What is ”The Strange Him!!”? The Strange Him!! is a MAN that has conviction, courage, and strength. A “MAN” in today’s society is totally different than a “man”. A MAN is one who protects, provides and leads. These MEN are truly strange to most people and this newsletter is an observance and celebration of that MAN. Thank you for you support and hopefully you will like what you read and share this newsletter with another “strange” MAN. Stay strange my friend!!

The Forge - A forge is where steel is exposed to extreme temperatures in order to make it malleable so it can then be transformed by the maker. The following words are intended to present you with information that may permeate your life and possibly bring about a change in it.

Meekness

The image above, or something similar, is what probably comes to the mind of 99% of people when the word “meek” is mentioned. Why is that? The following is total speculation and you can decide for yourself if this is even a plausible explanation but let us ponder what is probably the most well-known reference, EVER, that includes the description of “meek”…Matthew 5: 5 - Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Let us examine the context of the verses of Matthew 5: 1-11. It seems that in these verses, Jesus is referring to people that most would generally be considered ordinary or not real exciting, to say the least. The poor. The weak. Those who mourn. Peacemakers. And, like said previously…the meek. These references do not inspire thoughts of powerful people, or of people that have carved their place into history. Somehow, through the years, these descriptions of heavenly prosperity have somehow been transformed to represent weakness, seemingly because of the commonplaceness of the people these descriptions describe.

In Hebrew the translation of the English word meek is anaw. Anaw refers to someone who is afflicted or bearing a heavy burden. This definition is largely an account regarding the circumstances some people are willing to sustain, rather than a state to concede to. In the Bible only one person was literally, defined as meek and that is Moses. As you recall, Moses was continually at the service of others and never complained no matter how intrusive this service was to his life.

Jesus was also meek. He was continually helping others, putting the needs of others before himself, and showed the ultimate representation of meekness when he went to the cross and bore the weight of the world’s sin on his shoulders…without complaint…thereby it is meekness that carried out the design of salvation.

To study the word meek in the Greek, one of the related words used is prautes which suggests a total lack of self-pride, to the point of a lack of self-concern. Another analogous word used to describe meek is praus. Praus is resolved strength with a guarded and restrained calmness. As we look at these words as they relate to each other, a meek person essentially has a heart attitude that will willingly accept and submit, without resistance, to the will and desire of someone else while doing so with constraint and without reservation.

Meekness defines a person that has a superordinary desire to help and serve others with no recognition or reward for themself while also maintaining a fervent resolve, courage, conviction and strength to uphold their core principles while not relieving their rights. Both Moses and Jesus are considered the archetype of meek, of any peoples described in the Bible, but less not forget of the times when they showed their strength and determination when it came to upholding their beliefs and values. Jesus furiously drove the merchants and money changers out of the temple, not once but twice. Recall also, when Moses had come down from Mt. Sinai and the people were worshiping the golden calf. He was so mad that he threw down the tablets the Lord God had written, breaking them, and admonished the Israelites.

One would have to wonder how could such humble and selfless MEN become so full of rage and fury? Their displeasure came from their deeply held convictions, and they were self-bound to uphold the tenets they rooted their life around. This is where we as MEN have stumbled and opened the door for darkness to fill our days. We have lost sight of our convictions and have lent ourselves to a passiveness that is not meekness, and in most instances, we display cowardice with our silence. In his Discourse on Meekness, Matthew Henry describes meekness as “a kind of self-control. True, biblical meekness is a self-control of strength that makes us lambs in our own causes and lions for the cause of Christ.” This description seems a bit narrow but does give us a good idea of what meekness means. Building a little more broadly on the previous definition, meekness is self-control of strength that creates of us lambs for all areas of our life where we submit to the needs and concerns of others before ourselves, yet we should be a lion for the cause of Christ…and…the deep rooted principles of our life (which for believers should all be centered around Christ, for the non-believer these being your core values of good versus evil).

The Maxim - general truth, fundamental principle, or rule of conduct

We here at The Strange Him!! are big fans of the author Robert Ruark, most especially The Old Man and the Boy. There is no need to put the following quote into context because it applies to all situations where we must stand up as a meek man (true to our convictions). “…there occassionaly came a time and a place where politeness wasn’t any good and you had to meet bad manners with worse manners.” This quote should resonate inside of all true MEN but yet we idly stand by as the evil of this world continues to capture footholds in every aspect of our life. Why are we apprehensive and frightened to meet bad manners with worse? We as MEN should be wholly ashamed that we have let evil capitulate into every aspect of life around us, even to the extent that MEN have passively agreed to our own demise. Who would have ever thought that in 2024 masculinism would be taking a back seat to feminism? These days, truly masculine MEN are considered toxic, misogynists, misanthropes, chauvinists, sexists, egotists, bullies, and the list goes on and on and on. MEN have allowed these labels to be applied without much resistance. After all, it is MEN, who have all taken their spine out of their back and allowed western civilization to take a deep dive off the cliff and into depravity.

The Breach- the verb breach means to make a gap in and break through 

-The Lion-

On a past podcast of Order of Man, Kyle Thompson the host of the Undaunted. life podcast, had been invited to the show as a guest on the show and during the conversation the topic of meek came up. Kyle noted a picture he had created that he keeps on home screen his phone. It is a picture of a lion and a lamb and a title that states, “A lion for them, and a lamb with them.” In this context he seemed to be talking primarily about life with his family and that description really digs into the depth of how we as MEN should live our life for our family. After all, following our relationship with Christ, our priority and duty is our family. We should always be the MAN that is of unwavering meekness for them. Remember earlier of how we described a meek MAN. A MAN that steadily puts all things for others first in his life before himself (the lamb) BUT is also resilient and constant in his beliefs and values and is willing to fight for them (the lion). We as MEN, for the most part, have the lamb and lion part of the equation figured out for our family. Certainly, there are times we struggle to put our wife or kids in front of ourselves, but this is something most of us are always willing and will do on a regular basis. Being the lion comes a little easier when it pertains to our own household…it is our dominion, but if we are serious with each other, we probably compromise with meekness there also.

-How do we become a lion for all?-

Is our family where being a lion should stop? We certainly have no problem being the lamb, but the lion? What about being the lion for our community? Our country? How many of us struggle with being a lion in all aspects of our life? If we are being truly honest with ourselves we would surely agree that we are not lions! We are not clearing the school boards when they allow sexually explicit books or videos into our school systems, we are not standing up nationwide protecting innocent kids from gender re-construction surgery, we are not standing with each other and rebuking things that stray from our core values of good and bad. NO, we are not being the lion’s that we are created to be.

Being a lion in today’s climate has turned into to being more of a singular role but yet we are needed to be lions. When a MAN stands up to be the lion, we all just sit around and watch as he falls on his own sword. Until we as men, start standing together, a synergy will never develop. Only until MEN decide they have had enough of sin, come together and have real dialogue, unequivocally stand in each other’s corner until the final bell, and be prepared to suffer with each other, only then will we see MEN stand up and be the lions that God has ordained for us to be.

The downfall of the lion in the western society seemingly started with the good times since the 1960’s. It was around this time, men started becoming comfortable in life and coincidentally less of a lion.

We have all read this but read it slowly again and let it resonate with you. We are all guilty.

There is one-way men become the lion…together with Christ as our guide.

If we take up the yoke of being a lion, alone we will fight and die. This is exactly the place where we are today. We are too fat, too happy and care more for what we have (our life and possessions) than the ridding of evil around us (author included). We all know that to step out and go to war with the evil amongst us, will not only place ourselves in ourselves in a position of vulnerability, but also those we love. This is a hard pill to swallow, but until we as MEN become sick of living in the darkness that envelopes us and become unified and stand together in the gap while being bound with the whole armor of God, then and only then will we as MEN ever see the principalities of evil start to retreat.

Becoming a true lion means having other lions. There is a reason why the Lord tells us in Matthew 18: 19-20 ¹⁹ “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. ²⁰ For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” There is power in unity. God tells us this, yet we still live individually. To become the lion, we must all come together with the same common objectives. Take the birth of the United States of America as an example. The patriots of that time did not act as individuals in their fight against the British. The group included men from all walks of life that dreamt the same dream, walked the same walk, and talked the same talk. Until the day arrives that we stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, cover each other’s six, and become the MEN that God has ordained us to be, MEN will continue to be demonized as we are the problem with society and sin and damnation will continue to run rampantly unchecked.

Odyssey -a long series of wanderings or adventures, especially when filled with notable experiences, hardships, etc. 

This week’s challenge is going to be the same as last week…involve yourself in a group. Step out, find a group MEN to hold you accountable and that you can become a lion with a priority. A true MAN doesn’t prescribe the things going on around us but as we read earlier, it takes more than one lion if change is to be made. All you need to do is go through the contact list on your phone. You will run across that one guy that is involved with a group of true MEN. The MEN’s group you are looking for isn’t a bowling league or a Tuesday night poker night group…although the MEN in those groups may be part of the group you are looking for. The group you want will be genuine, faith centered, family oriented, law-abiding MEN that want to be a part of change. When you find your group, you will know.

The Quench - a process of rapidly cooling a piece of metal in order to achieve or modify specific properties like hardness, strength, or toughness.

Until polls are available, we will continue to have to be accountable to ourself for the previous weeks Odyssey. Be true to yourself.

How did finding a group go? Was it a challenge or did you even try? Men need each other. Men groups are everywhere, you only need to look and step to it.