Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Judges, Chapters 16-18 … To study these chapters, go to this link ...
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Highlight Reference Passage : Judges 16: 15-17 … 15 Then she [Delilah] said to him [Samson], "How can you say, 'I love you,' when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength." 16 With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was sick to death of it.
17 So he told her everything. "No razor has ever been used on my head," he said, "because I have been a Nazirite dedicated to God from my mother's womb. If my head were shaved, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as any other man."
My Journal for Today: There are several good lessons to be learned from reading today’s assigned chronological read in Chapters 16-18 of the book of Judges. However, the segment which came to my attention this morning was the conclusion of the account of Samson and Delilah in the highlight passage which is copied for your review above. And certainly it is pertinent to my called ministry which primarily deals with Christian men who make selfish and fleshly choices and are lured – by their own actions – into patterns of habitual sexual sin. So, I think you could easily see why I would be drawn to journal about this story in Judges 16.
Today, all men are engulfed in a culture and world which has become a super-weapon, designed by Satan, to lure visually vulnerable manhood into the tar pits of sexual sin. Mankind these days cannot escape the magnet sexual images which surround us almost everywhere. Sexual imagery is the primary drawing card of the advertisement industry; and all forms of media and entertainment these days have sexual images calling out to men to draw them into the clutches of the Delilahs of the world.
And if you’re a Christian man these worldly temptations are just as prevalent as they are for non-Christians. The difference is, like Samson, all Christian men are endowed by God with the power of the Holy Spirit to make Godly choices … rather than succumb to ungodly and fleshly ones. Samson, having God’s Spirit resting upon him; and he, having been called out to be a Nazirite, could have set himself into a pattern of discipline to resist the alluring charms of Delilah. BUT … he didn’t; and Delilah lured him – by HIS choices – to make himself vulnerable to her charms and reveal his weaknesses.
Today, in my Parsons Commentary on this passage/story, the writers posit some very good warnings and teaching for all of us, especially believers who have the Holy Spirit’s grace to empower our lives. They write: ”(1) You must decide what kind of a person you will love before passion takes over. Determine whether a person’s character and faith in God are as desirable as his or her physical appearance. (2) Because most of the time you spend with your spouse will not involve sex, your companion’s personality, temperament, and commitment to solve problems must be as gratifying as his or her kisses. (3) Be patient. The second look often reveals what is beneath the pleasant appearance and attentive touch.”
This is good advice for all Christians, but especially men who feel they are vulnerable to the sexual taunts with which the world bombards us daily. In the language of our ministry, BattlePlan Ministry [ go to www.battleplanministries.org ], would say that all Christian men need a “battle plan,” which is a carefully crafted and proactive plan (preferably written), which is guided by a James 1: 5-6 desire to seek God’s wisdom and guidance. Being PROACTIVE in the mental planning of one’s personal “battle plan” can often make the difference to prevent having to be REACTIVE when the world tempts our minds and hearts away from Godly wisdom.
If you’re a Christian man and you’re reading this, do you have a proactive plan to use God-inspired, Spirit-led principles to guide your decisions when you’re confronted by sexual temptations? … Is that plan methodically written out to be your manifesto of action for seeking God’s will rather than the will of the flesh? … Do you have at least one Christian man, but preferably a group of co-warriors, who will hold you accountable to your pre—planned principles for decision and action. … And finally, are you living the plan, utilizing the disciplines of the faith to bolster your strength and surrender to God’s will and way for your life?
Remember Proverbs 3: 5-6 (which I hope you can quote right now), which is take from Chapters 1-9 of Proverbs, where a wise Solomon was giving advice to his son on how to avoid sexual temptations. I pray that we’re all CHOOSING to live – proactively - as God would have us live and not falling prey to our enemies in this sexual charged world.
My Prayer Today: … Lord, I have Your plan from Your word to follow Your will and give me Your way of strength to do battle with my enemies today. Amen
Showing posts with label sexual sin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sexual sin. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Saturday, March 17, 2012
March 17, 2012 … God’s Sex Talk
Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Deuteronomy, Chapters 21-23 … To study these chapters, go to this link -
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Highlight Chronological Passage : Deuteronomy, Chapters 22: 13-30 … To study this passage, go to this link -
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Highlight Reference Passage #2 : Colossians 3: 5-7 … 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
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Highlight Reference Passage #3 : 1st Corinthians 6: 18-20 … 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
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Highlight Reference Passage #4 : Ephesians 5: 3-6 … 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
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Highlight Reading #5 : Proverbs, Chapters 1 - 9 … To study this passage, go to this link -
My Journal for Today: Today’s chronological Bible reading has me (us) in Deuteronomy, Chapters 21-23, linked above for your reading; but the passage which hit me hard today was in Chapter 22: 13-30. And studying it bubbled up several other Bible passages from the Apostle Paul’s teaching in the NT as well as from Solomon’s proverbs; and I have referenced them above for your review and my discussion below.
Today, in our primary highlight passage, Moses was going through a number of the laws and practices which God needed to relay to His chosen people to help keep them on His pure and righteous pathway, especially after they were to enter the promised-land. And the section I’ve highlighted today reminded me of a father sitting down with his young son and giving him “the sex talk,” … much as Solomon was doing with his son in the latter referenced Proverbs, Chapters 1-9.
It is of interest to me – especially in light of the ministry God has led me to found and lead (see http://www.battleplanministries.org) – to read the extent to which God’s word emphases the avoidance of sexual sin, both in the Old and New Testaments. God knows the sinful and disobedient nature of His fallen children; and He puts this much emphasis on the sins of the flesh, knowing how vulnerable we humans are to this particular stronghold of sin. And Satan knows it too; and God’s #1 enemy, who has been given a certain degree of reign over this world, has developed more and more sexually oriented weapons to come against God’s people, using sexual temptations and minefields to bring down the children who would desire to follow God’s way and His will.
So, God through Moses and Solomon under the Old Covenant and the Apostle Paul under the New Covenant, laid out strong warnings for God’s people, through God’s written laws and word , charging God’s children to exercise their free-will and to avoid letting the body be a vehicle of disobedience and desecration against God.
And the applications in today’s world, reading and mediating on the Scriptures I’ve highlighted above, speak, from God’s very own word, as to His purpose to have His children to do all they (we) can to avoid falling into Satan’s tarpit of sexual sin. And it would take a fool not to be able to see how strongly Satan and the world uses this strategy of sexual temptations to distract the attention of the unsaved away from God’s call and to discourage the saved from being able to live and witness with purity the life God desires for His children.
Today’s “triple-X industry,” as I call it, is a fortified cadre of sexualized super-weapons which attempts to lure people away from the purposes of God. And for 22 years of my own life, before I came to know Christ as my Lord/Savior, I was deeply bound up in my own habitual pursuit of selfish sexual pleasures. And even now, living in Christ and having been delivered from that past of habitual sexual sin, I have to arm myself EVERY DAY to do battle in a world which tries to distract me, especially as men are so visually and sexually driven, away from the empowering grace God, in Christ, provides for me to make Godly rather than ungodly choices. Every day is a battle in this hypersexual world; and that’s the reason we call our ministry Battle Plan Ministry; and we’ve been called and anointed by God to help Christians, especially men, walk strongly and with purity in Satan’s world … a world which is set up to bring them (us) down.
I hope I don’t need to give you, my beloved, God’s sex-talk. Because God’s word, highlighted above, does it with far more authority than I can write here warning you to DO WHAT GOD SAYS to live a life which shines God’s light of purity into a very darkened world.
So, … my last assignment – and one of God’s strongest sex-talks – is to study through Solomon’s warning to his son, linked above in Proverbs, Chapters 1-9, where Solomon, speaking for God, the Father, lays out one of God’s strongest warnings to walk circumspectly in this world, avoiding all of the pitfalls and temptations which Satan will use to lure us into his tarpits of sexual sin.
I am praying that we all take heed to God’s sex-talk and walk in a way which glorifies our Lord.
My Prayer Today: … Oh, Heavenly Father, empower me through Your grace this very day to walk Your walk of purity and to honor You with this Temple You have given me … my body. Amen
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Highlight Chronological Passage : Deuteronomy, Chapters 22: 13-30 … To study this passage, go to this link -
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Highlight Reference Passage #2 : Colossians 3: 5-7 … 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.
============
Highlight Reference Passage #3 : 1st Corinthians 6: 18-20 … 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
============
Highlight Reference Passage #4 : Ephesians 5: 3-6 … 3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. 4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. 5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
============
Highlight Reading #5 : Proverbs, Chapters 1 - 9 … To study this passage, go to this link -
My Journal for Today: Today’s chronological Bible reading has me (us) in Deuteronomy, Chapters 21-23, linked above for your reading; but the passage which hit me hard today was in Chapter 22: 13-30. And studying it bubbled up several other Bible passages from the Apostle Paul’s teaching in the NT as well as from Solomon’s proverbs; and I have referenced them above for your review and my discussion below.
Today, in our primary highlight passage, Moses was going through a number of the laws and practices which God needed to relay to His chosen people to help keep them on His pure and righteous pathway, especially after they were to enter the promised-land. And the section I’ve highlighted today reminded me of a father sitting down with his young son and giving him “the sex talk,” … much as Solomon was doing with his son in the latter referenced Proverbs, Chapters 1-9.
It is of interest to me – especially in light of the ministry God has led me to found and lead (see http://www.battleplanministries.org) – to read the extent to which God’s word emphases the avoidance of sexual sin, both in the Old and New Testaments. God knows the sinful and disobedient nature of His fallen children; and He puts this much emphasis on the sins of the flesh, knowing how vulnerable we humans are to this particular stronghold of sin. And Satan knows it too; and God’s #1 enemy, who has been given a certain degree of reign over this world, has developed more and more sexually oriented weapons to come against God’s people, using sexual temptations and minefields to bring down the children who would desire to follow God’s way and His will.
So, God through Moses and Solomon under the Old Covenant and the Apostle Paul under the New Covenant, laid out strong warnings for God’s people, through God’s written laws and word , charging God’s children to exercise their free-will and to avoid letting the body be a vehicle of disobedience and desecration against God.
And the applications in today’s world, reading and mediating on the Scriptures I’ve highlighted above, speak, from God’s very own word, as to His purpose to have His children to do all they (we) can to avoid falling into Satan’s tarpit of sexual sin. And it would take a fool not to be able to see how strongly Satan and the world uses this strategy of sexual temptations to distract the attention of the unsaved away from God’s call and to discourage the saved from being able to live and witness with purity the life God desires for His children.
Today’s “triple-X industry,” as I call it, is a fortified cadre of sexualized super-weapons which attempts to lure people away from the purposes of God. And for 22 years of my own life, before I came to know Christ as my Lord/Savior, I was deeply bound up in my own habitual pursuit of selfish sexual pleasures. And even now, living in Christ and having been delivered from that past of habitual sexual sin, I have to arm myself EVERY DAY to do battle in a world which tries to distract me, especially as men are so visually and sexually driven, away from the empowering grace God, in Christ, provides for me to make Godly rather than ungodly choices. Every day is a battle in this hypersexual world; and that’s the reason we call our ministry Battle Plan Ministry; and we’ve been called and anointed by God to help Christians, especially men, walk strongly and with purity in Satan’s world … a world which is set up to bring them (us) down.
I hope I don’t need to give you, my beloved, God’s sex-talk. Because God’s word, highlighted above, does it with far more authority than I can write here warning you to DO WHAT GOD SAYS to live a life which shines God’s light of purity into a very darkened world.
So, … my last assignment – and one of God’s strongest sex-talks – is to study through Solomon’s warning to his son, linked above in Proverbs, Chapters 1-9, where Solomon, speaking for God, the Father, lays out one of God’s strongest warnings to walk circumspectly in this world, avoiding all of the pitfalls and temptations which Satan will use to lure us into his tarpits of sexual sin.
I am praying that we all take heed to God’s sex-talk and walk in a way which glorifies our Lord.
My Prayer Today: … Oh, Heavenly Father, empower me through Your grace this very day to walk Your walk of purity and to honor You with this Temple You have given me … my body. Amen
Saturday, August 06, 2011
August 7, 2011 … Loving Money: Its Effects
Passage of the Day: 1st Timothy 6: 6 – 9 [see bold text below] … 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
My Journal for Today: In this last week (see my entries for 8/3 and 8/6) inspired by Paul’s instruction to Timothy, I’ve been reviewing ways to avoid the traps of worldly/fleshly materialism and/or “sensualism.” You may not find the latter word in your dictionary; but “sensualism” is the pursuit of those things which feed our senses and become self-destructive sin patterns, deterring us from a deep and abiding relationship with Christ. This is very personal concept for me because habitual sexual sin choices for many years in my life almost kept me from Christ and came very close to the ruination of my marriage, family, and career. Now, having been delivered into a walk of freedom and sobriety from sexual sin patterns, I now struggle with the sensual sin stronghold of gluttony in my life. So, I know very personally how Satan and my own heart can collaborate in sensualism to separate me from my fellowship with Christ. In fact, as I write this, I’m on a cruise in the Mediterranean; and I’ve been quite convicted of my gluttonous tendencies, having so many opportunities to graze on the very tempting food courts which are “free” and part of our cruise charges.
In today’s highlight verse we read of Paul’s warning of the outcomes of such pursuits as Paul speaks of those who “… fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men (and of course, women) into ruin and destruction.” And we see such destruction occurring all around us with State after State sanctioning gambling, which is taking millions into financial ruin. We have an epidemic of obesity in our culture, caused by the pursuit of sensual over-eating. Our children are being plunged into the obsessive-compulsive drive to find sexual images on the TV, in movies, on the Internet, being brought to them on little boxes (called “smart” phones) which they carry around in their pockets/purses, leading to a pandemic of obsessive pornography in our world. It’s like the world, and even the Christian world, is totally ignoring the warnings of God’s word (as in today’s verse).
By our choices we are in disobedience to God’s warnings, all the way from the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 7: 25 and Zephaniah 1: 18).
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Deut. 7: 25 … The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
Zeph. 1: 18 … [God through Zephaniah] “Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth."
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Those are pretty clear warnings from God’s word; don’t you think? And reading from the pages of Scripture, the Bible is replete with stories of lives destroyed because of the pursuit of materialism or sensual pleasures.
There was the case of Achan (see Joshua 7: 1 – 26), who hid his wealth, causing his family to lose their lives and Israel to lose in warfare. And in the NT, there were Ananias and Sapphira, who were both struck dead because, in greed, they held back the Lord’s proceeds (see Acts 5: 1 – 11). And finally there was the most tragic example of all with Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, which ultimately led to his ignominious suicide (read Matt. 27: 3 – 5).
So, will we ever get the picture and recognize the importance of obedience to God’s word, which clearly lays out the consequences of refusing to surrender our desires to God’s will and trusting His providence completely for our needs (again read and memorize Matt. 6: 33 and Phil. 4: 19)?
My Prayer Today: I do, Lord! I get it! I am Yours! Amen
My Journal for Today: In this last week (see my entries for 8/3 and 8/6) inspired by Paul’s instruction to Timothy, I’ve been reviewing ways to avoid the traps of worldly/fleshly materialism and/or “sensualism.” You may not find the latter word in your dictionary; but “sensualism” is the pursuit of those things which feed our senses and become self-destructive sin patterns, deterring us from a deep and abiding relationship with Christ. This is very personal concept for me because habitual sexual sin choices for many years in my life almost kept me from Christ and came very close to the ruination of my marriage, family, and career. Now, having been delivered into a walk of freedom and sobriety from sexual sin patterns, I now struggle with the sensual sin stronghold of gluttony in my life. So, I know very personally how Satan and my own heart can collaborate in sensualism to separate me from my fellowship with Christ. In fact, as I write this, I’m on a cruise in the Mediterranean; and I’ve been quite convicted of my gluttonous tendencies, having so many opportunities to graze on the very tempting food courts which are “free” and part of our cruise charges.
In today’s highlight verse we read of Paul’s warning of the outcomes of such pursuits as Paul speaks of those who “… fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men (and of course, women) into ruin and destruction.” And we see such destruction occurring all around us with State after State sanctioning gambling, which is taking millions into financial ruin. We have an epidemic of obesity in our culture, caused by the pursuit of sensual over-eating. Our children are being plunged into the obsessive-compulsive drive to find sexual images on the TV, in movies, on the Internet, being brought to them on little boxes (called “smart” phones) which they carry around in their pockets/purses, leading to a pandemic of obsessive pornography in our world. It’s like the world, and even the Christian world, is totally ignoring the warnings of God’s word (as in today’s verse).
By our choices we are in disobedience to God’s warnings, all the way from the Old Testament (see Deuteronomy 7: 25 and Zephaniah 1: 18).
------------------
Deut. 7: 25 … The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God.
Zeph. 1: 18 … [God through Zephaniah] “Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to save them on the day of the LORD's wrath. In the fire of his jealousy the whole world will be consumed, for he will make a sudden end of all who live in the earth."
----------------------
Those are pretty clear warnings from God’s word; don’t you think? And reading from the pages of Scripture, the Bible is replete with stories of lives destroyed because of the pursuit of materialism or sensual pleasures.
There was the case of Achan (see Joshua 7: 1 – 26), who hid his wealth, causing his family to lose their lives and Israel to lose in warfare. And in the NT, there were Ananias and Sapphira, who were both struck dead because, in greed, they held back the Lord’s proceeds (see Acts 5: 1 – 11). And finally there was the most tragic example of all with Judas betraying Jesus for thirty pieces of silver, which ultimately led to his ignominious suicide (read Matt. 27: 3 – 5).
So, will we ever get the picture and recognize the importance of obedience to God’s word, which clearly lays out the consequences of refusing to surrender our desires to God’s will and trusting His providence completely for our needs (again read and memorize Matt. 6: 33 and Phil. 4: 19)?
My Prayer Today: I do, Lord! I get it! I am Yours! Amen
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