Relegated and Marginalized
Jesus often repeated what he said to his disciples. The word of God needs to be reinforced over and over. 1 Timothy 4:15-16 says, “Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all. 16. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” To meditate means to focus the mind deeply for a period of time… To think about it over and over.
The Journey of life is one step at a time. A Sabbath day’s journey was the distance that one person could walk on the Sabbath day. The word of God is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. We can only see the step in front of us as we walk with him one step at a time. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring….but he does. We cannot make a promise for tomorrow. However we can commit to the next step. Then when we look back on our journey of life, we can reflect on what’s really important. For most men, what’s important is to perform…to work hard day after day to support our family. Upon reflection near the end of life, many men say that they would have worked less and spent more time with their wife, children, and the ones they love.
Women have a hard time finding men who are not confused about who they are… men who can lead them with the Lord’s authority. Oswald Chambers said, “when the crisis comes and courage is required, God expects his men to be the reliable ones. The crisis has come.” A crisis is a time when action must be taken to avoid a catastrophe, a complete breakdown, a calamity…a radical change for the worse. In the last times there will be cataclysmic events that will be difficult to bear. However as the Apostle Paul said, thy strength is made perfect in my weakness, thy grace is sufficient for me.
When Bill Bennet wrote “The Man Book” he said, “men in our culture have been marginalized. They have been relegated into insignificance.” God gives us opportunities to rise to the challenge to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Men in each generation have a choice to accept God’s challenge or to be marginalized, relegated, and exiled into oblivion. In every generation there are “men who won’t lead and women who won’t follow.” Men who fall into the devil’s snares of this world are taken captive by the enemy at his will. God allows crises and tribulations so that men are confronted with a stark choice: to either trust in the Lord with all their hearts and lean not unto their own understanding or to allow the devil and his minions to marginalize and relegate them into insignificance.
When men rise up and believe the truth of the Word of God, the society will flourish. The encouragement is to “hold your ground.” Our call toI arms is, “This is the hour of battle. This day we fight, we bid you stand in His power, ye men of God.”
As men of God, we’re called to influence the world. The devil’s ploy is that the world would influence us. Either we’re active or passive. Either we actively engage in the spiritual battle or we will be defeated when we become passive targets. Casual Christians are casualties in the spiritual battle. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places.
How do you grind America down? The communist party planned specific actions in 1992 to undermine America. The first step was to destroy the family by promoting cohabitation instead of marriage. Next they would put the children in public institutions to indoctrinate them with a godless world view from preschool. They supported a “feminist movement” to turn women against men and encourage women to voice their grievances to undermine and destroy the institution of marriage. They planned to present homosexuality, sexual perversion, and promiscuity as normal and healthy. Then they would break down cultural norms that encouraged excellence, reward for hard work, thrift, and respect for family, God, and country. They wanted to infiltrate the press, radio, Internet communication, television, the movies, government and higher education. Finally they planned to discredit traditional family values and support easy divorce to destroy the family institution. The fight is for the hearts and minds of individuals. The philosophy of Communism is to denounce God and his Word…to convince the people that there is no right and wrong so that their godless communist and socialist doctrines could prevail.
In a scene in the mini-series, The Band of Brothers, one shell shocked soldier was cowering in a bomb crater in the midst of enemy fire. His commanding officer ran up to his side and said, “what’s the matter?” The terrified soldier sobbed, “I’m afraid of dying.” The commander said, “that’s your problem… you think you’re going to live through this. If you consider yourself dead, then we’ll win this battle.” As Jesus said, “You need to die to yourself to follow me.” In dying to self then we can live unto him.
The spiritual battle rages on. When the Japanese started defeating the islands that were held by the British empire, the Royal Navy was not prepared. In order to defeat the enemy we have to take up the offense. The offensive weapons in the spiritual Arsenal are the Word of God and Prayer.
The enemy’s troops are lovers of self instead of lovers of God. According to 2 Timothy 3:2-5, “For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3. Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4. Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof”. How do we combat the enemy’s army? The answer is in the next phrase: “from such turn away.” We must turn away from the world and unto our Lord Jesus Christ.
The victory in the spiritual battle starts in our own family. We’re called to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. A man of God asks for forgiveness when he falls short. We cannot reconcile with our wives until we are both reconciled to Christ. He alone is the one who reconciles for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Then when we meet our wives at the foot of the cross, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. For truly our fellowship is with our Lord Jesus Christ, our Heavenly Father and one with another in the household of faith.
To secure the victory in the spiritual battle, stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us free…that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael