🕊Eorthian

Unorthodox, always striving for the truth, Jesus loving, Bible believing, I know politicking isn't the way, Jesus is.

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

The Wall and the Road
(an original poem written by me, Nathan Matthew Knerr)

I stood atop a wall of my own making
I thought its height was breathtaking
But I knew that it enclosed me
And I often felt quite lonely

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@Metadrene How about John 1:1 in the original Greek?... oh wait, nevermind

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@j_monohan It's wrong because the danger or risk is in being rejected by your wife, not in the enjoyable act itself (as such an analogy implies)... and it's gross

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

No one and nothing owes you happiness; if you want it, go get it

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@WonderWomaNinja "Everything she built" amounts to nothing if it's not built on the Rock, which she seems to understand — lovely to see!

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

I can only really remember one time I got my blood pressure checked, the first word out of my doctor's mouth was "excellent". He knew what he was doing.

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@j_monohan @jtraub91 It may be absurd but I wanna try it!

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

Hyperliteralist interpretations of the story of the Garden of Eden are so tiresome and perplexing... they give me the "blue screen of death" mentally

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@Curi_Christian 'Can' is different than 'should', and occasionally someone does need to get their butt whooped

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@j_monohan Cope? Seems to me that you figured out how to help your brain function at its best, and do it. This is the kind of healthy behavior more people should be exhibiting.

And you're a great writer, so there's that.

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

The Bible does mention a curse — and I suppose a curse can be a miracle of sorts — but you're right in that it doesn't specifically mention the behavior of animals.

However, my biggest objection to the idea of no animal death pre-fall is that God warns Adam and Eve that death would be the consequence of sin — a warning that lacks weight if they've never witnessed death.

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@bestofHP_

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@ThatEricAlper I checked, they did it right

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@Curi_Christian @antitheistdad Or until the door to the Ark is shut

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@ChristyLaMonde I never join those things, but that sounds like a lot

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies"

[DogeDesigner @cb_doge]

💯

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

Wise words, "You put the cart before the horse. You get possessive (feeling like you have to get the thing to be OK) rather than expressive (bringing the thing to fulfillment from the power at work within you)."

Or to paraphrase Jesus, "It's not what goes into a man that either defiles him or gives him life, but it's what comes out of him."

[Giff Lasta @GiffLasta]

Do Men Need Sex?
Pursuing Our Sexual Destiny

“You guys don’t need sex—you’re not gonna starve without it!” This take from women online always sparks a firestorm from frustrated men. We feel gaslit about real problems. We feel shamed for having a healthy libido. Many double down, “We absolutely need it!” Don’t take the bait—It’s a trap.

It’s an understandable trap, because sexual longing is excruciating. Growing up, I didn’t want to die before having sex. When I had all of that drive and desire torturing me, the thought of never getting fulfillment felt like Hell. Fast forward fifteen years, after quitting porn as a married man, I was forced to feel the pain of my lackluster bedroom. I felt rage and resentment towards my frigid wife: “so much pleasure could be ours, and what—she isn’t in the ‘mood’?” Sure we had sex occasionally, but it wasn’t the heart-pumping ecstasy I wanted. The marriage I longed for depended on this: why couldn’t she just fulfill my needs?

One day while I was venting about all this, my coach @MarkQueppet said the words that baptized me into manhood:

“The world owes you nothing.”

I was furious. I didn’t buy the idea that we don’t owe each other things in marriage. There was this thing I wanted more than anything in the world, where this was the only morally acceptable outlet, without which life feels almost unbearable, and the only thing standing between me and fulfillment was her. I must have married the wrong woman—now I was trapped in this prison of a life.

I couldn’t see it at the time, but my sexual posture guaranteed failure. I saw getting the kind of sex I wanted as a need for me to be OK. Since I couldn’t get this need met elsewhere, that meant it was her duty to meet it. That framing put the ball in her court. She held all the cards. I saw myself as a victim and all I could do was sulk.

It’s hard to imagine a posture less sexy to a woman. Female sexuality is designed to respond to generous male confidence and power. A man of abundance, keyed in to his adventure, inviting her to join him—that’s the frame a woman’s libido finds difficult to resist. His strength makes her feel strong, strong enough to receive all his passion (quite literally filling her.) But my needy posture reversed masculine/feminine polarity. I was leaning on her, craving fulfillment from her like an infant hungry for the breast. She might even pity me, but maternal feelings don’t lead to great sex. She wasn’t intentionally withholding what I wanted—God himself had designed her sexuality to be repulsed by the man I was presenting to her.

I resisted. Sacrificing my sense of “need” felt like giving up the possibility of my desires’ fulfillment. To the truism, “If you don’t need it, you're more likely to get it,” my passionate soul screamed, “But getting it, if it doesn't mean anything to me, isn't getting it!” I couldn’t imagine letting go without betraying the deepest parts of myself.

Then came the revelation. In a moment dangerously close to relapse, I watched an old sex scene—covering everything explicit and focusing only on the faces. The man was calm, confident, and almost playful. The woman surrendered freely. And it struck me: if he had radiated the “I need this to be OK” energy I carried, like a creepy Gollum obsessed with his “Precious,” she would’ve recoiled. The sexual paradise I thought would fix me was an illusion—an idol. Those in true ecstasy have already brought their own fullness with them; those who chase ecstasy AS fulfillment are forever grasping at a phantom.

“The world owes you nothing, but you can pursue your desires with all your heart.”

My whole posture towards sexuality changed and I became a new man. I sacrificed my sexual need, and received sexual power in its place. Without the existential dread of missing out, without desperately trying to fill a gap in myself and in my marriage, I could simply go for what I wanted without fear. And it worked! Initially she was cautious, uncertain if I was for real, but today she relaxes into me, body and soul.

This didn’t happen all at once, and I still slip into the old mindset where I crave sexual comfort. But I see it as the trap that it is—a satanic lie that will deprive me of both the fulfillment I want and the sex I want by conflating the two. So if I’m feeling mopey and my wife offers sex, I say, “I’ll be with you in a moment, sweetheart” and first get my heart right before God. Not least because the lackluster sex that “needy me” engages in is a mockery of the sexual destiny that our marriage deserves.

That’s the problem with seeing any of the great joys of life as “needs.” You put the cart before the horse. You get possessive (feeling like you have to get the thing to be OK) rather than expressive (bringing the thing to fulfillment from the power at work within you). I don’t see the feeling of having great sex as my ultimate longing; rather, I want to enjoy being the man who is likely to make great sex. That puts the initiative back in my hands.

“I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

A sexless marriage is a sacrilege. You are right to long for better and work for better with every fiber of your being. You’re right to want her buy-in and support. And of course a great sex life has benefits on all fronts and strengthens a marriage. So I understand the pushback when women say “you don’t need sex.” It sounds like they are making excuses for a low-sex marriage and trivializing your longing.

But “need” is too brittle of a category for the male sex drive (plus, its female-coded pop psychology lingo—a bunch of dudes talking about their “needs not being met” is cringe.) The guys at SpaceX don’t talk about meeting their “going to Mars needs.” Rather, they have a burning desire for the adventure of taking humanity to Mars and they pursue it with all their power. They don’t mope about how life is empty because they aren’t on Mars; they glory in every win and learn from every setback—all the while making themselves more and more likely to fulfill that destiny. And even if they fail, what a ride!

Sexual abundance isn’t your “need”—it’s your destiny.

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

More people need to understand this stuff!

[Ryan Rogers @ryanMcRogers]

Why porn is such an insidious addiction, with @MarkQueppet @GiffLasta @JLeslieElliott and Jake Wiskerchen:

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@MarkRPellegrino "Yo your summer" sounds more gangster actually

[🕊Eorthian @KnerrNate]

@ChristyLaMonde Consent to do what? Play video games? And I think I'll just make a child with my bride — close enough, right?