My teenage kids remarked to me that they got scarred by Genesis as children. Genesis is not G Rated and neither is the rest of the Bible. Spreading the Good News in China, I also had this experience of people getting hurt and driven away by Genesis. Lot and his daughters is the biggest problem. However, those of us who have looked closely at the text know the Bible has even more non G issues. It is not just that …
I recently bought an ebook called Five Essentials to Engage Today’s Men. It is done by Barna, so they did good research. It reminded me how hard it is for men to be better than their father. This certainly includes me. From it I learned it is good to be a Christian man. In 10 different areas like mental health, work life balance, and physical health, Christian men, on average, felt better than non Christian men. Men who had intergenerational …
God made men and women so different. We were indeed made to complement each other. Amazingly, a difference shows up in the Covid-19 data. Men and women created different make the world go around because they are different. Now the data. 70% of the vaccinated people who report symptoms are woman. Are women getting sick more? Researchers found something different. Men have the same side effects and symptoms. However, men only report serious effects like fever. Women report all kinds …
What does God intend for men? Leadership? Initiative? Sure, but how does that look in practice, and how are we men doing? For starters, Men, engage your family. Some women learned to play American football and hockey. Others sought to and became the CEO. Notably, God is clearly more sensitive than women and tougher then men . He encompasses all. So women broke free to find more even as God is more. Many of these women were following God every …
By personality, I tend to not have much confidence in the future. This tends to make me more serious and concerned than many others. Like them, I tend to get weary of this heavy life only I live with it 24/7. I need some time on the lighter side. Learning the lighter side of life is a project of mine. First let’s come back to Philippians 4:8,9. Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, …
I have written elsewhere that we get stuck in our own world. We need help to become better people, but fail to get help. Counseling is super valuable and especially us men fail to get it. It leaves us stuck and leaves our families and coworkers in a less blessed place. We need to do better. Why Do We Men Avoid Counseling Like Me? I am one of those. My wife sought out and got hundreds of hours of counseling. …
How do I describe how I was not of this world? Jo would get angry, and I would think she had an anger problem. In bad times I would think she was a witch. I grew up in a family that felt all outbursts of anger are wrong. Unbeknownst to me, these emotions did not go away. When I got angry in my childhood, I would repress it. Then my body would somehow change it, and I would physically feel bad …
Many Christians including myself have gotten stuck in their own world and did not even know it. Sin is just this insidious. We feel like good Christians, but actually we are stuck in our own world. To explain, let me tell the first of three stories of Christians I know of – a married guy, a divorced woman, and myself. First the Story of the Married Guy Stuck in His Own World A passionate Christian guy who worked for me …
My topic today is that Dads are important to a family. Without a good view of what a father is, few of us can see God well. I see people we minister to here struggle with seeing God well due to broken relationships with their father. My own relationship with God and my kids is still harmed by the example of father I got from my Dad. In my family, I tend to encourage kids to climb the mountain and …
Christian marriage is a big topic. Lots is written. I still see gaps. Let me tell you what I see. First, at the end of Cinderella and such children’s books, it says. “she got married and lived happily every after.” When I read these books to my kids, I would say “she got married and though marriage is a lot of work, they lived happily ever after.” If we see finding our mate as the end, we are doomed. So …
