THE BLOG IS MOVING

I decided to change the name & theme of my blog and to move it to wordpress. So, to my numerous subscribers; here is the address to my new blog. All of the old posts will be there and hopefully I'll post more often.

thnx,

Ross

http://iamnotaman.wordpress.com/

The Awesomeness of Oswald Chambers

Oz is the man. I love this quote from the June 1st devotion that I think about sometimes(the bold part), and I always get the quote wrong:

When God wants to show you what human nature is like apart from Himself, He has to show it you in yourself. If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half so bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. My "grave" has been opened by God and "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing." God's Spirit continually reveals what human nature is like apart from His grace.

Everyone, including myself, tends to think, "Hey, I'm not that bad! I'm a pretty good person, right?" And as I've argued in a past blog entry, and as the Bible states; no, you're not good at all. "No one is good except God alone."

The Paradox of a Woman’s Role in Marriage

Marriage is awesome. I've been married only three years, but I can say Brandie and my marriage is better, stronger and more awesome now than when we first married. We've discussed before we even got married the interesting fact that God formed marriage so that the man is to be the leader and the wife the helper, however, the sinful tendency of men is to be passive, silent, and a wimp in general while the sinful tendency of brides is to be boisterous and desperately covet the leadership position. The sin of the bride is that she looks at man's decisions with arrogance and self-righteousness in her heart. The man's sin is his lack of, how you say?...balls, and his constant surrender to his fears. The man denies his responsibility and the bride wants control of what she has no business controlling. What's so interesting about this is the paradox of how much control a woman actually has in her marriage if she will just relinquish leadership to her husband.

My wife recently read an awesome book called 'Created to be His Help Meet.' It's available on Amazon.com for super-cheap, so check it out ladies…you are sure to hate it. At least at first you will. However, I have the privilege of being married to a woman who is very open to God's voice and what He communicates to her and she actually really loved the book. I could tell because she started to apply what she read immediately. Let me be clear; my wife does not worship me. How could I respect a woman that worshiped me rather than God? What she did was start to honor me as leader of the family.

At this point any women reading this (other than my wife and my mother) are disgusted and any men reading it are like, "Yeah, get in the kitchen where you belong woman, haha!" Here's the catch; 1) How can a woman better place herself in a position of honor than fulfilling her God-given purpose in marriage? And 2) Men must realize the responsibility they are under when a woman actually does yield to his leadership! When a bride carries out her role as her husband's helper what happens is all of the responsibility that she would absorb in coveting the leader position is now put where it's supposed to be…on the man. Men, the future of your family then rests on your shoulders! Every decision you make matters. I can assure you, men and women, that a man's desire to be the best man he can be, to serve his wife, and to undertake responsibility with conviction is directly proportional to how much his bride honors him as leader. That's the paradox. In a bride's decision to yield or to attempt to control she indirectly holds the direction of her family in her grasp. And that, my friends, is control. It is the type of control that a woman was created for and purposed for…not the type that is facilitated by taking, but by giving. Amazing. It truly astonishes me. Now, we just have to actually do it…continuously.

The following is an excerpt from C.S.Lewis' "That Hideous Strength." To attempt to put things in context; Jane is married to Mark and Mark, in an attempt to further his career has joined the antagonist society N.I.C.E. Jane is in the presence of and being interviewed by The Director who is the leader of the protagonists. The Director is a man who has an intimate relationship with his Master's who are angel's. …that's probably as clear as mud. Hopefully it will make sense anyway.

"I don't think I look on marriage quite as you do. It seems to me extraordinary that everything should hang on what Mark says…about something he doesn't understand.

"Child," said the Director, "it is not a question of how you or I look on marriage but how my Masters look on it."

"Someone said they were very old fashioned. But-"

"That was a joke. They are not old fashioned; but they are very, very old."

"They would never think of finding out first whether Mark and I believed in their ideas of marriage?"

"Well – no," said the Director with a curious smile. "No. Quite definitely they wouldn't think of doing that."

"And would it make a difference to them what a marriage was actually like – whether it was a success? Whether the woman loved her husband?"

 

Jane had not exactly intended to say this: much less to say it in the cheaply pathetic tone which, it now seemed to her, she had used. Hating herself, and fearing the Director's silence, she added, "But I suppose you will say I oughtn't to have told you that."

"My dear child," said the Director, "you have been telling me that ever since your husband was mentioned"

"Does it make no difference?"

"I suppose," said the Director, "it would depend on how he lost your love."

 

Jane was silent. Though she could not tell the Director the truth, and indeed did not know it herself, yet when she tried to explore her inarticulate grievance against Mark, a novel sense of her own injustice and even pity for her husband, arose in her mind. And her heart sank, for now it seemed to her that this conversation, to which she had vaguely looked for some sort of deliverance from all problems was in fact involving her in new ones.

 

"It was not his fault," she said at last. "I suppose our marriage was just a mistake."
The Director said nothing.
"What would you - what the people you are talking of - say about a case like that?"
"I will tell you if you really want to know," said the Director.
"Please," said Jane reluctantly.
"They would say," he answered, "that you do not fall in obedience through lack of love, but have lost love because you never attempted obedience."

Something in Jane that would normally have reacted to such a remark with anger or laughter was banished to a remote distance (where she could still, but only just, hear its voice) by the fact that the word Obedience-but certainly not obedience to Mark - came over her, in that room and in that presence, like a strange oriental perfume, perilous, seductive, ambiguous..

"Stop it!" said the Director, sharply.
Jane stared at him, open mouthed. There were a few moments of silence during which the exotic fragrance faded away.
"You were saying, my dear?" resumed the Director.
"I thought love meant equality," she said, "and free companionship."

"Ah, equality!" said the Director. "We must talk some other time. Yes, we must all be guarded by equal right's from one another's greed, because we are fallen. Just as we must all wear clothes for the same reason. But the naked body should be there underneath the clothes, ripening for the day when we shall need them no longer. Equality is not the deepest thing, you know."
"I always thought that was just what it was. I thought that it was in their souls that people were equal."
"You were mistaken," he said gravely. "That is the last place where they are equal. Equality before law, equality of incomes--that is very well. Equality guards life; it doesn't make it. It is medicine, not food. You might as well try to warm yourself with a blue-book."
"But surely in marriage...?"
"Worse and worse," said the Director. "Courtship knows nothing of it; nor does fruition. What has free companionship to do with that? Those who are enjoying something, or suffering something together, are companions. Those who enjoy or suffer one another, are not Do you not know how bashful friendship is? Friends – comrades - do not look at each other. Friendship would be ashamed..."
"I thought," said Jane and stopped.
"I see," said the Director. "It is not your fault. They never warned you. No one has ever told you that obedience – humility - is an erotic necessity. You are putting equality where it ought not to be."