Prayer & Fasting For Men: Monday 1st October

Captain Sensible writes: Christian Vision for Men is holding a national day of prayer and fasting for men in the UK on Monday 1st October.
Please pray for this movement and some important meetings they have coming up. Please also pray that we will see men committing and recommitting their lives to Christ in a huge outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you all for joining in, and if you're not in the UK, please join us in praying anyway, and for the men in your country too!

"Look at your troops - they are all women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed their bars."
(Nahum 3:13)

Spiritual Abuse of Single Christian Women Still Going On - And It Must Stop

"...when I asked some of the older women at church to pray for a husband for me and to support me when it sometimes gets lonely as a single living in a city away from my family, they told me that I was needy for wanting a relationship. That I needed to be a well adjusted women in order to be in a relationship. They told me that I needed to learn to be content. I am fairly content, but was left with compounded feelings of guilt for those moments when it does get a bit lonely. I felt enormously guilty for wanting a relationship, prayed earnestly for God to take away the desires for a relationship, and wished those desires would just go away. I really try very hard to not want a relationship, but find it very hard.

"It's so easy to forget that God wants us Christian women married and forming Christian families when we are told that God wants us single, and where it is stressed that we should prioritize praying for contentment over praying for spouses.

"...And at least I don't feel so guilty for praying for a husband now...

"...how rarely we single women hear words of encouragement, even from the church, that makes us feel anything other than very guilty for not being able to rid ourselves of a God-given desire for a husband."

(Comment left on A.N.Other blog)

Captain Sensible writes: When is this spiritual abuse of single Christian women going to stop? Let me re-phrase that, we need to get very serious about fighting this abuse before we do even more damage to Christian women and the entire Body of Christ. The battle is on...

Martin Luther: The Granddaddy of the "Marriage Mandate" Movement?

"After God had made them male and female, he blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply' (Genesis 1:28). From this passage we may be assured that man and woman should and must come together in order to multiply... Hence, as it is not within my power not to be a man, so it is not my prerogative to be without a woman. Again, as it is not in your power not to be a woman, so it is not your prerogative to be without a man. For it is not a matter of free choice or decision but a natural and necessary thing, that whatever is a man must have a woman and whatever is a woman must have a man...
"'Be fruitful and multiply'... is more than a command, namely a divine ordinance which it is not our prerogative to hinder or ignore. Rather, it is just as necessary as the fact that I am a man, and more necessary than sleeping and walking, eating and drinking and emptying the bowels and bladder. It is a nature and disposition just as innate as the organs involved in it. Therefore, just as God does not command anyone to be a man or woman but creates them the way they have to be, so he does not command them to multiply but creates that so that they have to multiply. And wherever men try to resist this, it remains irresistible nonetheless and goes its way through fornication, adultery, and secret sins, for this is a matter of nature and not of choice."

(Martin Luther, "The Estate of Marriage", as quoted in Debbie Maken's "Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the gift of singleness")

A Godly Discontentment Over Singleness

"Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are."
(St. Augustine, quoted in William Sloane Coffin, The Heart Is a Little to the Left)

Is Singleness A Reflection Of Hell?

Captain Sensible writes: Sounds a bit extreme, right? But think about it. The Bible shows us that marriage is an earthly reflection of the relationship that exists between God and His people. So doesn't it make sense that, for most of us, singleness is a reflection of hell? No wonder the devil wants to encourage it! He feels right at home with singleness in our lives.

Important New Principles of Christianity!

Frieda Fruitcake writes: I feel the Spirit moving in my waters, and prompting me to bring you some fundamentals of contemporary Christianity (and to illustrate how times have moved on from the bad old days of the early church!).
So here are some important "do's and don'ts" that should serve as a reminder of the duties of the contemporary Christian life.

1) Do attend any Christian book-related course that is offered. Not only will this give you the chance to sit comfortably in someone else's sitting room (drinking tea that someone else has made! Always a joy!), but more importantly, it will keep you away from the unwashed heathens outside of our precious holy huddles!

2) Encourage church leaders to continue to drone on with unchallenging sermons that couldn't have taken more than five minutes to prepare, and from which any hint of passion has been surgically removed. This gives them plenty of free time in the week to attend meetings with similarly stupefied church leaders (more blessed holy huddles!) and we can catch up on some much needed sleep at 11.00 on a Sunday morning!

3) Under no account share your faith with anyone. If it is God's will that they be saved, then leave it to God! He is sovereign! Does God need your help?

4) In the unfortunate event that you do slip up and share your faith, make sure that it is with either a woman or a child. Reaching out to men is strictly prohibited under the New Christianity of the 20th and 21st century.

5) Under no circumstances must you do anything other than "talk the talk". Offering practical help of any nature to anyone in the world is a sin that will result in eternal damnation. If Christians are accused by a heathen of "being all talk", then never dream of apologising and asking them for forgiveness. Rather, praise God that the Kingdom is saved from a sinner, and simply walk away. That is the only Godly thing to do. After all, the Bible tells us that faith with works is dead (although this was wrongly translated previously).

6) Always listen to, and follow the example of, more mature Christians. After all, they have successfully alienated a whole generation of sinners from the Kingdom, and this good work must be allowed to continue unhindered into the next generation too. God has placed it on my heart to warn of the dangers of over-population in heaven, so we must humbly follow their good example and, by the grace of God, the decreasing percentage of church-goers in the United Kingdom will continue to shrink.

7) Remember that using wisdom is strictly prohibited! Idiotic stupidity is to be praised, as only by showing the world how out of touch with reality Christians are, is God glorified! What a testimony disengaging your brain is to your trust in God!

8) When in holy huddles, take care to denigrate marriage at every opportunity. Encourage any stubborn men that refuse to leave the church to be eunuchs and praise them for it, and always be vigilant in disciplining the single women that desire marriage and a family. The concept of the family has now run its course. Thanks be to God!

9) Should a single woman aged 28 or over decide to give her life to Christ, take care she renounces her hopes of being a wife and mother, along with renouncing the kingdom of Satan.

10) Finally dear sisters and last remaining brother, keep praying for all the saints! That way you need never do anything that involves thinking or getting your hands dirty!

Praise the Lord!

Debbie Maken's Biblical Truths About Singleness: #2

"...think about what happened in Nazi Germany. One could say that those events were God's will. In a technical sense, those events did happen while God was ruling. But for us to say that God wills the murder of six million innocent people completely contradicts what he has revealed in Scripture and inaccurately reflects his desires."

Captain Sensible writes: If you are single, then it must be God's will that you are? Not on your nelly! (Help in translation is available here!)

Anita Roddick: A Woman Who Made A Difference

Captain Sensible writes: Anita Roddick founded The Body Shop empire from her kitchen sink, and pioneered the concept of Fair Trade before it became trendy. She was also a wife, mother and grandmother. In some ways, she reminds me of Proverbs 31 woman. She cared for her family -- but she also just cared.
One quote from her sticks in my mind: "If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito."
Anita Roddick made an impact, and I thank God for her life and the difference she has made.
Anita Roddick (1942 - 2007)

Wisdom Is Unbiblical!

Frieda Fruitcake writes: I am encouraged that wisdom -- particularly, but not exclusively, in the area of singleness -- has now become unbiblical. As every true Christian knows (not the likes of Debbie Maken of course!), wisdom was for the Old Testament and is now hopelessly outdated! Our great, but oh so fickle, God has changed over the years, and using wisdom now means that you don't "trust God".
Just one example of the way in which wisdom has become obsolete comes from our brothers and sisters across the pond.
There is currently a school of thought that goes along these lines:
If an unmarried woman has a career, that shows she put her career before marriage, and that's why she is not married.
Of course, the old wisdom would have pointed out that because she is unmarried, she had no other option than to pursue a career.
But away with that!
We know that God now holds women responsible for their lack of feminine leadership, and this concept of blaming women fits in very conveniently.
Praise God for doing away with wisdom, demoting men from their responsibilities of leadership and marriage, and then blaming women for having to fend for themselves!

Christlike Praise For Our Church Leaders!

"They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger."
(Matthew 23: 4)

Frieda Fruitcake writes: Praise God for the fulfilment of Jesus' words by our church leaders today! How right they are to scold single and barren Christian women about being content and the need to wait on the Lord for a husband, whilst they themselves go home to their wives and children, and neglect to reach out to the men in the world!
Praise God for these "hypocrites", "blind guides" and "blind fools"!

Living Alone - Dying Alone?

Captain Sensible writes: Very moving story in the Sunday Times magazine today about a man called Andrew Smith, whose undiscovered body was not found for two months, when a neighbour noticed the smell. He was 40 years of age.
The article forms the magazine's cover story, with this headline:

"By 2021 a third of us will live alone. How many will die alone too?"

Here are a few extracts:

"It seems the UK is becoming a nation of loners. In 2004 there were 7 million people living alone in Britain -- nearly four times as many as in 1961. By 2021, 37% of all households in Britain are expected to be made up of people who live alone. But these figures reflect more than just an ageing population -- today, more than 10% of people aged between 22 and 44 live by themselves, compared with just 2% in 1973"

"...we can estimate that thousands of deaths go unmourned by family or friends."

"...figures...often include numbers of foetal remains and stillborn babies -- adults who die alone are grouped with lives that never began."

"And to live your life knowing that if you didn't exist, nobody would notice, must be so lonely; it's being a ghost before you have gone."

Tragic.
I do wonder if this is more of a problem for single men than it is for women? Women naturally form relationships with others much more easily than men do. Men have greater incidents of autism and Asperger's Syndrome than women (I believe), and generally seem to slip into a spiral of solitary aloneness much more easily than women. I have always felt a particular sadness whenever I have seen a man eating alone in a pub or "greasy spoon" cafe, and never quite understood why. Perhaps it's for the same reason that women tend to live longer than men.
It is not good for man to be alone.
Is the term "contented bachelor" an oxymoron?

Debbie Maken's Biblical Truths About Singleness: #1

"I knew being discontent about my single status just wasn't allowed. Raising poignant questions about singleness came with the guarantee of an onslaught of trite platitudes and glib, pithy sayings. 'It's better to be single than to wish you were.' 'Marriage is a lot harder than it looks.' 'Bloom where you're planted.' 'It might not be God's will for you to marry.' 'God knows when you will be ready, and he'll send you a husband at just the right time.' 'Think of all the ways you can serve God by being single.' Knowing what I would hear, I pretended I was happy with my singleness, though in actuality I was totally miserable inside.'"
(Getting Serious About Getting Married: Rethinking the gift of singleness by Debbie Maken)

Captain Sensible writes: Thanks to Debbie Maken, no Christian woman need ever fake contentment about being single again! In years to come, we are going to look back and note the publication of Debbie's book as the moment when the church began a return to a Godly perspective on marriage and singleness.