Here is more insight from Alastair Roberts.  He notes our society has difficulty with male virility because of what he calls, “gender-integrated environments.”   How  do we deal with the male libido?  “When historically male spaces become gender-integrated,”  maintains Roberts, “men must tone themselves down in practically every realm of life.”  Men then become stunted, needing to repress their natural strengths. 

Male virility left repressed will leave men undeveloped and starved for meaningful expression.  Roberts believes, “many men feel an unmet hunger within themselves and perhaps also a sense of shame at their emasculation.” Men become “unhealthy, repressed or impotent” when they must restrain themselves in ever “collapsing distinctions” between the sexes. “Men can’t become men by spending the overwhelming majority of their time in contexts where women are heavily represented,” Roberts warns. 

Roberts assumes the following  – “When we integrate the sexes throughout society and lose meaningful and productive realms of all-male or all-female society….men and women become stunted and we experience a sort of self-alienation…Virile masculinity takes up space and makes it difficult for women to occupy that space on equal terms.”

Masculine virility was loud and clear as I listened to “sports talk” radio on our long road trip to North Carolina recently.  The passion, excitement and seriousness with which the hosts and the audience dialoged about college and pro football was intense.  With all the critical issues in our culture, sports talk seems to be  the one place where men seemed free to express their passion.  There was fire in the belly for their teams and favorite players.   

I wonder about the “fire in the belly” of the men who read this blog.  Do you have the experience of Jeremiah when he said, “…his word burns in my heart like a fire.  It’s like a fire in my bones!  I am worn out trying to hold it in!  I can’t do it! (Jer. 20:9 NLT)?   Do you know your voice as a man or do you feel impotent in your expression?  The Palmist expressed it this way, “The more I thought about it, the hotter I got, igniting a fire of words’ (Ps 39;3 NLT).    

If you are a follower of Jesus, God’s word is within you.  God told Ezekiel to eat a scroll.  “Son of man, eat what is before you, eat this scroll…..” (Ezk. 3:1).  So he opened his mouth and God gave him a scroll to eat.  God told him, “Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it” (3:3).  God gave John the Apostle a little scroll to eat.  “”Take it and eat it.  It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey” (Rev. 10:9).

When we read about the stomach, you can be sure that both Ezekiel and John had digested what God wanted them to know.  It became a part of who they were.  Each man will express his virility, because of the word of God is within him, in a unique way that fits a man’s story and journey.  Don’t let anyone silence your voice.  It will lead to indigestion and emasculation.   

Remember Paul’s words to young Timothy.  “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.  For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-control (II Tim 1:6-7 NLT).  We need to hear this word, so as to not be intimidated or silenced.    

Findings of the biennial State of Theology survey from Ligonier Ministers conducted with Lifeway found more than half of American adults, including 30% of evangelicals, I believe that Jesus isn’t God but rather a great teacher.  52% of American adults believe that Jesus was a great teacher and nothing more, while  65% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God,”  not both God and man.  An earlier Barna study showed that only 51% of Americans believed God to be “all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect and just creator of the universe who still rules the world today.”  In 1991, 73% of Americans believed that to be true.

Stephen Nichols of Ligonier Ministers noted, “As the culture around us increasingly abandons it moral compass, professing evangelicals are sadly drifting away from God’s absolute standard in Scripture.”  “The spiritual noise in our culture over the last few decades has confused and misled hundreds of millions of people,” according to Barna.” [We] can no longer assume that people have a solid grasp of even the most basic biblical principles.”  

These findings  come with a “trumpet alert” to men reading this blog.  Our culture will descend into chaos without a moral compass. “I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'” (Jeremiah 6:17). This blog from time to time will sound the trumpet, warning of danger ahead.  Pay attention. “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.  Raise your voice like a trumpet” (Is. 58:1).  I raise my voice as a warning to all men who read this blog. Men, the enemy wants to take you out, intending to have you drift without direction in the coming chaos.   

Joel was told to blow the trumpet because the day of the Lord is coming. “Blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy hill.  Let all who live in the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming” ( Joel 2:1).  God is warning his people.  A flood is coming.  But like Noah’s day, “people didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away.”  The enemy would like for you to be spiritual asleep and completely unaware of the coming flood, allowing you to be swept along by the coming confusion.

Men, don’t let yourself be caught napping in the coming tide.  You may be in danger of being swept away without a moral compass.  Remembering these anchor points will help.   First,  Scripture is your sure moral compass.  Jesus said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away away” (Luke 21:33).  The Psalmist declared, “Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heaven” (Ps 119:89).

This second suggestion may surprise you.  I encourage you to have a passionate, loving relationship with Jesus.  The Psalmists panted after God.  Let your deepest passions be for God.  Allow yourself to be a lover of God.   

Thirdly, in your daily affairs, know that you are part of the kingdom of God.  It is now, not by and by.  Jesus’ resurrection power and life are available to you.  “The kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21).  

Fourth, I plead with you to find a group of men who are building an ark.  That is, they know what is coming and they are preparing to weather the storm, not just for their sake, but their families.  “By faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land.  He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and acted on what he was told. The result? His family was saved” (Heb. 11:7 Message).