Another essential way to keep your walls strong is to stay in the Scriptures daily. It’s the sword of the Spirit, which you can use both offensively and defensively to defeat the Enemy. Nehemiah knew the power of Scripture to change hearts and make the people more like God.
Many men have told me that [...]
When you are in the moment of temptation, it’s not very effective to try to not think about what is tempting you. It’s like trying to not think of a purple elephant – you just can’t do it. You have to replace the thoughts with something godly.
There’s an old story about a man who had [...]
Samson struggled with lust. You can read his story in Judges, chapters 3-16. His eyes were always getting him into trouble. First, he saw a Philistine woman and had to have her for his wife. He had no business marrying a Philistine, but she looked good to him – maybe because he wasn’t supposed to [...]
Homer and Virgil wrote about the famous battle between the Greeks and Trojans outside the gates of Troy. Interestingly enough, the war was started by Paris’ lust for another man’s wife. The Greeks’ siege lasted ten long and bloody years before they came up with the idea. It was simple but risky. Build a huge, [...]
Maybe you’ve heard the story about the man who raised dogs for the cruel sport of dog fighting. Strangely enough, he would let his dogs fight each other, and he always bet accurately on the one that would win. His apprentice couldn’t figure out how he did it, so he asked him one day, “How [...]
The story of Lot is instructive, because it reminds us of the consequences of putting ourselves in harm’s way. We often like to think our sinfulness is our own business. We think that we’re the only ones who are impacted by it.
Lot was certainly impacted. In God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, [...]
For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)
We don’t fight against flesh and blood, and we don’t fight with worldly weapons. [...]
The question of masturbation is central to the fight for sexual purity. There’s no direct answer to this question in the Bible, but I can find some related principles. I firmly believe that masturbation is wrong, particularly for married men, for the following reasons:
Matthew 5:27-28 – if you lust after [...]
This is probably a good place to make a distinction between temptation and sin. If you don’t know the difference, I can almost guarantee that you’re allowing Satan to beat you up for crimes you haven’t committed. Temptation is not sin. Temptation is largely out of your control (provided you aren’t putting yourself in harm’s [...]
