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A Good Foundation


weary warrior

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This is an article I wrote several days ago...

 

If you are one who, however vaguely, happens to know a little about, and believe in, the Bible, then you know that God created the heavens and the earth and all of nature that fills that earth. After he created these, he then created a man. After God created a man, he made a wife for that man. And personally, the wife is my favorite of all his creations.

We know that God did not, of course, create man before he made nature, for man depends upon nature to live. Nature had to be there first. The light, the sun, water, the dry land, plants for food… you get the picture. Only after everything else was set and ready for man did he bring Adam on the scene. Once Adam was here, God created Eve, who was created to be a “help meet” for Adam. Another way of saying it is that Eve was created to be a help that was “fit for” or “a good match” for Adam. Why would God create a woman to help the man before He had even created the man? He wouldn’t, of course. He is a God of order, and all things were created in order.

Now, let’s just pause here for a minute. Let’s not just jump ahead in the story too soon. We should savor it for a moment. Imagine the simplicity of it.  The elegance. There were no children. There was no society, no church, no government and no laws. There was just a man, a women and their God. Of course, children were always in the plan from the beginning. They were not a result of the fall, for God told Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply” long before Adam’s sin.

So after there was a husband and wife, there came children. However, do not loose sight of the fact that the husband and wife were the foundation that was already in place before the children ever came along and made it a family. I will interject here the warning that neither a husband nor a wife should ever get to the place where they are a parent to the children first and a spouse second, and even then only if there happens to be any time, energy or interest left over. You were a spouse first, married or not. You are a spouse during the child rearing years, and you will still be a spouse after the children are gone. If you sacrifice the happiness and stability of your marriage through simple neglect, all for the sake of focusing on and raising your children, you are taking a great big hammer to your family’s very foundation, and slowly busting it up into little pieces.

There was, over time, the rise of civilizations, governments and organized religion. But the family structure came from God long before any these, and all of these are built upon that foundation of the family. And again, any structure will only be as strong as the foundation upon which it is built.

So what is wrong with our country? Our society? Our churches? Our families? Our marriages?

Sadly, our foundation has become weak, and all that has been built upon that foundation has been crumbling and collapsing for years. The truth is, our government is only going to be as strong as our churches. (Was not this country of ours originally settled and founded by Christians fleeing religious persecution?) And our churches are only as strong as our family units. Our family units are only as strong as the marriage upon which they are built, and our marriage units are only as strong and good as the man leading that family. In God’s flawless, original design, a strong, Godly, loving husband is to be the head of the house upon which that marriage has been built.

Thank God for good, faithful women who try to carry on the fight without their husbands. If we didn’t have these blessed ladies then we would have nothing, for the Godly, active, faithful man who actually leads his wife, leads his family and leads his church has all but disappeared.

God built the entire social structure of humankind on one strong, hardworking man who walked daily with his God and led his family in a path of knowing and following the instructions and will of that God. Adam dropped the ball, and look what happened to his marriage, to his family and to his society. Nothing has changed.

Guys, are we dropping the ball at home? If so, is it not true that we really cannot blame the condition of this nation, this town, this church, this family or this marriage on President OBama, on Congress, on Hollywood, on our pastor or on anyone else?

Are we really being a strong foundation upon which others can build? If our foundation is not Christ and his truth, then their foundation is naught but shifting sand and empty illusion.

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I only bring this up first so I won't forget...what do you mean by "You were a spouse first, married or not." I'm wondering if this was perhaps misworded or you have a meaning to this I don't get.

 

As to the meat of the article, you raise some excellent and biblical points. I've seen some of these raised before, but typically by those off in several other areas so when they try to address the biblical manhood and family aspect they go astray because of all the other areas they are weak or off in; think of Promise Keepers as an example of this.

 

No doubt the condition of our churches, our communities, our homes, our society, our government, all stem from the choices men make; whether to accept and live according to their biblical role or not.

 

Many men today, even Christian men, say they don't want to go to church or they don't want to be involved in things within the church, because the church is so much run by women and feminized. How did these churches become like this? Lack of male leadership! Why do these churches remain like this? Lack of male leadership! More precisely, a lack of BIBLICAL male leadership!

 

That lack of biblical male leadership is also what is most to blame for the deterioration and destruction of families, communities, society, government and the nation as a whole.

 

Biblical manhood was once a prized character trait and most often respected even by non-Christians. Today biblical manhood is looked upon as anti-woman, bigoted, homophOBic, mean-spirited, intolerant, backward, even hateful.

 

In my own life I've been verbally assaulted (by Christians and non-christians) for taking the Bible too seriously, for thinking what the Bible says is for today when "everyone" knows most of that was only for back in Bible days, for being too strict with my children because I don't allow them do do what they want, to watch or listen to whatever they may want, to go everywhere, have just anyone as friends, skip church, etc.

 

I'm "judgmental or hateful or think I'm better than others" because I don't drink alcohol and won't attend events that are saturated in alcohol; I don't watch HBO or even have such in my home, I don't go to the movies, my family and I don't participate in sinful activities, etc.

 

Our church is viewed by many as being "too churchy" :icon_confused:  , having too much preaching, too much prayer, to much serious Sunday school...not enough entertainment, not enough "fun things" for the children/youth, not enough special events.

 

It can be a tough life to live, that of biblical manhood (and that of biblical womanhood, as well as that of being a biblical family) but that's what we are called to. Rather than saying if we lived for Him our lives would be filled with cheer and we'd be well thought of, Christ said we would suffer persecution and there would be cost to bear.

 

May we pursue our biblical roles with fervency and seek to help others do the same.

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I only bring this up first so I won't forget...what do you mean by "You were a spouse first, married or not." I'm wondering if this was perhaps misworded or you have a meaning to this I don't get.

 

 

 

There are so many couples in the church today who started out living in sin, co-habitating while unmarried. I believe that when a man sleeps with a woman, they are joined together in God's eyes (1 Cor 6:16) regardless of what someone in a black rOBe sitting behind a bench in court says. I was just referring OBliquely to this. Sorry for the confusion.

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