Come on………I know the answer…..it’s not NO….it’s HELLLLLLLL NO!!!! And that is sad!
Eldridge in Wild at Heart, claims…..”We don’t need an accountability group or a meeting of really nice guys…….we need fellow warriors, a gathering of Really Dangerous Men.”
David Smith writes in the Friendless American Male, "One problem is the friendless condition of the American Male….men can’t admit that they need the fellowship of other men.”
I call it the Cowboy mentality…….. the tough guy…….I remember the days when my Father would get hurt by my Mother or feel down about something. He would get his feelings hurt but never admit it. In fact, he would say……"don’t worry about me, I don’t have any feelings. You can’t hurt my feelings because I don’t have any.” Now……I admit…..that he was a tough guy…….part Comanche Indian, Special Forces Green Beret, one year Korean War, 4 years Vietnam, 2 purple hearts, (unlike John Kerry, his wounds required hospital treatment and stitches) one bronze star, one silver medal ……….they called him “Animal” on the High School football team. He was tough……..but he damn sure had feelings and they got hurt a lot but he never had another man he could share his heart with…….so sometimes he would share it with me when I was a teenager.
He would share his pain and his hurt………what a horrible marriage he had and it saddened him deeply……..he had killed many North Viet Cong but was unable to heal and repair his own marriage or the lung cancer he eventually died from.
What does Jesus mean in Matthew 11:12? "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force.” I really don’t think he is talking about “couch potatoes” and “Video Gamers”. I think he is talking about "men of passion" and masculine aggression and fearlessness, brave, loyal and dedicated to the cause of Christ! I don’t know many me like that today………do you? But if you find him……..I recommend that you fall on your knees and beg him to mentor you!
When I was 13 years old, we lived at Ft Benning in Columbus, GA. My father has just returned from Vietnam and he would eventually leave the Army due to the post war cut back. But I vaguely remember one night where he met with the men who he fought along side in Vietnam…….all junior to him. He had fought for his life with them and one of his Sergeants had saved my father’s life when the enemy had attacked him at night to cut his throat. These men, without the Lord, were still truly a Band of Brothers. I will never forget how thrilled my father was when he met with them and how close they were. They needed each other and had depended on each other and it showed. They were Warriors who needed each other!!
King David fell into sin with Bathsheba when he was no longer a Warrior strolling around the roof of the palace. 2 Samuel 11:1. He got lazy and became a couch potato playing games and fell……sharing with no one…….Posing………and falling
What about you……… Tough Guy? Who do you depend on??
Response from a Reader……..Don’t Blame the Devil………
James answers that question rather succinctly in chapter 4
"What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures." James 4:1-3
Fighting comes from selfishness and blame shifting and pride. Oh yes, the devil tempts us, because James also says "resist the devil," but the bulk of the passage concentrates on OUR love of the world and OUR lack of humility; James goes on:
"You adulterous people,[a] don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us[b]? 6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says:
“God opposes the proud
but shows favor to the humble.”[c]
7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:4-10
We love the world and we want its 'stuff,' and we resent those who get in the way of us getting that 'stuff.' "We desire, but do not have, so we kill." Oh we don't actually murder the other person, we just use our words to stab at them with exaggerated untruths or dismissive comments that question their worth, while gaining sympathy for 'our cause' by slandering them to others. James knows how it works:
"11 Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister[d] or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. 12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?" James 4:11-12
AND
"Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell." James 3:5-6
So the answer is that the devil is an opportunist who waits for an opening - most often to tempt us when we are feeling sorry for ourselves because we don't have some kind of worldly stuff that we think we deserve, and it is our mate's *fault* for some reason or other so we fight with them.
But it isn't the devils fault. We can't blame him. It is our lusts that we have been carried away by. The lust for recognition, sensuality, money, honor, excitement, status, success, possessions, glory - always there is somebody "getting in the way" of us getting these things.
I write this because I know whereof I speak. I am at heart a murderer who would destroy with words those who got in my way. This is the shame I have been rescued from by Jesus
Can we Blame it on the Devil, the “Accuser of the Brethren”??? Is it a spiritual battle between you and the enemy and your wife…….not just you and your wife……..both ‘in the flesh”? Have you ever felt, like I have, that no matter how you tried to be clear in communicating with the love of your life, your lover, the Mother of your children, your soul mate for life, and your bestest friend on the planet……….no matter how hard you try………you don’t get through and you don’t have a freakin clue how to get through!!!
Now…………is that the enemy or my stinkin inadequacy and/or flesh/sin?? Cause I know how inadequate I am in communicating with my wife and women. But I can tell you that there have been times where I felt there was a block and a barrier and it was supernatural, not normal or natural and it was oppressive!! Call it demonic, evil, queer, strange, abnormal, mystical or supernatural, other worldly??? I don’t know……but I sure felt helpless, no clue and powerless to communicate!!!!
And I do know that when we do communicate and understand each other, our ministry is powerful and effective and giving. We have served together powerfully and loved many children together selflessly to the Glory of God. But there have been times where we have not done well together…………..is that the Enemy, Lucifer, the Devil, the accuser of the Brethren?? Eldridge says it is and so does C. S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters. The Devil is concealing himself and doesn’t want you to believe he exists because he is much more effective this way.
Is Peter right???? Is the Devil a roaring Lion? Seeking whom he may devour? What do you think? Do we fight the ones we love the most because of an evil force know as the Slanderer, the fallen Angel…..Lucifer?
Look forward to hearing your comments…………..
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