Spring 2018

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A s is tradition, at the start of every new semester of train-
ing at Ellerslie (the ministry I lead in Windsor, Colorado)
I gather all the men from the upcoming semester onto
the chapel stage.
It’s time for the“Man Talk” with Eric.
All the men, young and old, are dressed up in suit coats and
ties. Our shoes are polished, our hearts stirred with anticipation,
and the occasional bead of sweat can be spied slowly dripping
down the forehead of one of the men. The atmosphere in the
chapel is sparkling, even regal – bursting with expectancy. The
tables are set for our opening night banquet while the flicker
of candlelight shimmers enthusiastically about the decorated
room.
When all the men arrive up onto the stage, I look each one in
the eye, then clear my throat and begin.
“Men,” I say in a serious, grave tone. “You have entered an envi-
ronment that demands you behave as men. This is not a place for
boys. This is not a place for perverts, egotists, fools, and rebels.
This is a place that celebrates the
dignity and nobility of manhood.”
I can visibly see the discomfort
in many of the men’s eyes. I’m
only starting my fourth sentence
of the semester and yet I can per-
ceive that some of these men are
already wondering if they are sup-
posed to be here.
“If you are planning on spend-
ing twelve weeks here on this
campus,”I say,“then you will spend those twelve weeks behaving
as men. Men of honor. Men of purity. Men of Truth. Men o holi-
ness. Men of humility. Men of courage. Men of God!”
Every Man Talk is a bit different. But all carry the same soul
searching thunderous commission to rise up and behave as men.
Paul had a Man Talk, of sorts, with the church in the ancient
city of Corinth. I must admit, that his particular Man Talk was a
bit shorter than mine. In fact, he packaged his Man Talk into one
very pithy word. He simply growled the word, “Andrizomai!”
If someone said andrizomai to you, you might simply shrug
your shoulders and say, “Gesundheit!” After all, the word doesn’t
hold meaning to you and sounds more like a terrible sneeze than
anything else.
But the church in Corinth knew the strong and historic commis-
sion that Paul was issuing to it with that one singular word. Paul
was pressing the ancient words of Moses into their soul. These
were the same words, now translated into the Koine Greek, that
were originally passed on to Joshua, then passed on to David,
then passed on to Solomon, and passed along through Jewish
history 1,000 years until they reached Jesus Himself, who passed
them on to Peter, James, John and the rest of His disciples. And
now here is Paul walking in this ancient tradition passing these
words of forked-lightning on to the namby-pamby Corinthian
church. And what amazes me is that, after two thousand years,
somehow here, in the present day, that same powerful word of
ancient Israel is being passed along to you and to me.
Andrizomai! (pronounced - an-drid’-zom-ahee)
Moses, when he gave his manly commission to Joshua, to be
strong and of good courage shouted two words, “Chazak” and
“Amats.”But when translated into Koine Greek, those two ancient
Hebrew words of manly gusto got packaged into one singular
word of thunder and lightning... Andrizomai!
Simply put – Moses said to Joshua: “Be a man! Do your job
manfully! Behave with the courage of a real honest-to-goodness
man of God! Go! Do valiantly!”
Joshua then said to the men of Israel as they prepared to set
out to conquer the nations of the giants,“Be men! March forward
manfully! Behave with the guts and determination resident to
true honest-to-goodness men that believe in God Almighty! Go!
Be fearless in the face of the giants!”
This ancientManTalk got passed
down through the ages. Typically,
this ancient combination of two
Hebrew words (Chazak + Amats),
were repeated amongst the Jews
simply through the emotion-in-
fused phrase of “Rak Chazak!” And
those two words spoken, even
whispered, were enough to cause
a Jewish soldier’s knuckles to turn
white with manly purpose, his
throat to let out a guttural war cry
of determination, and his soul to
grip its iron will and pull it from the scabbard.
But as Paul took up his pen, pondered the present weakness
of the Corinthian church, and yearned to see the manfulness
of the people of God return full force, he took the burning He-
brew phrase of Rak Chazak and packaged all its grandeur, glory,
power and purpose into one singular Greek word. He shouted to
Corinth, “Andrizomai!”
Rumor has it that I’m coming to Iowa in June to give a Man
Talk, of sorts. Nowadays, these Man Talks are simply called Home-
school Conferences (don’t worry, ladies, you can join in, too). Un-
fortunately, my Man Talk won’t be delivered to you in Hebrew
or Koine Greek, the way Paul dished it out. But, though it be in a
different language, it is the very same Man Talk. It possesses the
same vigor that led Joshua to face thirty-one hostile enemy na-
tions with dauntless courage and the same audacity that led Ca-
leb, at the age of 85, to climb the mountain of giants and purge
those dreadful characters from their long held ancient strong-
hold.
God’s men have the thunder clap of “Andrizomai!” always
booming within their souls. “Rak Chazak” infuses their thoughts,
their actions, their attitudes, and their every plan and design.
They are purposely strong, purposely courageous, and purpose-
The Man Talk
BY ERIC LUDY, 2018 HOMESCHOOL IOWA CONFERENCE KEYNOTE SPEAKER
“God’s men... are purposely strong,
purposely corageous, and purposely
brave. They don’t accidentally do
what they do... they do it because it’s
the ‘manful’ thing to do...”