Resurgence: Masculinity Reclaimed

Over at Resurgence.Com they have just finished a great series about redeeming Biblical masculinity. Here is a good quote from the series.

Ladies in our churches, young and old, are not as horrified by an emphasis on reaching men as one might expect. Ultimately our women don't want to be surrounded by a crowd of wusses or a bunch of bullies. Biblical masculinity is such a rare commodity that women are usually attracted to it rather than repulsed (though this may surprise them at first).

Click Picture to see the whole series (Fellas, DO IT!!)

The Million Dollar Man's Testimony

I grew up watching WWF (the wrestling organization now known as WWE). I was a Hulkamaniac and was a fierce opponent of Hulk's arch-nemesis "The Million Dollar Man". I am older and not so much into professional wrestling, but still have fond memories. Below is an interview with Ted DiBiase (aka The Million Dollar Man) about his spiritual journey. It really is an amazing testimony and is also very telling about the need for strong men in the church who are men, not boys, no matter how physcialy strong or rich you are.

Here is a very telling quote that I don't doubt ismore common in the church today:

Everything was going according to plan, and then [when I was ] 15 my dad died from a heart attack in the ring. My whole life flipped upside down. I had to move to a small town. I had to watch my mother dive into full-blown alcoholism and sink into self-pity. But I gained strength from the lessons my dad taught me, and I stayed out of trouble, worked hard, and became the first person from my little school to graduate and get a football scholarship.

But then, in college, pride crept into my life, and I started doing things I wouldn't have done previously—having a beer with the boys, and then parties on the weekends—and that's a slippery slope. I quit going to church altogether. There was no longer a male role model in my life to convict me, and I drifted away from God. I didn't graduate from college, I didn't make it to the NFL, and my first marriage ended in divorce after six years. My oldest son is from that marriage.

Ted then goes on to describe his wanderings away from the church and his marital infidelity and a wife who loved Jesus more than him and because of that love stayed with him through it.

I knew I had failed as a man. Afterward my wife came to me and said: "I don't have the strength to forgive you. But God is a God of restoration and not divorce. Because I want to be obedient to Him and for no other reason, I'm going to give you a chance you don't deserve."

Stories of Jesus' transforming power like this need to be celebrated more, and not just because he is a celebrity, but because stories of restoration and hope in broken lives especially marriages need to be shared! After all, our God is in the business of restoring what was once broken and making all things new.

Click below to read the whole interview and testimony from New Man Magazine.

How To Be A Single Titus 2 Woman

Working with young adults means one thing for sure, relationships. Working on purity, working on a clear Biblical vision of what marriage is, and working on those struggling with singleness. One thing I have told many, is to not wait on the sidelines for that "special someone" but to live a godly life now, to live with reckless, passionate love for Jesus now.

Carolyn McCulley offers some great wisdom from her own personal experience being a single woman, on what it means to be a single Titus 2 woman. How do you be a woman in pursuit of honoring God, when so much of what the Bible talks about for women is linked to marriage and motherhood? Carolyn attempts to show that it can be done.

Here is an excerpt:

One area in where I have struggled is what femininity should look like for a single woman. Because the Lord made the woman to be a helper, the contours of biblical femininity are usually sculpted through relationships with others - as wife, mother, daughter, sister, aunt. Though I am definitely a daughter, sister, and aunt, I am not (yet) a wife or mother. But I know that God created me female in his own image, and that he has given me this gift of singleness in this season of my life. These are not mutually exclusive concepts, but sometimes I still wrestle with how to express them both to the glory of God.

In late 1998, I moved to take a job as part of a church-planting ministry and to serve in a local church pastored by the pastor I met in South Africa, C.J. Mahaney. A year later, I attended a series of seminars on Titus 2 taught by his wife, Carolyn Mahaney. Through her teaching, I realized that of the seven qualities Paul urges Titus to have older women teach to younger women, only two are explicitly directed at married women and one to mothers. That leaves at least four for all women, married or single. Despite my marital status, I was to be self-controlled, pure, busy at home, and kind. That is a tall order no matter how you look at it, but it does not mean I can ignore the other three qualities. There are implications for single women in the commands to love husbands and children as well as for wives to be subject to their husbands. Based upon this passage, the following are some ways in which God has given me the grace to apply the Titus 2 virtues in my life and genuinely enjoy my femininity as a single woman.

Click to read the rest

The Driscolls on How Not To Marry a Coward

Mark and Grace Driscoll offer some great wisdom for ladies in trying to avoid marrying a coward.

Ladies, this is something I cannot plead with you enough on, what you may find cute right now will be painful in 5 years.

Men, you are to be the spiritual leader, you are to take the bullets, you are to protect, lead, guide and sacrifice. There are too many boys today, that are lazy, video game players, sports fanatics, gym rats who don't read their Bible, don't know how to sacrifice, neglect prayer and act like whiney little wimps. I am not even talking about physical strength, that's easy.

I am talking about the crap that I have seen, where men do not respect women, they do not see their calling to lead and serve, they actually expect to be led and served. It is disgusting. And God will eventually deal with you, either by breaking you in front of the Cross with repentance and grace. OR by judging you guilty, and unleashing His full wrath upon you for eternity.

In short: Men be Men. Ladies seek Men, not boys, no matter how "hot" they are!!

C.J. Mahaney: Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

From CBMW:

Our motivation for biblical manhood and womanhood in marriage is the gospel.

I am convinced that the complementarian position will strengthen the church in her God given-role to proclaim and protect the gospel. And the most effective apologetic for the complementarian position (apart from Scripture) is marriages, families, and singles who radiate the beauty and wisdom of God's plan for men and women.

Biblical manhood and womanhood is the life-transforming effect of the gospel on full display. When a church teaches, practices, and honors gender distinctions determined by our good and wise God, the gospel will advance. But this will only happen where there are humble and courageous pastors who lead every member and ministry of the church by personal example and with strategic pastoring.

Yet here's my concern: It is all too easy for us as pastors to affirm biblical manhood and womanhood and to contend humbly for the complementarian position, and yet still fail to intentionally and consistently apply this body of teaching to our lives and to our churches. Pastors must not only proclaim truth but practice truth.

Read the rest of this great post here.