In the framework of the Bible school as of the churches we take care of, we have to recognize there are a majority of women who have decided to get involved and stand in the gap, and only a minority of men. The following question therefore arises : :
But what has happened to the men?
It's a calling of God's Spirit, today: That the men arise and assume their responsibilities concerning themselves, their family and the Church.
The resignation of men as husbands and fathers characterizes our society.
Having created man, the Lord made the following deduction:“It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18)
He gave him therefore a helper like him. If He declared after the fall, that this helper should be submitted to the man, it didn't imply at all by this that the man should submit and still less crush this helper. In fact, God gave the commission to love, specifying later by the mouth of the apostle Paul:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy...” (Ephesians 5:25).
This society is full of single women who have been abandoned, wronged, deceived, “hit” by their husband(s). One is in general far from God's original plan.
In this world, the man is often characterized by the following things :
• Selfishness: It is easy for the man not to be aware of all that a woman's functioning demands – the fact of having to take care of the children, the home, etc. To think ones wife is only there to serve us, that she must always be available for us without us trying to relieve her as necessary is a feature of many men and denotes the most selfish attitude.
• Infidelity: This same man has a strong sexual drive (which is initially a gift of God) and which, if it isn't properly channelled, leads him to have relations with more than one woman. This is called adultery. It's one of the sins that causes most disappointments and has the most harmful consequences.
• Violence: By nature generally stronger than women, many men profit from this state of affairs to give free rein to their to their violence against their wife or children. I heard on the news that in Spain each week, a wife is killed by her husband.
There are many Christians who act “hyperspiritual” in church and who are violent at home. But the Bible says :“Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.” (Colossians 3:19)
Living always in a fleshly body, the Christian man can equally find himself drawn to these things if he doesn't, on the contrary, allow God's Spirit to take his life in hand and put a state of mind in him, other than that existing in this world.
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In enumerating these points, we therefore want to
underline the fact that the man of God who arises
must go in the opposite direction,
AND EXPRESS HIS MASCULINITY by:
- In enumerating these points, we therefore
want to underline the fact that the man of God
who arises must go in the opposite direction,
AND EXPRESS HIS MASCULINITY by: - Being faithful: Faithfulness is one of the strongest
Biblical virtues. God wants a faithful people,
for the fidelity of a friend is something precious:
“Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” (Proverbs 3:3)
A man demonstrates his strength by his fidelity to his wife. He demonstrates, on the contrary, his weakness of character and his weaknesses quite simply, in being easily destabilized by feminine charm. The real strength of a man isn't found in his muscles, but shows itself in his reaction faced with temptation. The stories of Samson and Joseph show us this clearly. What becomes of each of them shows us also that there is a “salary” for each of these two opposing modes of behaviour, faced with temptation.
Contrary to the widespread idea, a man does not prove his virility by having a conjugal relationship with as many women as possible, but in going with just the one that God gives him, saying “no” to the others :
“May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.” (Proverbs 5:18)
“As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.” (Psalm 103:13)
We have said that man is created in the image of God. God reveals himself to us as God the Father. The man who rises up in Christ is called to arise with the image of God and therefore to reflect that of the father.
The world is full of “biological” fathers, but so few true fathers at the spiritual, emotional or moral levels. The increasing incidence of incest is a sign of degeneracy and degeneration of the status of father in our world. When a man reaches those depths, he has lost indeed all paternal and human dignity.
There is a spirit in this world with the aim of making fathers fall from their position, for this place is one of the most honourable and easily influenced in our world.
Fathers are a model: They have a mission - to give birth to...To give birth not just to children, but around children, a morality, a mentality, etc. The fathers worthy of this name influence, by their behaviour and in the right way, the children and therefore the society; the unworthy fathers, themselves, have a bad influence.
It's why many sons of alcoholics become alcoholics themselves, and abused children often abuse other children in their turn : the problem is essentially spiritual.
A worthy father wants nothing but the best for his child, he wants good for him all the days of his life, he wishes him to have more success than himself, he would give his life for his child.
This generation is made up of children often orphaned. Orphans for having lost one or both parents, but also because often the parents have given up. This generation needs fathers for instructing, loving, correcting, exhorting and having compassion.
As members engaged in the Church
The man, head of the family, must set an example as such. He must see he becomes an involved member of his church and communicates the love of the church, being a pillar to support it.
If he makes himself, on the other hand, part of the people who attend meetings irregularly, who criticize everything, talk at home of problems of one or others, not only does it make a work of destruction but it involves the family in the matter. Many children of Christians and pastors have become allergic to their local church on account of all they've heard said at home about such and such.
The lively Church, formed of the people who compose it, is the temple of God and of the Holy Spirit. Alluding to eternal life, the Lord said on the subject of those who should have been faithful :
“Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God.” (Revelation 3:12)
We see here that it's God's wish that men become pillars : by definition therefore, people who support the edifice, on which one can support the rest of the building, which we can rely on. With whom do you believe God is going to make the columns of His eternal temple if not those who have been the pillars of His Church here on earth?
Many people, including Christians, let themselves be influenced by their place of work or in the midst of their family. They dare not say no! It's easy enough being Christian at church but Scripture calls us to conduct ourselves “as men” in our everyday life, thus living publicly what is preached in church.
Psalm 1:1 “Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.”
Faced with the storms of life, what characterizes a man is that he does not abandon the boat; this maybe the boat of his family, of his church or the boat of his life with God.
It's faced with adversity a man shows his fidelity, faced with tempests he can SURPASS HIMSELF in his feelings and the expression of his love, contrary to certain worldly dictums which want us to have friends only when all goes well and not the contrary.
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” (Proverbs 17:17)
The storms are an occasion to liberate our courage, accepting to suffer with or for others. God seeks men:
“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall (and stand before me in the gap)... ” (Ezekiel 22:30)
God is looking for men who, when the tempests blow, stand before the breaches to make the wind change direction, so that his family, church, etc. are protected because of him. He calls us to conduct ourselves in Christ's image, like the good shepherd and not like mercenaries:
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd who owns the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.”
In short, God seeks men ready to conduct themselves as men faced with adversity or faced with failures. Those who succeed in life, that's to say who realize their projects and see them through, their visions and goals, are not those who have never known failures en route. Sometimes they are among those who have known the most bitter.
Simply, they have accepted getting back up, they haven't let their vision fade during their fall, or have quickly pulled themselves together again to surge forward with even more effort.
The notion of a man worthy of his name is indissociable from that of courage.
“...for though the righteous man falls seven times, he rises again, but the wicked are brought down by calamity.” (Proverbs 24:16)
One doesn't judge a woman's qualities by her waist measurement or her languid eyes. Similarly, it's not judging by these sort of criteria that one can determine if this is the man for us (to spend the rest of one's life with).
It is also said that behind every great man there is a great woman. It's rare that a married man who has a difficult, quarrelsome wife, judgemental towards him, can achieve anything with God.
Your husband or fiancé can go beyond anything he could imagine if you accept being an instrument of God to encourage and help.
“A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.” (Proverbs 31:10 –12)
May the Christian men arise to serve God, their family and their church; here is one thing that is the Lord's thoughts.
Often people have the image of Christians as weak people, without too much character or personality. It's indeed the image many Christians have given of themselves, it must be admitted.
Yet Christ was a man in all senses of the word: He resisted iniquity with courage and loved his own to the extent of giving His life for them.
It's time for us men to rise up to walk in His footsteps and be like Him.
Claude PAYAN
- As husbands
- Go in the opposite direction
- As fathers
- As memebers engaged in the Church
- As men in society
- Faced with storms
- Ladies and Misses
