MAMA BEARS, SEX, AND SERVANTHOOD

 

 

Serving is a glorious calling. Jesus came as a servant, not for His own benefit but for the benefit of others. Therefore, we must not disdain the role of a servant:

 

·       Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:5–8)

 

We are called to be like Jesus. However, servanthood requires humility, we seek roles that will bestow recognition upon us. Several of Jesus’ Apostles were craving rules of leadership in His Kingdom. However, Jesus saw fit to reset their priorities:

 

·       “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25–28)

 

To be greatest is to be least in the eyes of society. However, this isn’t the way that the Lord regards us:

·       Thus says the LORD: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Isaiah 66:1–2)

 

Although Jesus is every bit God, He is content to take a subservient position to the Father:

 

·       But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. (1 Corinthians 11:3)

 

Even though in His essence (nature) Jesus is no less God than the Father, we get no indication whatsoever that He is dissatisfied with His subservient role. Instead, He delighted in giving the preeminence to the Father:

·       And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear. (Isaiah 11:2–3)

 

Nevertheless, Jesus had been essential to the Father’s plan moving forward:

·       And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I [John] began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” (Revelation 5:3–5)

 

There was no other way for the Father to accomplish His plans apart from the Cross of Christ (Matthew 26:39).

 

Church leaders are also to be servants rather than masters:

·       So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed: shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you; not for shameful gain, but eagerly; not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. (1 Peter 5:1–3)

 

In God’s estimation – and this is the One that counts – the greater role is that of a servant. The Christian servant seeks to love before even being loved and adored. It requires us to look to the needs of others even before our own.

 

The man is the head of the woman, as the Father is the head of the Son (1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:8-14; Ephesians 5:22-31), but the man is incomplete, apart for the woman, as the children are also deprived apart from their mother. The mother is the nourishment of humanity. However, we have sustained decades of the disparagement of the woman’s gifts and role and are told that her worth depends upon doing what the man does. This is nothing short robbery, depriving the woman of whom she is.

 

And now the disparagement of the family is nearly complete with the disparagement of the man, as if “toxic masculinity” is the rule for men. Therefore, the man is told that he must now be feminine to have any worth. He cannot play with guns. That’s the role of the State. Nor can he even defend his own household against intrusion on every level – against thugs and the system demeaning the parental authority in favor of various forms of sexualizing training. Instead, he is forced to watch as the schools fill their children with all forms of perversion.

 

This makes it easier for the schools and State to take hold of the children to impose upon them their own perverse secular religion, through which we are told that our children belong to the State, the community. The State uses various enticements to win the child, telling them that they can be anything and any sex they want to be.

 

Question: Which party loves and is more apt to better care for the children – the parents or the State? The wisdom of King Solomon had become so famous that people traveled great distances to hear him speak.

Two prostitutes had been brought before Solomon to hear his wisdom. They both gave birth at the same time, but the baby of one of them died. Therefore, both claimed the living baby as their own:

 

·       And the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” Then the woman whose son was alive said to the king, because her heart yearned for her son, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means put him to death.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him.” Then the king answered and said, “Give the living child to the first woman, and by no means put him to death; she is his mother.” And all Israel heard of the judgment that the king had rendered, and they stood in awe of the king, because they perceived that the wisdom of God was in him to do justice. (1 Kings 3:23–28)

 

Today’s society is bereft of such wisdom and have concluded that they can raise children better than their own mothers who love them so much that they are willing to sacrifice for them. I therefore think that we should all encourage and esteem the “Mama Bears” who have been going to school board meetings to protest in favor of the well-being of their children. May God bless their efforts to bring sanity to this sick and moribund society!

A PORTRAIT OF SELF-DESTRUCTION

Does rationality lead to atheist? Not according to the late German philosopher and atheist, Friedrich Nietzsche:

·       “I have no knowledge of atheism as an outcome of reasoning, still less an event; with me it is obviously instinct.” (Os Guinness, The Journey, 154)

The late British novelist and atheist, Aldous Huxley, concurred:

·       I had motives for not having the world to have a meaning; consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption… The philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation… from a certain political and economic system and liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. (Ends and Means quoted by Guinness, 214-15)

Guinness adds that Huxley later turned to Eastern Mysticism “because he admitted that these early choices of meaninglessness had led him to despair.” (214)

When we reject God, we also reject any possible objective basis for both morality and meaning, condemning us to a flat, sterile, and barren world, bereft of depth, color, and contour. The Book of Proverbs illustrates a sorry plight that starts with pleasure but succumbs to pain:

·       “Because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD, would have none of my counsel and despised all my reproof, therefore they shall eat the fruit of their way, and have their fill of their own devices. For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them.” (Proverbs 1:29-32; ESV)

Pop, Porn, Violence and Bigotry

Here in NYC, our Mayor Bloomberg is trying to ban the sale of large soft drinks. However, if he is interested in the welfare of residents of this city, perhaps he needs widen his net a bit to include pornography. CNN reports:

• Is the overuse of video games and pervasiveness of online porn causing the demise of guys? Increasingly, researchers say yes, as young men become hooked on arousal, sacrificing their schoolwork and relationships in the pursuit of getting a tech-based buzz.

• The excessive use of video games and online porn in pursuit of the next thing is creating a generation of risk-averse guys who are unable (and unwilling) to navigate the complexities and risks inherent to real-life relationships, school and employment.

• Stories about this degeneration are rampant: In 2005, Seungseob Lee, a South Korean man, went into cardiac arrest after playing "StarCraft" for nearly 50 continuous hours. In 2009, MTV's "True Life" highlighted the story of a man named Adam whose wife kicked him out of their home -- they have four kids together -- because he couldn't stop watching porn.

• A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that "regular porn users are more likely to report depression and poor physical health than nonusers are…Similarly, video games also go wrong when the person playing them is desensitized to reality and real-life interactions with others.

• The Annual Review of Public Health suggests a link between violent video games and real-life aggression: Given the opportunity, both adults and children were more aggressive after playing violent games. And people who identify themselves with violent perpetrators in video games are able to take aggressive action while playing that role, reinforcing aggressive behavior.

• Young men -- who play video games and use porn the most -- are being digitally rewired in a totally new way that demands constant stimulation. And those delicate, developing brains are being catered to by video games and porn-on-demand, with a click of the mouse, in endless variety.

• Guys are also totally out of sync in romantic relationships, which tend to build gradually and subtly, and require interaction, sharing, developing trust and suppression of lust at least until "the time is right."

While the sale of soft drinks is being criminalized, every effort is enlisted to sexualize children. The media is touting it as normal and routine as eating a hamburger; the schools are promoting it under the guise of safe-sex ed or “discovering your sexuality” programs. Values clarification exercises are indoctrinate students into the dogma that there is no right answer. It’s just a matter of finding out what’s “right” for you. Considerations of conscience are over-ruled as the media elites tell us that you have every right to have an abortion because your body is yours alone.

Meanwhile, these same elites confidently demonize any who would restrict sex to marriage as “mindless” or “bigoted.” But perhaps the above findings give reason for hesitation about this “Brave New World” that our elites are trying to construct for us!