Strength & Manliness
Good Morning,
Think with me about some the preachers God saw fit to record.
Isaiah 58:1 “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.”
John the Baptist
Matthew 3:7 “But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”
Jesus
Matthew 12:34 “O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
Matthew 23:33 “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”
Stephen
Acts 7:51 “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”
Elijah
My favorite one, Elijah, publicly mocked the god of the prophets.
1 Kings 18:27 “And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.”
Recently, I was at a meeting of a preacher who never once stopped smiling. I mean he had this sick smile; and I do not think he ever raised his voice, named a sin, or pushed anyone to do anything. Somehow, I felt the sermon void of Paul's instruction about preaching as he instructed Timothy to:
2 Timothy 4:2 “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
Here is my unpopular, politically-incorrect, MASCULINE, narrow-minded opinion: we have allowed television, politicians, and Hallmark to tell us what kind of spirit a preacher needs to have, rather than God and the Bible. I believe men of God have become feminine, nice, and afraid of offending anyone. We are raising boys who could not defend themselves in a fight, protect their family from trouble, and are afraid of speaking the truth for fear someone will not like them. We have determined that the spirit of a preacher needs to be kind, friendly, and, in fact, FEMININE rather than passionate and truthful.
Folks, that is simply not Bible! Bible preaching offended people; it made people angry, and preachers were often beaten, jailed, and killed for their preaching. Read your Bible and look for the smiling face of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, and Noah (who was the first one to ever be called a preacher of righteousness).
Remember the old saying, "sugar and spice and everything nice" is what girls are made of? What were boys made of? "Snips and snails and puppy dog tails."
We have pulled gender and true diversity from babies to adults, and it has soiled the pulpits. The quiet Hallmark man with his perfect three-day beard who listens with feeling to his gal and shares his own deep feelings and fears is as far from reality and manhood as can be found. We watch on television as two men share their fears and baggage from the past, while in sixty-five years of being a man, I have NEVER seen or heard of this happening except on a feminine movie.
The feminization of man is written of much, but my concern is how much ladies influence the preachers we hear. Online and in person, we are looking for nice, kind, and gracious preachers, and we have tossed out the reckless, bold, confident, and thundering of righteousness. The preacher you gals sneer at because he is rough is probably just what America needs. Go to a ladies’ conference if you want soft and nice! Stop criticizing men of God who preach like Ezekiel, who was told, "Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Howl ye, Woe worth the day!" Just what would the softer side of Christian folks think of Micah who said, "Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls."
Men had better get back to enjoying masculine things in play, work, and church and believing ladies need to urge their men and boys to toughness and strength, in public and private.
Happy New Year!
Pastor