All Posts by troymangum

5

Fear and Tithing

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Was I disobeying or obeying God?  If I did not tithe to my local church and gave to “another ministry”, would Satan wreak havoc on my finances. Cars would break. Unexpected Medical expenses would occur. Unknown taxes and expenses out of nowhere would occur.  Malachi 3:10-11 […]

Continue reading

Male Initiation Ceremony

Male Initiation Ceremony I am no longer a father of boys but men. Recently I performed a male initiation ceremony for my 16 yr old son. My 21 yr old son joined me to welcome him into manhood In preparation I met with him every week for manly Monday’s. We read together (Bible, excepts of […]

Continue reading

Overcoming Phone Addiction

It has been one week. Feels like an eternity some days. One week without Instagram and Facebook. While in prayer, I sensed I was to let go of social media. I knew the only way to kill this obsession was to delete the app. My stats were 4 hours a day on social networking. I […]

Continue reading

Missing the Moment

I’ve spent most of my life missing the moment. I did not know it at the time, but as I looked back I could see my heart and my mind were somewhere else. What causes us to miss our moments? With God’s help, he has allowed me to see I was emotionally trained from a […]

Continue reading

The punk song that made me cry

When I first heard the song, I immediately teared up. COME ON, it’s a punk song. Why am I crying? God was singing right to my young heart, word of healing. The song is about a girl in a talent show who sees how talented every else is around her. She is going to sing her […]

Continue reading

Become a Jesus Following BA

Why do lawyers exchange their suits for black leather & a Harley on biker week? Because all men want to be BA’s. Yet Christian men are told becoming a BA is NOT becoming like Jesus. Really? Jesus called the Status Quo snakes to their faces. Jesus intellectually sparred with the best & won.  Jesus did not back down in the face […]

Continue reading

Where are the war songs?

Where are the war songs? The songs of worship and victory. I love and value worship music that makes me want to crawl up on Father God’s lap and rest as a son. But I just can’t with the “I will rest on your chest & cuddle like a lover would” songs. Those are intimate […]

Continue reading
3

The cost of playing it safe

I was standing in Martin Niemöller cell in the Sachsenhausen Concentration camp. Niemöller was “reasonable” and took the wide road of conformity and compromise not willing to becoming a lightning rod on the issues of his time (1938-1945).  He was bothered by Nazis and did some to right the wrong but was NOT willing to […]

Continue reading
2

Everyone Wins!

The kingdom of God is not a zero sum game. Yet I tell myself, “If I give, I will have less. I need to keep what I have and not lose it.” When life is defined by that kind of math, I make decisions out of a fear. I fear that I will lose what […]

Continue reading

1 Second of Fame

1 second of fame is all you get today. It used to be you would get 15 seconds of fame. But not any more. The 1000 or 10000 likes will amount to 1 second of attention someone gave you while they scroll through their feed. God did not design us to be satisfied with 1 second of […]

Continue reading
2

God Works Through Generations

I wrote this blog 10yrs ago. Its still True 10yrs later.  Enjoy! ===== God’s strategy to reach the world is through Godly homes and the children that come out of those homes. God works through generations. Anointing, influence, power, prosperity and authority gains speed from generation to generation. Look at Joseph. He was the 4th generation […]

Continue reading

Men Need Ceremony

Men need ceremony. Milestones of masculinity that are demarcation lines between Boyhood & Godly Manhood. I have been apart of a few of these holy moments of masculine ceremony. One of them was last week with my band of brothers. You can meet them in the Band of Brothers Part 1 & Part 2 podcasts. Mens […]

Continue reading
1

Time is a Gift

I’ve had a terrible relationship with time. As long as I can remember, I’ve been at odds with time. Time was my enemy not my friend. I was always running out of time. I was always late. I was supposed to arrive at some place in my life, some level of stability, skill, success, title, […]

Continue reading
5

Get Up!

I did not want to get up. I could hear my trainer from the corner of the ring yelling in slow motion Get Up! I lost count of the several rounds I had gone at this point. My face was flat on the mat. My mouth guard hanging out of my mouth, drool. I thought. “I can’t […]

Continue reading
2

Will We Ever Be Satisfied?

I biked around Amsterdam on a beat up bike like I was a local again. I lived & worked there in my 20’s with a Dutch ministry called Tot Heil Des Volks. Amsterdam is a city covered in stickers, street art, graffiti & dog poop. As I parked my bike on a canal bridge, a […]

Continue reading

Push vs. Pull

How did Jesus motivate people to action? I have been born again for coming up on 30 years. In those 30 years, I have attended a lot of church/worship services, small groups, and heard a lot of teaching. I have been apart of different denominational churches, non-denominational movements, and para-church ministries in the US, Australia, […]

Continue reading
1

When your cool gets old

What do you do when your cool gets old? Do you do what Napoleon Dynamite’s Uncle Rico did….? Keep replaying old video tapes trying to relive the ‘glory days’! For the first time I started feeling old.  I try to stay trendy in what I wear but when I went to my closet the other day […]

Continue reading