Category: Mankind’s Problem

“Why are Men in Crisis?”

“Man Park,” cooed the Saturday Night Live narrator, “it’s like a dog park, but for guys … so they can make friends and have an outlet besides their girlfriends and wives.” The sketch, from about a year ago, points to an unfortunate reality. Men are in crisis, struggling with a loss of purpose, of relationship, and of usefulness.  

A January 2021 report from the Institute for Family Studies noted that “Girls are outperforming boys at every level, from elementary school through graduate school.” However, this isn’t primarily because girls are succeeding. It’s because, as Andrew Yang with The Washington Post wrote, “Boys and men across all regions and ethnic groups have been failing, both absolutely and relatively, for years.” 

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Is there a Doctor in the house?

The Doctor exhibited 1891 by Sir Luke Fildes 1843-1927Sickness and death are on all minds. COVID-19 now ravages the U.S., straining if not mocking our knowledge, skill, and preparedness. And on top of the threat to life is tremendous toll this could take on our economy. Lives and livelihoods falter.

But there is a far more fearsome disease. The human heart has been infected by sin, the God-challenging, self-destructive virus we all inherited from our first parents. “And as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” This virus is infinitely more lethal than the Coronavirus. And no hospital, no doctor can treat it.

But God, looking down with pity on our sin-sick race, sent His Son. Jesus came as the Doctor, the Master Physician. And He has come to heal you, friend.

Tomorrow morning we will be considering the following passage at our 10:30 livestreamed service. Join us then on our Facebook page. We also have a service in the evening at 7:00.

“And as Jesus passed forth from thence, he saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the receipt of custom: and he saith unto him, Follow me. And he arose, and followed him. And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? Mat But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:9-13).

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[painting above]

Of God and falsehood

Romans 3:3-3, “For what if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith [truth] of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.”IMG_5720

God is true; indeed, He is most true. Infinitely true! He is so true that He is immune from all deception. We are exposed to a legion of lies, a plethora of pretences. But God cannot be misled or tricked. “Be not deceived: God is not mocked! For whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap.”

God is is so true that He is incapable of falsehood. It is written in Scripture, “God, who cannot lie.” And “it is impossible fore God to lie.” Good men, however good they may have been, however well-proven their track record, even they can lie. Peter, the chief disciple among the rest, could hardly believe that he would deny Jesus. But so it was! That very night, just as Jesus predicted, he denied his master three times. But God is altogether incapable of lying. “In him is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” Is this a defect in God? Is this inability a broad crack in the wall of His omnipotence? By no means! As Ambrose put it, “What then is impossible to him? Nothing that is difficult for his power but only that which is contrary to his nature.” Would you trust God implicitly if He could lie? Indeed, the Bible says that God is so true that when He swears, He can swear by none other than by Himself!

Further, God is is so true that it is even morally unthinkable for him to deceive. The very idea that God could be false, contradict Himself, deny Himself, or in any way to allow His creatures to subvert or make null and void any of His truth, is wicked. This is clearly taught above in Rom. 3:4-6. “God forbid!” It is brazen blasphemy to suggest or even entertain the thought that God could lie.

You and I are lost in the wilds of falsehood, deceived and deceiving each other – and ourselves! Only God, only His Son Jesus Christ, the last and great Prophet who came into the world to bear witness of the truth, only He can banish the lies, the soul-damning lies that have us in bondage and will seal our doom. He is the true Light. Emerge from your darkness and follow Him!