January 22, 2024 -- Ephesians 6:4 -- Godliness and manliness

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger,
but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4 ESV

In our society today fathers get a bad rap. Think of TV shows and sitcoms, how the father seems to be dumb and his children know all the answers. Fatherless households are considered normal, with no regard for the spiritual order which the LORD our God laid down in Genesis.

Consider the words of Dr. Paul Vitz, senior scholar at the Institute for Psychological Sciences, New York.
…at the center of the crisis in the family is a crisis of what
it is to be a father. We’ve lost this understanding of the
capstone, in my judgment of what it is to be a man, because
I think all men are called to be fathers. Now, I don’t
necessarily means they are called to be biological fathers.
I mean that they’re called to be fathers to at least some
of the younger people in their life.
If you’re going to take away one message from my talk,
it is this: You fathers are of great importance in forming
the religious attitude of your children. As we have seen,
many an atheist was damaged by negative personal
relationships, especially with a father or a father figure.
In summary I think, all this evidence should be a call
to men to rediscover what fatherhood is about. It is
about helping other people, leading them in a self-
sacrificing way. Yes, it’s about self-sacrifice. That’s the
only way you earn genuine respect, and when do that,
the public responds. The wife responds. The children
respond.
After 9/11, one of the reasons we responded so
positively to the firemen and their deaths was that we
saw self-sacrifice by manly men who weren’t in it for
the money, weren’t in it like the CEO who needs
more than enough money to work for his company
They weren’t in it for themselves. That is why all
these jaded New Yorkers on 9/11 stood and applauded
when the firemen went by.
Dr. Paul Vitz, “The Importance of Fatherhood” Socrates in the City Conversations on “Life,
God, and Other Small Topics” Ed. Eric Metaxas. Toronto: Penguin Group; 2011. pages 83 & 96.

Dear brothers and fathers heed the call of God on your life. Act like men who notice the yearning need younger boys and teens and young men around you have for men who will mentor them, training them to walk in godly manliness. How are your words and your actions leading them to know Jesus Christ? How are you denying yourself, and your desires, and your sports and gaming, so that the next generation and the one after that are rising up and blessing the Lord our God?

What a privilege it is, O God, to call You Father! Thank You for our elder brother, Jesus Christ, in Whom is all manliness and self-sacrifice. Thank You for the work of Your Spirit, by Whom men receive the instruction of Scripture, grow in Christ-likeness, and live as godly men impacting the people around them for the honour and glory of the Triune God. Amen.

https://youtu.be/bQsX8tl9W5Q?si=jU7qg9lmS1f2HWlp Stuart Townend “O Church Arise”

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