Life Here and There

“People never crumble in a day. It’s a slow fade.” ~ Casting Crowns

How true! Failures of a spiritual or moral nature happen as we chip away at our own integrity, as Satan gains one little foothold after another, and as sin creeps up behind us. It happens little by little.

Everybody, but especially ever man ought to watch this teaching video by Casting Crowns explaining how their song, Slow Fade, illustrates Psalm 1.

Or here’s a link to Casting Crowns – Slow Fade Teaching Video.

Another politician has fallen, along with another high-profile Pastor. Both stories come within weeks of each other. Adultery. The moral fabric of a home torn. Some marriages may survive it, though they’ll walk with a permanent limp. Others will never recover. Carnage will lie everywhere.

Not nice to think about, is it? But we’ve got to face it head-on, especially within Christianity. I’ve read lists of “commandments for purity” before, such as Ed Young’s, which he posted on his blog today. I’m thinking through my own right now and would encourage you to do the same.

Have boundaries and limits. Communicate them. Avoid secret places in your life aside from the closet of prayer. Satan loves to lurk in the dark and dusty, cobwebbed corners of our souls. He kicks up dirt where we’ve refused to purify ourselves.

Guard the eyes – the gateway to the mind. Guard the mind – the gateway to the heart. And guard the heart- the gateway to the soul.

Don’t fall into legalism, that life in which living by your own rules overtakes your intimate walk with God. But have the guts to have some standards and to live by them.

May we salvage what is left of the reputation of Christ-followers, and may our families, children, and churches be preserved and revived. Let’s get pure!

photo credit: Olly M Pus

Yesterday, in our Tuesday morning Men’s Bible Study, we tackled one of the toughest issues of life – the discipline of purity. We’re currently studying through R. Kent Hughes’ book The Disciplines of a Godly Man (I’d highly recommend it to all men, more on that in a future post). Allow me to allow Hughes to introduce the topic…

“Sensuality is easily the biggest obstacle to godliness among men today and is wreaking havoc in the Church. Godliness and sensuality are mutually exclusive, and those in the grasps of sensuality can never rise to godliness while in its sweaty grip. If we are to “disciples [ourselves] for the purpose of godliness.” (1 Timothy 4:7, NASB), we must begin with the discipline of purity. There has to be some holy heat, some holy sweat!”

One of the issues raised early in our study time was the correlation between purity and church growth. I’ve been reading church growth material for a dozen years now. I’ve read most of the “hot” books on the subject and there is an element that is almost always missing. Most address the need to better market the church, to teach more relevant material on Sundays, and to be more entertaining in our worship styles. Almost none raise the issue of divine blessing.

The question is, will God bless a church with true “growth” when her leaders are compromising their moral integrity on sexual issues? I know that many will point to some large churches that have grown under the leadership of pastors who were later found to have significant behind-the-scenes moral failures. But I’m not really addressing the numerical boastings of megachurches, but rather the actual, visible impact that local churches are having on their communities today.

We live in an age of limitless conferences on church growth, contemporary worship, communicating and preaching in today’s culture, evangelism and missions, etc. We are surrounded by Christian bookstores whose shelves are stocked with all the help one could ask for. Seminary training is a click away and most pastors are a short drive away from some kind of campus or extension center. Our resources abound, but something is amiss. Richard Dawkins and the new atheists seem to be having almost as much impact on culture as the church. Why? Could it be that we’ve lost our sense of awe for a holy God, who demands holiness of us?

Let me close on a practical note. Man (or Woman), if you’re struggling with sexual purity, seek help. Make it known and avail yourself of the church’s assistance. If it’s a potential affair, or a current one, seek an altar of repentance, seek counseling, and scramble to salvage the marriage into which God has sovereignly placed you. If it’s pornography, seek help. Check out pureintimacy.org for some answers. Download a filter and some accountability software and have your spouse block the bad stuff on the TV. Take action now!

One of the most encouraging aspects of our Bible study was the discovery that though men are wired to be visually stimulated, and though our world taunts and bombards us with sensual imagery at every turn, it is still possible to be pure. God has given us the Holy Spirit who will, at our willingness, stand guard over our hearts. He has given us the Scriptures to feed our minds on His thoughts and His will. And He has given us each other as brothers and sisters in a family of faith.

I want the church in America to grow again, to have a real impact, to see a lasting difference made in our surrounding communities. But it will only happen as holy men of God lead the charge!

“And the Lord shall scatter you… And there ye shall serve gods, the work of men’s hands… But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if you seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” -Deut. 4:27-29

Imagine saying on your wedding day, “Honey, I know in advance you’re going to cheat on me, but if you come home and love me again with all your heart, I’ll take you back.” Or imagine saying on the day of your child’s birth, “Little darling, I know in advance that you’re going to rebel against all of my values, reject me and run away. You’ll dissapoint me and embarass me, but if you come home again and love me with all your heart, I’ll take you back in.”

Obviously, none of us have the knowledge of the future that God has. We can know that things won’t always be perfect. We can guess that people will let us down. But imagine knowing every single dissapointment everyone in your life would ever bring you. Would you go ahead and befriend them, marry them, or bring them into the world? God’s knowledge includes our every act of idolatry, our every thought of impurity, and our every wrong motive. Yet just as He promised to the nation of Israel, He promises to us, “If you’ll seek me with all of your heart, you’ll find me.”

The term “seekers” has been abused by the modern church. We’ve gotten the impression that a “seeker” is simply one who has lost his way a little or one who is struggling to understand God. For many, a “seeker” is simply one who’s self-esteem is impaired and needs to have it restored in order to find God. But a “seeker” according to Deuteronomy is one who has walked in spiritual adultery. A seeker is one who has fled the presence of the all-consuming God in rebellion and reprobation. A seeker is one who has committed acts which insult the holiness and character of God. Yet God says, “Seek me!”

God is ultimately seeker-sensitive, but He doesn’t lessen His holiness to become more like sinners. He doesn’t market His truth like the latest fiction novel. He pleads instead for poor, lost, hell-bound sinners to “turn ye,” to “look ye,” to “seek ye the Lord…” His invitation is open. Anybody that seeks Him finds Him. Think of Cornelius, think of Apollos, think of the Ethiopian eunuch. Each was an example of one who sought God and found Him.

But then, consider the other half of Scripture. Hosea lost his wife to unfaithfulness and sought her out. When he found her, he purchased her off the prostitution auction block, took her home, and committed to forgive and love her again. Consider Zacchaues who was found up in the tree, the woman at the well, and the earliest apostles on the banks of the Jordan. God Himself is the greater Seeker!

He’s been in hot pursuit of you from the time you were conceived, not in your mother’s womb, but in His imagination from eternity past! He’s chased you through your sin, through your wandering, as you’ve sought Him and as you’ve sought to lose Him. The Bible begins with one sinner named Adam, hiding from God. From that moment flows a history of God’s seeking for the redemption of all of humankind back to Himself. And the story of redemption continues with you today. He’s purchased you with the blood of His very own Son, that you could turn to Him, seek forgiveness, and come into His family.

”For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” -1 Corinthians 11:31

Did your parents ever make that ludicrous comment to you, “If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to give you something to cry about?” I never really understood the logic behind that line of reasoning, especially when I was the direct object of the statement. When I read Paul’s words to the Corinthians, it suddenly makes more sense.Paul wrote to a church with severe moral problems within and they were doing nothing about those problems. There was no restorative discipline taking place, yet they came together for the Lord’s Supper as though everything was fine. Paul had the wisdom to foresee that God would judge them for their tolerance of sin, but there was a way they could avoid God’s judgment – handle the problem themselves.

You see, all of us need pruning, and God as our great husbandman and vindresser will certainly take care of us by pruning us. But the process of pruning is always painful. Suffering and crises are often God’s means of cleansing us. He intends for His Son’s bride to be pure, so He purifies us through chastisement… and it hurts. Thankfully, God has given us an escape plan from His punishment in our lives.

That escape plan is to prune ourselves. In our prayer time each morning, we should pray for God to reveal any part of us that He would like to have us prune. When we spend this time judging the sin and evil in our own hearts, we are able to enjoy the wonderful freedom of a relationship with Jesus in purity. Don’t misunderstand. What is necessary is not merely putting ourselves down all the time, rather an honest facing of our darkness with the light of Jesus within.”

Prune thyself, that He prune thee not” might be a good way of looking at it.

Temptation. This one word encompasses all of the greatest threats to a consistent and successful Christian walk. Let it be known that you cannot resist temptation. That is, temptation will always be a part of your life. But you can refuse to give into it in the power of Christ.

The Best of Circumstances

“…all our fathers were under the cloud… passed through the sea… baptized into Moses… at the same spiritual food… drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” – 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 (NKJV)

Paul points us back to the Israelites in their wilderness journeys. He quickly reminds us that great circumstances do not guarantee freedom from temptation, nor from the consequences of yielding to its power. Five times, he says that all of the Jews were at the center of God’s blessings. Then, he lists the top five…

• They all witnessed the guidance of God in a pillar of cloud and fire.
• They all witnessed the parting of the Red Sea.
• They were all identified with a great leader in Moses, the lawgiver.
• They all ate the manna that God provided them miraculously.
• They all drank from the rock, which symbolized Christ’s presence.

But the Bible says that they failed… miserably. Their bodies were scattered across the wilderness as a result of God’s judgment. An entire generation of people, all of whom had seen some of history’s greatest miracles died in the tragedy of overwhelming rebellion.

What you and I need today is not a perfect set of circumstances. It isn’t even a great manifestation of God through the miraculous. Where we must begin to be successful is in getting to know the God of the miraculous. Again and again, the Israelites demonstrated that they had all the gifts God could offer, but the did not know Him well enough to remain faithful. They had tasted His goodness, but had not indulged themselves in Him. Have you met Him? Have you gotten to know Him more today?

The Worst of Decisions

“Now these things became our examples,… that we should not lust after evil things… and not become idolaters,… nor let us commit sexual immorality,… nor let us tempt Christ,… nor complain.” – 1 Corinthians 10:6-10 (NKJV)

Even in the best of circumstances, we can make the worst of decisions. In fact, Paul will make the argument that our self-assurance is really Satan’s playground. Paul reviews the five-step downward spiral of yielding to temptation. You may find some of the steps surprising, but valid nonetheless.

First, we lust. The miraculous becomes boring and commonplace. The miraculous whets our appetite for more of God, but if we don’t seek Him in our hunger, we’ll find other junk to fulfill our desires. Then comes idolatry. When the thing we lust for becomes the object of our worship and the focus of our attention. Willpower is quite self-destructive because it often placed our gaze on the very thing we’re trying to resist.

Step three is committing the act. For the Israelites, it was sexual immorality. For us, it could be anything that breaks down our relationship with God. The word “commit” is significant here. It not only infers that we take action once, but that we resolve to give into a particular behavior. We “commit” ourselves to doing this evil thing. Beyond committal comes a change in our spiritual character in which we “tempt Christ.” That is, we begin to question the very beliefs that might have saved us to begin with. We lose our convictions.

Finally, we complain. This is more than a simply comment. It describes the heart’s calloused reaction to self, God, and the world around us. An old gospel song proclaimed, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Slowly, but wholly taking control. Sin will leave you longer than you want to stay. Sin will cost you far more than you want to pay.”

Are you on the downward spiral of sin and rebellion? Whichever of the five symptoms describes you, bail out of your rebellion now and repent. Confess your sin and return to God’s overwhelming grace.

The Greatest of Promises

Now all things these happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition… Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will now allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 (NKJV)

Today we have the privilege of learning from thousands of years of human civilization. The story of the Israelites’ rebellion in the wilderness was recorded and preserved in an infallible Bible so that we could learn from their mistakes. Satan is still up to his old tricks. In fact, He doesn’t need new ones when the old ones still work just fine.

If you want to overcome temptation, you must rely on God’s precious promises. Paul gives some of God’s great promises to us here. The battle for purity always begins in the mind, so you must begin to replace the lust, idolatry, and questioning of your convictions with God’s alternative thoughts. Namely…

• If you think you can handle temptation on your own, think again!
• Every temptation you face has been faced many times before. You’re not alone.
• God is faithful! Enough said. He’ll be there for you, never leaving nor forsaking you in the heat of the battle.
• God will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability. This removes our excuse, but it also removes our fatalism.
• God will always give an alternative thought, action, or attitude that will rescue you. There’s always an escape route!
• You’ll be able to “bear” temptation. This literally means to “stand up under the weight” of temptation.

Perhaps you feel trapped in habitual sin today. You may feel too weak to overcome temptation. It’s possible you’ve even questioned whether the battle against temptation is worth it. I can assure you it is! The reward will be greater intimacy with God and a greater reward in heaven. You’ve been entrusted with the years of your life, however many they may be. Trust the great promises of God and determine today to overcome in the power of Christ. He’s worth it!