2026 Week 5 GraceMen Weekly Update

This Week:

1. Prayer

2. Meditation

3. Quote

4. Events

5. Book Recommendation
6. New Blog Posts

Grace and Peace to you brothers.

I hope you’re staying safe and warm in this cold snap. With ice on the roads and conditions looking rough through Tuesday, take care of yourself and those around you. These winter days can feel like they’re pressing in on us, but maybe that’s exactly when we need to think about what it means to walk in the light. This week’s prayer from 1 John 1:7 asks God to help us “walk in the light as You are in the light and have true fellowship with my brothers.” The meditation hits hard: secrets destroy brotherhood. When we keep parts of our lives in the dark, we cut ourselves off from the very thing we need most: honest fellowship with other men who are also trying to follow Jesus. As we continue in our year of “Renew Your Mind,” consider how much mental and spiritual energy it takes to hide things, and how freeing it would be to bring them into the light. What area of your life needs that kind of courage this week?

Prayer:

Lord, help me to walk in the light as You are in the light and have true fellowship with my brothers. (1 John 1:7)

1 John 1:7  - But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Meditation: 

 Secrets destroy brotherhood. Is there an area of your life you are keeping in the dark that needs to be brought into the light?

Quote:

Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) “Your sin is not a secret. The eye of God has seen it, and you have sinned before the Almighty’s face. You have shut the door, drawn the curtains, and kept out the eye of the sun, but God’s eye pierces through the darkness.”

Events:

Thursday - January 29, 2026

• Morning Bible Study - 6am thru 7:15am 
• At the Church in The Loft
• Beginning our new series "Everyday Wisdom: Walking with Christ & One Another through the Book of Proverbs"
• Cleve Powell will be facilitating " The Pursuit of Wisdom: Going after God."

Saturday - January 31, 2026

Men's Breakfast

• Registration is [HERE] - we well close registration on Thursday 1/29.
• 8:30am
• A text will be sent later this week with more specific information.

Book Recommendation:

Respectable Sins
by Jerry Bridges

Why Every Man Should Read Respectable Sins

Most men pride themselves on avoiding obvious moral failures. They don't commit adultery, steal, or harbor murderous rage. Yet Jerry Bridges' *Respectable Sins* exposes a dangerous blind spot: the subtle sins Christian men tolerate while condemning society's flagrant transgressions.

Consider the man who leads his family spiritually yet struggles with impatience that humiliates his wife and children. Or the executive who gives generously to charity while harboring resentment toward colleagues he perceives as less competent. The businessman who judges others' financial choices while remaining enslaved to his own selfish consumption patterns. These are respectable sins—acceptable to evangelical culture yet corrosive to marriages, friendships, and souls.

Bridges identifies the sins that plague men specifically: pride masquerading as principle, anger that devastates families, selfishness rationalized as self-care, and worldly ambition disguised as provision. He demonstrates that all sin, whether lust or impatience, theft or anxiety, constitutes cosmic treason against God. This leveling of the playing field is liberating; men no longer compartmentalize their spiritual lives into "acceptable" and "serious" sins.

More importantly, Bridges offers genuine hope grounded in the gospel. The remedy isn't willpower or self-improvement but confidence in Christ's finished work and the Spirit's enabling power. This transforms the pursuit of holiness from exhausting legalism into grateful response to grace.

Respectable Sins calls men to authentic Christianity, not the performance of respectability but genuine transformation from the inside out. For men ready to stop tolerating the sins they excuse in themselves while condemning in others, this book proves indispensable.

New Blog Articles:

A Year of Biblical Manhood: Introducing Our 2026 Content Strategy

The Secure Warrior: Identity Before Action in Psalm 8 and Psalm 139

Coram Deo,
GraceMen