To those of you who don't even know I've been posting on this blog, thank you, because the blog entries you wrote down helped me out a lot. To those who've been keeping up with me and posting their commentary on what I've written, thank you, it was great having the community to reflect my thoughts and offer input. And thank you, Mike, Alyssa, Pearl, and Zach, for those occasions where we could just sit down and talk about what I learned and fill out the empty spaces in my head. God's blessed me through you all.
I love how the last chapter of Simply Christian brings much of what God has revealed to me through this study full circle! The Cross was where God's wrath was appeased and death was beaten, so let's live in the victory! We must renounce and rediscover, and need God's help to do even that, asked for every day with those beautiful 57 Words. Healing, restorative justice was set as the standard by the Prodigal Father. Let us let go of our anger before the sun sets, and fulfill ourselves not on lust, because the laws the Father has set down will enhance and protect the freedom he has given us in his blood.
So much good truth! And the best part is that heaven is overlapping earth and keeps touching through, aching to be one. It'll be the most awesome thing ever when they finally meet---God makes only beautiful things in the first place, so I can't wait to see everything in restored AND resurrected form. I think I took the title of this blog for granted before---now the full implications of those four words hit hard.
This spring break, I've made a point of going to see how some of my old high school friends have been doing---and through them, how most of my other graduating class of '07 members are doing. Most of what I've heard is not good---broken dreams, lost opportunities, abandoning all thoughts of goals or things to live for: it all just breaks my heart so much. So many are in need; so many that need to know true love! I can never forget what NT says about the advent of the Kingdom: "If Jesus has been raised, that means that God's new world, God's kingdom, has indeed arrived; and that means we have a job to do."
A job? If there's one truth I'm glad I've realized in the span of the last three months, it's that God has graciously given us the opportunity of holding the best job ever. The Holy Spirit of God brings heaven and earth together within us so that we now become outward and visible signs of an inward and spiritual grace - and the means of God's grace for others. That is to say, sacramental vessels of God's love to the people of the world. Living for the Kingdom means not holing myself up in the castle, but appearing on the front lines so that Jesus the Head can show himself in all his glory through wiggling Ben the Pinky Finger.
This pinky finger has heard the neurons firing...which means all I can do is think and act like I have. And the best part of it is, I'll probably mess up often, and ignore or distort the call...or hit a wall of isolation and persecution. But in times like the former, God's power is made perfect in my imperfect pool of weakness; in times like the latter, God will give me the strength to go on, his glory being reflected, as being beaten on in tough situations is where we represent Christ best.
Forgive me for plugging in one last song, but it's all I can think of after these recollections of this study.
Gungor---People of God
We could have tongues of angels
We could move mountains with our faith
We could give everything away
But if we don't have love
We're left with nothing
We could see blind eyes opened
Know all the mysteries of our faith
We could sing all the highest praise
But if we don't have love
We're left with nothing
People of God rise up
Rise up and shine God's love
We are the light of the world
Of the world, oh
We are the light of the world
Of the world, oh
Love is what holds it all together
Love never fails, it never dies
There is no deeper truth
We know God is love, our God is love
People of God rise up
Rise up and shine God's love
We are the light of the world
Of the world, oh
We are the light of the world
Of the world, oh
Tear down the walls that divide us
Let love rebuild and unite us
All we need is, all we need is love
People of God rise up
Rise up and shine God's love
We are the light of the world
Of the world
People of God rise up
Rise up and shine God's love
We are the light of the world
Of the world
We are the light of the world
Of the world
We are the light of the world
"Come Lord Jesus Come...as the sun rises, let me miss not one opportunity you put before me, till the time you fully shine over all the Earth."
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Monday, March 21, 2011
Last Days, Part 1: Fine Arts
So, the last couple of chapters of Simply Christian generated a couple of distinct thoughts in my head, so I'm splitting them up into different parts.
I've always wondered about what it meant to use our artistic gifts to glorify our Father. A lot of people think that this action is restricted to a certain portion of the church's population: those who can sing or play an instrument in the worship band. Not true, if we all remember that worship comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, due to what the core of worship is: acknowledging and understanding how God the creator and rescuer is worthy to be praised. Still, something about music, if my heart is in the right place, helps me envelop myself in worshiping him, giving him all of me.
So what is about the art of music that translates well into worship, then? What is art in the context of Jesus?
NT says:
The arts are not the pretty but irrelevant bits around the border of reality. They are highways into the center of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way. The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions.
I've always wondered about what it meant to use our artistic gifts to glorify our Father. A lot of people think that this action is restricted to a certain portion of the church's population: those who can sing or play an instrument in the worship band. Not true, if we all remember that worship comes in all sorts of different shapes and sizes, due to what the core of worship is: acknowledging and understanding how God the creator and rescuer is worthy to be praised. Still, something about music, if my heart is in the right place, helps me envelop myself in worshiping him, giving him all of me.
So what is about the art of music that translates well into worship, then? What is art in the context of Jesus?
NT says:
The arts are not the pretty but irrelevant bits around the border of reality. They are highways into the center of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way. The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions.
Sounds like art is God creating places, through our creativity, where Jesus pierces through the veil and we see the reality of the coming kingdom.
A pastor once said to me that God did not give us all different talents and expect only some to make an art out of it: he enables us to all be artists. I guess this is what he was talking about: God enables us all to live in and share the good news in a beautiful, beautiful way, in a symphony of his power and grace. Where the beauty of the Truth shines through, there is a work of art.
Ephesians 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
So compose your pieces, paint your landscapes, write your essays, design those clothes, and sing, sing, sing those songs, remembering what the core of artistic talent is:
We’re not here to decorate the Truth, we’re here to proclaim it.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
An earlier Post
We really need to internalize this quote - "when we allow anything to come between us and the living God, our hearts begin to crave anything that promises satisfaction.....we become souls running on empty desiring anything and everything that will fulfill the hole in the soul."
I was reminded of this and thought it was a good reminder for all of us. We can even fill that Hole with good things like serving and giving. However that will not fill the whole! We can run on it for a little while but eventually our soul will return to empty. Only the Living God and His presence can fill the whole. The Lamb is the lamp! The Lamb is the lamp that sheds light in that new city. The Lamb, The Lamb, It all about the Lamb! (Revelation 21-22)
I was reminded of this and thought it was a good reminder for all of us. We can even fill that Hole with good things like serving and giving. However that will not fill the whole! We can run on it for a little while but eventually our soul will return to empty. Only the Living God and His presence can fill the whole. The Lamb is the lamp! The Lamb is the lamp that sheds light in that new city. The Lamb, The Lamb, It all about the Lamb! (Revelation 21-22)
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Day 52-53: Starving To Death
When Zach first suggested to me that I do this Discipleship program, he gave me "A Soul Running On Empty" as a sampler, mostly because that's how I felt at the time, and sought a change of heart. After listening to it once more this morning, three months later, I know I have some revamping to do.
As Zach himself wrote in an earlier entry, the focus of this study is supposed to be Jesus, and nobody else. I have learned so much about who he is, what he's done, and will come to do. It used to do nothing but get me stoked; yet in these last two weeks of this school quarter, I just haven't been able to get excited about him, or anything else for that matter. This sermon clued me in on the probable cause.
I've only been "focusing" on Jesus in theory lately: really, I've just been absorbing words about him, and hoping awareness would take care of the rest, while I ignorantly used up my hoarded energy on other things. I thought God would just magically zap me with energy through some means if I ever felt short. This hasn't been the case with just this program; it's been with other sermons, growth groups, and even reading the Word. NT really hit it on the nose:
“The Bible is there to enable God’s people to be equipped to do God’s work in God’s world, not to give them an excuse to sit back smugly, knowing they possess all God’s truth.”
I've been like a runner who decides run a race, reads a book/watches a training video about how to prepare for one, but then doesn't bother to do the healthy amount of eating and exercising needed. There's been atrophy in my soul, and I'm finding it hard to turn focus my energy on what I need to do right now, which is having a deep desire for Him. It's a simple problem---my roots have withered and are in want of renewal. Watching my friends play with Jumbling Tower blocks (a Safeway version of Jenga, if you will) the other night, I was reminded that anything that is built up is doomed to crash if the foundation is thinned out or disappears all together. And when the spiritual structure collapses, everything else collapses: this past week alone, a few things I held very dearly crumbled in my hands.
I need to go back and make sure my Jumbling Tower is built on THE Rock.
Because what is a relationship without the passion? What worth is the work you put into it if doesn't ignite the fire between the two?
Maybe I need to stop doing "work" and go back to the basics I keep skipping over. Like being aware of the gift that is grace and what it does for me. That sometimes I just need to be still and let him work, whether I'm at a peak or at a valley. Allowing the Bible to do what it does: give "energy for the task to which God is calling his people!" That with 57 simple words, I can ask for all that is really needed, and he'll provide it through himself. Knowing the key to changing my heart, and dispelling all other desires from it, is not in books, sermons, or good practices: it is God and God alone who can change it. That he loves me and wants me with him---that's what it's all about. A simple formula:
G0d=The Greatest Love=All I Need
Abba, I've messed up, I've filled myself with nothing. Can you help me desire you and leave room for nothing else, so I can genuinely pursue you once again? Please, come glorify yourself in my weakness.
In line with my last post regarding using Psalms as a prayer:
Psalms 51: 10-12
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
As Zach himself wrote in an earlier entry, the focus of this study is supposed to be Jesus, and nobody else. I have learned so much about who he is, what he's done, and will come to do. It used to do nothing but get me stoked; yet in these last two weeks of this school quarter, I just haven't been able to get excited about him, or anything else for that matter. This sermon clued me in on the probable cause.
I've only been "focusing" on Jesus in theory lately: really, I've just been absorbing words about him, and hoping awareness would take care of the rest, while I ignorantly used up my hoarded energy on other things. I thought God would just magically zap me with energy through some means if I ever felt short. This hasn't been the case with just this program; it's been with other sermons, growth groups, and even reading the Word. NT really hit it on the nose:
“The Bible is there to enable God’s people to be equipped to do God’s work in God’s world, not to give them an excuse to sit back smugly, knowing they possess all God’s truth.”
I've been like a runner who decides run a race, reads a book/watches a training video about how to prepare for one, but then doesn't bother to do the healthy amount of eating and exercising needed. There's been atrophy in my soul, and I'm finding it hard to turn focus my energy on what I need to do right now, which is having a deep desire for Him. It's a simple problem---my roots have withered and are in want of renewal. Watching my friends play with Jumbling Tower blocks (a Safeway version of Jenga, if you will) the other night, I was reminded that anything that is built up is doomed to crash if the foundation is thinned out or disappears all together. And when the spiritual structure collapses, everything else collapses: this past week alone, a few things I held very dearly crumbled in my hands.
I need to go back and make sure my Jumbling Tower is built on THE Rock.
Because what is a relationship without the passion? What worth is the work you put into it if doesn't ignite the fire between the two?
Maybe I need to stop doing "work" and go back to the basics I keep skipping over. Like being aware of the gift that is grace and what it does for me. That sometimes I just need to be still and let him work, whether I'm at a peak or at a valley. Allowing the Bible to do what it does: give "energy for the task to which God is calling his people!" That with 57 simple words, I can ask for all that is really needed, and he'll provide it through himself. Knowing the key to changing my heart, and dispelling all other desires from it, is not in books, sermons, or good practices: it is God and God alone who can change it. That he loves me and wants me with him---that's what it's all about. A simple formula:
G0d=The Greatest Love=All I Need
Abba, I've messed up, I've filled myself with nothing. Can you help me desire you and leave room for nothing else, so I can genuinely pursue you once again? Please, come glorify yourself in my weakness.
In line with my last post regarding using Psalms as a prayer:
Psalms 51: 10-12
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Labor Pains; The Psalms As Prayer
The "Prayer" chapter in Simply Christian was a good reminder for me how important one's attitude and focus is when praying to God. For example, fussing over what words to use and thinking of possible earthly means God can answer my prayer are bad habits of mine; both are a sign that I've lost focused before the prayer has even begun. When I do things like that, I'm directing my prayer not to God but to a "slot machine God" Donald Miller describes in Blue Like Jazz: unfeeling, separated, and based on chance.......kind of like Deism/Option Two.
I forget many times that though I ask God to meet my needs through prayer, the focus should always be on him---the fact that he's not a indifferent machine, but a God who lives and feels, who loves me and wants what's best for me, merciful and powerful enough to answer what I ask for. That my prayer is not to be just a cry for help but a commitment to his Way. That if the commitment to abide is there, the answer will come naturally: less precious minutes spent in anxiety and more in trust and comfort. Then all the pain I currently feel will be forgotten, replaced by the good kind of pain---labor pains. You can't escape pain in this broken world, but the context in which it is inflicted matters. Of course---as NT says, where heaven and earth overlap, there's not just pain to be found, but great joy at sharing the glory the coming kingdom.
On a cool note, I found the different paths of prayer segment interesting. I was reminded of how I once read over a study of how to pray the Psalms as a way of heartfelt prayer. No wonder---Psalms covers every emotion and issues all we humans go through. Using Psalms as a prayer, I can:
Fight against shallowness so as to focus on God and my need for him ("Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy." 130:1-2).
Be honest about where I am with him and what I think, so I can surrender who I truly am ("I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply." 38:13-14).
Draw my heart to center on him so he may build me up ( "Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me". 51:10 )
Exalt in what he's done for me past, present, future, and extend to him the praise I so often forget to give in my prayers ("The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him." 28:7)
And these are just the examples. Just go through the Psalms and see how much of it can apply to our daily prayer. It's the coolest gift ever---just like everything else he has taught us in the Word!
I forget many times that though I ask God to meet my needs through prayer, the focus should always be on him---the fact that he's not a indifferent machine, but a God who lives and feels, who loves me and wants what's best for me, merciful and powerful enough to answer what I ask for. That my prayer is not to be just a cry for help but a commitment to his Way. That if the commitment to abide is there, the answer will come naturally: less precious minutes spent in anxiety and more in trust and comfort. Then all the pain I currently feel will be forgotten, replaced by the good kind of pain---labor pains. You can't escape pain in this broken world, but the context in which it is inflicted matters. Of course---as NT says, where heaven and earth overlap, there's not just pain to be found, but great joy at sharing the glory the coming kingdom.
On a cool note, I found the different paths of prayer segment interesting. I was reminded of how I once read over a study of how to pray the Psalms as a way of heartfelt prayer. No wonder---Psalms covers every emotion and issues all we humans go through. Using Psalms as a prayer, I can:
Fight against shallowness so as to focus on God and my need for him ("Out of the depths I cry to you, LORD; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy." 130:1-2).
Be honest about where I am with him and what I think, so I can surrender who I truly am ("I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply." 38:13-14).
Draw my heart to center on him so he may build me up ( "Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me". 51:10 )
Exalt in what he's done for me past, present, future, and extend to him the praise I so often forget to give in my prayers ("The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me. My heart leaps for joy, and with my song I praise him." 28:7)
And these are just the examples. Just go through the Psalms and see how much of it can apply to our daily prayer. It's the coolest gift ever---just like everything else he has taught us in the Word!
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Reflection, Throwbacks
Hey everyone. It's been a while since I've blogged. I've been having a bad case of tunnel vision and complacency stifling me spiritually, so I've had to do catch up with the program the last couple of days.
It seemed only appropriate that Darrell's talk on the 8th commandment started with a reminder of how my impotence and failures make me unable to meet the demands of the law on my own, that I need outside help, the kind God made available through his gift of his Holy Spirit. I've been forgetting that a lot, neglecting to just ASK him to fill me with his presence. Kind of like putting off filling up the gas tank when it's near empty. In a double reference to NT Wright, I've gotten out of tune, not living by the Spirit.
This is because I have a bad habit of putting knowledge above anything else in importance, that once I've seen/heard/read something (like the materials for this program) about God, the knowledge/expanded mindset will somehow magically take care of the rest, make me change for the better. But knowing is no substitute for the Spirit and it's call for doing. Every idea I've come across in this Discipleship program is true and illustrates the beauty of who Jesus is and our relationship with him. But every one of these ideas is a piece of bark---it helps sustain the flame, but not by much. Only intimacy with him, brings the big logs in, which not only sustain the flame, but make it bigger and bigger...till we're on fire for him.
I was re-reading James today, and here's what I found in James 1:22-25 --- "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does."
So I can't just know, I must do---live in the Word, mind, body and soul. And following Jesus is something we can't do without his Spirit: as DJ says, it's our divine resource to live fully alive, and a seal of our forgiveness. Without it, we lose the means for anything else. We become blind to what our reflection in the mirror is supposed to be---a reflection of God and all of his glory.
In another throwback from last week, completely on our own, we fail---but where we do, God will never fail. His power of love is almighty and gives us what we need to be overcomers. His power shines over our failures. Beautiful, beautiful weakness and dependence is followed by beautiful, beautiful glory and intimacy.
So what am I doing not holding out my cup and plate? I need him to fill me if I want the juice to sustain anything else; 57 Words says the fourth layer of my daily bread is the resource of the Holy Spirit, that enables me to live in faith, spirit and love! Abba, I pray that I will not pray for any of my own foolish desires and my non-existing power, but for only my desire for your Spirit. It's suicide to try and fight against all these blazing arrows without armor: I need you and only you. May I cling only to you.
It seemed only appropriate that Darrell's talk on the 8th commandment started with a reminder of how my impotence and failures make me unable to meet the demands of the law on my own, that I need outside help, the kind God made available through his gift of his Holy Spirit. I've been forgetting that a lot, neglecting to just ASK him to fill me with his presence. Kind of like putting off filling up the gas tank when it's near empty. In a double reference to NT Wright, I've gotten out of tune, not living by the Spirit.
This is because I have a bad habit of putting knowledge above anything else in importance, that once I've seen/heard/read something (like the materials for this program) about God, the knowledge/expanded mindset will somehow magically take care of the rest, make me change for the better. But knowing is no substitute for the Spirit and it's call for doing. Every idea I've come across in this Discipleship program is true and illustrates the beauty of who Jesus is and our relationship with him. But every one of these ideas is a piece of bark---it helps sustain the flame, but not by much. Only intimacy with him, brings the big logs in, which not only sustain the flame, but make it bigger and bigger...till we're on fire for him.
I was re-reading James today, and here's what I found in James 1:22-25 --- "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does."
So I can't just know, I must do---live in the Word, mind, body and soul. And following Jesus is something we can't do without his Spirit: as DJ says, it's our divine resource to live fully alive, and a seal of our forgiveness. Without it, we lose the means for anything else. We become blind to what our reflection in the mirror is supposed to be---a reflection of God and all of his glory.
In another throwback from last week, completely on our own, we fail---but where we do, God will never fail. His power of love is almighty and gives us what we need to be overcomers. His power shines over our failures. Beautiful, beautiful weakness and dependence is followed by beautiful, beautiful glory and intimacy.
So what am I doing not holding out my cup and plate? I need him to fill me if I want the juice to sustain anything else; 57 Words says the fourth layer of my daily bread is the resource of the Holy Spirit, that enables me to live in faith, spirit and love! Abba, I pray that I will not pray for any of my own foolish desires and my non-existing power, but for only my desire for your Spirit. It's suicide to try and fight against all these blazing arrows without armor: I need you and only you. May I cling only to you.
Thursday, March 3, 2011
The Basics Of Sexuality
Sexual desire is a symptom of our desire for God.
Dang. Darrell's take really did make me think about what it means to be struggling with and falling to lustful desires. The way DJ puts it, "If I am having trouble with lust, it means I am not enjoying God and have not enjoyed him in a long time". All those times when I struggle, it's because I'm lonely. I've wandered away from God, and in the void it's yet another idol I put in his place. I've had troubles with lust more than a few times in my life, and while I can offer no excuses for any single time, it was at its worst when I pretty much tried to put God out of my life during freshman year. It was no coincidence...it really was a constant feeling of emptiness. And I wanted fulfillment. Just as love is patient, lust is impatient, seeking a short term, fast solution that never endures. It was like drinking sea water, really...if you're stuck on a boat and haven't had fresh water for long enough, you get desperate and drink the closest thing available, even if it only hastens death.
I want to perhaps reshape the domino theory put forward by the doctor later in the sermon. Sure, in his theory, it starts off with lustful stimulation of some kind....but if I'm getting into stuff that's putting me at risk with lustful stimulation, it means I'm not fleeing morality as I should. What's not causing me to not flee morality? Because I am seeking comfort in something other in God. Why am I doing so? Because I have chosen to not enjoy God for a long time, and have mistaken my need for fulfillment in him for fulfillment in something else: I have forgotten the source.
Psalms 34:8 "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him" It's taken on yet another dimension of meaning for me now that I've heard this sermon. No fulfillment of any other desire can possibly satisfy me the same way, especially if it's but a symbol of a greater need. It was only after I realized this that I had any hope of getting better. I'm still in the process of doing so.
It makes sense why God would want us to date and then eventually marry someone who is running the same path towards God and with whom you can mutually better nurture a relationship with Him. If sexual desire is the symptom of a longing for God, then there's no better occasion to express it than through constant consummation of a marriage, the holy union God has willed! If done right, sex within marriage becomes another means of coming closer to God!
God has given a GREAT deal; one that society of today tries to stifle and warp. But as always, if we keep our eyes on finishing the race, on the prize that is eternal relationship with God, the hardship of keeping discipline only turns into good.
Lust is not patient. Lust is not kind
Lust is jealous, boastful, proud, rude, and selfish,
easily angered and keeps a record of wrongs.
Lust gloats over other people's sins and does not rejoice in the truth.
Lust bears little, never trusts, never hopes, never endures.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Dang. Darrell's take really did make me think about what it means to be struggling with and falling to lustful desires. The way DJ puts it, "If I am having trouble with lust, it means I am not enjoying God and have not enjoyed him in a long time". All those times when I struggle, it's because I'm lonely. I've wandered away from God, and in the void it's yet another idol I put in his place. I've had troubles with lust more than a few times in my life, and while I can offer no excuses for any single time, it was at its worst when I pretty much tried to put God out of my life during freshman year. It was no coincidence...it really was a constant feeling of emptiness. And I wanted fulfillment. Just as love is patient, lust is impatient, seeking a short term, fast solution that never endures. It was like drinking sea water, really...if you're stuck on a boat and haven't had fresh water for long enough, you get desperate and drink the closest thing available, even if it only hastens death.
I want to perhaps reshape the domino theory put forward by the doctor later in the sermon. Sure, in his theory, it starts off with lustful stimulation of some kind....but if I'm getting into stuff that's putting me at risk with lustful stimulation, it means I'm not fleeing morality as I should. What's not causing me to not flee morality? Because I am seeking comfort in something other in God. Why am I doing so? Because I have chosen to not enjoy God for a long time, and have mistaken my need for fulfillment in him for fulfillment in something else: I have forgotten the source.
Psalms 34:8 "Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him" It's taken on yet another dimension of meaning for me now that I've heard this sermon. No fulfillment of any other desire can possibly satisfy me the same way, especially if it's but a symbol of a greater need. It was only after I realized this that I had any hope of getting better. I'm still in the process of doing so.
It makes sense why God would want us to date and then eventually marry someone who is running the same path towards God and with whom you can mutually better nurture a relationship with Him. If sexual desire is the symptom of a longing for God, then there's no better occasion to express it than through constant consummation of a marriage, the holy union God has willed! If done right, sex within marriage becomes another means of coming closer to God!
God has given a GREAT deal; one that society of today tries to stifle and warp. But as always, if we keep our eyes on finishing the race, on the prize that is eternal relationship with God, the hardship of keeping discipline only turns into good.
Lust is not patient. Lust is not kind
Lust is jealous, boastful, proud, rude, and selfish,
easily angered and keeps a record of wrongs.
Lust gloats over other people's sins and does not rejoice in the truth.
Lust bears little, never trusts, never hopes, never endures.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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