The woman has an incredible responsibility for the future blessings of her home. She gets the right and the privilege of finding the kind of man who will love her like Jesus loves the church. And once she has found that man, she gets to help, encourage, and spur him on so that everyone and everything her marriage touches will be blessed. Far from being a trophy wife, she is central and critical to the blessings of her home. 

3 The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. – Titus 2:3-5 NKJV

Where We Have Been
As you will remember from last time, the apostle Paul used the word blasphemy when it comes to denying God’s view of womanhood. He was saying that if there were any older women, or anyone else for that matter, who was teaching a view of femininity that is contrary to God’s vision, then they have blasphemed God’s Word (a crime punishable by death in the Old Testament). Yeah, God takes womanhood that seriously. 
Instead of blaspheming God’s Word, Paul instructs older women how to come alongside the younger married women in the community. He calls on them to teach the younger women how to love their husbands and their children. Instead of loving them in a purely sacrificial way, which is so common for women, Paul admonishes the young women to become joyful “husband lovers.” Paul’s goal was not for women to slave away in the kitchen and dutifully serve their families as embittered slaves. On the contrary, he was calling women to be the lifeblood of the home. To fill the atmosphere and the aroma of her castle with abundant mirth, overflowing joy, and infectious delight for all who know her. 
These were the first two of seven essential concepts about womanhood that Paul was teaching, and again, we looked at these things in part 1. This week, in part 2, we look at the final five concepts that the older women are to teach to the younger women so that the Word of God will not be blasphemed. 
Supposing you are still here because you would not like the Word to be blasphemed, I say onward. 
#3 Teach Them to be “Moderate”
In addition to husband-loving and child-loving, Paul calls younger married women with children in the community to adopt a moderate lifestyle. The word he uses for sensible in the NKJV above (σώφρων – Soph-ron) really means embracing a life of moderation by living in the middle. He is encouraging women not to find themselves on the polls of things or to live in the extremes but to find her place somewhere in the balanced middle. Paul says if life were like a seesaw, then stand on the pivot point. This contributes to healthy womanhood. 
Now, before anyone can accuse Paul of being a world-class sexist, remember that he just commanded the men to be moderate as well (Titus 2:2). And, when we remember that Paul also gives this character qualification for anyone aspiring to the office of eldership (1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:8), we should not view this as being peculiar to women, but simply an excellent quality to cultivate for any human. Paul is not saying that men are more moderate and women have some work to do. He says we are all prone to excess, and both genders need work here. 
For instance, Men are disproportionately prone to the kinds of immoderation that lead to risk-taking, aggressiveness, adventure and merry-making, overworking, accumulating shotguns and rare bottles of whiskey (on the gluttony side of immoderation), and neglecting emotional aptitude, communication, relationship-building, and physical health (on the anorexic side of immoderation). While women can certainly be immoderate in these ways, it is far more likely that a woman will struggle with moderation in spending, emotional overexpression, communication, comparison, dieting, perfectionism (On the high side), and isolation, bitterness, and jealousy (On the low side). 
These are generalizations, but Paul’s point in this passage, in particular, is for women to live moderate lives. To be content with that, she has. To avoid excess. To avoid asceticism. To live in the middle. And by doing that, she will live richly and conform to the pattern God has for her. 
#4 Teach Them to be Pure
Along with moderation, Paul encourages younger women to remain pure and chaste in their behavior and life. Like a young virgin who is keeping herself pure for her future marriage (1 Corinthians 11:2), and the man who sets His mind on the pure truths of God (Philippians 4:8), the godly woman will also keep herself pure in mind, heart, and body within her marriage. She will prioritize holy purity with her God. She will weed out sin, give no occasion for the enemy, and offer to her husband the continual gift of tender, loyal, and loving fidelity for a lifetime. This, of course, will bless and build up womanhood. 
#5 Teach Them to be Workers at Home
Some of the strongest language in the Bible has to do with when, where, and how men and women will spend their time. For the man, He must leave the home to gather resources. If he lazily loiters around the house all day, twiddling his thumbs and refusing to go to work and provide for His family, Paul says that man is “worse than an unbeliever” and that he has “denied the faith” (1 Timothy 5:8). Ouch! On the other hand, a wife is called to stay home. And this is not unclear in this text. Paul says if a wife and mother leave their home to join in the rat race, neglecting her house duties, her husband-loving, and all the needs of her children, then she has blasphemed the Word of God. 
The reason Paul speaks this way is because men and women are not the same. We are equal in personhood yet distinct in our roles. As male and female, we have a divinely appointed complementarity in the roles God has given us. 
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My writing of this article is, at least in part, to help encourage mature and godly women within Christendom to effectively work so that this passage is no longer blasphemed and so that the Kingdom of Christ grows in ways that please the Father. But I am also writing because I want everyone in Christ’s Church to see how vital these seven commands are to Him. He did not threaten mild divine annoyance, quenching of the Spirit, or even heresy if these commands were not obeyed and joyfully taught.

A TIME FOR A BIT OF BREVITY AND FRANKNESS
As I near my fortieth birthday and watch the collapse of the American empire, I am resolved to speak plainly about what the Bible says. No tricks. No gimmicks. No apologies. Just plain and honest truth from the Word of God frankly delivered.
I am resolved towards this because it is in such short supply these days. If honesty and truth were our nitrogen and oxygen, this entire country would be left suffocating. This is because the Church abandoned her post a long time ago. Pastors traded in their pulpits and posts for skinny jeans, pop psychology, and man buns. Being relevant has become more important than righteousness. The approval of carnal men has become more captivating than the approval of God. And, instead of heralding the unvarnished Word in a world bereft of truth, many have adopted a slimy sort of worm-tonguedness known as “winsomeness” that prefers to keep feelings intact while souls barrel on towards hell.
That kind of charade has run its course and has been found lacking. What the Church and society at large need are not more marble-mouthed, weak-kneed, spineless, jellyfish pastors who are more afraid of offending the congregation than they are of offending God. We need men with chests. Men who will wrestle with the text, pour over it with fear and trembling, and humbly declare it as the Father’s God-breathed revelation for a world lost in heresy and sin.
We need this today because God is good, and the Word He authored is also good. We may not always like what it says; in the same way, a child does not always like the taste of medicine, but what goes down bitter will produce something sweet.
That is certainly true of today’s passage, which not only communicates substantial hard-to-swallow-truth but also chafes and irritates the soul of the modern man worse than a week-long diaper rash without a tube of Bordeaux’s butt paste. What we will see, however, is that these texts are not only true but good for us, so that anyone who ignores what they are teaching does so at their great peril.
With that, let us dive into our text.
THE TEXT
The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things— 4 that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed. – Titus 2:3-5 NKJV
A WORD ABOUT “BLASPHEMY”
According to Paul, the Word of God can be blasphemed, which is a word on the level of damnable cursing. In the Old Testament, when a fella or Felicia blasphemed God, they were immediately put to death by the community since blasphemy was not only considered a social poison but also an affront to the awesome holiness of God (See Leviticus 24:16).
When you blaspheme, you are violently cursing the name of God. You are shaking a middle finger at the heavens. You are looking out to your sovereign Lord with demonic disdain and malevolent boldness, saying: “may you be damned.” And in your hubris, you deserve to die. You deserve to die because, in your madness, you believed it possible to ascend the heights with Satan, asserting your stupid and unlearned opinion over and above the Most High. And if the most glorious and beautiful angel ever created will be decisively cast into the lake of fire for his act of pride, how much more will a worm like you? Like the smallest ant cursing the most prominent man, you deserve to be pressed into the ground, stoned by the mobs, buried beneath a crushing weight of earth because you believed you could bring an infinite, Holy, matchlessly pure, and maximal in all splendor and glory, God, (yeah that God) down to your pitiful and senseless level, putting him securely under your wretched feet. Death would be too good for a fool speaking this way to the Almighty.
Similarly, let us contemplate the fate awaiting the one who deliberately or even ignorantly blasphemes the Word of God. The Word is His divine revelation, representing all He loves and everything He has ordained for us to know. Indeed, to assail the Bible is to wage an assault on the very nature of God Himself. How so?
First, the Bible is the sacred repository of God’s divine revelation, carrying within its pages the timeless wisdom, divine truths, and majestic narratives inspired by the Creator Himself. Its words, divinely breathed, resound with the authority and essence of the Almighty.
When one launches an attack on the Bible, they seek to undermine the very foundation of God’s self-disclosure to humanity. They cast doubt upon the authenticity, reliability, and divine inspiration of the Scriptures. In doing so, they are questioning God’s character and integrity, for He is the ultimate author behind the written Word.
Second, Paul uses a common phrase for the “Word of God” that is often used to describe Jesus Christ (See John 1:1). With this in view, blaspheming the word not only communicates cursings towards the Bible but also toward God’s Son, the Word made flesh (John 1:14).
Wouldn’t you think that the same God who fiercely prohibits blasphemy of His holy name also responds with unbridled fury when His sacred Word is slandered so grievously? Wouldn’t a sin like that provoke his Holy ire? Could He ignore such dastardly crimes when He is a just and righteous God? Of course not!
If it were not for Christ’s pleasures and mercy, this passage would hang over nearly every pulpit in America as a death sentence on the man (or woman – God forbid) who does not teach such things. What do I mean? In this passage, there are seven truths that older women are to teach younger women, so they do not blaspheme the Word of God. This means not teaching these truths to younger women, or teaching younger women to live in opposition to them, would amount to nothing less than the charge of blasphemy.
And, perhaps you are wondering, why is God so intense about His designs for womanhood? Why does He call it blasphemy if an older woman does not teach a younger woman, or if a younger woman does not love her husband and submit to his leadership? Why is that in a very exceptional category of sin? And the answer of course is that God loves womanhood. He loves His design so tremendously, that to tamper with it, would be to blaspheme His Word and His vision.
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If you want a Christian culture, forget American politics. That is as fruitful as drowning yourself under a waterfall. Instead, if you wish for Massachusetts, California, Washington, Nevada, Montana, and all the rest of these fifty states, to bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ, then put down your politics, lay down your mail-in ballots, and grab a shovel. We have work to do! 

Paddling Up the Niagara
The neurotic optimism accompanying the American quadrennial election cycle seems as cockamamie and asinine to me as a man attempting to ride his homemade rowboat up the Niagara Falls. With a horde of eager tourists staring on in pure bewilderment, picture the hapless virtuoso of absurdity, paddling with the finesse of a drunken lifeguard, flapping as frantically against the currents as a penguin in a cheer competition, nearing the aquatic torrent of a three thousand ton wall of falling water, thinking he could scale it with such misplaced bravado, only to be consumed by the avalanche of its fury.
Every four years, we are invited into the same cultural absurdity. Each election, we are presented with a new brand of idealogue who will bring about the “Change We Can Believe In,” who will “Make America Great Again,” and who will help us all “Build Back Better.” Yet, like the magnificent fool, paddling with a boundless reservoir of natural stupidity, change, American greatness, and cultural betterment never come.
The reason for this could not be any more obvious. We were not meant to rowboat against the currents to travel up waterfalls in the same way culture does not change from a top-down point of view. More simply, politics flow downstream of culture; culture is downstream of the family, and the definition of insanity would be for the American people to get trapped in an endless cycle of mindless optimism, thinking: “Well… This candidate will be different.”
But, if there is one thing the American people are good at; they are incomparably resilient. Against all evidence to the contrary, over and against everything we have seen and experienced, every political season, we dutifully don our little row boats once more, falling for the same old lines, expecting this time it will all be different. But it isn’t. Each time we come underneath the mountain of watery lies; however, all we have done is drown ourselves in blind political positivism once again. My hope in this article is for us to stop getting wet and to change our perspective.
Today, I would like to paint a different picture of how to make America great again. I want to posit real change that you and I can believe in. And I want to give us all a robust Christian plan for when America eventually crumbles, enabling us to truly build it back better. If all that sounds good and lovely, then onward, Christian soldiers!
Changing Our Perspective
When the faithful pull back the societal curtains to survey the smorgasbord of today’s cultural malaise, feelings of disgust, confusion, and shock inevitably rise to the fore. If this is not happening, then stop what you are doing and check your pulse. With that out of the way, it is normal for Christians to feel like aliens in this God-forsaken land. For many of us, and by “the many,” I mean those who were not born yesterday, we remember the good old days (just a few years ago) when girls could not have penises, when teenagers at least needed parental consent before they could murder their babies in utero, and where it was biologically impossible for men to have periods and to get pregnant. Apparently, the grown-ups are now in charge, and that “reality” is on full and morbid display.
Clinging to such antiquated “myths” and apparent “fables” these days will land you in the same company as “flat-earthers” and “science deniers,” whatever that means. And yet, the same body politic viewing us as “moral dinosaurs” are the same ilk beckoning us to participate in their futile system. A system that has produced both Democrats and Republicans (ad nasuem) that fill the highest levels of power but without any perceivable change we can believe in.
This is because top-down politics do not work. Politicians are not the makers of culture; they are the products of culture. We have corrupt leaders because we are an evil people and not the other way around.
We must understand that the problems ailing this society run much deeper than a ballot box. If we want to change the world, this nation included, we need a plan that runs much deeper than the superficial two-party system we have been offered. We must also realize that we live in a microwave culture that is no longer patient enough to wait for the brisket on the smoker. We want our change to happen yesterday and can barely stomach a solution that has to be worked out over decades. Yet, this is precisely how we got here, refusing to engage this rotting culture for a hundred years while it willingly marinates slowly in its own skubalon.
We need a bottom-up, Biblical approach with the long view in mind.
A Nine-Step Biblical Approach
Step 1: The Conversion of Sinners
While the cultural Marxists continue to goad us into joining the next half-baked revolution, Christians must plod along faithfully and locally, sharing the Gospel with anyone and everyone who will listen (Acts 1:8). We do not march into the halls of power and demand anything from our pagan overlords… At least not initially. We humbly labor wherever we are so that men and women will know Jesus, which is precisely the model we see in the book of Acts. Whenever the faithful are parachuted into a world where exactly no one else around them has a Biblical worldview, the first step is always to declare the Gospel. Some will reject that message. Others will be converted by that message. But, our job is to preach it boldly, lovingly, truthfully, forcefully, and joyfully.
If we want a Christian culture, we must begin with making Christians.
Step 2: The Discipling of Believers
After someone is converted, we do not notch our Big-Eva Billy Graham-sized belts, plastering our conversion numbers on an 8k gigascreen, so that an overstuffed room full of mega-church consumers can be entertained. Unlike Lady Gaga and many in evangelicalism, we are not in it for the “applause” of men but for the obedience of God. Instead of letting new converts slip through the proverbial cracks, ill-equipped and unprepared for the Christian life, we have been commanded to disciple them. This means baptizing new believers and their children into the local, visible church, and teaching them what it means to obey Jesus in every aspect of their life (Matthew 28:18-20).
If we want a Christian culture, we must teach believers how to live like Christians.
Excursus: The Benefit of One and Two
If the first two steps (mentioned above) were undertaken with any degree of regularity, we would not be in our current predicament.
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We do not have time to hide or blend in. If we do nothing, this country will collapse. It may already be too late, which God alone knows. But while we have breath in our lungs and see the truth, let us proclaim it. Let us pray the pagans will be converted to Christ. Let us petition heaven that this nation will repent and bow again unto Christ. And let us labor with everything we have to see His Kingdom advancing in this place.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth. The Earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.Genesis 1:1-2
Order and Creation
Just moments before the “in the beginning,” nothing existed. And for limitless eternities, our God was perfectly thrilled to dwell enraptured within the inner trinitarian love of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then, oh, about six to ten thousand years ago, God caused time to start ticking and space to bubble into being. The text says God first created the heavens and the Earth, which before the issuance of light, was just a collection of dark, formless, voided proto-matter that had yet to be organized into something meaningful. All of that changes in verse 2.
Once the darkened, watery building blocks of primordial mass were sung into being, the first thing our triune God does is hover over it. This action signifies His absolute sovereignty and dominion over the matter that He will henceforth be organizing. To hover over the disordered waters of pre-cosmological substances demonstrates that Yahweh is the one who will be taming the chaos, shaping it into a cosmos, and specifying it into something orderly and useful for His purposes. Thus, in six sequential twenty-four-hour days, Yahweh calls forth light out of the darkness and then heaven and Earth out of the waters, filling everything He made with life, beauty, and peace.
The Original Melkor[1]
When God sings the universe into existence, He infuses it with purpose, life, beauty, and order. Like a master composer, He does not allow His celestial symphony to disintegrate into chaos or to lapse into an ear-jarring cacophony. He sang existential and intrinsic order into the masterpiece He fashioned and invited all of heaven’s newly created hosts to join the cosmic ballad with Him, which was very good.
At some point in the song, and no one quite knows how long, the simple harmonies were mixed with a most bitter discord. A rival song was being sung by Earth’s original Melkor. And among the divergent notes, a contingent of heavenly beings defected from their God and followed the dragony piper’s song like rats running to their doom. At this point, the God of order damned the archangel of chaos to slither shamefully upon his belly, dragging himself across the barren Earth, until the lake of fiery chaos could be prepared for him and his minions forever.
Unlike God, this miserable creature hated beauty, life, and order. He reveled in chaos, destruction, and disorder. He hated everything God made, especially the human beings God was so fond to sing about. From that moment on, the serpent of old would become man’s mortal enemy, seeking to extinguish his life, rob his people of beauty and joy, and fill his neighborhoods, societies, and cultures with pure unadulterated confusion and disorder.
Satan’s Discordant Symphony
This campaign of mayhem began amid the beauty and tranquility of Eden’s orderly gardens. It was there the cunning serpent sewed division between the first man and his wife, which caused discord within their marriage, division with their God, and enmity among the creation, who now lived in fear and dread of man. This, however, would not be the end of Satan’s meddlings.
Throughout the centuries, the dragon has sewn discord, disunity, chaos, and open rebellion against God into one society after another. From a spirit of pure malevolence, this menacing entity still foments his sinister plans to topple the race of man. Lucifer, the master of discord, finds solace when unity is fractured, and harmony collapses among people. Like a twisted artist, he revels in the macabre he orchestrates, relishing the scent of bitterness, rejoicing in the notes of animosity that lingers in the air. Division is his chief weapon, his carefully hewn masterpiece, crafted to purposefully erode trust, foster disintegration, and extinguish the sweet harmonies of the Father’s song wherever it is found. With meticulous precision, he exploits the deepest fears and insecurities within the human race, manipulating the fragile strands that bind us all together, causing us to turn on our God, which causes us to turn on one another.
Satan knows that where godlessness takes hold, division thrives. And where division thrives, love crumbles, compassion wanes, and the very essence of humanity grows sick, despondent, and crippled in his schemes. In this wasteland of fractured souls, he seeks to reign as a malignant despot, gloatingly atop a pile of ever-growing human bodies. He is the architect of despair, perpetuating a cycle of anguish and suffering on everyone and everything he can catch up in his snare. That is his modus operandi, and he has done this over and over and over again.
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We can shout to the heavens how excellent and wonderful it is for women to be women! And by women, we are talking about Biblically defined womanhood! We are not celebrating the perverted, diminished, and hollowed-out femininity the world has championed. We are celebrating the God-ordained, glorious femininity that is beautiful and wholly pleasing to God.

You Can’t Talk about That…Watch Me
In clown world, you cannot speak to me unless you agree with me. And you certainly can not speak intelligently on a topic unless it comports with your personal experience. For instance, a white person could not and should not opine about a topic like racism these days because they obviously have no experience with being oppressed (as assumptions go). At best, she is a closet white supremacist, and he is clearly sitting advantageously atop the oppressor mountain (as assumptions continue). According to our new class of social and moral philosophers, the melanin-challenged among us could not possibly have anything to add on such a subject because they have been blinded by decades and centuries of toxic advantage and privilege. If you disagree with such pitiful logic, it is just your white fragility barking.
The same is true when a man opens his Bible and studies a topic like womanhood. He may be learning the truth from the very designer of women, but his opinions are somehow invalid because he has no experience of being a woman. This kind of abysmal logic comes from a feministic culture that no longer knows what it means to be a woman. Now, women can have penises, men can have babies, and groomers who wear dresses can disrobe and flash their genitals in front of little girls, all in the name of womanhood. Perhaps, even a white male pastor, looking at what the author and perfecter of femininity has to say about it, could offer a clearer picture of a woman than the so-called experts. Just maybe.
Putting Forward the Question
The question “What Is a Woman” has more recently become a viral topic on social media since the Daily Wire decided to make their signature documentary “What Is a Woman” by Matt Walsh free on Twitter. The documentary explores that very question, “What is a woman” and allows various representatives from clown world to hang themselves with utterly ridiculous propositions. For that reason, it is a must-see.
Yet, other than a last-second quip by Matt’s wife that a woman is a “Human biological female,” the documentary utterly fails to answer its own question with any sufficient treatment. Therefore, I would like to offer a Biblical case for what a woman is and why womanhood is a very good thing.
What Is a Woman?
From the moment we open the Bible, we are bombarded by what a woman is. According to Scripture, a woman is a special creation (Genesis 1:26) endowed with blessing, significance, and value by the creator who sculpted her in His image (Genesis 1:27-28). In that image, she has been made equal in personhood to the male God called her to correspond with, yet she is made distinct from him in her body, role, and rank.
The Woman’s Body
Regarding her body, she was made to be visually stimulating to her husband. The Bible does not present an androgynous woman who binds her breasts and wears men’s clothing; in fact, it forbids such a thing ( Deuteronomy 22:5). This is because feminine sexual beauty, when rightly expressed in the confines of covenant marriage (1 Timothy 2:9-10), is a beautiful and glorious thing. Take, for example, Adam. When he stirs from a deep siesta the Lord God put him into, He awakens with blissful delight to behold a woman’s naked body (Genesis 2:23). She was made lovely, with softened curves and rounded thighs (Song of Solomon 7:1) that will intoxicate her man, and leave him ever satisfied with her breasts all his days (Proverbs 5:19). Far from being a repulsive aspect of masculinity, male sexual attraction for his wife is part of a woman’s glory. The man is not deviant for desiring his wife, and she is not sensate when flaunting her naked body in front of him to cultivate his desire. She receives affection and attraction from her husband in a way no one else can, and he covenants to cling to her, protect her, provide for her, and love her all His days (Genesis 2:24).
This is why the Bible says it is not good for the man to be alone, because when the man is alone, the woman is left unprotected, unloved, and unprovided for. Instead, her radiating beauty is meant to allure him and then tame him to become more than a man. In her love, he becomes a gentleman, a provider, a father, and a companion. Through her womb, she will bring forth legacies of people who will subdue the earth per God’s perfect vision (Genesis 1:28) and bring manifold blessings to her husband (Psalm 127:5).
Neither the man nor the woman could accomplish God’s plan independently. But through distinct yet equal giftings, they cling to one another in blessings; she becomes the man’s helper (Genesis 2:18), and together they become fruitful, multiplying, ruling, and subduing to the glory of God. In this sense, she was made for man, to help execute the vision he will be held accountable to the Lord for, not vice versa (1 Corinthians 11:9).
Women are also made with a body that can produce children. She has a monthly menstruation that men cannot have, signifying her ability to bring life, even from the throes of death (Leviticus 15). During ovulation, a woman’s sexual drive increases as a way of helping her become pregnant. During conception, she will take a single sperm cell and transform it into an eternal living being (Psalm 139:13), which demonstrates part of the miracle of what it is to be a woman. She takes the small blessings a man gives her, and she multiplies them across the whole of her life. And while the delivery of those children has become arduous and painful because of sin (Genesis 3:16), the woman has a unique and hormonal ability to forget her pain the moment the child is born (John 16:21). After the delivery, the breasts that were used to satisfy her husband, now nourish her infant babes physically from the milk God has made for her to produce (1 Thessalonians 2:7). And, in her mothering, she develops an extraordinary love for her children, that even their father cannot fully comprehend (Isaiah 49:15) that will cause her to give up everything for the blessing of her children. Her body was made for her husband and her children, and from her body, a multitude of blessings flow out to everyone around her.
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Our nation may be under attack right now. The pride flag may be flying. And, the American people, once known for valor, may now be impotent. But the Church of Jesus Christ shall surely stand, and she shall reign until all His enemies have become a footstool for His feet. The only question is will you be the one who fights and builds His Kingdom? Or will you be one who compromises, cowers, and capitulates?

Star-Spangled Patriotism
In the heart of the night, as the cannons boomed and the air crackled with tension, Fort McHenry stood resolute against an onslaught that threatened to engulf the fort. The Battle of Baltimore, an inferno of chaos and valor, surged through the darkness during the War of 1812. In this epic clash, the fate of a young nation hung precariously in the balance, with the stars and stripes of the American flag, flying rebelliously overhead, serving as a beacon of hope amidst the tempest of war.
As the British fleet arrived and unleashed its fury upon the fort, the relentless bombardment shattered the tranquility of the Baltimore sky. Thundering cannonballs screamed through the air, painting the horizon with fiery trails of destruction. Yet, as the explosions rent the air and as buildings crumbled, the defenders clung to their resolve, their spirits unwavering.
Amidst the pandemonium, a colossal American flag billowing defiantly in the face of peril soared high above Fort McHenry. Each gust of wind unfurled its stars and stripes, a sight that ignited the hearts of the defenders at every fateful flash of light. It symbolized their unyielding determination and an emblem of their unwavering love for country and land.
As the British bombardment intensified, fury was unleashed upon McHenry’s walls. Explosions jolted like volcanic eruptions, devouring the night with smoke and flame. The defenders, though few, not only held their ground but held up that flag defiantly through every blast keeping it from falling, keeping it upright, and ensuring it remained intact. Hour after hour, the shells fell on the heads of those poor souls, killing American patriots left and right, painting the dampened soil like rubies from their sacrificial blood. The earth shook beneath their feet all night, and the deafening roar of cannons reverberated through their bones.
But yet, by dawn’s early light and by twilight’s last gleaming, what the men of Fort McHenry beheld as the smoke and ash began to clear, was far brighter than the rocket’s red glares and much more deafening than the British bombs that were bursting in air. What they beheld was proof that our flag had withstood the night and that it was still there. Still there through the bitter onslaught. Still waving, though, hell had been unleashed upon it. Yet, though tattered and torn, it stood proudly, defiantly streaming and screaming at the English Navy that America was still here.
The sight of the American flag still waving triumphantly above became a powerful symbol of American resolve and inspired a deep sense of national pride in the men standing beneath it. And as their hearts swelled with pride and their bodies fueled by an instant bath of adrenaline, those heroic American soldiers valiantly defended the fort, won that battle, and eventually the entire war.
Flags and Declarations of War
To comprehend the profound willingness of these valiant men to sacrifice their lives in defense of a mere piece of colored fabric, it is imperative to delve into the intrinsic essence of what a flag is. These emblems were not intricately woven to serve as mere decorations or museum relics. Instead, flags embody the very heart of national sovereignty.
When the British beheld that resolute flag fluttering defiantly in the morning harbor breeze, it was not the robust fabric that rendered them immobile but rather the damning symbolism it represented. As the flag soared proudly overhead, the British came to a realization: America was the embodiment of resilience, refusing to fade silently into oblivion like the flag they proudly held aloft. That banner symbolized her undying spirit and unyielding dominion that they could not overcome.
This is precisely why every invading army endeavors to establish its own flag upon conquered territories. Why? Because planting the flag signifies a shift in power dynamics, the rise of a new ruling nation, and the ultimate demise of the former regime. The iconic sight of Marines hoisting the Old Glory amidst the battle-scarred landscape of Iwo Jima epitomized the irrevocable defeat of Japanese imperialism. Likewise, the Soviets triumphantly displaying the hammer and sickle above Berlin’s Reichstag symbolized the dethronement of Nazism and the definitive end of Hitler’s tyrannical reign.
When a nation plants its flag firmly into the ground, it openly and audaciously proclaims its dominion over that soil. It screams, “We are the ones in charge!”
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Men, masculinity is defined by God in Scripture. When that is the kind of man you are learning to become, or striving to become, then you have aligned yourself with God’s “very good” vision. Care nothing for what the haters and critics say. Do not apologize for your masculinity, do not be ashamed of it, and do not run from it. Instead, embrace your manly call in Christ and live it out with strength and conviction to the glory of God.

Men, This is Why They Hate You
As society stumbles ever closer toward the cliffs of insanity, speaking the truth has become all the more offensive. But, on the other hand, if you suppress common sense and genetics, dutifully bow the knee like a good boy, and virtue signals the rankest perversions, then you will be perceived as a reasonable man. All you have to do is toe the party line, walk in lockstep with the kind of people who think twelve-year-old boys should be chemically castrated and that men can expose themselves to young girls in lockerrooms, embracing the queerification of America, and then maybe you will go places.
But, if you think Dylan Mulvaney is a groomer, homosexuality and transgenderism are abominations (Biblically defined), that Bud Light wasn’t a real beer in the first place, and that Target should stop selling girls bathing suits with penis pockets, well, then you are a bigot of the highest order. Similarly, if you think education should not be secular indoctrination, that children’s programming should not have lesbian kisses included within it, that pronouns are based upon God’s design of biological sex, and that it should be illegal for drag queens to twerk in front of children in libraries, then you are precisely the kind of rational man, steeped in objective reality, that the rainbow railroad is reeling to run over. They hate you because you love truth and reason, plain and simple.
If that is you, then I want to encourage you with this blog. And I want to equip you for the battle of our lifetimes. Men were made to fight. Not with activism or finger-pointing vitriol that combats hatred with more hatred. No. But also not with a spineless winsomeness popular in the evangelical world that pretends to care about everything but takes a stand for nothing. No, no, no. I want to equip you to fight. Not by wasting your time calling out all of the lies, which at this point are legion. Not in getting angry and going to war with every ideology we, as Christian men, are rightly opposed to.
Today, however, I want to equip you to begin fighting for what you are FOR instead of fighting what you are AGAINST. We should remember that the only way to spot the counterfeit is by knowing exactly what the authentic actually is. With that in mind, I want us to understand Biblical manhood and unapologetically celebrate it. I want us to hold our heads high that God made us men and that being a man is very good!
In the weeks ahead, we will look at how Biblical womanhood is “very good,” how Biblical sexuality alone is “very good,” and how covenant marriage brings all of these “very goods” together into one home. But today, we will be focused on the men. And to do that, we will go back into the pages of Genesis, where we left off last week, speaking about God’s good design of masculinity.
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God made marriage to reflect the holy, eternal, loving, intimate, joyful, and sacrificial love He has always cherished among the members of the Godhead. In that sense, marriage is not about you but is certainly for you. God has invited you to participate in and imitate His triune love. Perhaps this is why Scripture calls marriage the “mystery of the Gospel” because, unlike any other human relationship or institution, it most clearly and most beautifully pictures the divine. 

Recently I remembered why I had stopped noticing the sounds of war during my deployment in Operation Iraqi Freedom. When we first entered the country, every cell in my body was on heightened alert. My adrenaline was constantly pumping. Every staccatoed rat-tat-tat from a distant AK-47 was enough to make my hair stand on end. Every civilian standing in the crowd could be a suicide bomber. Every vehicle could deliver the IED that would send me home looking forever like Lieutenant Dan. And with every mortar round fired, the reality of going home in a box and my mother receiving a triangle-folded American flag pressed upon my mind. Yet, as the deployment wore on, these sounds melded into a strange kind of normalcy for me.
For instance, every morning around 3 AM, the reverberating rumbles of incoming mortar rounds would agitate the little mud brick house we lived in. Those first nights in theater, I awoke in a great alarm from every blast, alert and ready for combat, frantically putting on my equipment for readiness and protection. But, once I realized that Iraqis with Mortar rounds could not hit the proverbial sand when falling off the fictional camel, I eventually learned to sleep right through the explosions as if nothing strange was happening around me.
The thunderous eruptions, once jarring to me, became the ethereal drum tap in the desert’s lullaby. Time, like an ancient spell, wove its enchantment upon my senses, leaving me unconscious of my surroundings, which is what I believe has happened to the modern church.
In his timeless malice, Satan has assailed the sacred bond of marriage for so long that the sounds and signs of warfare upon her have faded into the cacophony of noises we have become accustomed to. While we have grown numb to the relentless onslaught at the devil’s hand, divorce, infidelity, and broken homes have become the tapestry woven into the threads of our society.
For this reason, it is incumbent upon us to wake from our slumber, recognize the war, and cling to the weapons of warfare our compassionate General has assigned us. For all who call themselves Christians, it is time to rekindle our love for the hallowed Word. As followers of Christ, we must valiantly thwart the adversary’s advances on marriage in general, and our marriages in particular, by embracing God’s designs for us, our marriages, our children, and our homes that are revealed in Holy Scripture.
Today, we begin our series on marriage by traveling back to the genesis of it, seeking solace in the profound wisdom spoken by our God in His Word. In this collection of essays on the topic of marriage, we will lean into what Scripture teaches and glean from our Maker’s timeless intention for marriage that will ever illuminate our path. Today, we begin by speaking about the design of marriage from the first Biblical text on marriage found in Genesis 1:26-28.
The Text

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” – Genesis 1:26-28

The Trinitarian Design of Marriage
The Bible describes the creation of man in marital language. For instance, God did not merely create two distinctly gendered individuals, calling them “very good” in their disconnectedness, but a pair of people who would become one flesh together. In the same way that shoes come in twos and socks come in pairs, God made man as a male and female unit that would join together to become one very glorious thing, which of course, was the “very good” part.
In this, we must also notice that the creation of man was a trinitarian event. God does not create the first domestic community without blueprints. Instead, he patterns it off the divine community that has existed forever. At the height of the creation enterprise, God speaks, saying, “Let Us make mankind in Our image” When God does this, it not only serves as proof for the triunity within the Godhead but the kind of intimacy God intends to be present in the marriage.
The Trinitarian Community
For all eternity, members of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in perfect harmony and self-giving love, an exquisite dance of divine affection. This celestial community lives in exquisite blissful intimacy, lavishly pouring out fragrant love upon one another, heralding each other’s praises in melodious harmonies that echoed across the unformed realms, holding nothing back from one another across eons of affectionate fellowship.
In the embrace of the Father, love emanates as an eternal wellspring, an outpouring of perfect affection towards the Son and the Spirit. The Father’s love, boundless and unchanging, encapsulates the essence of nurturing care and tender compassion. It is a love that delights in the Son’s obedience and wholeheartedly affirms His eternal Sonship, a love that seeks to glorify and honor the Son above all.
The Son, in response, reciprocates this love with perfect devotion and filial obedience. His passion for the Father is marked by complete surrender and an unwavering desire to fulfill the Father’s will. It is a love that willingly steps into the realm of humanity, taking upon Himself the weight of the world’s sin, offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice—a demonstration of love that knows no bounds.
The Holy Spirit, the breath and life within the Trinity, embodies the love that flows between the Father and the Son. It is a love that unites, empowers, and guides. The Spirit’s love is like a gentle wind, constantly moving and animating the divine dance. It is a love that testifies to the unity and oneness of the Godhead, bringing forth the fruit of love in the hearts of believers.
Together, the love within the Trinity is a symphony of self-giving, perfect love. It is a love that transcends time and space, existing in timeless eternity. It is a love that invites us to behold the divine dance and participate in its harmonious rhythms. Through the love of the Trinity, we catch a glimpse of the infinite depth of love and are invited to enter into a transformative relationship with the Triune God, where we, too, can experience the boundless love that unites Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This, of course, is best pictured in human marriage.
As many scholars and authors attest, when our triune God patterned man according to His image, He was undoubtedly creating individuals with a rational and creative capacity to think, feel, love, and do.
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This series will not add to the growing noise with my anecdotes, funny stories, and bare lived-out experiences. Instead, this will be a series on what the Bible says. How it defines marriage, sex, manhood, womanhood, gender roles, and many other topics that are long overdue to be addressed.

Why a Marriage Series?
The downfall of every civilization begins with a collapse in marriage. In the beginning, God designed covenant marriage as the fundamental unit of human society. He called one man and one woman to enter into a one-flesh union that would bring fruitful labor into every neighborhood, would multiply God’s blessings into every town, would extend God’s reign to the ends of the earth, and would bring the kind of stability that would establish empires and kingdoms. Without healthy and God-glorifying marriages, there will be no culture worth preserving, no society left to flourish, and no nation that could stand.
Think about it like a fully ripened apple tree. In a peculiar fit of madness, a farmer could take a baseball bat and knock every delicious honey-crisp apple right off that tree. Nothing would happen, except maybe there would be a noticeable lack of apple pies for Thanksgiving. But, suppose he saw the error in his ways and never undertook such an action again, the apples would come back the following year, and nothing catastrophic would occur to the tree.
The same could not be said if that same farmer decided to take an axe and attack one of the exposed roots that are visible above the soil.
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One of the most important works you will ever do is bringing family worship into your home. Family worship will disciple your children in the faith, give them ownership that this faith belongs to them, and prepare them for the war they will be engaged with in the years ahead.

Christianity’s Helm’s Deep
If you have seen or read the Lord of the Rings, you will remember that the defense of Helm’s Deep was one of the finest battles ever filmed or written. Today, it seems that Christianity in general and Christian families, in particular, have found themselves where the forces of Rohan once stood, outnumbered, outmatched, and in a battle for survival.
Upon the horizon of Western Civilization, the storm is raging, howling like a tempest on the open sea, and threatening to engulf the Kingdom of God and all its soldiers in a torrent of doubt and misery. Under the spell of the Dark Lord’s command, the forces of liberalism, secularism, and moral relativism have been amassing armies for years, bending the education system to their will, employing the entertainment industrial complex as propaganda for their perversions, and strong-arming government to execute their commands. This warfare has been aimed squarely at the home, marriages, sexuality, children, and the faith.
Like the valiant defenders of Helm’s Deep, we are tempted to look around and notice that there are but few upon our walls defending compared to the advancing legions. As a result, many have abandoned the fight, convinced themselves that there is no fight or that the Uruk Hai prefer our niceness. Yet, this small and embattled group, the covenant home, though vastly outnumbered by the forces of darkness that assail them, will likewise triumph. Not because our weapons and defenses are so great but because our God and His promises are greater than the walls of Hornburg.
This means we are not defenseless. On the contrary, God has armed our men and women, husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, to wield His weapons, which are as ancient and powerful as the faith we hold dear. The sword of truth cuts through the lies and deceptions of the enemy, illuminating the darkness with a bright and piercing light. The shield of faith protects the heart of the believer, deflecting the fiery arrows of doubt and the blows of temptation. Our banner of love waves high, even above the castle walls, as a symbol of the divine affection that sustains and strengthens us for every battle. And like the men of Helm’s Deep, an abiding conviction to protect our women and children will be how this battle is won.
Today, an all-out war is being waged to snuff out the light of the Gospel and plunge this world into chaos, moral perversion, and ruin. That fight is coming for you, your home, your faith, your children, and you must be vigilant to stand. This post is for our men to wake up, remember that there is a battle, join the ranks, and do everything we can to protect our women and children from the enemy’s encroachment. Our family is our future. The next generation’s church will be filled with our children. And if they take the Kingdom deeper and farther than we did, we will need to prepare them well. To do that, we must recover the ancient discipline of family worship!
What Is Family Worship?
Quite simply, family worship is daily Biblical worship that occurs within our homes. It is the male-led, wife-aided, Spirit-inspired, truth-bound, faithful, and joyful morning and evening adoration of a family unto their God. It is the hymns we sing, the Scriptures we read, the thanksgivings we share, the blessings we heap, the service we render, the prayers that we pray, and the commands we commit to both memory and action that echo from the covenant home and prepare our children for the future battle.
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