You See Dry Bones

First, some house cleaning. Don’t get too used to this theme. I am making slow changes to it and may delete it entirely.

Now, back by popular demand, Be a Man Monday:

Last Friday, I asked for people to give me a topic for this post. Many of you talked about communication and how it is either a) lacking, or b) how it is stifled. I think this is true, especially among Christian men in the church.

Special Delivery; Ear Candy.

Communication has two parts, talking, and listening. We often stop doing either when it gets tough. If we have to say something we know people do not want to hear, we do not say it. If someone is telling us something we do not want to hear, we shut them out. We have a tendency ONLY to take part in conversations that tickle our ears and sound good in our minds, often ignoring the hard stuff. The truth.

Take it from the Bible.

Be truthful, how many times have you read something in Scripture and written it off? I am not just talking about Limited Atonement , I am talking about the REAL hard stuff. How many times do you read through sections of Scripture, not like what it says, and dismiss it as something purely cultural? I see this all the time, especially when talking about gender roles and sexual purity. Christians (not pagans) tend to go through the Bible and only take what they want to hear and find loop-holes through the rest. We read Ephesians, which tells us not to allow even a HINT of sexual immorality in our lives, and find ways to justify our own immorality. Heaven forbid a friend calls us out on our sin! We write them off or get offended.

Men, we need to listen to the Scriptures and obey them. We need to STOP trying to make our own version of the Jefferson Bible. We are not supposed to pick through the Scriptures and customize our own sanctification. Doing this only customizes our road to hell.

We do not communicate what Scripture says.

So many times we fear offending people that we leave parts out. We may believe some of the hard things the Bible says about sin, hell, gender roles, sexuality, etc. but will punt on these issues for fear of upsetting our friends. Even worse,pastors will preach what they feel people want to hear because they are afraid of how they will be perceived, because they are cowards. Telling people hell is real, women should not be pastors, sex is for marriage alone and sin will be judged is not popular.

Conditioning

We have been trained to be independent and to resist authority. This has lead so many to believe they can make their own rules and follow their own path. Instead of trying to please God, we try and please man. Galatians 1:10 tells us when we are more concerned with winning the approval of man than of Christ, we are forfeiting our status as servants. We are destroying the proper and most fruitful of relationships. We are elevating man to God, and dismissing God entirely.

Good communication is essential to sanctification.

If we are really striving for holiness, we need to allow God’s word to communicate to us, and not be afraid to communicate it to others.

-Don-