it doesnt appear that you have blogged much in the past several months, and according to your update on purevolume it seems as though youve been keeping it low-key.

i just wanted to say that i like your blog though, and am interested in looking through more of your posts as i get the time. your music is nice too

hope you are well, — nichole.

Thanks for taking the time on your birthday to cheer me up.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Good to see you on Sunday! let’s do that more often!

Rather, human beings (both male and female, and true, perhaps in differing manifestations) show their likeness to God, or their bearing His image, by the traits THEY exhibit.

In other words, we are displaying the image of God when we exhibit the traits that He exhibits. God does not display human characteristics–humans display human characteristics, and some of them are in the image of God.

I think you also ought to be careful–the Bible never describes God as feminine. You say that God has the qualities of both a warrior and a mother hen. Perhaps true, but even there, the Scriptures use a masculine metaphor (shepherd) to describe God’s nurturing qualities. We must be careful when we say what the Scriptures do not say.

I appreciate you, brother, and hope you are well. I’ll let you know if I’m ever anywhere near NJ.

Men have a tendency to leave out the part about Christ being Head over the Church. In other words, they forget the correlation. They are supposed to model Christ in his Lordship over the Church.

In other words, what did Christ do to show His authority over us? He gave His life for us. In the same way, Man’s authority over his wife comes only insomuch as he is willing to give his life.

One other thing to think about: when I was single, I would hear people lament that they weren’t “complete” until they were married. I disagreed. Though the fullness of God is seen when the sexes are united, I think that just as Jesus is completely God and the Father is completely God and the Spirit is completely God in their own individual rights, when they come together they are the fullness of God. I haven’t thought much about it beyond that point, and perhaps an examination of “complete” and “fullness” are in order. But that’s the conclusion I came to anyway.

And just so you know, the fear is common to women as well – to quote Nate:

“No, I’m afraid because of myself. I’m afraid because I know my flaws and my failures. I know my sins and my selfishness. I’ve seen myself falter time and time again…I’ve suffered through the guilt of my sin, and I’ve been robbed of my dreams. I’m afraid of the evil that I’m capable of.”

Any self-aware person, man or woman, is going to look themselves in the mirror and see these things one day. When faced with my own failures (of which there are many) I continually must ask myself: “Is this the truest thing about me?” And the answer is “No.” Christ’s purchase of my soul has given me the chance to live as He created Woman to be, but it does require daily submission to Him and a steady dose of His Truth. Whether you be a man or a woman, your true identity, and the courage to live in that place comes only from Christ, and only He is strong enough to enable us to dwell there.

Thanks for your comment!

There are so few true men out there (honestly I have had the privilege of knowing some real men but at best there are only a handful) we toss that word “Men” around but it so cheap and easy to say it that it rarely carries any true weight. I think the reason that there are so few men in our culture ( even in the church) is that most guys have no idea of what a man is (as God defines it not as the world does) guys are like blind fools stumbling in a dark alley at midnight unsure of what they are looking for. Go ahead, ask a handful of guys if they can define what a “man” is, they can’t do it because they don’t know how. It’s sad but true. but there is hope, God would not call us to something if he did not have a plan for us. It is not easy and it requires sacrifice and obedience, (not perfection) but when Christ has had His way with us we will shine with the true glory of what we were made to be, men.

if you want to check out a great speaker go to DM.org and search for the talks given by Mark Fodale. he does a great job inspiring guys to be men and shows us how to get there.