Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Doctors have recently coined a phrase that until very recently did not exist: gender dysphoria. There is still controversy in the medical community about the idea, but it means that a person experiences a significant amount of "distress" connected to a feeling that a person's physical gender is not their true gender. There is much that could be said about this medical condition, but there is a spiritual condition that we could also label "gender dysphoria." We, too, can experience a level of "distress" that comes from living out our Christian manhood and womanhood.

Cassie Sasser told me about this letter from Joel Beeke to a 12 year old on his birthday. It's great fatherly counsel from a man of God to a future man of God.

Warren Harvey is the pastor of Ambassador Presbyterian Church, one of our co-hosts of the upcoming marriage conference. He recently sent a note to the men of his church that we wanted to pass along to you as well.

Our accountability suffers when we forget why we do it, or we aren't sure how to do it. Coming Clean, a new e-book by Covenant Eyes' Luke Gilkerson, helps us on both counts. It provides an insightful, biblical rationale for our need for it, and then it provides accessible steps and tools to get started.

Continuing our discussion of biblical convictions regarding work, unemployment, and even under-employment, here are convictions 6-8 with a ninth point added about temptations for the unemployed.

After a recent sermon I knew of a major change it needed even before I left the stage. Usually it takes at least a few hours, sometimes a couple days, but when I preached on God's view of work from Ephesians 4:28, I knew I needed to address in a more helpful way those who were unemployed or under-employed.

Richard Phillips will be in town soon to teach on his book The Masculine Mandate at the Raleigh Convention Center for free on January 25-26.

"No manliness no maturity! No discipline no discipleship! No sweat no sainthood!" (15). This captures the message Kent Hughes delivers in Disciplines of a Godly Man (Crossway, 2001). 

The Masculine Mandate: God’s Calling to Men (2010), is an excellent combination of illustrations, biblical reflection, and insight about what God asks of men. We are to work the gardens where God has put us to labor – cultivating, nurturing, building up, and leading – in our parenting, marriage, workplace, church, and friendships.

Turns out that duct tape is good for a variety of things—except for sealing ducts. In other words, it is failing in the very task for which it was named. Randy Stinson and Dan Dumas tell us this as they begin their book on manhood and close with this observation: “There’s a lot men can do, but they are struggling to do what they were created for” (p. 3).