I watched two of my grandsons practice their wrestling moves during a team workout a couple of weeks ago.

And it didn’t take long to recognize that a familiar form of perversion had once again breached the boundaries of sexual distinction.  Some young girls were also participating in the session, grappling, one-on-one, with other prepubescent boys.

Now, before I submit any moral reservations about what I saw, let me submit, from personal experience, what are some unintended natural consequences of ignoring those boundaries.

When my son was a nine or ten year old boy, he wrestled regularly in tournaments with a local club.  He was very aggressive and loved being competitive.  He also won many of his matches as a result.  But during one event, he was bracketed to compete with a little girl in a first round match.

At the time, I remember thinking that something didn’t seem right about it.

However, I kept my feelings to myself as I stood and witnessed every ounce of that confidence and zeal evaporate while confusion consumed him.

He rolled over and let her whip him.

I was furious.  And so were a few spectators—including some of the coaches.  I’m sure I was embarrassed as well, but that’s not the point.  I’d taught my son from a very early age that physical aggression was never permissable toward the opposite sex.  It wasn’t about losing the match.  It was, rather, about invalidating every attempt I’d ever made to try to teach him to respect a female’s body and her integrity.

Normally, I would’ve said,  “What happened, Son?”  This time, I didn’t have to ask.

But I’m not writing to try to convince any father that allowing girls to wrestle boys can create a moral dilemma.  Because if he needs to persuaded that males and females are quite capable of somehow grasping each other’s hot spots in a wholesome manner while mutually engaged in a body-contact sport, he’d probably have quit reading by now and gone back to streaming mud wrestling competition online.

So I write to those of you who might see things like I once did—someone who should have known better.

Before my son’s match even began, I should’ve refused to let him participate.  I should’ve listened to the voice which cautioned me that it really wasn’t okay for him to clutch a female by the crotch or forcefully bear down on her chest with his own.

To have questioned whether or not young children were normally aroused sexually through close contact shouldn’t have been an issue to consider.  Nor should any argument suggesting that they had neither knowledge nor respect for the boundaries created by gender have been raised either.

The only issue to have been considered should have been, “What were the young wrestlers being taught?”

The objectives of those who push to blur the lines of sexual definition go far beyond its present-day repercussions.  It’s not about attempting to initiate sweeping changes overnight.

Depravity thrives in its capacity to be subtle.

And the Evil One is a master at peddling perversion through incrementalism.  There’s no better way to incubate the seeds of lust and indecency in innocent children than to instill doubt and vacillation about where purity begins in the hearts and minds of the ones to whom that knowledge has been entrusted.

That’d be me and you.

One of Satan’s most effective means of separating Jesus Christ’s disciples from Him is to synthesize God’s miraculous gift of sexual distinction.

How long will we continue to allow him to do that?

Solomon certainly had the creds to preach about wisdom.

But it wasn’t as if the Lord God just decided to lay it on him one day.  He asked for it, and he got it! Not only that, he was also obliged to share it.  [see: 1Kg. 3:5-13]  Maybe that’s why he chose to jot down some of his thoughts:

“To know wisdom and instruction…to discern the sayings of understanding…a wise man will hear and increase in learning…to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.” [Prov. 1:1, 5a, 6] [my emphasis]

And wisdom is certainly not without an Origin:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.  Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”  [Prov. 1:7]

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”  [Prov. 9:10] 

So, even if I have doubts about the origin of wisdom, or feel like I can’t benefit from Solomon’s collection of proverbs, I could surely acknowledge one important principle after reading them:  It doesn’t just happen. In order to have it, I need to look for it—or “her,” as the “teacher” sometimes suggested:

“If you seek her (wisdom) as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will discern the fear of the Lord and discover the knowledge of God.” [Prov. 2:4-5]

I’m certainly no authority on why the feminine pronoun was commonly used to describe an inanimate topic in ancient Hebraic dialog, but I can make an educated guess. That’s because I’m a male.  I’m naturally predisposed to modify an object of my affection into a more familiar image of gratification.

When did you ever hear a female say something like, “Mary, come look at my new pearl necklace, ain’t she a thing of beauty?”

But a man can’t help it.  He correlates the beauty of a woman with his restored ’49 Roadster Coupe, or his new fiberglass bass boat, or his old burnished Winchester over/under 12 gauge shotgun.

The most remarkable wisdom that Solomon imparted to the reader of his proverbs was that a man’s most precious object of affection is realized in the Word of God Itself—or rather, Herself.

And I don’t have to look that far to find Her.

“Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square.  At the head of the noisy streets She cries out.  At the entrance of the gates in the city She utters Her sayings: ‘How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded—and scoffers delight themselves in scoffing—and fools hate knowledge?'” [Prov. 1:20-22]

But just like your new bass boat, She comes with a price tag.  For Solomon, that cost was paid with humility and reverence. These human attributes were commonly expressed by the Jewish patriarchs as a fear of the Lord.

It’s interesting that he seemed wise enough to ask God only for wisdom to lead His people even before the Lord granted him the capacity to do so.  He didn’t ask for a new horse, or greater authority, or a long and healthy life.  [1Kg. 3:5-13]

He perceived the majesty of God’s sovereign wisdom and just character as something comparable to the glory and elegance of a righteous woman. [Prov. 31:10-31]

It was priceless.

“So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.”  [Psa. 90:12, the words of Moses]

My wife and I went to see the motion picture Gosnell the other day at a local movie theater.

We went expecting to witness some of the documented horrors about a Philadelphia physician who was convicted a few of years ago of performing abortions on impoverished women living in the inner city .

I remember reading and hearing about this trial in the news when it happened, so I was prepared to reaffirm something I already knew was unconscionable—that is, that the slaughter of human fetuses on demand is murder.

So I guess, then, in some respects, my expectations were met.  A bad guy did some bad things and got caught and is paying the price.  But maybe you think it’s not that simple.  Perhaps my world seems to be a little bit too black and white?

Well, my world’s just like yours.

In a civilized, moral society—that is, in something we’re expected to embody and demonstrate, the premise that someone can possess the legitimate agency to kill at will can never be granted in the course of public debate or adjudication.  If it is, then a crucial tendency for any form of decency to prevail is forfeited, and no amount of “Christian” tolerance or understanding can takes its place.

But something else caught my attention during the movie.

And I suppose it was intentional on the part of the producers.  It didn’t just expose the horrors of the abortion industry.  It revealed a much greater abomination—one which exposed the dispassionate nature of what would otherwise seem to be a reliable pool of courageous, God-fearing people. Men in particular.

The plot revealed that no one appeared to be interested in what was happening.

Not until they were forced to, that is.  So I didn’t have to wonder why media reporters didn’t report, or governors didn’t govern righteously in support of defenseless, unborn [and already born] infant children.  I also shouldn’t have been so surprised that every seat in the movie theater we were in was empty except for ours and the three others which were occupied by females.

Nevertheless, I was enraged and deeply discouraged at the same time.

I’m confident that, in spite of what appears to be a wholesale endorsement of abhorrence from certain news media, celebrities and political interests, most people do indeed claim to fear the Lord and profess to live and act in His best interests.

But when pressed to defend their beliefs, it appears that certain violations of God’s civil and moral code remain off limits to criticism.

However, any decision Jesus Christ’s disciple makes not to stand up in the face of evil is an open denial of His authority to accomplish an effective line of resistance through the actions of that disciple.  His lack of confidence in Christ’s power to execute much needed change through His Body undermines His purpose of achieving what the Body is unable to do on its own.

I refuse to find myself standing before Him someday, pleading my case of indifference to His Holy Nature.  And if I have the audacity to denounce evil, then I should be able to find the backbone to follow up with action.

Organized vocal protests at the doors of abortion facilities and the support of pro-life movements are integral to winning the battle, but the voice of God’s people resonates the loudest from the voting booth.

The polls open at 7:00 am on Tuesday.

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”  —William Wilberforce

I’d sure like to know what it tasted like.

Manna, that is.

In the ancient Writings of the Old Testament, it’s recorded as being “…like coriander seed, white, and its taste was like wafers with honey.” [Exod. 16:31 ]  Anything that spikes my blood sugar like that should be at the top of the grocery list.

But some people just can’t get enough of a good thing.  In the gospel account of John, he records that a crowd was following Jesus Christ around.

And for good reason.

The previous day, He’d performed a miracle with which this Jewish culture could readily identify, based on the stories and written record they’d heard or read about over many generations. After thanking His Father, He provided what was necessary to feed some five-thousand hungry men from two fish and five loaves of bread.

It was a miracle from Heaven, just like the manna was.  They were obviously convinced He was the Messiah of Jewish prophecy who’d just demonstrated that they’d have a chicken in every pot forever. [Jn. 6:14]  They weren’t about to let Him out of their sight.

So one can only imagine their jaws dropping when He suggested that they were following Him around just to keep their bellies full:

“Jesus answered them and said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.  Do not work for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man shall give to you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” [Jn. 6:26-27] [my emphasis]

Work?  What kind of work?

“Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God:  That you would believe in Him whom He has sent.” [Jn. 6:29]  [my emphasis]

The Jews who were hearing this were the Lord’s chosen people of that time, in the same sense as the redeemed or “saved,” are today under the New Covenant.  But just as is sometimes the case today, belief was probably something that was assumed or validated on the basis of a label.

[How is being “saved” today relevant to ancient Israel being “chosen?”  see: Are You Stuck in Egypt? see also: Different fruit, same good news.]

They were God’s people, and that was sufficient in itself.  However, some of them were getting their feathers ruffled because He said that He was “…the bread that came down from heaven:”

“So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.  The one feeding on My flesh and drinking My blood possesses eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day.  For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.  The one feeding on My flesh and drinking My blood remains in Me, and I in him.  As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who is feeding on Me, he also shall live because of Me.  This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died; the one feeding on this bread will live in the age.”  [Jn. 6:53-58]    [my emphasis]

[What does it really mean to possess eternal life? see: The Precious Pearl of Life.]

This scope of this article isn’t to draw attention to any shortcomings of the Jewish culture. On the other hand, it seems to me that the ideas of “feeding on His flesh” and “drinking His blood” define the essence of genuine relational intimacy with Him, relentless submission to Him, and profound emulation of Him.

I eat to maintain life.  What I consume determines whether or not I’m able to sustain my life.  At some point, I’ll eventually exhibit the cumulative effects of my diet in appearance, thoughts and actions.

What will I look like?  How will I act? Who will I resemble?