day no. 15,185: better off for having been broken

"The woman is receptive and does not place anything within the man, just as Christ gives us
himself while we can give nothing to Christ in return." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

Ephesians 5:31-32
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

Marriage is meant as a metaphor to point us to the greater spiritual reality of God's plan revealed to us in Christ and His church. This has always been the meaning of marriage as evidenced by Genesis 2:24 being the foundation of Paul's appeal in the verses above.

In marriage, the creation and design for men and women is observed in their one flesh relationship. Man was made first. Man was then broken and the women was made. She was then brought back to the man and they were reunited. In other words, Adam was put to sleep and his rib was removed from him, but then his rib was made into a woman and brought back to him. So in the end, Adam has his rib back, but the oneness he has as a result of being broken is better than the oneness he had prior to it. He is one again, but better off for having been broken. The rib is better as a woman than it was as a rib.

And so in similar vein, God speaks ex nihilo and makes not god. He creates distinction. He takes something of out His mind and breaks it off into something else, something not god, the high water mark of distinction following light and not light, day and not day, water and not water, and man and not man. He then brings the man back into relation with Himself by being broken in Christ. And the oneness achieved through the brokenness of Jesus is somehow better than the oneness of the created state of walking with God in the garden. Then God was with them in harmony, now there is harmony, but also unity with His Spirit residing inside the ones He walks with. 

The sexual act is a metaphor of this reality. It is the principle incarnate. The man enters into the woman, he plants his seed in her. In her a child is fertilized, matured, nourished and delivered and then that child is brought back to the father and united back to him, somehow better for having been separated. The women experiences a complementary version of the same coin. She receives the man, and something new happens inside her. It grows in her and along with her and she ultimately endures much pain and difficulty in bringing it to full maturity. Once born, it's cord is cut, but it's body is returned to her to nurse, somehow closer for having been made separated with the second union being closer than the one they enjoyed during gestation. 

day no. 15,181: the fathers of future kings

"Like trees, plants, animals, and many other living things of creation, we have a deposit of seeds that when 'planted' become separate creations after our own kind. In a very real sense, sons and daughters exist within us which means we carry them before a woman does. The profoundness of this is fascinating" -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

Men who raise their sons in the discipline and instruction of the Lord are grooming future kings. In our person, we carry the future rulers of the world. We have been given the responsibility to rule well within our lifetime in order to ensure that the future rulers of the world will rule with eternity in mind.

"A people which takes no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote descendants." - Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (aka T.B. Macaulay)

If we fail to recognize the part God has gifted us to play in the ongoing conquest of His world by His decree through His saints by His grace through our faith in His Son and by the power of His Holy Spirit, we will fail our forefathers and our grandchildren. We love our great grandchildren by respecting our great grandfathers. 

Genesis 35:11
And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body."

"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." - Edmund Burke

day no. 15,180: mostly dead

O Lord, there is much ill about me – crucify it,
much flesh within me – mortify it.
Purge me from selfishness,
the fear of man, the love of approbation,
the shame of being thought old fashioned,
the desire to be cultivated or modern.
Let me reckon my old life dead
because of crucifixion,
and never feed it as a living thing.
- Valley of Vision

You do not ration your bread for the dead. Setting aside food for ghouls is absurd. Food is for the living in order to keep them alive. Once someone is dead, they no longer need bread.

You've perhaps heard it said that if you have two dogs in your backyard, a good one and a bad one, you can expect the one you feed more to dominate the other. This anecdote is used often to describe our good habits and bad habits in order to emphasize the point that the habits that get our care, attention and affection are the ones that grow bigger and stronger and presupposes the two dogs don't get along. In other words, one will dominate and impose its will upon the other.

If you keep throwing care, attention and affection at your old man, you are giving life-giving bread to the dead part of you. You are trying to resurrect the evil dead within you. If you feed it like it's alive, you may discover the undead walking within you. Do not throw your bread at the dead inside you and be shocked to discover it was only mostly dead.

day no. 15,179: the responsibility of blessings and curses

"Men are held responsible for their children. The Law of God taught that the sins of fathers, not mothers, could be carried on as curses to the third and fourth generations, but fathers who trusted the Lord, obeyed him, and walked in his ways would bring forth blessed children even to a thousand generations. Likewise, men are held responsible by God for their wives’ actions." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

The sins of fathers carry three to four generations. While mothers certainly can and do contribute to the avalanche of sin, it is the fathers who are held responsible for it. Likewise, the blessings of the fathers are carried on to a thousand generations. While mothers certainly can and do contribute to this blessed inheritance, it is the fathers who are held responsible for it.

Exodus 34:6-7
The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

The fact that sin only travels three to four generations is evidence for the grace of God in restricting its influence. Whereas the promise of blessing infecting thousands of generations is evidence for the grace of God in expanding its influence.

To put that in better perspective, in the history of the world, to date, there has not yet existed a thousand generations. The world has not known a single thousand, let alone thousands plural. Oh, what grace God has in store for those who love Him and follow His ways.

Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

day no. 15,177: night watchman as wet nurses

"You don’t normally talk of 'strong women of valor' or 'graceful men of beauty.' Of course you can give an infant to a man to nurse and a M107 .50-caliber sniper rifle to a woman to take out an insurgent, but it would not be according to the best wisdom would it? The fit is much more appropriate the other way around and not only that, things work out better for both....God’s order of creation is patently clear. When men and women follow it they are better off and stronger as a people. When they do not follow it they compromise their integrity and end up weaker as a people." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

When we refuse to man our stations, we leave ourselves open to attack and fail to fulfill the responsibilities of the station we ran off to. When the night watchman opts to be the wet nurse, the baby is less safe by two. The city is under protected and the child is under nourished. There is nothing a man can naturally produce to protect the child's need for nourishment. There is something a man can do naturally to protect the child, however. Return to the watch tower and keep the mother safe. Men participate in nursing the babies by using their strength to keep their mothers safe. Women participate in protecting the city by nursing the boys that will grow up to be strong enough to protect the city.

Luke 11:27
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!”

day no. 15,176: muscle alone do not a man maketh

1 Timothy 5:8
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

"It is never to the shame of women to expect their men to stand up, take initiative, lead, provide, and fight for justice, peace,righteousness, and fidelity. However, for those men who sit idly by and let their women do all the dirty and bloody work of providing and protecting them, it is to their shame." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

The heart of a man desires to take care of those for whom he has been given responsibility. He orients his strength and circumstances around doing whatever it is he can do to take care of those who call to him, "Dad," or "Husband," or "Boss," or "Leader."

If he doesn't, he is not a man. No matter what he says, no matter how many initials follow his name on his business card or email signature, he is not a man. He may be many things, but a man he is not.

Muscle alone does not a man maketh. It's to what end they flex that matters most. For whom do they toil and for what they weary themselves. Being strong in the wrong direction is double weakness since it is not only wrong, but really wrong.

day no. 15,174: cowardice is a sin conspicuous to men

"It is hardly fitting to call a woman a coward, is it not? Any nation that would ever send its women or children to battle instead of its men would be derided by others as a nation of cowards. However, a nation that rallies its men to fight for their women, children, and homes would be regarded as an honorable nation. Nehemiah, a revered leader of Scripture, gave an honorable war-cry when he cried out to the men, 'Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!' (Neh 4:14) Cowardice is a sin that is very specific to men." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

A woman who stays home from the fight cannot be accused of cowardice. If she is scared, she is excused. If she isn't, she is an exception. But she should not seek an opportunity to fight. That would turn an agent of life into an agent of death. It boils the kid in the mother's milk. It is unnatural and eerie. It turns nature on its head by turning mothers into murderers. 

Cowardice is a sin conspicuous to men

Any man who congratulates himself for his courageous appreciation of women in uniform degrades himself. He celebrates his own cowardice and proudly boasts of his timidity. He upends the universe by assaulting that which no culture has ever embraced.

You cannot in clean conscience before God and man salute spinelessness; you cannot applaud apathy or congratulate cowardice.

day no. 15,173: giving the middle finger to manhood

"Instead of desiring to grow up into self-sacrificial, self-controlled, hard-working, reliable men, it seems we are instead more interested in playing, feeding our lusts, and flipping off our future." -- Matthew Pennock, As a Man Is so Is His Strength

Men are in trouble.

There are few things less en vogue than being a man. Toxic masculinity is simply shorthand for a hatred of anything remotely masculine. All that trends "Y" is met with resistance. Being a man is so unpopular, in fact, that even many men don't want to be one. They prefer, instead, to stay boys; and some, alarmingly, want to become women. The reason this is alarming is because men, by nature, have typically been quite competitive; and there's nothing a man is worse at than being a women unless, of course, he isn't into competition; in which case he is well on his way to becoming one.

Jeremiah 51:30
The warriors of Babylon have ceased fighting; they remain in their strongholds; their strength has failed; they have become women; her dwellings are on fire; her bars are broken.