The Bible Verse No Guy Enjoys Reading

J. LEE GRADY

 

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Deuteronomy 23:1 is painful—but it shows us that God wants to heal the wounds of the masculine soul.

I’d never heard a sermon on Deuteronomy 23:1 until last month, when my Puerto Rican friend Luis Roig had the courage to read the text out loud to a group of men in Florida. When he did, one guy gasped and fell on the floor. Several others laughed nervously, and we all drew our knees together and groaned.

The Holman translation says it this way: “No man whose testicles have been crushed or whose penis has been cut off may enter the Lord’s assembly.”

Ouch!

Please pardon the graphic language, but older translations just aren’t clear. The King James Version says, “He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.” That’s putting it mildly!

Change Your Self-Image

Written by Terri Savelle Foy

When I was a little girl growing up in church, many times they would call all the children of the church up to the front for the guest minister to pray over. We would all be lined up waiting for the preacher to get to us and wondering what he might say. I would hear all these amazing things about the kids down the row, then I would hear the preacher say things to my sister like, "You're bold and courageous! You're a powerhouse! You're a lion!"

I would be standing there just waiting to hear what awesome things he might say over me. Suddenly, he'd get to me and his voice would become very soft and he'd almost whisper, "And you're just precious! You're a little sweetheart. You're a peacemaker and a little lamb." I thought, "That's not fair! I want to be the lion!"