MISSING MAN
By Josimar Salum
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one." Ezekiel 22:30
“Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming." Ephesians 4:13-14
““Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:4-6
These texts alone should communicate the message without needing to be explained. But it's been at least 10 years since the Spirit of the Lord has been speaking seriously to my heart about the feminization of men and the masculinization of women.
The cultural revolution that has been underway for decades to destroy the Judeo-Christian values of our societies in the lives of millions of people has achieved the overthrow of the basic and elementary principles on which human civilization rests.
God created man, male and female he created them. Full stop.
That is why I do not intend here to discuss with scientific amplitude the reasons and consequences in society of gender ideology, chauvinism, feminism, the reversal of the roles of men and women, the raising of sons and daughters, the devastating destruction of marriages and the impact of divorce, the relativization of biblical models of man and woman, and other aspects of family fragmentation.
I am not going to pass judgment here on divorced people or those facing problems and distortions in family relationships. I would lack authority. Even though I have lived and counseled hundreds of couples and families and their stories have filled my heart with brokenness so that I am filled with compassion.
I have also experienced struggles and plights in my own family and I only know now to be sensitive to the struggles and plights of other families.
I offer here only a contribution as a result of years of searching, praying and listening to the Father's heart.
So, I will freely share at least five thoughts that the Lord has made my heart boil with a feeling of brokenness and pain at the truth of this expression of Jesus: “Have you not read that in the beginning the Creator made them male and female… ” ? In the beginning, well, in the beginning it was not so.
1 - GOD IS LOOKING FOR A MAN. A MISSING MAN.
The first impression that comes to mind when reading an expression like this is that of sex appeal. The image of man sold in the current culture is the image of the sexualization of the human body as an object of attraction for commercial purposes. This was initially done with the trivialization of the woman in transforming her into an object with the association of her body with the sale of products of all kinds.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life today are exponentially exacerbated by the body of man and woman.
“They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error." Romans 1:25-27
God seeks man, male and female as He created them. It is necessary to go back to the basics, to the elementary, and this has not changed with cultures and human thoughts.
God seeks a man. God seeks a man. Is it you? Is it me?
God seeks according to the standards of perfection of his law, but it is not a one-sided requirement but that he himself will come to enable the seeker.
“For the eyes of the Lord are watching over all the earth to strengthen those who give their hearts fully to Him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
“To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty." Psalms 18:25-27
God seeks a man to make him a real man, to make him into the full stature of Christ.
We live in a generation deluded by a false gospel of blessings without obedience, of prosperity without resignation and of a malleable god who adapts to each one's taste.
We live in the midst of a generation of men and young men intolerant of suffering and the fierce struggles of life.
We live in the midst of a generation of cowardly men to take firm positions on the values and pillars of faith, family, society and country.
We live in the midst of a generation of lazy men and boys who take refuge in “games” and social media in a life without purpose.
We live in the midst of a generation of effeminate men and young men. Not that they are necessarily gay, but they are fragile figures, not masculine. Masculinity has become a flaw and a weakness.
Therefore, God seeks a man to mold him to the full stature of Christ. Jesus Christ is Man.
2 - GOD MADE MAN TO BE THE HEAD OF WOMAN.
“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject to Christ, so also women are to be subject to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her to sanctify her, cleansing her with the washing of water through the word, to present her to himself as a glorious church, without blemish, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing, but holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:23-27
This text is an affront and a scandal to society. Man, head; woman, the body. This is God's natural order.
The purpose for which God created man and woman does not make one more important than the other. Man is not less of a man because he is a man and a woman is not less of a woman because she is a woman.
“Now the serpent was the most cunning of all the wild beasts that the Lord God had made. And she asked the woman, "Is this what God said, 'Do not eat any fruit from the trees of the garden'?"" Genesis 3:1
All this misery began by doubting the Word of the Lord God. It's a lot of arrogance and pride to question what the Creator said. Today's urgent and overwhelming message is not what you think, but thus says the Lord.
Hence, I am simply terrified to observe the women in the church who present themselves as heads of the household and the passivity of men in accepting this as the norm.
I watch in awe of women who brag about what leaders they are and how much their husbands follow them.
I'm not talking here about not having dialogue between the couple and not talking about their decisions. But neither am I here doing marital counseling either. God established His Authority in this way. The husband is the head of the wife.
It's a shame to watch passive men with a leash around their necks pulled by their women.
It is a shame and immorality for your women to dress up as sluts and whores in short shorts and stockings that lack cloth to cover their nudity that should only be shared with their husbands in their private rooms.
Do you find this hard? First it's not legalism. It is what the Bible calls decency. If a man can commit adultery with a woman with just his eyes, surely a half-naked woman can provoke lust in a man. Teach your daughters to dress modestly.
“Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her Lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear." 1 Peter 3:3-6
I have watched male leaders in churches where women are in charge and boast that they are the ones who lead.
“Youths oppress my people, women rule over them. My people, your guides lead you astray; they turn you from the path. The Lord takes his place in court; he rises to judge the people." Isaiah 3:12-13
There are pastors that everyone knows are just "puppets" of their women. And I've watched these passive men who actually accept all this for convenience. They fit into the classic classification of Ahab and Jezebel. This is stamped on these families and churches and I have always seen as a consequence the suffering of misfit sons and daughters and entire faith communities where girls behave like men and boys like girls in a confused search for identity.
It's not about roles or positions. It's a matter of nature. Cows don't climb trees and sing like birds.
Christ is the Head of the Church, the husband is the Head of the wife. Which is more important? The Head or the Body? Can the head live without the body?
Don't distort what God did or how he did it. One's roles do not change one's nature. They can only express how great the aberration of trying to be who they are not.
Men need to learn to be like Jesus.
3 - GOD ABOMINATES THE FEMINIZATION OF BOYS.
I'm terrified to watch at the roadside stops (restaurants, cafeterias and gas stations) in Brazil the parade of muscular men with their puppies, kissing their pets saying: “Come to daddy’s lap, come!” After using bags to collect the waste of their pets. What a pathetic picture!
When talking with many of them, I verified the exchange of values of these men and the causes for which they fight. They are fragile beings, pacified, tame, whose causes are tangled up and their identities confused. Women rule them like mothers. Their women are the heads of their houses.
Mothers give these pets to their boys and they become “mothers”. Women give these pets to their husbands and they become their children, fragile creatures.
This society of kittens and puppies is far from the standards of the Bible that does not accommodate pets.
Think what you will, be offended as you will, but the Lord seeks a man. I didn't read in the Bible Jesus attracting pets, but children to say "let the little children come to Me, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven."
It's terrifying to watch mothers gift dolls to their boys and inflict on them a model of passivity and complacency. They give them a distorted role. Many mothers don't even realize what they're doing by giving these little boys dolls to hug when they sleep. They are feminizing their children.
What has changed in society since I was a boy 50 years ago? I know how to show what has changed. I point to MISSING MEN!
Love does not rejoice in injustice, but rejoices in the truth. They exchanged the defense of the needy for the causes of nature. Don't accuse me of wishing the animals harm. “The righteous respect the lives of their animals.” Proverbs 12:10 I have never mistreated animals in my life. But this humanization of animals is a distortion of God's values.
The roles are reversed and what God calls evil has become good and what he calls good has become evil.
“Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who make darkness light and light darkness, bitter sweet and sweet bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and intelligent in their own opinion!” Isaiah 5:20-21
With whom should you share your bread and whom should you bring home?
“Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" Isaiah 58:7
A society that loves animals more than humans is a perverse society.
It is time for you as a man of God to plead the cause of the needy of this world. What is spent on pets in the United States would feed all the children in the world. Don't you know that this whole wave is just business and money? And that the spread of these futile practices is an affront to God!
“Look at the birds of the air, that sow not, nor reap, nor gather into barns; and your heavenly Father feeds them. Are not you much more valuable than them?" Matthew 6:26
4 - GOD WANTS GIRLS TO FIND MODELS OF FATHERS THAT ARE REAL MEN.
This “masculinization” of girls by the examples of their mothers who act like the males of the house is the unhealthy reproduction of the distorted patterns of the family for the next generations.
Boy is boy. Girl is girl.
I do not call docility, sweetness, sympathy, and tenderness weakness. Men don't need to be rude, gruff, unsympathetic, because according to the Bible the roles of men and women are very well defined and Jesus himself taught men how to treat women. It is along these lines: “To the elderly women, as to mothers, to young women, as to sisters, in all purity.” 1Timothy 5:2
“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, agreeable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” James 3:17
Strong, God-faithful husbands beget strong, God-faithful sons and daughters.
Mothers who do not respect their husbands and who undermine their authority in the home are foolish women who destroy their homes with their bare hands.
Women who protect their children from their husbands, because they themselves do not submit to God's authority in their lives, reproduce their rebellion in their children.
Girls need fathers full of love for their mothers. Girls need the father figure of a strong and loving man, healthy male role models so that they are not deceived by boys in the future.
5 - GOD CALLS FOR A RETURN TO THE BIBLE THAT WILL GENERATE REPUGNATION TOWARDS THE CULTURE.
“But if it seems evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served, which were beyond the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
The great battle of all centuries is fought for the hearts of parents and of children.
The gods of this world are feminism, machismo, marxism, secularism, liberalism, sexism, and humanism.
The standards of this world disseminated day and night by art, entertainment, governments, business, educational and health systems and everything that operates in society are easily overcome. They may be many, but they are not strong. They are all shaky, fleeting, like a fog.
And you and I have only to look to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our Faith.
“The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our “God is a consuming fire.”
Hebrews 12:27-29
“The world and its desires pass away, but he who does the will of God remains forever.” 1 John 2:17
#ASONE
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