Ray on Monday: DO MEN FEAR WOMEN? (book giveaway)

Enter the draw for "From Eden With Love" (print book) as a giveaway. (Details and announcement at end of post)

Mmm, not quite sure what I think about the following, but Ray would like your views on this as he works out in more detail the ideas in this week's devotion.

Over the past little while I’ve been disturbed by the way women are treated around the globe. The brute force of a man is more than a match for any woman. Why then do I imagine that many men have an unreasonable, inbuilt, systemic loathing or fear of the gentler sex? It goes beyond experiences in upbringing or broken relationships. Something in the heart has been twisted and become manipulated by the powers of darkness.

This irrational and undefined fear is expressed in religions which imprison women behind a burka, refuses them liberty of an education and makes them inferior before the law. There are similar attitudes in any secular society where a woman is a sexual object, someone to assault inside or outside marriage while denying her respect and equal opportunities.

Men may laugh at the suggestion they are exploiting and limiting women out of fear. However I believe this fear is a result of a spiritual state of mind. To restate that – it is the rejection of, or opposition to, the Biblical view of a woman as defined by Christ in his treatment of the Church. Check Ephesians 5: 21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22:Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.” 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...

In the Bible I believe there is a revealing of the source of the moral and spiritual demeaning of women. God promised Eve in Genesis 3 that through a woman would be born the one who would crush the head of the serpent. In verse 15, God told the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring] and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

It was Adam who fouled things up and made a mess of this World. In verse 17, God said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’... “ The curse for his disobedience followed.

Eve was deceived but he had the direct command from God. It was Adam who disobeyed. His male descendents probably have been trying to rid themselves of this shame on their “maleness” ever since. How do some try and cover this shame? By blaming the daughters of Eve and making them suffer.

The devil and his kingdom sought to prevent the promise of God to Eve. A promise repeated in Isaiah 7:14 and fulfilled in Matthew 1 and Luke 2. The devil knew God would choose a pure and holy woman to be the mother of the promised Messiah. So, the devil’s answer? Crush, imprison, defile and abuse. Heaven’s answer was a spiritual and moral code in Israel for the welfare and dignity of the woman!

Satan feared the promised woman who would give birth to the Saviour Jesus. He fears the ‘Woman’ called the Church, the Bride of Christ, for she reveals his doom and failure. Satan fears the ‘woman’ called Israel (Revelation 12) for she has God’s promise of future glory. This spills over into his loathing for all daughters of Eve. Every time a man, nation or religion despoils, destroys or demeans a woman they are siding with Satan’s strategy.

How different is the attitude of Jesus. The Gospel accounts reveal His appreciation and defence of women. He treated them with respect and imparted to them dignity and equality. Those who say they follow Jesus must treat women with Christ-like respect. Why? For to love Christ as Lord and Saviour is to be delivered from such devilish fear!

Ray (without such fear) Hawkins.

I’m very glad about that my darling husband!

Some of Ray’s thoughts about marriage are in his 31 Day devotional book, “From Eden With Love.” Check out Ray's books at :-http://www.evenbeforepublishing.com/rayhawkins.html

This is also available as an eBook, but if we have at least four comments here from anywhere in the world, we will have a draw and send the winner the signed, printed version of "From Eden With Love".

YES! A NEW BOOK OUT SOON!

This is to celebrate in anticipation, Ray's new book "Captured by Calvary" available very soon. And don't forget to return here when we will have another draw for this new book also. 

Please leave a comment to win "From Eden With Love – and don’t forget to add your email address.