A Thought on the Secret Destroyer of Men in our Society

     Did you know that the men of this country are under attack, and that many of them have been destroyed, and the people around them destroyed as well?  Did you know that our young boys are being targeted before they’re even old enough to know that they’re under attack?  Do you know why they’re being attacked, and how, and that the method of attack is so devious and so subtle that our men and boys are being taken out before they have any awareness of what’s going on?

          Why would anyone want to destroy men in our country?  What would be the purpose?   Think about it.  In order to answer those questions I believe it’s of vital importance to talk about what a man is, and why he’s important.  What is a man?  King David asked the question this way in Psalms 144:3 “Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him!  or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!”  People have been pondering this ever since. 

    So what is man?  Man is a spiritual, moral being.  He was created, and intended to be this.  Creation is the first and foremost witness of the creator.  To deny the Creator is to look up at the night-time sky with its’ billions of stars twinkling overhead, and say you can’t see them.  Man, as a created being, cannot be and will not be a man in the way God designed him apart from his spiritual and moral development.  He was made in the image of God, and the more man denies the imprint of the God who created him, and the further away he moves from that knowledge, the more he devolves into a being of little worth and little virtue. 

   Why is man important?  What is his purpose?  From the dawn of creation, these questions have been pondered and debated, and the fact they have been so is a witness to the ignorance and inability of man on his own to see what’s right in front of him.  There’s no great mystery, no indiscernible theory, to contemplate here because the answer has been implanted in the heart of man since his Creator breathed the breath of life into his dust-formed body.  At the risk of oversimplification, man is important because God made him.  God made him in his image, as a representation of all that is holy, good, and perfect.  The purpose of man is to display the glory and perfection of God in all of His unequaled love and holiness. 

     To look at man in view of what he was intended to be, and what he is now is to see what happens when God is set aside and the things of God ignored.  Man’s downfall and his subsequent degeneration wasn’t due, as some believe, to Eve’s taking and eating of the apple.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say sin entered into the world through Eve, or that it was Eve’s sin that precipitated the downfall of man.  It was through Adam that sin entered the world, and through sin (which is rebellion against God) that the true nature of man was and is corrupted.

     Man, being corrupted, had lost his value, and was worthless for the purpose which God intended, and would have remained so had not God in His infinite love not made a way for man to be redeemed.  Man, in and of himself, had no way to save himself, could do nothing to earn his redemption.  Like mold on bread, sugar in gas, man’s corrupted nature had to be thrown out and replaced.  Only a perfect representation of what man was intended to be could restore corrupted man to his God intended condition, and so Christ Jesus took the sin that corrupted man on himself, and paid the price of sin by his death on the cross and His resurrection thus offering man the gift of restoration to what he was originally intended to be.  God made the way for man to be redeemed, but left man with the choice whether or not to be so.

      Now, I’ve said that men are under attack, and that’s true, but if that’s true, then it’s truer still that the man who follows Christ is even more so.  Every man makes a decision about the man he’s going to be.  Either he decides he’s going to choose to be the man God intended by taking the gift God offered through his son, or continue to live in the corruption he was born into.

     Now, we live in a country where I think that the kind of man God intended for man to be is being attacked in a way never before seen in history.  Think about it.  Look at the corruption in our society, in government, in business, in religion; in the way that men are constantly and incessantly being bombarded with every form of vice that can be hurled at them.  In our society, a man is not a man if he doesn’t drink, make a lot of money, look rough and tough, be sexy and attractive, and be powerful in bed and in the boardroom. 

    The secret destroyer of men in our society is the forever enemy of God, and he’s alive and well.   Men are being destroyed in this country.  Make no doubt of it.  They’re being destroyed not by sex or alcohol, or the love of money though they are the destroyer’s favorite tools, but rather they are being destroyed by those who are trying to destroy the Definer, the one who defined His creation and gave man his true idenity.  The sucess of the destroyer is the result of our failure to be vigilant, to be forthright, to be courageous, to be the full representation of what God called us to be.

     I say this again.  The men of this country are under attack, and I say the following to all christian men: if we don’t unite  and take our responsibility to be what God designed and calls us to be seriously our country will fail.   Christian men we must be willing to stand in front of our children and fight for them.  We must live before our boys as Christ lived before us.  We, as men of God, must stand firm in our belief and love of our Creator, our children, and ourselves.  If our country is to survive and remain great, we must have and train our men to be great . . . .

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A Thought on the Influence of the Media in America

     If there’s one area in this country that shows how blind and naive it’s citizenry is to the organizations that influence it the media is number one.   Some people would say that government is number one, but I disagree.  Let me ask you a question; which one has more of an influence on you?  It seems to me that now more than ever the media is the single biggest influence on this country and it’s citizens, and thus has a lot of power.  Power to entertain, to inform, to promote agendas, to form and sway opinion, even to create and destroy policy, procedure, and people.

     In times past, I believe the media was more a reflection of our society than what it is today.  I believe the media of today has taken on the role of not only being a reflection of what is seen in society, but is now creating what is seen in society.  Do you see the difference?  It’s the difference between looking into a normal mirror and a funhouse mirror.  In one you see an accurate representation of what is placed in front of it; in the other you see a distortion of it that is barely recognizable.  I believe that this comparison is illustrative of the media of yesteryear and the media of today. 

     Think about it.  How much of what you see on t.v. is truly reflective of your life.  Examine it a little more closely.  Is t.v. an accurate reflection of you, or are you and the life you lead more a reflection of it?  For those of us who are older (of which I’m one) it’s easier to see the shift in the media of yesteryear and the media of today, and it’s ability to accurately portray it’s presentation of what it sees, and reflects back to us.  How many times have you watched or read something in the media that you later found out wasn’t true?

     Do me a favor.  Close your eyes, take a minute, and travel back in time to when you were a kid watching your favorite t.v. show.  Got it?  Okay, now go back to when your were a little older and started watching the news on t.v. and actually being interested in it.  You not only watched the local news, but the national news.  Now come on back to reality.  In your opinion, how has the media changed?  More importantly, how has it changed and formed you?

     Make no mistake.  The media of t.v. is a far different animal than it was when I was a kid.  The puppy I used to sit, watch and play with, and that I enjoyed so much has morphed into the wolf little red riding hood encountered in the classic fairytale just waiting, looking for, and ready to seize every opportunity to destroy if given a chance.  I realize that this statement isn’t going to be a popular one, and that there are few who will probably agree with it, but think about it.  

     As an example, look at the national news.  The national news is a 30 minute broadcast.  In each program you may have up to 15 stories, or more, often with a sound bite accompanying it of a few seconds duration.  What do you think the odds in Vegas are of every story being 100% true and unbiased?  If the news media is so trustworthy then why do so many of them report the same stories with different facts, and why do some report stories that others don’t show at all?  Let me give you an illustration.  The other night none of the major news networks reported this story about a woman in the wall street protests out in California that made anti-semtic remarks on air, but Fox news did.  My question is why did three networks ignore it, and one air it?  Last of all why is the word “slant” so often used in journalism, as in how to slant a story.  The definition for slant is:  “To present so as to conform to a particular bias or appeal to a certain audience.”

     I find it reprehensible that the media in this country has taken the role of creating and manipulating truth rather than presenting it as it is.  They talk about freedom of speech, and pursuit of truth, and yet fail to do them with integrity, and the result is a view promoted and distorted by hipocracy.  The media that cries about it’s constitutional rights and  privileges has failed the very thing it should hold in highest regard.  It’s promotion, presentation, and portrayal of truth and its’ freedom to pursue it.

A Thought on the Role of Men in Society

     It’s interesting how times have changed since I was a young boy looking up at my father, and the other men who were around me when I was growing up.  To me there’s a big difference between the men of those days, and the role they played, and the ones I see today.  

   The definition of what it is to be a man, and the role men play in society has changed since then, and, in my view, not for the better.  When I look at the men around me now days I can’t help but feel disappointed and saddened at what I see.  Let me be clear.  When I say that I’m disappointed and saddened by what I see, it’s in view of the values and characteristics used today to define what a man is, and what his role in society should be. 

     It’s interesting how society in general has changed it’s perception of what a man is, and his role in the world, but even more so in the way that the men of today define themselves and the role they play.  Ask ten men what it is to be a man, and the role they should play in society, and you’ll get ten different answers.   

     It seems there’s a lot of confusion when it comes to the subject of men today on the part of society and even within themselves, and I believe it’s that confusion that’s causing some men to not only question their identity, and their role, but also their expression of those things.  I remember a time when many men defined themselves by a set of values and standards that were very clear. 

     A man defined himself, not by his physical strength, but by his willingness to use it in service to his family and to others.  He defined himself in the way he carried himself with pride.  Not a shallow, vain, self-effacing sort of pride, but a pride based upon his willingness to meet and carry responsibility with modesty and humility.  Being honest and trustworthy and dependable were the qualities he treasured, not only in himself but in others.  His commitments and his word were his bond, and he honored them.  He relied upon himself, his family, his neighbors, and most importantly his God. 

     He measured himself by his sense of justice, fairness, compassion and mercy, and not by the size of his wallet, or the breadth of his chest.  In short there were three things he loved above all others, and they were God, family, and country, and if you wanted to make him mad enough to fight then you attacked one of these. 

     Yet, as important as all the above was, and is; those things weren’t what truly defined him.  What truly defined him was his willingness to sacrifice.  That’s right.  Sacrifice.    I realize that a lot of men reading this will sneer, and tell themselves that I’m full of it, but I stand by what I said.  I hate to use the word “real” because so few people anymore actually have a sense of what it (really) is, but there’s a difference between what it is true and what is false, so I’ll say it this way.  A true man is someone who will sacrifice his wants, needs, dreams, even his life for something that is greater than himself.  A true man will put himself last instead of first. 

     It’s a great sadness to me that so many men seem to define themselves by the way they look as if six-pack abs, a bottle of hair gel and tattoos make them men.  Then there are the ones who think that having a lot of money and power make them men.  Then you have the ones who define themselves by how well they can play video games and sports.  Worst of all are the ones who think that sexual prowess with a multitude of women, and having the ability to beat the hell out of another man makes them more of one. 

     These are certainly definitions, and there are a number of men that certainly define themselves in these ways.  There’s only one problem.  The definitions above aren’t those of a man, but of boys.  I’ve absolutely nothing against boys.  I was one myself, and I understand a boys’ need to distinguish himself, to discover who he is, to find his place in the world, but at some point boys should grow up. 

     Boys live in the realm of me and I, and suffer eye trouble in the sense that they’re shortsighted.  They can’t see much beyond themselves.  It may surprise you to know that men suffer from a form of shortsightedness, too.  So what’s the difference?  Men don’t see themselves at all.  Men not only have the ability to see beyond themselves, but the willingness to sacrifice themselves on the behalf of others. 

     One of the tragedies in our society is the devaluing of men, and their role in it.  In part, the reason for why men are being devalued is simply because there has been a failure to live up to the definition of what, I think,  it is to be a man.  I believe it’s a combination of things that have contributed to this, but regardless of the reasons, the result is that we now have a preponderance of boys in our society.

    Our society in many ways mocks, and makes a laughing-stock out of the man’s role, and we do so to our harm.  If we don’t start teaching our young boys what it is to be true men, our country won’t be able to stand because there won’t be men of strength and character to lead and protect it.