The Scourge Of Racism
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This edited 2010 Commentary followed immediately after one I wrote as the Lord led challenging men as fathers to step up and accept the divine assigned responsibility to protect our children starting as they are unborn in the womb.1 Transparently owning my own shameful failure to do so as an unsaved teenager, I also urged fellow aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ to stand up for and defend the right of the unborn to live.2 Continuing in that vein, this post puts the failure of men guilty of not protecting our children in its proper spiritual context as part of the ongoing rebellion against God, His design and order of the family. It also warns about the unfolding consequences that will continue to intensify and calls professed Christian men to the cause and work of restoring men.3
Originally Published February 2010
A man's responsibility to protect his children from conception to the age of majority is bound up in God's design of the human family. We do the mothers of our children no favors to remain with them--it is God's will that we do so! He holds us accountable to walk in His design and fulfill the purposes of our creation plainly spelled out in His Book of beginnings. There, it is written: "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, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it…,'" (Genesis 1:27-28a, NKJV).4
Man and woman as husband and wife in the lifetime bond of marriage is God's original and enduring context for the bringing forth of children. Formal marriage of the first couple took place after God created the woman and brought her to the man (Genesis 2:18-23). He then presented His will through Moses: "Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh," (Genesis 2:24, NKJV). Any doubts about whether the first couple was truly married or not is dispelled in the next verse, "And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed," (Genesis 2:25, Emphasis mine, NKJV).
In the rebellion against God and His Anointed that has intensely gripped our world over the last generation, living together without formal marriage has become so common we have considered it normal. But man's rebellion does not alter God's original design. Therefore, every man and woman living together without the benefit of formal marriage is sinning against the Lord. Every man and woman having sex outside of marriage is also sinning against the Lord. This is so, whether they consider themselves Christians or not!5 Since God will never let sinful men mock Him, the harvest of consequences from the seeds of rebellion have long been showing themselves in our nation and world.
Never before heard of sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS sprang up in the latter third of the 20th century in the heat of the so-called "sexual revolution." The trail of broken relationships and shattered lives through break up and abandonment circles the globe at this hour. Irresponsible men now, even brag about the number of children they have by different mothers. Meanwhile, fatherless children bear more fatherless children that are deeply bitter, hate-filled and ready to make everybody feel their pain! And this is all good? I don't think so! We are killing ourselves doing things our way and it is time to admit failure.
To reverse the present course of self-destruction we are on, mankind must turn back to God, our Creator and Judge--His will, way and Word while there is still time (Acts 17:24-31; 2 Peter 3:7-9)! This, of course, includes restoring marriage and family as He designed them. Whatever God does in the original is "very good" by His own testimony (Genesis 1:31). What we have done in one generation rebelling against God's very good way of marriage and family is not good at all. In fact, it is plain evil! Leading out in this turn back to God must be every man that calls himself a Christian and that aspires to be a strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11-15).
Indeed, if you are like me, you had your time in the rebellion, contributed to the folly of today by fathering children out of wedlock and are filled with deep regret over the burgeoning consequences. I began to turn away from my participation in the rebellion when I became a Christian on Easter 1977 (Romans 6:21; Titus 3:3-8). Now, it's time we Christian men man up and lead the repentance charge back to God in all understanding that unless we do, our children may well be the generation that experiences the full outpouring of His foretold wrath on those in rebellion against Him (Psalm 2:1-5; Isaiah 13:11-13; Romans 1:18-32; Revelation 6:12-17). I am doing my part through this Ministry in seeking to restore men and their families as God designed. I challenge you to join me!
1 See the January 21, 2018 repost, Protecting Our Children, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
2 Learn about the strong man of God in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick
and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
3 Read the July 27, 2014 post, God Of Order and November 16, 2014, Christian Women And Restoring Men, both under the category, Instruction.
4 God’s purposeful design of male and female bodies to procreate is incontrovertible evidence of procreation being a part of mankind’s purpose shared in common with all
of the other creatures of this physical creation after their kind. See the May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design, under the category, God’s Creatures.
5 Read the two-part repost beginning February 11, 2018, Christian Singles Having Sex, under the category, Black History.
First it was the humiliation of missionaries coming from the former imperial possessions of Western nations including America in recent years to evangelize them. Now, in a stunning and decisive stand, United Methodist Christians from largely African nations recently stood against the formerly dominant Western denomination’s insistence on sanctioning the ordination and same sex marriage of LGBTQ persons within its ranks.1 Such is the intense spiritual warfare of these latter days as those that would be faithful to God and His Word as it is written not only must stand against a secular world in rebellion, but those that have infiltrated and would foment it in God’s house!
As a Christian descendant of African slaves in America, I am pleased in the Lord to have founded this Ministry and to be leading its Kingdom cause to restore men, families and communities also standing firmly on God’s Word!2 Surely, it was ‘“for such a time as this’” (Esther 4:13-16, NKJV) in the Body of Christ that God has touched many hearts among those once considered of no account and inferior by their former masters to stand with the faithful of all hues against the “madness” of rebellion and apostasy now underway in the West and a large number of its churches as I write of my own labor in the Preface of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics; with joy replacing a “dumb donkey” for Christ’s sake (1 Corinthians 1:27-29; 2 Peter 2:12-16, NKJV).3
Prior to the book’s first publication in 2011, the Lord led me to write this edited 2010 Commentary contending for lifelong marriage as He designed it.
Originally Published March 2010
As an institution, marriage is under attack as never before as humanity in rebellion seeks to loose itself from all of God's program laid out in His Word (Psalm 2:1-3). Not only is marriage on the decline due to abandoned moral standards that permit temporary relationships of casual sex and living together, but it is being outright corrupted by those who want to legitimatize their same sex relationships. Destroying marriage as the Bible knows it too is the incredible divorce rate both in and outside of the churches. These divorces occur for many reasons beyond what the Lord Jesus Christ has permitted.
Marriage as God designed it is foundational to human existence and the oldest of all forms of human relationship. Indeed, before God introduced marriage, mankind was bottled up in the seed of the first man. The Bible does not glamorize God's purpose in creating the female version of man; it was to facilitate His will that the earth be filled with humanity through procreation (Genesis 1:27-28a). However, as a blessing to humanity and to sweeten the means to His end, the Lord gave us the gift of marital relationship. Thus, marital relationship exclusively between a man and a woman is of the purposeful construction of God, not society or the State since neither yet existed.
In the presence of Adam God declares, "'It is not good that man should be alone,'" (Genesis 2:18a, NKJV). God already knew that He was going to create a female for the man, but Adam had to know that being alone was not good. Adam also had to appreciate the value of relationship with another creature like him. If relationship for its own sake had been His sole purpose, then God was more than enough! However, procreation as He designed it would require Adam to have a suitably created, committed companion and helper with whom he could relate to for life.
God proclaims, "'I will make him a helper comparable to him,'" (Genesis 2:18b, NKJV). This helper God has in mind would not be an exact duplicate of Adam, but correspond to him as no other creature on earth (Genesis 2:19-20). After putting him to sleep and removing one of his ribs, the Lord God purposefully fashioned a woman and presented her to Adam. As evidenced by his joyful words, this woman corresponded to Adam in every way human--spiritually, mentally, emotionally and physically (Genesis 2:21-23). They were equal in their humanity, but had different roles and responsibilities as plainly seen in their order of creation and the unique construction of their bodies.
Adam and his wife had a basic and functional relationship built upon their correspondence that would be mutually satisfying and endure for a lifetime apart from the romanticized notions of love we have today in which an estimated 40-50% of marriages fail in divorce.4 This does not mean they would not enjoy romance. However, this was only a small part of a total relationship that would be sustained in the main by a committed love for each other in unity and their Creator whose purposes they gladly sought to fulfill.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our Creator in the flesh declares, "'What God has joined together, let not man separate,'" (Matthew 19:4-6, NKJV). In God's design of marriage, it is permanent! While because of men's sin hardened hearts He allowed the concept of divorce to enter human experience, the Lord makes it clear before sin "'from the beginning it was not so.'" He permits divorce only after sexual immorality, which is already a break in the marital covenant (Matthew 19:7-9, NKJV). The Lord's apostle, Paul, later addresses the de facto divorce that occurs when an unbelieving spouse permanently deserts the marriage (1 Corinthians 7:10-16).
Aspiring strong men of God in the image of Jesus Christ living to please Him and do His will, must labor vigorously to restore marriage as our God designed it. This means that we have to first be sure we are honoring His marital design.5 Then we must lock arms with our pastors that are faithfully holding the line on marriage as God designed it. Unless God's design of marriage is restored, we can count on seeing the rapid fracturing and decay of our society along with its descent into social chaos continue to the point there is “no remedy”6 and in the end, “wrath” (2 Chronicles 36:15-16, NKJV).
1 View the short news story produced by CBN News on its Christian World News program starting 13 minutes and 40 seconds in that interviews a Liberian leader in the denomination.
2 See the April 26, 2015 repost, Obeying God’s Word On His Side, under the category, The Cause and many others among my blogs using the search word, “marriage.”
3 The book is available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
4 Google “2018 divorce rate.” Some social scientists actually see a downward trend in divorces driven by millennials for such reasons as marrying later in life (which still
does not conform to God’s will) according to a Bloomberg article.
5 As I discuss in my book, this means among other things marrying “only in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:39, NKJV), loving his wife in the sacrificial, constructive and es-
teeming care displayed by Christ for the Church (Ephesians 5:25-33a) and honoring the vow of marriage as God intends for men to honor all of our vows (Numbers 30:
1-2; Matthew 5:33-37). Christian women too, must marry only in the Lord and honor the wedding vow as well as love their husbands as Christ loves the Father and the
Church, Him, in all submission and respect (John 6:38, 8:48-49; Ephesians 5:22-24, 33b).
6 A point which since I wrote this in 2010, the Lord led me to proclaim has arrived! Read the first mention of a “point of no return” in the July 15, 2015 part one 2012 re-
post, Powerlessness Of Being The Minority, under the category, Encouragement. A second mention follows in the October 22, 2017 part two 2013 repost, Mocking The
Rainbow, under the category, Biblical Worldview.
The historic value of men as intentionally designed by God to the world is such that on the authority of His Word I have declared it along with guilty professed Christians and churches following suit as foolish for marginalizing them! Truly, nowhere is this foolishness more plainly seen than in the sinful re-defining of men in their roles and responsibilities as husbands and fathers in the divinely ordained, foundational family unit. In marginalizing and re-defining men as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the world is sowing the seeds of its own destruction as in the mix of negative consequences, families--the basic building blocks of societies--are being devastated.1
The value of men to families in their God designed temporary (due to death) roles and responsibilities as husbands and fathers in this present age are absolutely critical to their creation, effective functioning and wellbeing. The first man had God bring him the first woman and his wife (Genesis 2:18-23). After this, in God’s perfect will a man has typically taken the initiative to leave out from his parent’s household to find a wife, unite to her in marriage and create a new household (Genesis 2:24). Men alone have been equipped by God in their bodies with the seed necessary to initiate new human life and follow the first man in doing so with his wife (Genesis 4:1-2, 25-5:5).
By God’s express design, order and purposes of mankind men are His elect heads of their families. This is shown by Adam being created first, the command God gave Eve after she sinned in usurping her husband’s headship and His rebuke of Adam for following his wife’s lead while judging him (Genesis 2:7, 3:1-6, 16-17; 1 Timothy 2:12-14). The authority and responsibilities of headship in the family have been exercised with only occasional historic challenge until these latter days of all out rebellion against it (Esther 1; Psalm 2:1-3)! Even many Christians seek to dilute the headship God has given men not believing abusers will give an account to Christ, their Head (1 Corinthians 11:3).
In God’s design of the human family reflecting His own, the effective functioning of it requires the leadership and management of a chief authority. In the God Family where all three Persons that have eternally made it up are equally God, nevertheless, the Chief Authority is the Father (Luke 3:21-22; John 3:35, 10:30-33, 14:7-28). So, in the human family while each person of the unit is equal in person, the husband and father has been assigned chief ruling authority as the head by God! And though the family rule of men corrupted by sin has been less than perfect, nowhere in Scripture does God diminish or revoke their chief authority assignment.
Indeed, the divine expectation of the family rule and stewardship of men is maintained by speaking of them first in the fifth of the Ten Commandments and addressing them as the first audience throughout the pages of Scripture (Exodus 20:12; Acts 1:15-16; 1 Corinthians 10:1)! The chief ruling experience of men in their families has also been transferrable and beneficial to human social units beyond it to include the Lord’s Church on earth (Exodus 18:13-27; Acts 15:1-22). Besides ruling authority, God expects men to give visionary leadership to their families ideally listening to Him for the best outcomes (Genesis 11:27-12:9; Matthew 1:18-25).
God has assigned men three other equally important roles and responsibilities He holds them accountable for. Men have the lead role and responsibility for teaching their families by precept and example (Deuteronomy 6:4-9; Ephesians 6:4). So influential is a man as the lead teacher, his family is instructed even by his failure to teach because they watch him! Men are most known historically for and relied on as material providers for their families as another important role and responsibility (1 Timothy 5:8). Finally, men are also assigned by God to protect their families from spiritual and physical harm though they are most known for their physical protection (Proverbs 6:20-35; Matthew 2:1-18). The value of men to families in God’s design, order and purposes for mankind is truly great!
However, rejecting God’s design, order and purposes of mankind by marginalizing and re-defining men to fit a rebellious, feminist worldview is not fixing anything, but confusing everything! For example, many sinful men now passively, routinely and irresponsibly allow their wives to be the chief authority, visionary leader, teacher, provider and protector in the family if there is marriage at all. Divorce is common because unless the man does submit to his wife, there is no chief authority, harmony or coherent family vision as each selfishly does as they please. Fatherlessness is rampant as irresponsible men create children, but have no widely accepted moral imperative to father them except by the payment of child support. Anarchy is already underway; social collapse follows!
(Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers reading this.)
1 The Lord leads me to deal frankly with the world’s confused, 21st century frontal attack on His design of men and the irreparable (in some cases) damage being done to families until the restoration of all things at His coming in chapter two of the book aptly titled, What Is A Man? The book is on sale in the Strong Man Store digitally as an E-Book in two formats and special for Father’s Day, the print Soft Cover Edition with free shipping though June 20th.
Critical to a human family as God designed it in perfection is a devoted wife and mother. For while a man as the head of the family importantly initiates, gives visionary leadership and overall governance to it, a devoted wife and mother provides bonding love to all and excellent management skills that keeps it running smoothly. Regardless of family size, her job is incredibly challenging and requires all that God has designed a woman to be naturally and because of sin, supernaturally in nature, character and demeanor to pull off successfully! Therefore, being a devoted wife and mother as a woman is not something inferior or trivial, but very significant and precious to her family.
The struggle many women of child bearing age have today balancing education and career aspirations with the demands of being fully devoted wives and mothers is taking a devastating toll on them and their families. From personal mental and physical health issues to the multifaceted drama of marital strife often leading to divorce and traumatized children, many affected 21st century women attempting to live out 20th century feminism’s narcissistic ideal to “have it all” are suffering greatly. In the process, virtually gone are the days women as devoted wives and mothers joyfully gave themselves in self-denying, sacrificial service to their husbands and children and were still fulfilled.
From the 18th century industrial age women have been pressing their way into male dominated workplaces. While the Woman’s Suffrage Movement sought to politically enfranchise them in the 19th century, by the middle of the 20th century, feminist descendants expanded their objectives to include the right to be free from the ancient biblical, Judeo-Christian expectation of marriage and family. As I wrote in a previous Mother’s Day post, Betty Friedan is generally credited with voicing the rallying cry for “Women’s Liberation” from what she and others she surveyed felt were the mundane and dissatisfying tasks of just being wives and mothers especially for those that had been educated.1 2
Since Friedan in the mid-sixties, feminism has urged women to pursue their dreams in all fields of endeavor and to do so without guilt concerning marriage, family and their own biological clocks to find the significance and fulfillment they equally deserved with men. But there yet remains stubborn resistance by the large number of struggling women to an all out abandonment of marriage and family as a valid avenue of female experience. Indeed, among them are many professed women of faith who like others still wanting marriage and family as devoted wives and mothers in accord historically with God’s design for them, struggle too, because they cling to Satan’s lie in feminism.
For a generation women have heard the lie that they should not be satisfied and in related evil, envious and resentful toward men in authority. However, faithful contemporary women of faith find themselves in a long line of sisters that begins in the Bible who were well adjusted, satisfied and fulfilled as devoted wives and mothers of significance and blessing to their families. These women receive satisfaction from their God designed roles and praise from their families because they start not in narcissism with themselves, but Him as the woman of Proverbs 31:30. Interestingly, it is a mother’s instruction to her son that reveals why such women are relatively few (Proverbs 31:1-3, 10).
A woman that knows and fears God loves and is devoted to Him first! In that devotion, she is joyfully eager and willing in all submission to embrace the roles and responsibilities He has assigned in order to please Him and do His will. As a result, with His guiding wisdom and strength, this great woman of God purposefully commits her life to being the best possible wife to her husband and he knows it (Proverbs 31:11-12).3 With his trust, encouragement and support because he and the whole family also benefit, she works in and outside of the home using her God given talents to operate businesses without neglecting her family (Proverbs 31:13-24). Because she knows the Lord, she is a woman of compassion, strength, dignity, wisdom, kindness and diligence (Proverbs 31:25-27).
Amazingly, because her significance is tied to her God’s love, acceptance and approval, the great woman of God is completely satisfied with her life. She also truly has it all since she uses every fiber of her being, knowledge, talents and skills to serve the purposes of God in her roles and responsibilities as a devoted wife and mother. Blessed, her family rises up to “call her blessed;” her husband “praises her” as does the watching community (Proverbs 31:28-31; NKJV). Foolish is the man that would oppress such a wife; treasure her, she is from God!4 My sisters that are guilty: repent from buying into the lie of feminism; put God first then your husband and children (Psalms 37:3-4, 111:10; Isaiah 55:1-3). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 See the May 11, 2014 post, Motherhood In A Time Of Rebellion, under the category, God’s Creatures.
2 Read about Betty Freidan and her impact on American feminism at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Friedan.
3 Learn more about the great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available through all major internet book-
sellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store.
4 My grandmother, Eunice Campbell, featured on the Great Woman Of God Mothers CD cover worked nearly all of her sixty-six year life as have most black women from
slavery, including her daughter, my mother, Bettie Kelley and my wife, Mary, when our children were in the home. Momma as an aspiring great woman of God main-
tained an excellent Christian witness to her nominally professing Christian husband and family. While being an excellent wife, mother, homemaker and working full-
time as a Civil Service Food Service Worker with AAFES at the Fort Ord Army Base, she still went to mid-week and Sunday church services. She only took my siblings
and me to church as children on many Sundays where we were exposed to Christianity. Momma was overjoyed later when as a young adult, I came to Christ and gave
her a preview of my exercising the gift of preaching as a babe before her departure. We called her blessed while she was with us; I declare her so again in sweet mem-
ory of her this Mother’s Day! The Great Woman of God Mothers CD is available in the Strong Man Store.
As the Lord led me to make clear in my April 8, 2018 post, "The Second Adam Rules And Judges,"1 worldly concocted feminism is not a social-political ideology that can be safely tolerated by or integrated with biblical Christianity in the churches. Its origin is demonic, strategically deceitful and destructive; viewed on High as rebellion against God! For God purposely designed and created man and woman with roles and responsibilities in an order where they cooperatively fulfill His will for them in this mortal age.2 However, the 20th century rise of feminism blatantly challenges God’s will. Along with many other associated evils, puffed up feminists have created a “battle of the sexes.”
In this now, generation long battle as enemy combatants, women have struggled against men for power and position. Under withering true and false accusations of failure, shamed men have been yielding ground in ancient places of governance such as the family. The ruinous fruit of backing men down can be everywhere seen in the breakdown of the family and gender confusion in the wider culture, for example, as well as in the churches with professed Christian women in defiance of Scripture pursuing roles of authority over men in God’s house. In this edited May 2012 Commentary, I again summarize God’s design of woman and in four posts to follow, present her value to the continuing end of pulling down feminism as a stronghold of deceit in the churches (Philippians 3:1b)!
Originally Published May 2012
One of the things you learn right away as a maturing Christian is that Satan and his kingdom do not play fair. How ironic, since one of the enemy's major allegations in these last days concerns how unfair God is in many things, but especially His design of male and female roles and responsibilities.3 So persuasive is Satan on this issue that professing Christians, churches and related entities in growing numbers are abandoning God's biblical ship to embrace his lie. With his instigation, faithful teachers of God's Word on the issue are barely tolerated any longer and considered extreme. Nevertheless, God is judging rebels on this issue of rebellion as He is all others.
The Lord leading, I have written often over the years warning professing Christians not to believe Satan’s lie that God is somehow unfair (which attacks His character) or even worse has made a mistake (which questions His perfection as deity) on the issue of male and female roles. Be reminded and warned again that the issue has only come up because Satan has been successfully using this tact of attacking God’s character and questioning His Person from Eden (Genesis 3:1-5). It worked with a perfect woman; it has worked all the more with sinful humanity since then who in our fallen state are primed to rebel against God and seek to justify it by identifying supposed flaws in Him!
Satan has once again in these last days gone to the woman as he did in the beginning to stir up women and sympathetic men over God's apparent unfairness in making the man first and the head in human families (1 Timothy 2:13-14). But even if the accusation had some basis in fact (I feel ridiculous writing this), the greater issue is the defiant act by the creature to rise up in revolt to question its Maker (Romans 9:20) and declare war on His chosen head. As it is captured in the 1946 Irvin Berlin song used in various TV commercials, "Anything you can do, I can do better." Moses' sister expressed a similar mind and was immediately, severely rebuked by God (Numbers 12).
As I write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, our Creator did not set out to create a rivalry between men and women when He created them.4 In His perfect design, men and women were to work in harmony to fulfill His will for them in the earth. The man was created first because he is the eternal creature, "man" in mortal form! To satisfy His plans for man to reproduce, God reached into him and made another of equal person, but with some important differences. Woman is taken out of the man as a female counterpart to be put back together with him in marriage so she might help fulfill God’s will for them to govern and fill the earth with mankind (Genesis 1:22-28, 2:18-24).
In the eyes of Adam and every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ, woman is an absolute wonder to behold (Genesis 2:23)! In general, woman is smaller and softer with beauty of face, longer hair and a body that by God's purposeful design excites her husband's sexual interest leading to procreation.5 She also corresponds perfectly to him in spiritual, mental and emotional make up complementing their relationship. Clearly, she is no afterthought or cast off left over from God's creation of man. But as man is the glory of God in image, she truly is his glory (1 Corinthians 11:7) to be loved, nourished and cherished as he does his own body (Ephesians 5:28-29).
To say that woman is the glory of man is not to suggest she bears nothing of the image and glory of God. Truly, God has caused woman made from man to equally radiate the divine image and glory including the impulse to lead and rule. This is shown in Eden when the serpent brings his case to the woman and she leads out in disobeying God (Genesis 3:6). In doing so, she willfully usurps her husband's prior standing as God's chosen head and is corrected (Genesis 3:16b). Later, in judging Adam, God integrates into his sin of failing to obey Him, the fact that he temporarily abandoned his role as God's chosen head to follow his wife's leadership instead (Genesis 3:17a).
God has designed woman on purpose with unalterable purpose for this present age. Every Christian woman who will live as God designed must resist embracing Satan's lie that either God or His Word are flawed on the issue. We are flawed in sin and inability to function as God designed in His ordained order, roles and responsibilities! Therefore, aspiring great women of God that would please Him and do His will joyfully submit to His will for them as a woman.6 You are granted of the highest honors to cooperate with God in being a wife and mother; fruitfully filling the earth with humanity (1 Timothy 2:15). Otherwise, as a rebel, His judgment will find you too (Hebrews 3:15-19). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 Find it under the categories Call To Repentance and Bible Prophecy.
2 Read the related July 3, 2016 post, Man As God Designed Him, under the category, God’s Creatures.
3 See the May 15, 2016 post, God Unfair?, under the category, God’s Creatures.
4 The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics is available through all major internet booksellers, by order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man
Store.
5 Read the May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design, under the category, God’s Creatures.
6 I devote two full chapters in my book to defining and instructing on the great woman of God from the Bible. Additionally, the Strong Man Store now has available the
newest Strong Man Of God Audio Resource, Great Woman Of God Mothers, an expository message from the Lord I was blessed to proclaim. Check it out and listen
to the sample provided.
Once more in 2019 the Lord would have me uphold marriage as He designed it as a first priority to professed Christians who are supposed to be showing the world how it works to His glory (Matthew 5:14-16)!1 But as the world knows all too well, professing Christianity as a “pot” cannot call “the kettle black” on the issue of marriage and divorce. Attempting to obscure the naked reality of the tarnish to Christianity with smooth sounding psychological and sociological explanations that undermine biblical instruction as well as the truth of divine grace in forgiveness does not remove it. Total repentance from the sin of mocking marriage is required throughout professing Christianity!
Oh, or am I now by voicing God’s displeasure as all of His preachers are supposed to do, actually only attempting to destroy someone’s reputation that is guilty? Or is sin still sin as the Bible plainly lays it out no matter who is guilty? Or did Christ come only to die for sin in vain? Or is anyone in the Body of Christ above His Word; possessing a complete pass from guilt just because of who they are and it might make them look bad? Repent those that think so; God shows no partiality and all will reap what they sow no matter who they are (Romans 2:4-11; Galatians 6:7-8)! Let every aspiring strong man and great woman of God who reads this edited 2011 repost answer the Lord’s charge to honor and uphold marriage as He designed it.
Originally Posted November 6, 2011
Not only the strong man, but the great woman of God has a responsibility to uphold the dignity of marriage as an institution from Him. In a day when marriages are ripped apart on the slightest pretext, God’s original design even among many professed Christians is a fading landmark in the rearview mirror of our world’s ever accelerating press toward its own dark, design. Not the so-called stars of entertainment and sports as authorities on the subject, but Jesus Christ the Star of David who is God’s appointed Judge! He has affirmed that marriage is not only of divine origin, but sacred and precious to God until it shall be no more in His plan (Matthew 19:1-6; Luke 20:27-36, 21:33).
Quickie marriages and divorces therefore, are an affront to God and mock marriage as He designed it to be a lifelong relational commitment between a man and woman exclusively. Learn more about the mutual responsibility the aspiring strong man and great woman of God share to honor and treat marriage as holy in living to please the Holy One in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.2
1 Read the March 17-31, 2019 reposts dealing with marriage under the category, The Cause and the April 7, 2019 post, The Glory Of Marital Oneness, under the category,
Glory To God!
2 The book is available in print or digital download formats at major internet booksellers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBooks.com and Apple (digital only).
You can also get the Hard or Soft Cover print versions of the book in the Strong Man Store.
Repeatedly warned in Scripture and having had our faith regularly tested by “various trials,” faithful Christian men should not be surprised by “the fiery trial” of persecution that comes because of the Gospel and standing firm in defense of God’s Word (2 Timothy 3:10-12; 1 Peter 1:3-9, 4:12-14, NKJV). Besides adding to the joy of sharing in Christ’s sufferings and anticipated glory, we understand our suffering in these latter days is the beginning of God’s just judgment and testing of ultimately all mortal flesh through which His faithful persevere (Mark 13:13; 1 Peter 3:13-17, 4:15-19; Revelation 3:7-13). No one will accuse God of letting the disobedient in His own house slide, while condemning others.
As has happened historically and is now taking place among our brethren in nations with violent persecution against Christians, husbands and fathers are making tough choices impacting their families. Faithful Christian men love our families! However, as Christ has righteously demanded, our love for Him to the point of death is above all (Luke 14:25-27). Half-hearted religionists blow past this teaching of Christ as if He does not mean it. Yet, He does mean it and before the game is over, many faithful Christian men globally will have faced the choice of being loyal to and doing what is best for their families or Christ and His Kingdom (Revelation 13:11-17, 14:9-13).6
God is plain in His prophetic Word: “the cowardly” will be among those that are found outside of His eternal Kingdom and in the lake of fire (Revelation 21:7-8, NKJV)! Thus, the Lord Jesus warns all up front that would be His disciple to “count the cost” and consider the outcome of the man who makes himself worthless through quitting on his commitment (Luke 14:28-35, NKJV). Having counted the cost and rejected unthinkable cowardice, faithful Christian men as aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image resolutely continue their walk, work and warfare in His Kingdom cause knowing by faith the good end that God has planned (Hebrews 10:32-39; James 5:1-12)!
They are also praying for their needs during the course of the game and its end with the arrival of Christ and God’s Kingdom to earth (Matthew 6:9-13; Acts 4:23-30)! Such prayers will become more fervent as the world intensifies its hatred and violently presses its offensive drive down to first and goal on our two yard line. Exhausted and globally worn out on the field; our bench depleted to the lowest levels in history due to injuries, the apostasy (Matthew 24:10; 2 Thessalonians 2:3a) and game ejections to captivity and death, prayer will be all that our team has left before an imminent score and irrecoverable defeat by Satan’s team. But God true to His promises answers their prayers!
The prayers of His faithful are more than enough to have left when it concerns God! For the Lord Jesus taught us how our heavenly Father values persistent prayer (Luke 11:5-13). So, on the heels of those desperate, impassioned and persistent prayers offered by His faithful at the very end of credible hope, our God answers and intervenes as He did when Israel in oppressive, Egyptian bondage could bear it no more (Exodus 2:23-3:12). He will use the first of three timeouts to stop play; dispatching four mighty angels to cause the earth’s four winds to temporarily cease blowing on that historically unprecedented day as I wrote in a previous blog (Revelation 7:1).7
Rising from the east, another angel bearing the Holy Spirit--who is the invisible, living “seal (mark) of the living God”--cries out to others designated to harm the earth and sea not to do so until ‘“the servants of our God’” are sealed (marked) on their foreheads (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Revelation 7:2-3, NKJV). Prophetically reminiscent of the event in Ezekiel Nine, 144,000 Jews as the foretold elect remnant of God are marked for protection from harm by His judgments or otherwise up to Christ’s Second Coming (Isaiah 1:9, 10:20-23; Zechariah 13:7-9; Revelation 7:4-8). For among the Jews in much travail as well, prayers will have been going up asking God to deliver (Psalms 10, 44, 144; Isaiah 51:9-11)!
Acting for the sake of His great Name, the Jewish patriarchs, Gospel cause and prayers of His faithful (Ezekiel 36:16-32; Romans 11:11-15, 25-36), God marks the elect Jewish remnant outwardly with the Holy Spirit and launches a second, final and complete fulfillment of Joel 2:28-32! His faithful will be set ablaze again and their strength renewed whether gasping for air on the field, injured on the bench or languishing in captivity (Isaiah 40:27-31; Acts 4:31). Under heavy conviction of the Holy Spirit, many vacillating believers will repent, be revived and take their place with the faithful. Too, the unsaved not yet hardened into sin will repent and be restored in vast numbers through the Kingdom work and warfare of the faithful along with God’s initial plainly seen works of power to follow.
Truly, with mighty wonders greater than the August 21st solar eclipse as warning judgments, God will exalt Himself a second time before the rulers of this world as He did when He brought Israel out oppressed by Pharaoh at first (Exodus 6:2-8; Isaiah 11:11-12; Jeremiah 16:14-15, 23:5-8; Ezekiel 20:33-38)! Meanwhile, as I write in my book, the global revival will be the greatest ever in history in terms of scale and souls coming to Christ! However, I also soberly warn it will not return the world back to some idyllic past. This brief moment is only the beginning of the end and preparation for the faithful to endure the darkest days ever; days that will see Satan’s team finally score with their invincible player, Antichrist, who martyr’s more faithful than anyone before him (Revelation 7:9-17).8
6 A very inspiring film to watch highlighting this point is The Robe with Richard Burton from the 1950s.
7 Read the March 16-23, 2014 two part blog, The Prayers Of The Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy, for an understanding of why rapture does not come during the event I am discussing here and more detail about it along with others I describe which immediately follow.
8 Read the October 23, 2016 blog, Revival For Seeking Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy to again appreciate why repentance and revival are absolutely essential among professed Christians even now! Also, learn more about the “night” referenced by that blog in a teaching on CD entitled, The Night Is Almost Here! available in the Strong Man Store.
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