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I
have come to realize that men in our society have been duped
by a perversion.
----Sadly,
this perversion has been propagated in the Christian
community as well as in the culture at large.
----
What perversion am I speaking of?
I have come to see that men today, partly products of the
sexual revolution of the sixties, have been utterly deceived
about who they are as men and what they desire.
Good
news
Men, I have good news for you. You
do not have to be mastered by the sexual urges within you.
You are not a ravenous animal who must be stimulated by a
cheap and lifeless image. You are a man with dignity,
strength, and power to give and receive. That is what you
are looking for. Don't believe the lie.
----What
lie? What is it that our society, both Christian and
non-Christian, have espoused? My pastor years ago gave a
woman in our church some advice concerning her marriage. Her
husband, she shared, was very demanding sexually. She did
not know what to do. The pastor advised that she could not
deny her husband, because men need sex. They cannot be
denied.
----Budweiser
seems to agree with my pastor. Budweiser reduces men to
something lower than human, oblivious to anything noble, and
mesmerized by scantily clad women and a bottle of bubbling
yeast.
----Of
course, it is obvious as one observes even young boys, they
have an intense interest in female anatomy. The desire for
satisfaction must feel overwhelming. There is a sense that
someone or something must relieve it. Author Mike Mason
refers to the feeling among men that the male genitalia is a
tumor, an aching sore that is ready to burst. But that
feeling is a lie!
What is a man
to do?
So what is a man to do? Is he an animal, or worse, an infant
whose needs must be met? After all, he seems to be made this
way. But why would men be made in such a way?
----Genesis
says men are created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). The
God of the Bible is not one who pushes mankind into an
intimate relationship with Him. He has waited thousands of
years so far for the consummation of His bride (Revelation
19:7). Therefore, perhaps the desire men have for relief of
this aching tumor is not to be viewed as a shameful part of
man, but as part of what it means to be in the image and
likeness of God.
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You are created in His image to give
your life, your seed, what is best of you for the good of
another. God does not opt for an easy fix, a few minutes
with an image on a screen, but He opts for a man's way out
of this overwhelming desire.
----God
understands your plight. Not only that, His agony of waiting
for consummation is in waiting for you, for your recognition
of His extravagant love for you. He is waiting and aching
for His son (Luke 15) to come home, to find the source of
strength you need to fight the battles He has called you to.
He is waiting to give you the warm embrace, the playful push
out the door to His own backyard and the problems you must
face.
Relief
It is in such revelation that
your relief is found. Your agony, your desire will not be
gone, but the overwhelming love of God can capture you so
that you join in bearing His image to the world. You thought
you were trapped in the shame of driving desire and in the
relief of pain, but you can find that you are joined by the
Almighty and shown the way of an even more compelling desire
to be a man. You can be a man who looks at life and women,
not with a compulsion to get, but with the longing to put an
arm around, to protect, to die for, and in so doing,
receiving inside the welling up of something great. The
welling up of the Spirit of God that makes masturbation with
an image on a computer screen seem dull in comparison, not
knowing whether what you have been doing for pleasure is
grotesque, hilarious, or devastatingly tragic. The world and
Satan call you to forget who you are.
Better
consummation
You are a man who can wait for a better consummation in
dignity. If Christ is in you, you have the power to be one
that gives life, not using it for your own gratification.
Gratification is yours for the taking, deeper, richer, and
more sorrowful with the woman you love and with God.
----But
agony, oddly, is your best friend. For in it you will find
that you are a man who desperately needs forgiveness. You
will find you are a man who is created in the image of God
who is noble, able, and what this world is waiting
for.
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