8.8 Deflection & Redirection

The technical term for shooing the birds is “deflection and redirection.”  God expects us to put up a fight.  We’re not helpless.  When our gates are attacked, we need to have a plan to turn back the Enemy.  God will meet us there.  Isaiah 28:6 says,
He (God) will be a spirit of justice to him [...]

8.7 Preventing Nest-Building

At times, it seems impossible to prevent our minds from thinking sexual thoughts. Anything can trigger them… an attractive woman, a billboard, a store window… even a harmless comment. I’m convinced that the Enemy plays a part. He whispers thoughts into our mind, and he points out sexual images to tempt us.

While you’ll never [...]

8.6 Pure vs. Impure

These searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. (Nehemiah 7:64)

Verses 4-63 of chapter seven list the exiles who returned. The list ends with Nehemiah’s note that those who could not prove their family lineage were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. Some [...]

8.2 The Trojan Horse

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, [...]

7.12 The Real Inside Man

Also, in those days the nobles of Judah were sending many letters to Tobiah, and replies from Tobiah kept coming to them. For many in Judah were under oath to him, since he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah, and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. Moreover, they [...]

7.9 Look for the Lie

Whenever you are tempted to sin, look for the lie. I promise it’s there. Every temptation involves at least one lie and probably many. One of the most common lies associated with sexual temptation is that you have an urgent need that has to be met right now! The pressure can seem enormous and overwhelming. [...]

7.7 Damaging Your Reputation

Then, the fifth time, Sanballat sent his aide to me with the same message, and in his hand was an unsealed letter in which was written:

“It is reported among the nations—and Geshem says it is true—that you and the Jews are plotting to revolt, and therefore you are building the wall. Moreover, according [...]

7.2 F.E.A.R. of Discovery

At times, Satan deepens our isolation by convincing us that our sin is so bad that we can’t talk with anyone about it. If we believe him, we give him leverage to use against us.

In the movie Training Day, Denzel Washington’s character, Alonzo, pressures the rookie into using some of the drugs they have confiscated. [...]

7.1 Divide and Conquer

When word came to Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab and the rest of our enemies that I had rebuilt the wall and not a gap was left in it – though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates – Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message: “Come, let us [...]