For women, this could mean they feel they should be a size 0 with bleached blonde hair (with no strand out of place) and perfectly straight blindingly white teeth. For men, it could mean we all should be (as Rev. Richard Phillips puts it) outdoorsmen skilled in hunting and fishing, capable of building our homes with our bare hands, or a rough and tough guy in the image of John Wayne.
Unfortunately, for both women and men, these stereotypes are impossible to achieve. Paul teaches us in Romans that:
"Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness." - Romans 12:6-8 (ESV)Some men are gifted with the stereotypical manly abilities listed above, while others are not. One gift that God chose not to bestow upon me is a love for sports. Living in the south, this has caused all sorts of issues trying to relate to just about anyone during football season. I have often been ridiculed for my lack of interest in sports and had my masculinity challenged as a result. How can you be a man and not watch football?! What Rev. Richard Phillips aims to show here is that the Bible says there's much more to being a man than what our culture would have us believe.
Using Genesis Chapter 2 as his basis, Phillips teaches that since God originally put Adam in the garden to work and keep it, we are also called to be workers and keepers in our own life. To work is defined as to labor to make things grow through nurturing, cultivating, tending, building up, guiding and ruling. To keep is defined as to sustain progress already achieved by guarding, keeping safe, watching over, caring for, and maintaining. Throughout the book, Phillips teaches us how to work and keep within some of the most important areas of a man's life: marriage, fatherhood, friendship, and the Church.
One quote in particular drove me into deep introspection:
"I used to think that if a man came into my house to attack my wife, I would certainly stand up to him. But I came to realize that the man who enters my house and assaults my wife every day is me, through my anger, my harsh words, my complaints, and my indifference. As a Christian, I came to realize that the man I needed to kill in order to protect my wife is myself as a sinner."Ouch. As Biblical men, we often say "I would never beat my wife!" But how often do we do just that without realizing it? There's more to abuse than just a physical action. Our anger, harsh words, complaints, indifference and general selfishness have the potential to wound our wives deeply, though no physical bruises are visible.
My favorite quote from the entire book comes as Phillips discusses the Church:
"Doctrine must take precedence above all matters of aesthetics or personal preferences. The style of music, demographics, the meeting place, or architecture, or the personality of the minister, for example are simply not as important as whether a church is preaching and teaching the Scriptures faithfully and accurately."Most churches today feel that in order to fill the seats, they must preach messages based on the popular media of the day (movies, books, music, etc) instead of focusing on preaching sound doctrine. I was glad to see Phillips remind us of what's most important in choosing the Church in which we should strive to work and keep.
If you'd like to check out a sample of the book, you can download the first chapter here, or you can buy the book on Amazon here.
Disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book from Ligonier Ministries, but I am not required to give any book I review a positive review if I do not enjoy it!
0 comments:
Post a Comment