Well I finally did it. After putzing around for two years with major problems in my sinus cavities I had surgery to correct my deviated septum, remove the polyps and clear the air passage as much as possible. Slowly but surely my sense of smell was disappearing. I began to think my farts did not smell...and that can be embarrassing. Without my sense of smell I was to a degree out of touch with the world around me. Sure everything looked and sounded the same and we can certainly live more easily without a sense of smell than sight or sound.
Living in sexual sin is like that. On the outside you might look and seem the same to others around you...bus something is missing. I think you begin to miss what adds joy to life. Joy in our relationships is what we live for. But when we are in isolation and living with secret sin we are not ourselves and we do not connect with people the way we could if we were being honest.
Eat a meal without a sense of small and eating become purely a functional activity to keep the body going. It is the sense of taste and smell that makes a meal a delicious activity. Like in relationships...it is the sense of intimacy with people that makes the relationship deep and satisfying. But I cannot have that if I am hiding from the other person.
Where do you need surgery in your life?
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
A Powerful Word
I had a wonderful experience this past week. The truth in it is true for all of us.
Not often do I feel I hear a word from God. There have been a handful in my life and one of them was Thursday October 29th.
I have been reading a lot of books and in them they were talking about making a list of the things about you that are positive, a list of your strengths to battle the constant barrage of bad thought and feelings we have about ourselves.
So the week before while praying during my drive to work, I decided to ask God a question. I said; "Father what do you like about me?" I shut up and listened. I started to think about some things I like about myself ... but how cool would it be to hear about the things my Abba Father God likes about me. I heard silence. So no big deal ... but I kept the question open and would wait for His answer.
Well, Thursday it came. I had asked him again saying look you do not have to answer. I know you love you. I know you choose me before the creation of the world. You sent your only son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins and have given me eternal salvation... but Father it would be really cool to know some of the things about me that you like ...
Then He answered...one word...He said; "Everything!" A burst of joy filled my heart and all I could do was laugh a deep hearty belly laugh. God loves everything about me. And he loves everything about you as well. Think about that one!!!
Not often do I feel I hear a word from God. There have been a handful in my life and one of them was Thursday October 29th.
I have been reading a lot of books and in them they were talking about making a list of the things about you that are positive, a list of your strengths to battle the constant barrage of bad thought and feelings we have about ourselves.
So the week before while praying during my drive to work, I decided to ask God a question. I said; "Father what do you like about me?" I shut up and listened. I started to think about some things I like about myself ... but how cool would it be to hear about the things my Abba Father God likes about me. I heard silence. So no big deal ... but I kept the question open and would wait for His answer.
Well, Thursday it came. I had asked him again saying look you do not have to answer. I know you love you. I know you choose me before the creation of the world. You sent your only son Jesus to die on the cross for my sins and have given me eternal salvation... but Father it would be really cool to know some of the things about me that you like ...
Then He answered...one word...He said; "Everything!" A burst of joy filled my heart and all I could do was laugh a deep hearty belly laugh. God loves everything about me. And he loves everything about you as well. Think about that one!!!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Healing Quick or Slow
In the church I work mostly with men that believe in Christ and have a long standing relationship with God. Some of them have been in church most of their lives. Yet they are addicted to sex, porn and masturbation. They want to be healed. They are sick and tired of acting out and failing to be able to stop. They feel powerless and cry out to God for healing.
I believe that God does heal. I believe that sometimes he heals miraculously and immediately. Other times, for reasons only He knows clearly, He heals us through a long process. Also, other times he does not heal us but grants us the grace to endure the problem.
When it comes to sexual sin I believe there are several factors to consider for the believer. First, as with all sin, Christ's death on the cross and resurrection has paid the penalty of sin and released us from the monopoly of sin in our lives. Read Romans 6 and 7 and you will learn that because we have died and resurrected with Christ we have died to the law and its controlling power over us is broken. We are now free to chose to not sin. We can chose to make our members instruments of sin or righteousness everyday.
That is the foundation of our healing. It is finished and in place. But we must work on the foundation Christ has laid down for us.
Next, we need to pray for God to heal us from our addiction. It is clearly God's will that we should abstain from all sexual immorality (1 Thess 4:3). He wants us to stop and he has given us everything we need to stop. Believe that and you have built a little on the foundation Christ has made for us.
Next, we must understand that our experiencing God's healing over sexual sin for the rest of our lives will require that we follow a process...and we will learn from the process. For example, if we cry out for God to heal us immediately and let's say he does it. The reality is that we still have three problems. We have a sin nature or flesh that still exists in us and for years if not decades we have trained that flesh to indulge in sexual sin. That flesh or sin nature will be with us till we die. We must learn the process of walking in the Spirit so we do not fulfill the desire of the flesh.
Second, we live in a fallen world that is saturated with using sex to sell everything. Sex is available to us daily in multiple ways. We have to learn to live in the world and yet not let it get to us. That takes the process of daily discipline and developing a strong relationship with Jesus.
Third, we have an enemy, the powers of darkness, spiritual forces of evil that are working against us. We must learn to use the full armor of God and how to resist the devil so that he flees from us.
Now I believe that God has broken my addiction to sexual sin. But it is only in working the biblical and spiritual processes that God has given me on a daily basis that I experience continuing freedom from acting out in sexual sin.
So healing is both quick and slow. But it all comes from the new life that Jesus gives us in His Spirit. Thank God for what He has already done and then get working on your own salvation from sexual sin...for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:3-4)
I believe that God does heal. I believe that sometimes he heals miraculously and immediately. Other times, for reasons only He knows clearly, He heals us through a long process. Also, other times he does not heal us but grants us the grace to endure the problem.
When it comes to sexual sin I believe there are several factors to consider for the believer. First, as with all sin, Christ's death on the cross and resurrection has paid the penalty of sin and released us from the monopoly of sin in our lives. Read Romans 6 and 7 and you will learn that because we have died and resurrected with Christ we have died to the law and its controlling power over us is broken. We are now free to chose to not sin. We can chose to make our members instruments of sin or righteousness everyday.
That is the foundation of our healing. It is finished and in place. But we must work on the foundation Christ has laid down for us.
Next, we need to pray for God to heal us from our addiction. It is clearly God's will that we should abstain from all sexual immorality (1 Thess 4:3). He wants us to stop and he has given us everything we need to stop. Believe that and you have built a little on the foundation Christ has made for us.
Next, we must understand that our experiencing God's healing over sexual sin for the rest of our lives will require that we follow a process...and we will learn from the process. For example, if we cry out for God to heal us immediately and let's say he does it. The reality is that we still have three problems. We have a sin nature or flesh that still exists in us and for years if not decades we have trained that flesh to indulge in sexual sin. That flesh or sin nature will be with us till we die. We must learn the process of walking in the Spirit so we do not fulfill the desire of the flesh.
Second, we live in a fallen world that is saturated with using sex to sell everything. Sex is available to us daily in multiple ways. We have to learn to live in the world and yet not let it get to us. That takes the process of daily discipline and developing a strong relationship with Jesus.
Third, we have an enemy, the powers of darkness, spiritual forces of evil that are working against us. We must learn to use the full armor of God and how to resist the devil so that he flees from us.
Now I believe that God has broken my addiction to sexual sin. But it is only in working the biblical and spiritual processes that God has given me on a daily basis that I experience continuing freedom from acting out in sexual sin.
So healing is both quick and slow. But it all comes from the new life that Jesus gives us in His Spirit. Thank God for what He has already done and then get working on your own salvation from sexual sin...for it is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Phil. 2:3-4)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
180 is for men who are struggling with sexual sin but want to return to God. The roots of my sexual addiction go all the way back to when I was first exposed to pornography. It was sometime around the age of 10 or 11. That was about 45 years ago. My sobriety has only been a little over 4 years. However, I am so glad for God working in my life and helping me escape the chains of my addiction. Are you chained to porn? Tried to break away many times? There is hope and there is healing in Jesus Christ. There is work to do and things you must choose if you want to get well and get free.
One thing I have learned in working with men who want to get free...everyone's journey is different. Our addictions are different. The root causes of your addiction is different from mine. However, that doesn't matter and regardless of how you got to where you are there is hope for you. We are all different but there are similar principles that can be learned and applied to your in your own specific ways.
Ask you question and leave a post and I will try and answer them all.
Hang in there ... it will get better.
One thing I have learned in working with men who want to get free...everyone's journey is different. Our addictions are different. The root causes of your addiction is different from mine. However, that doesn't matter and regardless of how you got to where you are there is hope for you. We are all different but there are similar principles that can be learned and applied to your in your own specific ways.
Ask you question and leave a post and I will try and answer them all.
Hang in there ... it will get better.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Day 2
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4
We all know the cliché; “It’s not what you know but who you know.” Well, I would argue that both are important. Do you know God? Do you have a relationship with Him through receiving His son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior? That is where new life begins. He is the source of God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives and so we must start there. However, so many believers stop there and never move on to the “what you know” of the Christian life.
In verse 3 Paul asks; “Or don’t you know…” OK here comes a news flash and this is something that if God were not telling us this information then we would not know that; “…all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” What the heck does that mean???
In the New Testament the word baptism has several meanings. Literally, it meant to immerse or to dunk under the water. It also had a figurative meaning. Used in the cloth dying industry it referred to the action of submerging a piece of cloth into the dye. Then, when the cloth was brought out of the dye, it had changed color. What was once white was now red or blue or whatever color the dye was. The action of baptizing the cloth into the dye changed the cloth so that is became completely identified with the color of the dye.
The bible says that we were baptized into Christ Jesus. We are the cloth and He is the dye. That means that we have become identified with him. Being baptized into Him has in a way colored our lives. It means that what happened to him has been transferred to our lives. So when Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose from the dead, the effects of all those things are given to us. We are baptized or united with him in those things. They never actually physically happened to us but God applies what happened to Jesus to us and so the effects of those actions become a part of our reality. We are the cloth and his actions are the dye, so God baptizes us into Him and we become like him. Complicated isn’t it…that is why the verse says…Or don’t you know?” No, we didn’t know that…but now we do! So what does that mean for us?
Ok, we have been baptized, or united with Christ. As a result we have become united with Him in his death, his burial and resurrection. Read it again out loud in verse 3 and 4. Go ahead I will wait. Good…now note that this is what God has done this for us. He has united us with Christ in these things so that there could be an affect in our lives. Pay attention, because what he says next is crucial if we are going to be able to experience being set free from the bondage of sin!
Why has God done this? He tells us in verse 4. “…in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” By uniting us with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has made it possible for us to live a new life. The most important word in these verses is that little 3 letter word “may”. It is possible for us to live a new life. This is now possible because since Jesus died it is as if we too have died and since Jesus was raised to a new life it is as if we too have been raised to a new life. In this new life that we have in Christ the bondage of sin, or the control of sin in our lives has been broken and now we have a choice. We can choose to sin or we can choose to not sin.
So if you have ever felt like you are being tempted and you have to sin…that is a lie. If you feel that you are addicted to sin and it has you in its grasp and there is no letting go…that is a lie. If you feel you must masturbate in order to relax and go to sleep…that is a lie. We are not chained to sin any longer. We can choose to give in to the temptation or we can choose to walk…or run away.
Look, I know this isn’t Sunday Morning Comic Strip truth. It is complicated truth and not easy to understand. God has told us this because we need to know it if we are going be able to experience the new life that is possible in our relationship with Christ. So do not give up and go back to your “fluff of the day” devotional, or worse yet, no devotions or study of God’s word at all. Hang in there and God will get us through it. See you tomorrow!
Heavenly Father – Thank you for what you have done for me. I want to fully understand what this means that I have been baptized into Christ. Thank you that his death, burial and resurrection has paid the penalty of sin in my life and broken its power so that I do not have to sin. The chains have been broken and I am now free to choose to not sin. Help me today to make that choice at every moment of temptation.
Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
“Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” Romans 6:3-4
We all know the cliché; “It’s not what you know but who you know.” Well, I would argue that both are important. Do you know God? Do you have a relationship with Him through receiving His son, Jesus Christ, as your Savior? That is where new life begins. He is the source of God’s grace and forgiveness in our lives and so we must start there. However, so many believers stop there and never move on to the “what you know” of the Christian life.
In verse 3 Paul asks; “Or don’t you know…” OK here comes a news flash and this is something that if God were not telling us this information then we would not know that; “…all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?” What the heck does that mean???
In the New Testament the word baptism has several meanings. Literally, it meant to immerse or to dunk under the water. It also had a figurative meaning. Used in the cloth dying industry it referred to the action of submerging a piece of cloth into the dye. Then, when the cloth was brought out of the dye, it had changed color. What was once white was now red or blue or whatever color the dye was. The action of baptizing the cloth into the dye changed the cloth so that is became completely identified with the color of the dye.
The bible says that we were baptized into Christ Jesus. We are the cloth and He is the dye. That means that we have become identified with him. Being baptized into Him has in a way colored our lives. It means that what happened to him has been transferred to our lives. So when Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose from the dead, the effects of all those things are given to us. We are baptized or united with him in those things. They never actually physically happened to us but God applies what happened to Jesus to us and so the effects of those actions become a part of our reality. We are the cloth and his actions are the dye, so God baptizes us into Him and we become like him. Complicated isn’t it…that is why the verse says…Or don’t you know?” No, we didn’t know that…but now we do! So what does that mean for us?
Ok, we have been baptized, or united with Christ. As a result we have become united with Him in his death, his burial and resurrection. Read it again out loud in verse 3 and 4. Go ahead I will wait. Good…now note that this is what God has done this for us. He has united us with Christ in these things so that there could be an affect in our lives. Pay attention, because what he says next is crucial if we are going to be able to experience being set free from the bondage of sin!
Why has God done this? He tells us in verse 4. “…in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” By uniting us with the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has made it possible for us to live a new life. The most important word in these verses is that little 3 letter word “may”. It is possible for us to live a new life. This is now possible because since Jesus died it is as if we too have died and since Jesus was raised to a new life it is as if we too have been raised to a new life. In this new life that we have in Christ the bondage of sin, or the control of sin in our lives has been broken and now we have a choice. We can choose to sin or we can choose to not sin.
So if you have ever felt like you are being tempted and you have to sin…that is a lie. If you feel that you are addicted to sin and it has you in its grasp and there is no letting go…that is a lie. If you feel you must masturbate in order to relax and go to sleep…that is a lie. We are not chained to sin any longer. We can choose to give in to the temptation or we can choose to walk…or run away.
Look, I know this isn’t Sunday Morning Comic Strip truth. It is complicated truth and not easy to understand. God has told us this because we need to know it if we are going be able to experience the new life that is possible in our relationship with Christ. So do not give up and go back to your “fluff of the day” devotional, or worse yet, no devotions or study of God’s word at all. Hang in there and God will get us through it. See you tomorrow!
Heavenly Father – Thank you for what you have done for me. I want to fully understand what this means that I have been baptized into Christ. Thank you that his death, burial and resurrection has paid the penalty of sin in my life and broken its power so that I do not have to sin. The chains have been broken and I am now free to choose to not sin. Help me today to make that choice at every moment of temptation.
Proverbs 1:7
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Day 1
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans. 6:1-2
We have said it to ourselves a thousand times. I might as well go ahead and sin, get it over with, confess it and move on…maybe this will be the last time. We know that is a lie. It will not be the last time. If it were the last time, then why are we facing another last time this time, and the time before that and the time before that and the time before that?
Then we fall a little further and think; “If I sin again then God’s grace reaches a little further and I am a little more forgiven and grace and forgiveness are good things…right? Notice what Paul says at the beginning of verse 2. “By no means!” This is one of the strongest phrases Paul could have used to say…Absolutely Not!!! No Way at all!!! To take something as incredible and wonderful as the grace of God and His forgiveness and use it as an excuse for sinning…that has got to be one of the worst excuses and the most ridiculous logic of all time.
Then he makes this statement; “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer.” Now here is some truth to chew on. First, we have died to sin. We will understand that phrase more as the chapter unfolds. However, notice that second part of that verse; “How can we live in it any longer?” The answer that we need to think about and burn into our brains is…WE CANNOT LIVE IN SIN ANY LONGER!!!”
When this passage uses the word live here think of it as more than just being alive. We can certainly be alive in sin…we do it all the time. However, we are miserable and we feel our life sucks. However, God wants us to be ALIVE! To live with a sense of love and wellbeing and to have joy and peace in our life.
Sin always has and always will cause death. It separates and destroys. In the garden of Eden death entered the world through sin. It destroyed the perfect intimacy between Adam and Eve. It has brought separation between you and God and everyone around you. We cannot live in sin…we die in sin. The signs of death are all around us when we choose to sin. The signs of death are fear, anxiety, anger, rage, sorrow, depression. We hate ourselves and despise others. That to me does not sound like living…it sounds more like dying.
Our sin nature lies to us. It says; “Want to “live” a little? Go ahead and rebel, this will feel good and you will feel alive. After enough times it almost becomes automatic…we become addicted. Sin and our desires carry us away with less and less resistance. However, after we bite and the thrill is gone…which usually happens moments after we sin, then we are not feeling life but death. There is and never will be for us life to be found in sin. Life comes only from God. Life feels like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Choose life for yourself today. Say no to sin and yes to God and He will give you the life that you really want. It is real and it is so much better than the momentary cheap thrill we get from following after our flesh.
So fellow struggler do you want to pursue purity? Do you want to experience the true life that God has for you? Do you want to be well and allow God to heal you of the wounds that are causing you to act out in sexual sin? This devotional will teach you first what you need to know and then what you need to do.
However, let me warn you. There is a battle going on for your life. God wants to see you grow in grace and be healed. Satan wants to destroy you. Please, do yourself a favor and be faithful to read this devotional everyday for 40 days. Fast from television or reading the paper. Set aside half an hour for reading this book and for prayer. Pray the prayers I have written out loud. Then make a few notes of what the Spirit of God says to you during your time with Him.
Heavenly Father - Thank you that I have died to sin. Thank you that I am alive in Christ today and can experience real life from you. Help me to see sin for what it is and to not believe the lies that it tells me. I want to be pure today and ask you to fill me with the Holy Spirit. Please open my eyes to see sin as it really is and what it does to me and those I love. Help me to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Proverbs 3:3
“Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” Romans. 6:1-2
We have said it to ourselves a thousand times. I might as well go ahead and sin, get it over with, confess it and move on…maybe this will be the last time. We know that is a lie. It will not be the last time. If it were the last time, then why are we facing another last time this time, and the time before that and the time before that and the time before that?
Then we fall a little further and think; “If I sin again then God’s grace reaches a little further and I am a little more forgiven and grace and forgiveness are good things…right? Notice what Paul says at the beginning of verse 2. “By no means!” This is one of the strongest phrases Paul could have used to say…Absolutely Not!!! No Way at all!!! To take something as incredible and wonderful as the grace of God and His forgiveness and use it as an excuse for sinning…that has got to be one of the worst excuses and the most ridiculous logic of all time.
Then he makes this statement; “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer.” Now here is some truth to chew on. First, we have died to sin. We will understand that phrase more as the chapter unfolds. However, notice that second part of that verse; “How can we live in it any longer?” The answer that we need to think about and burn into our brains is…WE CANNOT LIVE IN SIN ANY LONGER!!!”
When this passage uses the word live here think of it as more than just being alive. We can certainly be alive in sin…we do it all the time. However, we are miserable and we feel our life sucks. However, God wants us to be ALIVE! To live with a sense of love and wellbeing and to have joy and peace in our life.
Sin always has and always will cause death. It separates and destroys. In the garden of Eden death entered the world through sin. It destroyed the perfect intimacy between Adam and Eve. It has brought separation between you and God and everyone around you. We cannot live in sin…we die in sin. The signs of death are all around us when we choose to sin. The signs of death are fear, anxiety, anger, rage, sorrow, depression. We hate ourselves and despise others. That to me does not sound like living…it sounds more like dying.
Our sin nature lies to us. It says; “Want to “live” a little? Go ahead and rebel, this will feel good and you will feel alive. After enough times it almost becomes automatic…we become addicted. Sin and our desires carry us away with less and less resistance. However, after we bite and the thrill is gone…which usually happens moments after we sin, then we are not feeling life but death. There is and never will be for us life to be found in sin. Life comes only from God. Life feels like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Choose life for yourself today. Say no to sin and yes to God and He will give you the life that you really want. It is real and it is so much better than the momentary cheap thrill we get from following after our flesh.
So fellow struggler do you want to pursue purity? Do you want to experience the true life that God has for you? Do you want to be well and allow God to heal you of the wounds that are causing you to act out in sexual sin? This devotional will teach you first what you need to know and then what you need to do.
However, let me warn you. There is a battle going on for your life. God wants to see you grow in grace and be healed. Satan wants to destroy you. Please, do yourself a favor and be faithful to read this devotional everyday for 40 days. Fast from television or reading the paper. Set aside half an hour for reading this book and for prayer. Pray the prayers I have written out loud. Then make a few notes of what the Spirit of God says to you during your time with Him.
Heavenly Father - Thank you that I have died to sin. Thank you that I am alive in Christ today and can experience real life from you. Help me to see sin for what it is and to not believe the lies that it tells me. I want to be pure today and ask you to fill me with the Holy Spirit. Please open my eyes to see sin as it really is and what it does to me and those I love. Help me to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the desires of the flesh.
Proverbs 3:3
“Do not let kindness and truth leave you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart.”
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
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