Author: james bruce mcnaughton

Someone I love believes Nietzsche’s statement: Religion is the opiate of the masses. I’ve been on both sides of this so I would like to unpack my interpretation of the statement.

To state the incredibly obvious, Nietzsche was condescending to Christians. They were stupid, easily-led fools who self-medicated their unthinking, worthless existence with the “opiate” that when they die everything will be made right. They don’t think enough to understand “science” and that evolution is fact, not just theory, and so there is no after-life. This is all you get, and you had better get it now while you can.

According to Nietzsche Christians are wasting their lives.

Now that I am a Christian I realize Nietzsche was reasoning out of ignorance. In frustration of not understanding Christians he condemned their behavior using human reasoning. Amazingly the Apostle Paul had the same reasoning as Nietzsche. “If this life is all there is, then we Christians are to be pitied above all people.” Without surrendering to Jesus, without knowing Him and His eternal power, without a relationship with him, you are not able to trust His guarantee of everything to come.

The someone I love lives for this world, what you can see, have, control. They are proud of their possessions and accomplishments. It is an attempt to create the appearance of value, hoping that others will be impressed and give them the value they long to have for themselves.

But they are already INFINITELY valuable. Just the way they are.

Jesus, the one they don’t trust because he could have stopped all the pain they have endured, is the only one that truly loves them and proved it by suffering to pay for all their sins; offering forever life with him and offering meaning for all the pain they have endured, so they can know the joy of loving and helping others who have been hurt as they have.

Thousands of years ago God taught us through Moses to teach our kids through daily life.  How can we do that today?

Get them hooked on VeggieTales and sing with your kids to a closer relationship with Jesus. And the best part is, VeggieTales is for “grown-ups” too! (Also, AutoBgood, 3-2-1 Penguins, Adventures in Odyssey…).

When they lose a toy ask them to pray with you, that Jesus would find it and show you where it is. Ask them if Jesus is going to bring the toy to you or whether he wants you to go to the toy. (Use birds and worms as an example… God feeds them, but they have to go out and work for the worm). Let your kids loose to learn Jesus is reliable. I encouraged but did not help my kids look. “My development” was not “helping” Jesus. I had to risk “Jesus failing” and what that would do to my relationship with him.   In twenty years we have lost many things… and only not found less than 5 of those things we prayed to find.

One time my kids lost a toy truck… Mater… in the lake 50 feet from shore. They yelled to me that they lost Mater and looked everywhere and can’t find it and should we Pray? I have never found ANYTHING I’ve dropped in a lake if I couldn’t see it immediately. With a dozen people I didn’t know near us on shore I yelled, “Dear Jesus, please find Mater.” My son’s next step landed on Mater.

When your mower or snowblower won’t start ask your kids to come over and pray with you that Jesus would start your machine. (if you know your machine takes 4 pulls to start, don’t pull 3 times and call your kids to pray. This is for when you have tried everything you know and it won’t start.) More than once it would start the next 1/2 pull.  My pulling hand would fly back to me away from the engine…  But spectacular or not it ALWAYS eventually started.  (Yes, I know about flooding an engine and it draining and starting, remember, if you DON’T think it will start then call your kids to pray and watch God work).

We started doing this twenty years ago.. YOU MAY HAVE BETTER OPTIONS NOW!… Go out and use them!

In the comments tell me how you have taught your kids about the reality of Jesus in our lives:

My wife and I experienced the Love and Respect: The Love She Most Desires, The Respect He Desperately Needs video series and book by Dr. Emerson and Sarah Eggerich.

The following are some of the scriptures that relate to their message.

Ephesians 5:25, 28, 29, 33 (NASB95)
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;

29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 update. (1995). (Ephesians 5:25, 28, 29, 33). La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.

(The following is inspired by the “Love and Respect” series.  However, these thoughts are not necessarily endorsed by Dr. Emerson and Sarah Eggerich and should not be construed that they are).

Jesus commands the husband to agape-love his wife.  However, not based on her actions, this is not a reward for good behavior.  He is to love his wife because she needs it.  No woman will tell you that she wants her husband to love her only if she meets his standards of behavior.   That is not stable.  That is frustrating and anxiety producing.  It is demeaning.  That is not love.  She always needs her husband’s love and will wither without it.

Now we move to the less obvious.  Jesus commands the wife to respect her husband.  Not because of his actions, this is not a reward or acknowledgement of good behavior.  She is to unconditionally respect her husband because he needs it.  No man will tell his wife that he only wants his wife to respect him when he meets her standards of behavior.  That is not stable.  It is anxiety producing.  It is defeating.  That is not unconditional respect.  He always needs his wife’s respect and will wither without it.

Now let’s move to what is sometimes difficult to accept and do, for both husband and wife.  The husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the Church.  (See Is Jesus a “Feminist”?  Part 1 and 2  https://i-m-4-u.com/2018/06/01/is-jesus-a-feminist/     https://i-m-4-u.com/2018/06/24/is-jesus-a-feminist-part-2/ ).  As being the head, like Jesus does it, the responsibility of the husband is great – he must give up what he wants for his wife’s best interest.  And that means serving his wife to the point of daily dying to what he wants to do, in order to do what she needs; and being willing to literally die for her, if she so needs.  For a man to best do this he needs collaboration from his wife.  Her thinking, wisdom, and strengths are necessary gifts from God to walk along side of her husband and “help” him serve her.  And the root word in the Greek for “help” is the same root word as for one of the Names of the Holy Spirit, that is, “Helper.”  Her husband is to give up his life for her best, and she is to help him help her.

The word submission is scary.  Men are imperfect.  And to submit to a husband “as to the Lord” does not mean you are to submit to evil.  Women are not asked to submit to abuse: physical, emotional, verbal or sexual.  Women may leave those situations and heal.  They must protect their children, if they too are in danger.  The Lord is the wife’s Helper and He will guide her with His wisdom and strength if she seeks Him.

Given a husband of good will, a man with the responsibility to serve his wife’s best interest must have the authority to do it.  If he seeks to honor God and his wife by seeking her highest good, and does not have the support of his wife, he will be frustrated at best and will reject his responsibility at worst.  He may slide into passivity and say if his wife wants complete control she can have it.

By “support her husband” I don’t mean checking her brains at the door to agree with him.  He needs her best thoughts, wisdom, intuition, constructive challenges, etc., to help him serve her.  But in the end, he is responsible to God.  And there is no responsibility without authority.

The husband does not have license; He must give up what he wants and love his wife and serve the best interests of his wife, trusting God to work out everything for their best.

The wife does not have license; She must respect her husband and help her husband serve her best interest; and give up ultimate control, trusting God to work out everything for their best.