PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Ezekiel 1:26 tells us that the Lord today is a man on the throne. We as the living creatures express Him as a man. He is the man on the throne, and we also bear the appearance of a man. All the living creatures bear the appearance of a man. It is man who fulfills God's plan. It is man who expresses God. It is man who defeats Satan. It is man who brings the kingdom of God into the human race. Today God needs a man. We may want to be like God, but God wants to be like us. He became a man, and today He is still a man…. Whatever you do, whatever you say, whatever you express, you must be a man. Today God needs a man. He became a man, and He is still a man. We, the living creatures, also bear the appearance of a man.

Each of these four living creatures has four faces. If we saw someone with four such faces, we all would be frightened. Suppose he had the face of a man in the front, the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left, and the face of an eagle at the back. Would you not be frightened? Yet this is exactly what we must be. We all must have these four faces.

THE FACE OF A MAN

The first face is the face of a man, because we ourselves are men. Since we are men, we should look like men. We were created as men, but we were corrupted, poisoned, and damaged by the fall. Therefore, we needed the Lord's redemption. By the Lord's redemption, we were brought back to the proper humanity. Strictly speaking, the humanity we have now is not ours but His. We have the humanity of Jesus within us. Among the Chinese people there is a kind of saying that it is difficult to be a man. They feel that it is preferable to end the human life by death and to become something else. But this concept is absolutely different from the Lord's salvation. The Lord's salvation is to make us proper men. Some of the husbands might say, "I am tired of being a husband." But you must realize that the Lord's salvation is to make you a proper husband on the earth. If you are a wife, the Lord's salvation is to make you a proper wife. If you are a parent, the Lord's salvation is to make you a proper parent. If you are a child, the Lord's salvation is to make you a proper child. Hallelujah, the Lord's salvation is to make us proper human beings! Thus, we all must bear the face of a man….

Please read the four Gospels again and notice that Jesus was a person with the proper humanity. Many who read the four Gospels only pay attention to the miracles worked out by His divinity; they never pay attention to the things worked out by the Lord's humanity. I like to see the beauty shown in the Lord's humanity. For example, John 4 relates how the Lord Jesus was traveling with His disciples to the city of Samaria. Because He was tired and thirsty, He asked His disciples to go into the city to buy something to eat, while He rested. After they were gone, the Samaritan woman came. What a marvelous picture! He was the Almighty God, yet He was behaving Himself like a normal man, without any hint that He was God. When He asked the woman for water, He gave no indication that He was anything more than a man. That woman even rebuked Him, and He was willing to suffer her rebuke. The four Gospels record many stories like this. The Lord Jesus behaved Himself like a normal human being, bearing the face of a man. Today, we too must bear the face of a man.

THE FACE OF A LION

We also must bear the face of a lion. A lion in the Bible signifies boldness, vigor, strength, and victory. What does this mean? In our Christian life we need first to be a man. At our school, in our office, among our neighbors, we must be a man. But we must also be a lion. If in the office you are a proper man, it will draw people to you. When they are drawn to you, they will be the germs corrupting you. They will like you and invite you to participate in evil things, such as movies. At that time you must not behave as a man, but as a lion.

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