What if your son were kept free from this draining fever in the first place, and all of his spiritual energy could be spent on God’s call in His kingdom?
~ Every Man’s Battle
I can’t conclude without talking about our responsibility to our children. If you’re a dad, your job is to build the walls for [...]
I did an object lesson once in a men’s group that illustrated this principle. We started with a small cup full of water and talked about how the clear water in the cup represented our minds as God created them.
Unfortunately, we allowed the vile and the vulgar to get beyond our gates. (I recognize [...]
In The Odyssey, Odysseus had his men tie him to the mast of his ship so that he wouldn’t succumb to the Siren’s alluring song as they passed the rocky Sirenum Scopuli islands. The Sirens were mythical sea nymphs who sang so beautifully that sailors would sail their ships into the island cliffs in an [...]
So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth of Elul, in fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God. (Nehemiah 6:15-16)
Chapter 6 announces a finished wall. It took Nehemiah [...]
Confessing our sin to God is one thing. Confessing to people is often a very different thing. God loves us unconditionally. Very few on this earth will be able or interested in loving us at that level. What makes it more difficult is that sexual sins shock people. For these reasons, confessions should be handled [...]
Maybe you’re thinking, “But I like sinning.” I’m not here to lie to you. Sexual sin can be fun and exciting. Duh! There’s a reason why so many people do it. But that’s your flesh talking. Do a realistic cost/benefit analysis, and you’ll find that the fun and excitement don’t outweigh the negative consequences.
We’re like [...]
For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. (Romans 7:18-19)
So we are saints who sin. We may want with all our heart [...]
In the last chapter, I talked about how our self-image acts as a thermostat to regulate our behavior. Now I would like to share how our false self-image can become a prison for us.
I’m currently watching old episodes of the original “Battlestar Galactica” T.V. series with my oldest son. Last night’s episode (“The Long Patrol”) [...]
Now the men and their wives raised a great outcry against their Jewish brothers. Some were saying, “We and our sons and daughters are numerous; in order for us to eat and stay alive, we must get grain.”
Others were saying, “We are mortgaging our fields, our vineyards and our homes to get grain during [...]
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 [...]
