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Robert Kelley's weekly instruction, observations and reflections inspired by the Lord posted each Sunday night.


Ties That Bind Black Male Souls
On February 21, 2016 in The Cause by Robert Kelley Robert Kelley

            As God’s preacher, I am compelled by His love to contend for the souls of humanity bound by Satan’s ties through preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ!  I fish for men as a first priority because we are His chosen leaders in the human family as He constructed it.  Among men are those for whom I am deeply burdened because of our shared experience of being born black in America.  If it is true that Satan binds men with spiritual, mental and emotional ties that are common to the human experience, then why have black American males historically had such an extraordinary and disproportionately difficult ordeal in terms of dysfunction, criminality and incarceration?

 

            Nearly two million men are presently on lockdown and just at fifty percent or more of them is black American.  They are there for murdering or harming mostly one another through gang and other crime related violence along with all manner of conscience and natural self-control breaching lawless conduct.  They are there not only because of a cycle of poverty, low educational attainment, unemployment, fatherless households, culturally conditioned poor choices or the very real white controlled societal apparatus still adverse to them, but also their own self-sabotage as I wrote in June 2015 blogs reflecting on the state of black Americans one hundred and fifty years after slavery.

 

            However, even the foregoing does not get to the root ties Satan has used to bind the black male soul so tautly there is self-hatred enough not only to self-sabotage, but as well, lash out violently on our own people.  Again, these root ties are common to mankind, but have been applied during the excruciating events of the black American historical experience; root ties that are the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism.  By stating this, please do not hear me to be making excuses for the evil behavior of black males as criminals--set free by Christ, I no longer embrace victimization--or somehow diminishing the pain of those hurt by them. 

 

            Nevertheless, I can testify to the fact the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism as root ties that at some point have bound nearly every black male soul are actual, understandable and hallelujah, removable!  As a result of the work of Sigmund Freud and those that have come after him since the turn of the last century, the soul business has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the West.  Exploding in the middle of the last century, the troubled souls of mostly whites have paid educated persons to help them identify and cope with any number of mental and emotional maladies through counseling, therapy and drugs.  It is even trendy to have a “therapist.”

 

            If the souls of white folk cannot “just get over it” (whatever it is that leads to seeking help), why do the souls of black males have to?  Because of the stigma of perceived weakness as a man that remains to this hour though, many pride filled men do not voluntarily present themselves to the soul doctors for help.  For black American men, it is also the sense of final capitulation in seeking help after clinging so long to the delusion self-remedies will finally successfully handle the root ties that bind their souls.  Besides, if the dismissive attitude from guilt toward the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism by white professionals dominant in the soul business is anything like white society at large, why should a troubled black male soul bother?  

 

            Among the root ties Satan uses to bind the black male soul as continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism I have identified in my research and from personal experience are anger, victimization, powerlessness and frustration.  Examining just anger for a moment, hostile, violent and subtle oppression as a bully creates anger in its object in short order.  Imagine being oppressed almost 400 years with very little relief.  Now, imagine being threatened to suppress that anger short of being killed by the bully and add to the mix other sources of anger such as an absent or neglectful father.  Any normal human being without any intervening positive coping mechanisms such as Christian forgiveness would be beyond angry (Matthew 6:9-15, 18:21-35)!

 

            I bring up the issue of the continuing mental and emotional legacies of slavery and racism in a number of published works in my “Journal” on our www.fromslaverytovictory.org Web Site.  The site beginning on its Home Page points the willing toward the biblical worldview and truths that can begin to bring help, healing and hope to the seeking soul.  Too, I mention the legacies related to barriers to black male professing Christians aspiring to become strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics with an eye toward future elaboration.

 

            In light of all of the trouble black males are having with the police among other white authority figures and their non-coincidental high rate of incarceration, this Black History Month I plead with my brothers by race to recognize we need help; help only God the soul’s Creator can provide through faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ (Genesis 2:7; Psalm 139:13-14; Luke 4:16-21; 1 John 5:4-5).  He alone has the superior power to one by one break every chain as ties Satan has used to bind our souls and enable us to live victoriously as aspiring strong men of God in Him going forward!1

 

1 Please support our Books To USA Prisons Project that will send two copies of my book presenting the precious Gospel of Jesus Christ and what is involved in becoming a

   strong man of God in the image of Christ able to effectively cope with the troubles of this world.  Go to https://thestrongmanofgod.org/Books-To-USA-Prisons-Project.


Related Posts

  • Ties That Bind Lead To Prison

                While men may continue to debate the purpose of earthly prisons to punish or restore, in my blog, God Soft On Crime?, February 7, 2016 under the category, The Cause, the Lord led me to clearly assert from His perspective it is both.  It is the perfect will of God that sin driven crimes be justly dealt with in ordered, human societies.  While there is room for mercy, crime in major part must be deterred by appropriate punishment to include incarceration.  That said, men commit crimes (some repeatedly) because bound by the same spiritual, mental and emotional ties as other sinners, they breach their conscience and natural self-control.  God wills to liberate and restore such men too!

     

                For the record, because men are fallen sinners that in natural pride craft laws and sentencing guidelines, they can and do err with bias and being overly harsh in sending citizens to prison for crimes committed.  However, keeping it real, those not breaking the law do not typically face prison sentences (Romans 13:2-3).  So, while it happens that those who have not committed a crime are wrongly accused, tried and sent to prison (though consider is anyone truly innocent outside of Christ in the eyes of the ultimate Judge and Warden?--Romans 3:9-20), it is primarily those guilty of breaking the law that have this experience.

     

                Christians are not normally supposed to be among those found guilty of crimes and sent to prison since we are being regenerated as the people of God and honor His higher Law as well as the just laws of men through the inner working of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25; Titus 3:1-8; 1 Peter 2:13-17).  Yet, professed Christians prior to incarceration are also well represented in American prisons.  Those I minister to, I remind the punishment they endure is Poppa’s woodshed and He wants them to get their lesson (Hebrews 12:5-11)!  The Lord wants all incarcerated men to get their lesson because in Christ, His heart is to restore, not crush men’s lives (Lamentations 3:27-42).

     

                Not inferior in the least bit to mortals in mercy, God gives sinners many chances to repent from their sinful deeds before bringing judgment as I am a witness.  The Lord’s penalty for sin is death which He has every right as Creator-Judge to carry out on the spot!  However, since Eden this has not been done by Him except on occasion as a sober warning and deterrent to all who would consider His typical mercy filled delay to judge, unwilling weakness (Leviticus 10:1-3).  When we sin, though others may not see it right away, we can be sure our sin will find us out; God’s judgment overtakes the guilty (Numbers 32:20-23; Psalm 90:8; Galatians 6:7; 1 Timothy 5:24-25). 

     

                By the time a man ends up in prison even if it occurs as a result of his first crime, the Lord gracious and merciful has already given him as a sinner many chances to repent and be set free from ties that bind.  These ties are common to all mankind and encompass every pathos of the soul and sinful work of the flesh including not looking to or trusting in God (Job 3, 10:1; Psalm 42:1-6a, 77:1-9; 142; Romans 14:23b; 1 Corinthians 10:13; Galatians 5:19-21).  In our day, the tendency is to separate sin and evil crime; sinners and evil criminals.  But in God’s eyes, what starts in the heart of the sinner as sin is evil whether it leads to crimes defined by human law or not (Mark 7:20-23).

     

                Thus, the man that seeks to medicate himself through drunkenness and/or drug abuse (sorcery) to dull the misery of his life, for example, is bound up by the pathos of his soul, his evil conduct in response (having rejected the more excellent way of faith in Christ) and the consequences of violating any human laws as a result in the process.  Upon arrest on whatever charges, the man is now bound with physical ties of various types (among them shackles) and incarcerated.  In God’s permissive will another bound up prospective strong man of God in the image of Christ is put on lockdown; taken away from freedom, family and his other life goods now to be plundered by the evil one stronger than he who first began to bind him up (Matthew 12:29). 

     

                Whatever the mix of ties that Satan has used to bind up those that end up being incarcerated--including in extreme cases, demon possession wrongly labeled by skeptics as just mental illness, they too can come to enjoy the difference between them and us who are faithful Christians (Luke 8:26-39).  For we are living by faith in Christ as freedmen, daily put the flesh to death, walk in the Spirit, armor up resisting the devil with perseverance and confess our sins to God as they occur or are revealed in all repentance (Habakkuk 2:4; Romans 6:15-22, 8:12-13; Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 6:10-18; James 4:7-10, 5:7-11; 1 John 1:8-9).1 

     

                Otherwise, the only difference between the incarcerated and those bound up on the outside is that those on the outside have not yet breached their conscience and natural self-control to the point of criminal acts or been caught.  They will with all, still have to face the Judge (2 Corinthians 5:10)!  Even so, let faithful Christians be warned that with sinful men what is legal today will be a crime tomorrow (Daniel 6:1-17; Luke 22:47-54; John 15:18-20; Revelation 2:8-11).

     

    1 For this reason, I appeal to you to support our Books To USA Prisons Project to provide another resource through my book, The Strong Man  Of  God:  Back  To Basics God
       can  use  to show unsaved men on lockdown how to become faithful Christians and aspiring strong
     men of God in the image of Christ!  To learn about the project and to give
       go to https://thestrongmanofgod.org/Give
    .

  • The Gospel Is For Black Males Too!

                Many professed Christian whites and some blacks as well do not like when I address the men, their issues, needs and troubles among those I share identity with as black Americans.  However, seeking to please God who cares that the biblical Gospel be preached to all mankind and standing in the example of the Jewish Christ and Paul, the apostle to us Gentiles from every hue, I make no apology to those offended by my obedience (Matthew 10:1-15; Acts 1:4-8, 26:12-18; Romans 1:16-17; 1 Corinthians 9:19-23).  Indeed, I purposely exclude no one in my preaching of the Gospel, but ensure that those of my own household, extended family and ethnicity are not left out either.

     

                As I wrote in the March 7, 2021 post, black males from slavery have gotten a raw deal by not in many cases receiving an authentic proclamation of the Gospel or representation of biblical Christianity to include God’s will for us as men and manhood.1  The Gospel to all humanity as sinners “according to the Scriptures” is that God in love sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to die on the cross for our sins, be buried and rise again on the third day after to save us from His just wrath.  Whoever repents from his sins believing the Gospel is forgiven and receives eternal life by the Holy Spirit (John 3:1-21, 35-36; Acts 2:36-39, 10:34-43; Romans 10:10-13; 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, NKJV).

     

                Now, since the Gospel is according to the Scriptures, every man can read it in the Bible for himself and as I wrote in my recent Black History Month post is without excuse.2  Even so, in His amazing grace God has also purposely ordained that those such as myself He gifts, calls and sends should preach the Gospel as joyful heralds (Romans 10:14-15)!  But to be clear, black males with everyone else have the God granted right of free will to reject the Gospel as many have done and do though, I would this were not the case since what God has done for us as sinners in it is so awesome (Romans 10:16-17).  Truly, no one has to convince us of our need having been sinners from birth. 

     

                God in wisdom has given each one of us a conscience that affirms and condemns us as sinners in our sinful thinking, attitudes, words and deeds.  Knowing the sinfulness of our hearts and attempts to alleviate our guilt through deceitfully ignoring, covering or outright denying it, God also as Judge announced His condemnation of all mankind as sinners before Him from Heaven’s bench with no hope of deliverance except by His grace through faith in the Gospel of Christ (Romans 3:9-26).  “For the wages of sin is death, but the (free) gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans 6:23, NKJV).  Forgiveness of sins and a clear conscience is a great and precious blessing!

     

                Therefore, I appeal to my unsaved black countrymen from the heart not to be proud in the face of the truth.  Not “the white man” or “the system” is our greatest issue, need or trouble, but our own selves as embittered sinners who after rejecting the way of humble acceptance of the Gospel, have no other means of liberation from a guilty conscience!  Outside of God’s salvation in Christ, I have felt you in feeling demoralized by the heavy-handed oppression we as men wired to be leaders and the sons of West African warriors and kings have experienced in real life and as portrayed in Alex Haley’s Roots for example, when Kunta Kinte was forced to accept his master’s assigned name “Toby.”3

     

                In overwhelming powerlessness and longing for vengeance apart from Christ I have also wanted to be the fictional character played by Jamie Foxx in Django Unchained and surely heard you and myself in the vengeful anger of Michael B. Jordan’s character in Black Panther as he ran down the suffering of our captive forefathers during their transatlantic ship journeys from Africa to the New World.  I too, with Jordan’s character and very likely you, missed having my father who was away on long military tours of duty during most of my pre-teen years.  However, whatever else may be the issues, needs or troubles you grapple with whether it is in real life or captured as real talk in fiction, angry vengeance is not the God approved way to handle our business (Romans 12:17-21).4

     

                So, the only right way to go is to first deal with our sin problem by turning to God in Christ through the Gospel to be saved from His righteous wrath.  After this, let Him help us deal with our just anger at sins perpetrated against us as black Americans, other needs and troubles we have through His living Word and power in accord with what a man is and does by His design and perfectly modeled by Christ.  He is the Strong Man of God the Father calls us to aspire to be like as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.5  He wills to set us fully free from all of the ties that bind our souls and keep us from being released to be like Him; walking in His eternal dignity, freedom and overcoming power (1 John 5:4-5)!6  For the Gospel is for black males too!

     

    1 Read the March 7, 2021 post, Restoring Men In The Black Community, under the category, The Cause.

    2 See the two-part post beginning on February 21, 2021, Willful Ignorance Destroys under the category, Black History.

    3 See the good result for a proud Syrian Army Commander who submitted to God’s plan for healing in 2 Kings 5:1-14.  Also, unless you or I are greater in Person and sta-

       tus  than Jesus Christ, the Son of God and King of Glory, then, we should consider and accept the healing truth that He too, has felt our pain since He also has been hu-

       miliated,  “oppressed”  and  “afflicted”  (Psalm  69:7;  Isaiah  53:7-8a; Matthew 26:46-68, 27:1-2, 11-31; Luke 22:53, NKJV).  As a result, Christ in His resurrection victory

       knows  how  to  help  all in similar circumstances cope and wait in hope for the final display of His overthrow of even the ultimate oppressor, Satan, accomplished on the

       cross (Ephesians 6:12; Colossians 2:11-15)! 

    4 We know deep down venting through violence in vengeance is not right because this too, God has written upon our conscience and demonstrated His opposition or else

       we  would  have  lost our minds en masse by now to go for it only to be beaten back in defeat as for example, Nat Turner was in his 1831 slave rebellion and every rioter

       thereafter.  Turning  our  rage  on  each other as is seen in gang violence is not the sensible answer either.  Don’t you know that when God disclosed the enslavement of

       Abram’s  Jewish descendants He also declared and carried out His vengeance on their oppressor while setting them free (Genesis 15:13-14; Exodus 10:7)?  Not that we

       in  Christ  hope for such a thing (though, we have seen it in this nation’s Civil War that freed our slave forefathers and the aftermath need for Reconstruction) since this is

       our  nation  too,  and  we live here.  Instead, as eternal sons and king-priests in Christ and His forgiveness, we desire the salvation of those who hate and would continue

       to oppress us until the day of His global wrath and vengeance arrives.

    5 The  book  is  published  by  Open  Door Communication  Ministries, Inc. and is available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers.  You can also purchase a

       print copy in the Strong Man Store.

    6 See the February 21, 2016 post, Ties That Bind Black Male Souls, under the category, The Cause.

  • He Made Man Male And Female, Pt. 1

              The world ruled by Satan is pushing his great deception hard in these latter days; namely, that all of the social changes upending God’s order of mankind with gender roles and responsibilities in the family are going to permanently endure.  Not so, according to God Almighty who long ago announced the end of all kingdoms in the eternal triumph of His own through His Son (Isaiah 2:1-4, 9:6-7; Daniel 2:31-45, 7:13-14; Micah 4:1-3; Revelation 11:15)!  Now, the world in rebellion against God and His coming Kingdom can believe the lie as it wishes, but those that profess to be Christians are not supposed to standing firm in the never changing truth that is Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:8)!

     

              The Lord has led me to confront the lie with the truth especially from His prophetic Word in the footnotes of recent posts.  They make clear He will push back against the rebel social engineers of worldly feminism among others destroying the family as He designed it even before He returns to visibly install His Kingdom on earth.1  The reality that the ostensible positive advance of worldly feminism now, at its triumphant peak is about to be turned back forever should be deeply sobering to professed Christian males and females that have banked their souls on the hope that somehow God was in it for the good even to the extent of corrupting and setting aside His Word to make it so.

     

              However, Satan has successfully deceived these worldly minded Christians in convincing them that good can come out of his evil (Genesis 3:1-11)!  Indeed, none of the relative few legitimate grievances of feminism such as pay inequity that should be fixed have justified the evil of attacking to dismantle God’s order of mankind.2  But like the Trojan gift horse the ancient Greeks used to hide in before coming out to war against and defeat Troy, so, worldly feminism has packaged itself as advocates for the positive advance of females while destroying them, their families and communities; duping many professed Christians and related entities into supporting their cause in the process.3

     

              Their cause is ultimately Satan’s cause which means his successful temptation to lure many professed Christians and their entities into supporting worldly feminism under the pretext of advancing females is a two for one win for him since they are also aiding and abetting him in his war against God!  This is spiritually unthinkable, unconscionable and a betrayal of the Lord who’s Word guilty professed Christians so easily compromise, corrupt and twist to justify their transgression and iniquity.  For the implication in their departure from God’s Word is that He and it have been wrong and unfair in the treatment of females from the beginning!  What, God unrighteous (Romans 9:14)?4

     

              Even if you say, “we reject the more extreme assertions of secular feminism such as a woman’s right to murder her unborn child, but stand for the positive and progressive advancement of females into all heretofore exclusively male instances of authority and work,” it is an affront to God and His Word since the unspoken implication is again that He has been wrong!  This is as arrogantly high handed as the creature can get before its Creator and expected from the unbelieving unsaved, but not those that profusely profess to know and love Him (Romans 9:20)!  This is the mind of those professed Christians who have corrupted themselves still following after the world and its ways.

     

              By God’s express will we Christians have been called out of the world; renouncing our former allegiances, worldviews and ungodly conduct for the sake of Christ, His eternal Kingdom and biblical worldview (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Ephesians 4:17-24).  But many “who exchanged the truth of God for the lie” of worldly feminism and its perpetual endurance have been so effortlessly deceived and drawn away by Satan because they have not turned their backs on the world (Romans 1:25, NKJV).  They still love and revere particularly its opportunities for financial gain!5  As a result, when God and the Word are falsely portrayed as unfair toward females to them--as if this were really possible for the perfectly “Just One”--it is believed (John 1:1-5, 14-18; Acts 7:51-53; 1 Timothy 6:6-10, NKJV). 

     

              Professed Christian females are seduced by their ambitions and lust for power feminism insists is righteous since males have these.  Professed Christian males are seduced by fear of appearing oppressive, sexist and misogynistic in the face of feminism’s false contention that true equality demands the removal of all forms of male leadership inherit in God’s order of mankind beginning in the family.6  Like Esau who desperately sold his birthright for some food, many males in and outside of Christianity have sold their election to lead by God to females to escape their wrath not considering His wrath is exceedingly greater and eternally devastating (Genesis 25:29-34; Revelation 21:8)!  All fear being labeled “extreme” like they and the world see the Amish who generally reject modernity.

     

      1 See  for  examples,  the  fourth footnote in the September 13, 2020 post, Marginalizing Men Proves Costly During Pandemic where the Antichrist is presented as a damp-
         ening  foil  to  feminism  and more recently, the eighth footnote in Fathers Help Build Excellent Wives posted on October 10, 2021 showing how God will send the prophet
         Elijah to restore fathers and their children in Israel even before the Antichrist appears.  Both posts were made under the category, The Cause.

      2 Read the April 8, 2018 post, The Second Adam Rules And Judges, under the category, Bible Prophecy.

      3 See the May 6, 2018 post, The Value Of Women To Families, under the category, God’s Creatures.

      4 Take a look especially at part one of the three-part post beginning April 18, 2021, Daughters Of This Age, under the category, God’s Creatures.

      5 Guilty  pastors,  elders,  and  other  church  leaders  motivated to keep churches going and solvent have heavily fallen for the lie since females predominantly fill them as
         have  
    Christian  leaders  of  ministries and businesses (to include Christian media concerns) motivated by financial profit because females also dominate the markets for
         the purchase of Christian merchandise. This tendency to rationalize away and/or jettison God’s commandments, spiritual principles, morals and ethics in the Bible for the
         sake  of financial gain is an evil thread running throughout Christian history clearly seen for example, in the enslavement of my forefathers. It is soon to be done by many
         when the decision to “worship” and take “the mark or the name of the beast” has to be made in the face of God’s warning (Revelation 13:11-18, 14:9-13, NKJV).

      6 Read the November 8, 2020 post, Why so easily Deceived?, under the category, Instruction. 

  • Overcoming The Male And Female Challenge

              Writing last post about males properly promoting females, the magnitude of the male and female issues we have in these latter times and challenge of overcoming them became inescapably clear to me.1  Sin in us and the active opposition of the powers of darkness throughout this world by way of feminism and other deceitful doctrines they have fostered among fallen mankind make the challenge appear impossible.  Oh, but my Lord Jesus Christ has declared that though it may be impossible for men, it is not with God among those who are willing (Matthew 19:16-30)!  Indeed, for Christ has overcome this world and enables any who trust in Him to also (John 16:33; 1 John 5:4-5)!

     

              Let’s be real and sober about the challenge before us who want to do right by God.  The deck is totally stacked and the odds are against us as the secular world and culture has succeeded in a few centuries to overthrow Christendom’s dominating influence after what took it many to gain.  I will not insult my Lord and the biblical faith to suggest in any way that the former dominance of what was called Christianity over secular kingdoms and cultures counting our own here in America was His failure.2  No, Christianity the religion of men holds that distinction to itself since it is impossible that the biblically taught and true Kingdom of God should fail to stand and eternally so (Daniel 7:13-14)!

     

              This points up the fact again the Lord has led me to declare that the biblical mission of Christ’s Church was never to rule over and dominate the world in this temporary epoch of grace before His return with the Kingdom, but to preach the Gospel and witness Him in all the nations (Psalm 145:8-13; Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:4-8).  The temporary nature of the mission is also the reason local churches as corporate entities do not have a biblical guarantee of perpetuity; their authentic existence predicated as it is on the active assemblage and participation of mortal members who endure mounting persecution, apostasy and God’s judgment!3

     

              This reality makes our mission as Christ’s faithful--even every aspiring strong man and great woman of God--all the more urgent.  Time and opportunity are getting away from us as escalating evil makes clear.  In a fallen world now, with millennia of the destructive work of sin in it including from the ostensibly hallowed brick and mortar halls of Christianity the religion of men and reaching its foretold climax (2 Timothy 3:1-5), we must intensify our proclamation and witnessing of the biblical Gospel for the salvation of as many as possible (Jude 20-23); teaching them as our Lord requires to obey all of His commandments and instruction which also incorporates biblical man and womanhood.4 

     

              Sin in us is one of the unseen operators thwarting humans from getting along together in marriages, families, communities and the world.  And why is this so?  Is it not because sin always has us looking out for self--its interests and desires first?  Because of sin we are also natural born rebels against whoever (God and His righteousness too) will stand in the way of us having ours!  The other unseen operators are Satan and his extensive network of demons that make up his kingdom and use our sin nature against us in fomenting bitter discord; pitting us against each other leading to malice, failed marriages, broken families, lawlessness, violence, murders, unrest and wars (1 John 3:4-15).

     

              Thanks be to God that while sin is not eliminated in this mortal life, its work is mitigated in us who are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ and the supernatural transforming power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 3:10-26, 6, 8:1-13, 12:1-2)!  We are also able to overcome the activity of the evil one by faith in Christ, the battle provisions God has made for and the greater power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us to help us fight (Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 John 4:1-6).  Thus, not for human religious reasons do we preach the Gospel, witness and teach Christ, but the very real difference believing in Him can make now, in time and eternity for individuals and mankind in overcoming the devastating work of the unseen operators of sin in us and active opposition without by the kingdom of darkness!

     

              If you have not already, I invite you in prayer to repent of your sins and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ: that He died on the cross for your sins, was buried and rose again on the third day as Scripture teaches so you can be forgiven (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).  Further, in your prayer ask the Lord to fill you with the Holy Spirit that you might be brought to spiritual birth and eternal life (John 3:1-8; Acts 2:38-40).  If you do pray, begin to praise and thank the Lord for your salvation by His grace through faith!  Begin also to read a Bible (I recommend a New King James Version) at the Gospel of John.  Prayerfully seek out a real Christian you may know for fellowship, introduction to a Bible teaching assembly of believers and baptism by the designated male leadership (Acts 2:41-47).

     

    1 Read the November 7, 2021 post, Properly Promoting Females, under the category, Biblical Worldview.

    2 One  of  the books on my reading list this past summer was The Unsaved Christian by Dean Inserra, Copyright 2019, Moody Publishers, Chicago.  He does an excellent job
       of   making  a distinction between cultural Christianity and the real biblical deal.  It matters and because it does, I highly recommend this book to anyone who does not know
       the  difference  between  Christianity  of manmade cultural invention and what the Bible actually says it is.  Such knowledge for example, will keep one from believing falsely
       that  the  accepted  American cultural view of males and females held as righteous by even many professed Christians and their churches is also that of Christ, His Kingdom
       and biblical instruction.  Truly, American held values and freedoms are not all the same as, superior to or cancel out those of Christ’s Kingdom!  Pastor Inserra’s book follows
       in  similitude  the  prophetic word of warning the Lord gave me on the eve of this 21st century, The Gods Of Cultural Christianity available for free download as a single docu-
       ment in the
    Strong Man Store.

    3 See  the  August 23, 2015 post, Babylon Is Falling, under the category, Bible Prophecy along with Praise For The Lord God Almighty!, posted on September 13, 2015 under 
       the  category,  Glory  To God!  Also, the two-part, Revelation’s Seven Churches In Time, beginning January 5, 2020 under the category, Bible Prophecy followed January 19,
       2020  with  Doing  God’s Will, under the category, The Cause and There Is Only One..., posted on April 26, 2020 as well as the two-part, The Churches Under Judgment 
    be-

       ginning  August  23, 2020 both under the category, Instruction.  The decline and eventual end of the organized brick and mortar local church in America and abroad makes it
       all  the  more  imperative  that Christian men again be taught and encouraged in their responsibilities to lead their families and teach them at home.  View this Ministry’s Men
       Leading Family Worship At Home
    short YouTube video (
    https://youtu.be/PU93AenZnNQ) then, download the free document in the Strong Man Store.

    4 Learn  about  the  aspiring  strong  man and great woman of God as well as biblical man and womanhood in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and its com-
       panion  works,  The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study available at your favorite internet book seller as well as in the

       Strong Man Store.

  • Restoring Men In The Black Community

                I have an additional important concern in the aftermath of Black History Month and posts I made this year beginning with the cautionary anecdote of twentysomething, Devontay Rhodes, and followed by the one in two parts just concluded conveying God’s response from His Word to black American invented forms of counterfeit Christianity with all others.1  Counterfeit anything has negative consequences for those deceived and hurt by not having the real thing.  Disconnecting the faith from God’s Word and obedient practice as counterfeit Christianity does has hurt especially black American men I share an affinity with among all those this Ministry targets in its cause to restore men!2

     

                As the Lord had me to make clear in the two-part post, Willful Ignorance Destroys, manmade Christianity is not the genuine article.  Whatever is not within the doctrinal confines biblically of “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” including all of its inherent freedoms and those not specified, but easily discernible as granted by God in conformity with what has been written in His whole Word is outside of it and counterfeit (Romans 14-15:6; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20, 8, 10-11:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17-18; Galatians 5; Colossians 2:16-23; Jude 1-4, NKJV).  And while no one of us that professes to be followers of Christ is perfect, we aspire to it in God’s plan (Philippians 3:1-16)!3

     

                Godly aspiration to perfection is not what many black men from slavery have encountered with whites or those that share their ethnicity because of intervening counterfeit manmade Christianity as religion.  With whites, conveniently selected, self-serving practices of the Law and New Testament teachings maintained their supremacy while also permitting abusive conduct which many continue to this day.  The same religious hypocrisy and corruption among blacks has turned many of our males away from God and the biblical faith they rarely saw displayed except by the family matriarchs.  Today, even the faith and example of the black family matriarch is fading into historic memory.4

     

                For those that demand specific examples to authenticate what I am writing, use your chosen search engine to find any number of white professed Christian duplicities and abuses from slavery and after to the present involving special slave Bibles, marital infidelity with and rape of black women, brutal beatings, lynchings and wanton murder of black men.  The hypocritical sins and abuses of guilty black clergy and other leaders are searchable too.  In recent times, the now, deceased Bishop Eddie Long, is slickly shown on video preaching against homosexuality from the Bible while allegedly having gay trysts by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. without comment in his black church documentary.5

     

                In my labor among black males, I have met so many that want nothing to do with Christianity whatever its organized religious form.  Their numerical absence in the churches reaches back to slavery and forward to this hour when their presence as thirty percent of a congregation is considered miraculous!  Wired in their brains with logic and reason as most males, using these many black males easily deduce and see right through the inconsistencies of practice in the churches and the faith the Bible presents.  It does not help when preachers in large numbers are found to be fleecing the flock financially, practicing sexual immorality, being abusive or abusing drugs and alcohol etc.

     

                Add to the foregoing the ongoing hurtful acts of systemic racism by professed Christian white men that is allowed by their counterfeit forms of Christianity, the spiritual, mental and emotional injuries suffered and the even unconscious humiliation of usurpation by women within the churches of black religious invention they may have grown up in and it is not difficult to understand the typical unsaved black male’s disinterest in Christianity, agnosticism, embrace of religions such as Islam and hostile atheism.  I have engaged a few that though they claimed to reject religion, are into New Age self-worship as their own gods.  Still others are comfortable with counterfeit Christianity and care nothing about what it is or does since they are Christian impostors living as they please anyway.

     

                Despite the challenges involved, reaching unsaved black males with the biblical Gospel toward the end of divine restoration is an absolute urgent imperative for their own eternal soul’s sake, the families they create and our wider community under lawless siege from their lost spiritual condition and anger.6  As a black male, I am a living witness of what God can do when He is allowed to through His cause of salvation and restoration in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ!  What is needed are more individual sold out holy vessels and faithful churches they make up to stand with Him (and us) in His cause; preaching, teaching and practicing sound doctrine from “the whole counsel of God” as it is written to include His order of mankind from creation electing men as leaders (Acts 20:27, NKJV). 

     

    1 Read the January 31, 2021 post, A New Year Cautionary Anecdote, under the category, The Cause and the two-part Willful Ignorance Destroys that begins on February 21,

       2021 under the category, Black History.

    2 Learn more about the cause of Strong Man Ministries to restore men, their families and communities on our Web Site.

    3 This  is  the heart of every Christian man and woman that respectively aspires to be like Christ as strong men and great women of God I write about in my book, The Strong

       Man  Of  God:  Back To Basics.  The book is published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and is available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers.

        You can also purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store.

    4 See the two-part post beginning June 21, 2015, Mama’s Boys, under the category, Black History.

    5 Dr.  Gates  wrote,  produced  and  hosted  the four hour, two-part documentary, The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song that aired this past February for Black

       History  Month  on  PBS.  A  brief  clip  of  Bishop Long is shown as the consummate (and implied across the board hypocritical) Christian black biblically conservative outcry

       against the God condemned practice of homosexuality in the Bible.

    6 Read  the  February  19,  2017  post,  Who  Is Weeping For My People?, under the category, The Cause.  Also, on The From Slavery To Victory Education Project Web Site,

       learn more about how the spiritually bound up condition of black males is negatively impacting the family and community on its Help For Men Page.

  • Properly Promoting Females

              With the humble disclaimer that because of my many failures in the past before and after being saved as well as a less than stellar evaluation from my wife after checking in with her before sitting down to write this post, I am by no means the poster man for fulfilling everything I am writing about promoting females.  Nevertheless, I aspire as in all things related to becoming a strong man of God in the image of my Lord, Jesus Christ, our example for which my wife gave me brownie points--less than perfect man that I am!  Keeping it real ladies, imperfection is a major part of the problem many of you have with and want to fix in men while you revel in all of your own splendidly displayed!

     

              Let’s start with whether there is a biblical mandate for males to be concerned about the welfare and promotion of females at all.  Yes and it runs as a narrative thread throughout the Bible!  The mandate with an affirmation of female importance is initiated by God’s actions at the creation to wit: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.  Then God blessed them…,” (Genesis 1:27-28a, Emphasis Mine, NKJV).  Females are not an unnecessary appendage to males, but a functional part in the design of mortal man by God and vital partners to fulfilling His purposes of procreation in and ruling the earth (Genesis 1:28).

     

              In His purposes, God made sure the first male saw the value of his female partner by initially showing him life without and no other corresponding creature like her (Genesis 2:18-20).1  Then God did something thoroughly unique in the way He had been bringing forth creatures.  He put the first male, Adam, to sleep, opened up his body, took out “one of his ribs,” closed him back up and proceeded to construct a female from the rib He had taken out.  When He was finished, He brought her to Adam after which he uttered his famous response: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man,” (Genesis 2:21-23, NKJV).

     

              God’s approach to creating her and that foregoing statement of the first male about his female companion plainly assert for all time the intrinsic equality, worth and dignity she has with him!  In their creature being, man the male and female are made of the same inner and outer stuff and are uniquely of the same kind.  There is no other creature exactly like man--male or female.  These truths scream equality, but they fall on deaf ears today because now, in their sinful, fallen state females believe they have gotten the short end of the stick since though just as capable in many respects, God in sovereignty has elected males to be the lead rulers in His order of mortal mankind.

     

              Today’s full on rebellion against God by particularly Western females and their male supporters has not improved on His order or mankind at all.  It has served prosecuting females well during this time God has tolerated their acrid ascendancy, but left in its wake much individual and family ruin as well as such disorder with other social maladies like sexual immorality and systemic racism, our society is teetering on the brink of collapse.  While nothing I say will sway the most rabid, hardened feminists, I appeal in the name of Jesus Christ to any professed sisters in Him to realize it is a lie from Satan that God is not concerned for your proper advancement in this life.

     

              The key word here is “proper.”  Throughout the rest of Scripture God is seen stepping in to help females whether protecting them from the treachery of sinful men (Genesis 20; Numbers 27:1-11; Malachi 2:13-16; John 8:2-12), delivering them in dire circumstances (Genesis 21:1-21; Luke 7:11-17) or highly favoring them (Micah 6:4; Luke 1:26-38).  And when it suited His purposes, in one case He advanced a female to rule over men for the sake of His people (Esther 4:13-17).2  However, as the unchanging rule of His order of mankind, God has not confused the issue by being so for females that He has reversed His righteousness on display from the beginning through the male as Federal Head and leaders of mankind (Genesis 5:1-2; 1 Corinthians 11:2-12, 15:20-23, 45-49)!

     

              Therefore, in a biblical worldview, males do not advance females by leading them into rebellion against God’s order of mankind.  All men advance females generally when we treat them with dignity and protective care; “understanding” and “honor” as the valuable partners they are as wives in God’s mortal purposes for mankind (1 Peter 3:7, NKJV)!  Christian husbands love our wives “just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her;”3 loving them too, as we do our “own bodies.”  Linking back to Adam’s understanding of his unique relation to his wife and famous exclamation the apostle Paul adds, “he who loves his wife loves himself.  For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church,” (Ephesians 5:25, 28-29, NKJV).4

     

              As I write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, God expects females to use the natural skills He has given them to be faithful companions as wives and helpers as mothers in the home first.5  But just like the woman written about in Proverbs 31, He does not limit her to managing the home nor should any male.  God blesses the enterprising woman who fears Him as she uses her natural and acquired skills (such as are obtained through a mother’s training or formal education) outside of the home for the benefit of her husband, family and the community.  Putting herself last, her ambition is to honor God and her husband; bless him and her household.  Personal satisfaction, contentment and joy come in accomplishing these things, not fighting God’s order (Proverbs 31:23).

     

    1 Read  the series of four posts presenting the value of women beginning April 22, 2018 with The Value Of Women To God that continue for the rest of that month into May,
       concluding after Mother’s Day on May 20th.  All posts in the series are under the category, God’s Creatures.

    2 See  the  three-part post beginning April 18, 2021, Daughters Of This Age, under the category, God’s Creatures.  The sovereign Creator can absolutely make an exception
       to His own rule, not the creature!  Also, please note that Esther’s promotion was not the result of her fulfilling an ambition or lust for authority over men to be a queen!

    3 Does  any  professed  Christian  in his or hers right mind really believe that in Christ’s sacrifice of Himself for His Church He surrenders the Headship God assigned to Him
       as Lord over her as a gesture of love and equality (John 17:20-26; Ephesians 2:22-23; Colossians 1:15-18)?  No way!  So, why are guilty professed Christian men thinking
       themselves so noble toward their wives and females they surrender their divine election to lead?  Those doing so are not hearing from God, but are greatly deceived by the
       evil one since envy remains an eternally damning sin in His eyes (Proverbs 14:30; Romans 13:8-14; Galatians 5:19-21; James 3:13-18)!

    4 If  all  males  were  treating  females  and our wives as I write here, then, none could deceive themselves about the demonically stirred source in sin of their ambition for all
       things male.  It would clearly stand out as the evil it is! 

    5 The  book  is  available along with companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at your favorite internet
       book seller and in the
    Strong Man Store.



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