To My Brothers

[Gerard Henry]

There is an enemy out to steal, kill, and destroy your divine inheritance. This enemy has been plotting against you for multiple generations, not wanting you to flourish in your relationships with your Creator, your friends, and your family. He disguises himself as your friend... your partner... the one who "has your back." This friend teaches you to be self-serving and self-centered, the god of your world. He persuades you to pacify your pains, fears, and worries with momentary comforts such as alcohol, drugs, pornography, sex, prostitution, and many other destructive behaviors, to cope with the weight you carry on a daily basis. He discourages you from growing in attributes like honesty and integrity, commitment and responsibility, loyalty and devotion, humility and self-control. Lust is his name and he knows your role as a future or existing husband and father are keys to a stable society that would make it extremely difficult for him to live. Therefore, he has systematically attempted to weave into your psyche habits and patterns contrary to true love and godliness.

Your divine inheritance is to be a visible expression of God in the earth. Your Creator has purposed for you to experience the "God-Kind-Of-Life" in every way. So when women come in contact with you, they know they have experienced a measure of God. When children come in contact with you, they know they have experienced a measure of God. When the elderly come in contact with you, they know they have experienced a measure of God. This by no means implies that we are perfect and possess no character flaws. It does mean that we have a standard by which our lives are governed and that standard provokes us to continuously grow and develop on a higher plain. In this process we will experience more of God's life spilling into our daily affairs.

So how does this apply to us sexually? Since we carry the sperm that gives life, we must understand the responsibility associated with sexual intercourse. It is irresponsible to be sexually intimate with a woman you have not committed your life to in the bonds of marriage. Women like safety and security, and a life-long commitment helps to communicate that she is safe and secure. To use a woman for personal pleasure prior to presenting your life to her for eternity is self-serving and shortsighted. Your actions create the wrong foundation for the relationship, which will ultimately create problems. If not for you directly, then for the next brother who has to swim through the muddy waters of her heart that you have soiled. Of course, this happening repeatedly creates unstable relationships, which produce unstable families, which create unstable communities, etc. Why is there a sense of lawlessness in the land today? Why is there so much anger, hatred and perversion? Could it be that people are responding out of pain inflicted by broken homes and broken relationships... in some cases generationally?

Our deepest longing is love, yet we try to attain it by principles of lust. Living life for ourselves, seeking momentary pleasures but not being willing to take responsibility for the consequences will leave us inwardly unfulfilled. This enemy of lust convinces us to focus on self-gratification at the expense of someone else. It is much easier to get involved in multiple relationships where the women provide specific physical and emotional needs than focusing your time on nurturing one relationship whereby it grows deep and wide.

In the realm of male-female relationships and family, we are the leaders and have a tremendous responsibility to pursue righteousness and create a righteous environment where we are. We want to build something that lasts, something that can endure the test of time. Our relationships should begin with a spiritual foundation that affects the mental and emotional dimension, ultimately leading to the physical expression in marriage. This is the righteousness we are called to create but it cannot happen without knowing the Righteous One.  So evaluate yourself my brother!

This is an abbreviation of what is in my book entitled, "Sex At Its Best: Going A.W.O.L. (Abstinence Without Lust)" Visit //www.gerardhenry.com for more information and to sign up for my Weekly Inspiration.

God Bless!

Gerard

[Novelist]

To all of the men who read this passage.  I am a woman who will be honest about the way I feel about men and not to condemn anyone or allow guilt to protrude, yet it is frank.  I have come to share who I am and what I have experienced with men and to post some questions regarding the man's perspective on God, love, relationships, careers, friendship, family and so on.  Now, we  have all been hurt before.  Women and men are hurting and suffering from wounds of the past while in the present.  In particular, men have contributed toward some of those wounds because they were wounded.  

Therefore, scars can lead to scars and when more scars are created, they become infected by the past, present, and possibly the future.  Now, I have been hurt before and I was wounded by men whom I thought I loved.  Not to completely blame them for the
damage, but they have contributed enough.  From the tears at night, verbal abuse, irresponsibility, and lack of commitment, I have been scarred by these things.  Why did this happen?  I am not sure, there could be thousands of reasons, but what I would like to pose is why are men afraid to show their sensitivity? Why is it hard for men to commit to women, but yet they choose to commit to another woman who may not deserve his love more than she?