and only him. Make your bedroom a sanctuary. Children should not run into your room. They should knock on the door for permission to enter. I know you may be thinking I am unrealistic at this point, but I am not. In fact, let me go one step further: Do not allow your children to sleep with you in the master bedroom.
• Go to your husband for answers. He is given a position of wisdom, and you need to draw upon his wisdom.
• Finally, make sure that you pray for your husband daily.

For the original article, visit fivestarman.com. Fivestarman was founded in 2008 by Neil Kennedy. Kennedy has passionately promoted God’s Word for 25-plus years of ministry. He is known for practically applying biblical principles that elevate people to a new level of living. As a business, church, ministry and life consultant, Kennedy has helped others strategize the necessary steps to reach their full potential.

When Yeshua taught about His Second Coming, He compared it to the flood of Noah and the destruction of Sodom. Those were real historical events, yet they also serve as patterns for what will come upon the earth in the end times:

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man. …
Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot” (Luke 17:26, 28).

In both of those events, there was total destruction as a punishment from God. In both, the people were totally caught by surprise. In the case of Noah, the destruction was worldwide by flood of water.  In the case of Lot, the destruction was by fire in the area of Sodom. We can conclude from this that at the Second Coming, the punishment will be worldwide not local, but of fire not of water (2 Pet. 3).

If the punishment will be similar, we can imagine the sin will be similar. The circumstances that prevailed in those days will prevail once again in the end times. In the case of Noah, the most prevalent sin was violence: “The earth also was corrupt … and … filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11).

(Interestingly, the word for “violence” in this text is hamas, which sounds in Hebrew the same as the name of the terrorist organization, Hamas, even though there is no etymological connection.) Is it possible to think of a world overrun with crime, financial corruption and terrorist violence?

This week as I write this article, citizens were bombed with chemical weapons in Syria, an unmanned surveillance aircraft (drone) from Hezbollah was shot down by the Israeli Air Force as it approached the Haifa harbor, and missiles were shot into southern Israel from the Egyptian border. A similar worldwide violence as in the days of Noah could be fulfilled by the spread of Islamic jihad in our day.

In Sodom, the sin was homosexuality. The kind of homosexuality then was aggressive and violent (Gen. 19:4-11). France passed a same-sex marriage law this week. There is an aggressive movement pushing homosexual values across the Western world. Anyone who speaks against them is attacked. The Messianic kibbutz in Israel, Yad Hashmonah, was sued this year for not allowing a lesbian marriage at its synagogue site.

Even believers who are not engaged in this kind of sin will be affected by it. Lot was a righteous man, but he was unable to do any righteous works. All his spiritual effort was spent in simply surviving and overcoming the torment of his soul (2 Pet. 2:7). Let us not be paralyzed by spirits of sexual perversion in the end times, but rather overcome them and go on to victory in faith.

As in the days of Noah and Lot, the dominating sins of our generation are jihad and homosexuality.

Asher Intrater, along with his wife, Betty, is the director of Revive Israel Ministries, an apostolic ministry team dedicated to revival in Israel. The Intraters are committed to world evangelism, the power of the Holy Spirit, personal integrity, the lordship of Yeshua, the unity of the Church and the restoration of the nation of Israel.

For the original article, visit reviveisrael.org.

I have been asked, “When I’m sick, should I call my pastor or my doctor?” My answer to this is: Call both!

There doesn’t have to be a conflict of interest between the two. Consult a doctor to find out exactly what you’re are dealing with, and then call your pastor with the specifics so that he will know exactly how to pray.

When you visit your doctor, don’t be afraid to have tests done. This is not a lack of faith. Many tests that doctors perform can help in determining the cause and/or scope of a disease. The information that medical tests provide can empower your prayers against the illness because they provide specifics against which you can target your prayers. However, some tests can also be difficult or uncomfortable to undergo, so the first prayer you should pray is that you know which tests to undergo.

Ask God to give His peace (Col. 3:15) when you pray about certain tests that you are facing. If you feel a continual sense of anxiety or dread every time you think or pray about a certain procedure, it may not be the path God would have you take. But if His peace begins to flood your heart about a certain test or procedure, you can be assured that the divine “umpire” is ruling in your heart, indicating the right course of action for you to take.

‘What If I’m Hospitalized?’

Being in the hospital can be a frightening and often confusing experience. First of all, it is important to resolve the misconception that being in the hospital is contradictory to walking in faith as a believer. Sometimes medical intervention is a necessary step in the healing process. God’s presence goes with you into the hospital just as He goes with you everywhere else. You can exercise your faith in a hospital bed as effectively as you can at home.

What many patients fail to realize is that information is key to making right decisions for their health. Ask your doctor questions. Be sure you understand what courses of treatment are available to you and what the effects are for each possible treatment. Becoming as informed as possible about your disease will help you feel more comfortable in making decisions, and you will know better how to pray.

Sometimes patients have trouble determining when their doctor will make his or her rounds in the hospital so that they can be prepared to ask questions. One suggestion is to call the doctor’s office and ask what time he or she will be visiting the hospital on that day.

Make a list of questions so that nothing important is forgotten.

Finally, remember that the doctor will always present you with the worst-case scenario. That’s his or her job. Instead of thinking of him or her as the bearer of bad news, begin to view him as a messenger of God sent to tell you the truth, to show you how to pray, and to give you the options you need to understand in order to discover your pathway to healing.

An original definition of a physician was a teacher. We need to think of our doctors in that way: They are teachers sent by God to show us the things that we can do in the natural to help prevent or treat a condition. And the knowledge they give us will help us to know more specifically how to pray.

Note: The preceding is an excerpt from the book 201 Secrets to Healthy Living. The book can be purchased at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, or Christianbook.com.

Out of all the Muslim respondents in a global survey, Palestinian Muslims polled highest in favor of suicide bombings as a justifiable means “to defend Islam.”

A new Pew Research Center survey of Muslims around the globe finds that most adherents of the world’s second-largest religion are deeply committed to their faith and want its teachings to shape not only their personal lives but also their societies and politics.

In all but a handful of the 39 countries surveyed, a majority of Muslims say that Islam is the one true faith leading to eternal life in heaven and that belief in God is necessary to be a moral person. Many also think that their religious leaders should have at least some influence over political matters. And many express a desire for Shariah—traditional Islamic law—to be recognized as the official law of their country.

In most of the 21 countries where the question was asked, few Muslims endorse suicide bombing and other forms of violence against civilian targets as a means of defending Islam against its enemies. But in a few countries, substantial minorities believe suicide bombing can be often justified or sometimes justified.

Muslims in some countries surveyed in South Asia, the Middle East and North Africa are more likely than Muslims elsewhere to consider suicide bombing justified.

Four-in-ten Palestinian Muslims see suicide bombing as often or sometimes justified, while roughly half (49 percent) take the opposite view.

In Egypt, about three-in-ten (29 percent) consider suicide bombing justified at least sometimes. Elsewhere in the region, fewer Muslims believe such violence is often or sometimes justified, including fewer than one-in-six in Jordan (15%) and about one-in-ten in Tunisia (12 percent), Morocco (9 percent) and Iraq (7 percent).

In Afghanistan, a substantial minority of Muslims (39 percent) say that this form of violence against civilian targets is often or sometimes justifiable in defense of Islam. In Bangladesh, more than a quarter of Muslims (26 percent) take this view. Support for suicide bombing is lower in Pakistan (13 percent).

At least half of Muslims in most countries surveyed say they are concerned about religious extremist groups in their country, including two-thirds or more of Muslims in Egypt (67 percent), Tunisia (67 percent), Iraq  (68 percent) Guinea Bissau (72 percent) and Indonesia (78 percent). On balance, more are worried about Islamic extremists than about Christian extremists.

The percentage of Muslims who say they want Shariah to be “the official law of the land” varies widely around the world, from fewer than one-in-ten in Azerbaijan (8 percent) to near unanimity in Afghanistan (99 percent). But solid majorities in most of the countries surveyed across the Middle East and North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southeast Asia favor the establishment of Shariah, including 71 percent of Muslims in Nigeria, 72 percent in Indonesia, 74 percent in Egypt and 89 percent in the Palestinian territories.

At the same time, the survey finds that even in many countries where there is strong backing for Shariah, most Muslims favor religious freedom for people of other faiths. In Pakistan, for example, three-quarters of Muslims say that non-Muslims are very free to practice their religion, and fully 96 percent of those who share this assessment say it is “a good thing.” Yet 84 percent of Pakistani Muslims favor enshrining Shariah as official law. These seemingly divergent views are possible partly because most supporters of Shariah in Pakistan—as in many other countries—think Islamic law should apply only to Muslims. Moreover, Muslims around the globe have differing understandings of what Shariah means in practice.

The survey—which involved more than 38,000 face-to-face interviews in 80-plus languages with Muslims across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa—shows that Muslims tend to be most comfortable with using Shariah in the domestic sphere, to settle family or property disputes. In most countries surveyed, there is considerably less support for severe punishments, such as cutting off the hands of thieves or executing people who convert from Islam to another faith. And even in the domestic sphere, Muslims differ widely on such questions as whether polygamy, divorce and family planning are morally acceptable and whether daughters should be able to receive the same inheritance as sons.

In most countries surveyed, majorities of Muslim women as well as men agree that a wife is always obliged to obey her husband.

For the original article, visit israelhayom.com.

Welcome to Fantasy Island.

Fantasy is big business; however, it’s not all bad. It’s not wrong to have dreams or aspirations or to say, “Man, I wish I could do that.” But when it crosses the line into destruction, that’s when we have to stop and pause.

You know this as well as I do. You don’t have to find it—it will find you. If you are a man, you will have a relationship with fantasy. That doesn’t make you bad; it just depends on what kind of fantasy it is.

One of the top search terms on EveryManMinistries.com is porn. I’m encouraged by that. Guys know they are struggling with sexual fantasy. How could we not be within our sexualized culture? We’re finding that guys are taking on that battle, and that is encouraging for the future of our families and our culture.

Jesus addresses the idea of sexual fantasy right on the nose. When He was talking to a group of guys, He said, “You have heard, ‘Don’t commit adultery,’ but I say if you lust after a woman in your heart, you have already committed adultery” (see Matt. 5:27-28).

Jesus always brought the discussion from the outward behavior to the inward life.

God made us with emotions and dreams, with aspirations and longings. These aren’t bad. What is bad is when we choose to fulfill these longings and aspirations in unhealthy ways through fantasy. It’s important, as a man—whether you are a father, want to reach other men or are just growing yourself—to know what your fantasy is, what it does and what it says about you.

Our fantasy life reveals a lot about us. We have to understand fantasy—its power and its ability to impact you, your family, your lives, your relationships and your thinking. We are not going to take on fantasy from the surface level. If you look at it from the surface level and the behaviors connected to fantasy, then you are not really dealing with it at the root. Fantasy and the whole destructive part of it don’t exist at the surface level at which you see it expressed.

Consider a guy who is sucking down Internet porn. The issue is not the symptom of him viewing porn. The issue is the underlying reason for why he’s diving into it. That’s why we are examining the issue of fantasy from what it tells us about our reality.

When the demands of reality hit a man’s life, it puts pressure on his character. When pressure hits a man’s character, we see what he is made of. That is actually a phrase we use in a man’s world: “Let’s see what he’s made of.” 

When you grow as a man, you get more responsibility, more sacrifices and more tension. You have more relationships you have to manage, and that’s where the boy or the man comes out. When the pressures and demands of being a man come, one approach is to face them. You embrace those realties and grow through them. The other option is to start looking for avenues to escape your reality because the reality is just too hard.

This is where fantasy comes in. You start looking for an alternative to your reality—a relief and an escape. It’s just kind of hard and doesn’t feel so comfortable over there. The reason it doesn’t feel comfortable is because you don’t have the character inside you to meet the demand of the pressure. The bottom line of fantasy is wanting out of your reality, and the source of wanting out of your reality is the discontentment, dissatisfaction or desire to replace your reality with fantasy.

On a practical level, here’s what that means: If you can’t have a real relationship with a real woman through real interaction and real dialogue and real courtship, or if you can’t find significance in your work reality, then as men we just don’t feel so great.

If we can’t win a real woman, we will be tempted to pursue a relationship with fantasy. If we can’t find real intimacy after we go through the honeymoon phase of our marriage, we’ll be tempted to find an easy false connection with pixelated women.

If you can’t find real significance in the reality of your work, then you’ll be tempted to go into the fantasy world to take on some kind of false significance or false power. Shoot a gun for hours on end. Kill the enemies in Fantasyland, and feel that sense of accomplishment and power. Run your fantasy sports team to conquer the league. That’s how it works. 

First, know that your reality is God’s glory. He lives and operates in truth and reality. You will not find God in the world of fantasy because it is unreality. Jesus said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).  

Second, your reality is your pathway to maturity. Growth requires character. Character requires pressure, where you leave boyhood behind and forge ahead to manhood.

Third, your reality is the path to authenticity and spiritual integrity. Why is reality the path to authenticity and integrity? Fantasy is synthetic. Reality is authentic. It’s the difference between real and unreal.

To sum it all up, the discussion of fantasy revolves around contending with reality. You can do two things with reality: 1) You can embrace it, grow with it and let God use it, or 2) You can compartmentalize it.

It’s sort of like the slogan, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” The core of that campaign tells you to compartmentalize your reality. Escape, and what happens here stays here. Culture concurs.

But just in case you don’t know, we can’t escape reality. You can try to abandon reality and pursue an affair, drop your family and think that the grass is greener over there, but your reality will always chase you. It will hunt you down. You cannot run from it. There are many, many testimonies to prove that.

Fantasy is an island because it separates you—from reality, from God’s glory, from maturity, authenticity and spiritual integrity. I don’t know if you look at fantasy in that way, but do you know who has a big stake in your fantasy? Satan. He won’t tell you the truth. Culture isn’t going to tell you the truth. Your flesh and impulses are not going to tell you the truth.

God’s Word is going to tell you the truth. Get connected with other like-minded men and pursue His reality for your life.

This article is the first in a series titled Fantasy Island, Part 2, where Saddleback Church’s Kenny Luck takes a closer look at the emotional aspects of fantasy. In this series, Luck also will discuss God’s will for men like you who want to grow in maturity, truth and reality rather than in Satan’s plan to replace your reality with his fantasy, escapism and unreality.

Kenny Luck is the founder of Every Man Ministries and the men’s pastor at Saddleback Church. His 20th book, Sleeping Giant: No Movement of God Without Men of God, is the proven blueprint for men’s ministries and was recently released through B&H Publishing. Watch and read more of Kenny’s teaching at EveryManMinistries.com. Follow Every Man Ministries now on Facebook, Twitter (@everymm) and YouTube.

Failure is inevitable. It’s impossible to go through life without losing or coming up short one way or another. But what’s most important is how you respond to that failure. Here are 5 things to teach your kids about failure.

Everyone Has Unique Talents

Maybe your daughter wants to be the next Carrie Underwood. Then you hear her sing. Your son wants to be Evan Longoria. He can’t hit the ball off a tee. There are just some things we aren’t cut out for; it’s best to learn that at an early age. The good news is that they are a champion at something. It may not be sports or school or music, but let them try it all. Guide them towards their gifts and encourage them along the way.

Not Everybody Gets a Trophy

Somewhere along the line, we became a society that preached instant gratification. Like a giant carnival, our slogan became “Everybody wins all the time.” We know it’s not true. It’s also a terrible example to set. Losing is every bit as important in human growth as winning. Rewarding your child for doing nothing will teach him just that. Nothing.

Be Respectable

What is one of the most flattering descriptions a person can hear? “He sure has a lot of class.” “She sure was a great sport about it.” Are you teaching your children how to fail with dignity? How to leave it on the field? How a person accepts failure is an easy indicator of the character within. The ability to laugh about it sure makes failures a lot easier to deal with. When you make mistakes in front of your kids, set that example. Don’t curse and scream at the sky. Just shake your head and laugh. It happens. If they have a good attitude, whether winning or losing, they are almost guaranteed future success. Respect is gained outwardly and inwardly.

Persevere

“I think and think for months. For years. Ninety-nine times the conclusion is false. The hundredth time I am right.” Who said that? Albert Einstein. Every time you fail, you must dust yourself off and get back on that horse. Determination wins many victories. We should not allow our children to give up easily. Maybe your son has brought home two straight failing test grades in math. He thinks there is no way he will ever get it. Help him pick himself back up. Try once more. Do whatever it takes to make it work. Perseverance will eventually lead to positive results and a lifelong lesson never to be forgotten.

Understand True Success

Looking into the future, what do you wish for your children? I’m guessing happiness tops that list. Honest and respectable, having a loving family of their own. You don’t want them to aspire to the fast sports car, lots of money and countless hot girlfriends. Yet, that is exactly what is marketed at him– eternal failure. Society teaches shallowness to be equal to success. As a parent, it is up to you to define what success truly is. It is a battle that you must win.

All Pro Dad is Family First’s innovative and unique program for every father. Their aim is to interlock the hearts of the fathers with their children and, as a byproduct, the hearts of the children with their dads. At AllProDad.com, dads in any stage of fatherhood can find helpful resources to aid in their parenting. Resources include daily emails, blogs, Top 10 lists, articles, printable tools, videos and eBooks. From AllProDad.com, fathers can join the highly engaged All Pro Dad social media communities on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.

I am often asked, “Why are the men leaving the church today?” Sometimes it comes out as, “What can we do to keep the men of this church?” or “How can our church reach more men?”

There is no easy answer, but in this article, I would like to provide some basic principles that will help you develop a male-friendly church.

The overriding principle is simply this: The environment you develop is more important than the events or programs you put on. A man is looking for an environment that is consistent with who he is as a man and is a place where he feels comfortable belonging and becoming the man God wants him to be.

1. Men are looking for relevance. Most men in our society today do not see the value in going to church because it is not speaking their language and it is not addressing the issues they face. For example, a recent survey showed that 92 percent of churchgoing men have never heard a sermon on the subject of work.

The unspoken message is, “What you do for 60 to 70 hours a week does not relate to what you do on Sunday mornings.” The most important issues for men are their work, family, marriage, sexuality and finances—and rarely are these addressed from the pulpit today.

Some of the key questions men are asking are:

• What is true masculinity?
• What is success?
• How do I deal with guilt feelings?
• What is male sexuality?
• Is purity possible today?
• What does a healthy marriage look like?
• How can I raise my children to be successful?
• How can I be a man of integrity in the workplace?
• How can I be a leader in the home, church, workplace and world?
• What is my purpose in life?

2. Men want to be involved in a cause greater than themselves. Men want to be involved in something driven by a compelling vision. They want to know what hill the church is climbing, where we are going and what we are about. The church has the greatest and most far-reaching mission on earth, and we should not be bashful about challenging the men of our congregation with it.

3. Men want a shot at greatness. I have never met a man who wanted to be a failure or a loser. Men want to win. They want to be heroes. They want to come in first. Unfortunately, it seems the church today wants nice men, not great men.

4. Men want to be challenged. Men tend to view the world around them as something to be overcome or conquered. It’s high time we told them they do not have to check their competitive drive at the door of the church. If they are seeking risk, adventure, change, competition and expansion, tell them how to find it within the mission of Jesus!

5. Men are looking for action. Men today are looking for something to do; they do not like sitting around and theorizing about the 27 views of the Second Coming of Christ! Men measure themselves by productivity and gain a portion of their self-image based on what they do. Their desire for adventure is often expressed in the desire to be on the solution side of things. Many churches today are in maintenance mode rather than missional mode.

6. Men are looking for leaders, and they want to be leaders. This principle is simple: Men do not follow programs; they follow men. They want to follow a bold, courageous, visionary leader. Establish an environment where strong leadership is attractive. Not only are men looking for a leader to follow, but they also want to become leaders themselves. They want to lead in their family, workplace, church, community and world. One of the things you can do is equip them to lead.

7. Men are looking to have fun. If men walk into a church and see a bunch of serious, stoic-looking people, shouldn’t they wonder if Christianity really is a killjoy? The world is a serious place; men are looking to laugh and have fun to balance that reality. They love a good joke, funny story or movie. I encourage you to develop a ministry environment in which men have fun together.

8. Men are looking for brothers. Most men have many acquaintances, but very few men have a good friend. According to statistics, the average man over 35 years old does not have one close friend. Men need teaching on how to develop and strengthen friendships and an environment where they can find genuine male friends. 

9. Men are looking for healing. Many are using socially unacceptable means to deal with the pain—making their work or their hobbies their life or misusing sex, drugs or alcohol. Unless these wounds and hurts are dealt with in a healthy way, they will never become the men God wants them to be. They will never be able to have healthy relationships or move on from childish behavior.

I hope some of these insights from my own ministry to men will serve you well as you seek to minister more effectively to the men in your church and community. 

Steve Sonderman is the associate pastor for men’s ministry at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, Wis., and the author of How to Build a Life-Changing Men’s Ministry.

For the original article, vist men.ag.org.