I think I like Mike Guglielmucci's song Healer better now...

Danny Guglielmucci has made a statement about what led to Mike's cancer story:
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24233308-5006301,00.html

I think I like the song Healer better now that I know it came out of a Romans 7 type struggle with sin/addiction than when it was about cancer. Certainly speaks to my life a lot more than before :-) THIS I can COMPLETELY understand. I think this situation coming out into the open is God's first step in answering Mike's prayer for healing from his sexual addiction.

I think he will look back on this time and be grateful that this became public. I think he will never forget how much damage and pain he has caused and I think it will give him opportunity to understand a fresh the grace of God towards him. This is God discipling Mike as a son (Heb 12:5-8) which is grace in itself. This means that Mike is still God's son, which makes him our brother. As the people of God I think we should seek to be a community of healing rather than judgement in this situation.

For everyone else we need to learn/remember the following things:

1. Deal with sin, don't hide it, God won't let it stay hidden for ever, so have a zero-tolerance policy towards sin.
2. Our faith needs to be based in the character of God, not of our leaders because newsbreak they are all fallible and sin, only God is 100% trustworthy.
3. Take the log out of our own eyes before we try to take the speck out of our brothers. And remember that when we think are 'standing firm, be careful that [we] don't fall!' (1 Cor 10:12)
4. God is sovereign and He will work even things like this for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28)

I really feel that so much good is going to come out of this. I feel Joel 2:25-27 is a promise for those who have experienced devastation as a result of this situation. God is passionate about restoration. He is the God of resurrection, when things die/are put to death there is opportunity for God to do something unexpected and good. As a people we need to put our hope in God that He is good enough, and big enough to make something good out of this. And considering the size of the "sin impact zone", I think this could be the beginning of a big revival in the Australian church. I think this could be something that draws people away from their false idols (church leaders, prosperity doctrine, name-it-claim-it theology, prooftexting), and back into a deep and complex faith in Christ.

God bless,
Bec

Refinement through Busyness

I usually feel that God doesn't really want us to be 'busy', productive yes, busy no. I would normally say that busyness consumes us until a point that we typically can't hear God and so are spiritually cut off from our source. But I've been reflecting recently that God can actually use our busyness sometimes as a way of refining us.

This year has/is jam packed full of change and stuff to do for me. So far this year I have changed churches, been temporarily unemployed (then reemployed by same employer!), become a life group leader and gotten engaged. The rest of this year looks like this; moving this Saturday, classes resumed this week, possibly will be looking for work again in Sept when my contract ends, preparing for our wedding in December, working, studying, leading a lifegroup, other church commitments. Additionally my fiance is looking for work as he was made redundant a few weeks back.

I had thought that I would only do one subject this semester, but I got into classes this week and realised that the majority of my spiritual food actually comes out of my study not church. There is just something about getting deeper into the things of God that really really gets me spiritually amped. For some people great worship music makes them want to jump up and down, for me it exegeting Leviticus ;-)

So while I was quite prepared to cut back a bit and try to resist the encroachment of busyness I'm feeling this week much more like there is a point to my busyness at the moment. The whole year has felt like a time of refinement, and I believe God is using this crazy-busy time in that process of refining me. I am, where possible, trying to learn to say no to things that aren't essential. But I'm also learning that where my energy runs out, His energy is available to me. I felt that particularly today as I was sitting in my Exegesis class. Most students seemed a bit freaked by the prospect of Leviticus, but I felt elated, I felt that God's empowering grace is there for me to do this.

And I think that's part of what He's trying to teach me in this period of refinement, to stop relying on my own energy, my own strength, my own intelligence and startling good looks, not to mention humility LOL, but rather to rely on Him and His empowerment to do what He's called me to. And I think He's deliberately set the bar so high that I can't do it on my own.

I'm just praying that 2009 will be a year of peace and rest. I'm calling in the Deut 24:5 principle:

If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

God bless,
Bec

Pornography Addiction amongst Muslims

It's odd the things one stumbles across on the internet, but this one is really fascinating: http://muslimmatters.org/2007/08/19/pornogrpahy-addiction-among-muslims-stories-tips/

It talks about muslims with porn addictions. It is interesting to read how they approach fighting the addiction, and how it is all in their own strength. So much of what they talk about in fighting the addiction is similar to what Christians would suggest in terms of praying more, doing more spiritual disciplines, drawing away from the world etc. But Jesus is missing, and the admission that they cannot change themselves is missing.

Really sadly there are many that talk about how they need to go and do extra good deeds to balance out their sins of lust. And they talk about fear of Allah being the major motivation for not continuing in this sin.

There's also testimony from a muslim wife about how she copes with her husband's problem, all without the agape of Christ in her to love her husband and support him in his struggle. She feels that fear is the only way that her husband will change and thinks that if she got in a car crash that would jolt him into changing.

I think this is very encouraging for Christians, to be reminded that we fight against sin for a God who loves us and who uses "kindness to lead us to repentence" not fear. And that it is Jesus' work in us that allows us to overcome sin, not our own striving and work. And that God does not expect or need us to balance up our sins, that it's all through His grace that we are accepted and will be rewarded in the end.

In reference to the muslim wife's comments, a Christian couple's love and support for each other in this area comes from Jesus and His strength. He empowers them. There is no way outside of Christ that a woman could deal with her husband's (or vice versa) betrayal like this, without the agape of Christ in her. It is impossible to show the required level of forgiveness and understanding towards someone who hurts you like that without understanding how great is your sin before God, and yet how gracious and forgiving He has been to you.

I think it's easy for Christians to fall into similar lines of thinking as these muslims. Reading that article for me was just a really good reminder of God's grace and that we need His grace more than oxygen, and how great and how good is Jesus Christ!!

I'd like to ask you to keep islamic sex addicts in your prayers. Perhaps in the desperation of finding themselves entirely powerless to this addiction, and completely unable to balance up their bad deeds with good deeds, they will hear Christ's call of love and forgiveness, and submit themselves to His grace.

God bless,
Bec

Sin cost-benefit analysis

In business whenever a new project is conceived it goes through cost-benefit analysis to determine whether it will produce benefits that are suitable for the cost involved. If there is not going to be more benefit gained than cost outlaid it typically doesn't go ahead.

I was thinking today about sin in the light of cost-benefit analysis. I think one of the things we do when we decide to sin is we ignore the 'cost' side of the situation. We only tend to see the 'benefit' that it will bring us in the immediate, and ignore the costs associated. We particularly tend to ignore the costs to other people for our sin. Costs we later have to deal with ourselves are FAR more motivating towards good behaviour.

One example would be the twerp who stole the badge off the back of my car yesterday in the church car-park. It's a hunk of plastic with some silver paint on it. Albeit it's a french hunk of plastic with silver paint, but nonetheless, still it's not a particularly practical item. So I would really question the value of having stolen it. I mean WHAT are they going to do with it?? (I can tell you what I'd like to do with it... fasten the thing to their foreheads with superglue given that they love it so much... grr mumble mumble) So benefit = negligible. However the cost to me is (a) a whole bucket load of annoyance, (b) $50 to replace it from my local friendly (read extortionate) Citroen dealer, (c) potentially have the car off the road for a few hours while it's fitted as the half broken bits and old glue will need to be cleaned up before the new one can be fitted. So cost to me is greater than the amount of benefit they could hope to get out of it. Stealing the whole car would have made MUCH MORE SENSE.

So maybe when we are tempted, we should do a bit of a cost-benefit analysis. And not just the cost to us, but the cost to others too. Is it really worth satisfying our desires when the costs are so high???


God bless,
Bec

In the world but not of the world...

As Christians we are called to live out our lives in the midst of a culture that is predominantly antagonistic towards our beliefs. Often this antagonism is hidden and implicit rather than in your face, but however it manifests itself, the worldly culture is not the culture of the Kingdom of God. The most difficult part of this is that although we know that we are not supposed to live as the world lives, there is so much in the worldly culture that appeals to our sinful nature. So we are at war, not only against the outward influence of the world, but our own flesh's desire to be part of that world and partake of a myriad of sinful behaviours.

There is good sense in restricting ourselves from partaking in those external things that most appeal to our sinful nature to lead us into sin. For instance, if we have an abusive relationship with alcohol, then it is wise to not go to bars and lovingly hold glasses of scotch in our hands. Proverbs 5 talks about this in the context of adultery, "Keep to a path far from [the adulteress], do not go near the door of her house" (v8). Verses 3-4 are also instructive, "For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword." The things that are most dangerous to us are those that have the appearance of being good. Within this context it would further be an appropriate application to say that Christian people should avoid getting too close to non-Christian members of the opposite sex EVEN IF (and perhaps especially if) they think it is an opportunity to share the gospel. So many people's lives are shipwrecked on that doozy of a lie. They draw close to someone, emotionally invest, thinking they are just "loving as a brother/sister for Jesus' sake", and then end up in sin and walking away from God.

But we can take seperation from the world too far... There is a fascinating story in today's Age about a reclusive Jewish community in Melbourne, they go far far beyond the requirements of the Torah. In their zeal to maintain holiness they go so far as to segregate boys and girls from the age of 8. They do not use their wife's first name in public, only around their own children. They do not use the first name of other women to whom they are not married, to do so they see as the beginning of an illicit relationship. When the children are 16 they are sent overseas to seminary until they marry, at which point they are informed about sex and are then allowed to pursue secular university education and work. Men look at the ground as they walk, for fear of looking at a woman. Women dress conservatively, cover their hair (or shave it off once they are married, and wear wigs/scarves). They believe that, "if we want our children to uphold our religion the way we believe it, to the dot of the law, dress code etc, the only way is to isolate children from all outside influences".

This is so sadly mistaken, because the other side of this story is that the reason this group made the paper today, is that one of the female teachers in their segregated school has been accused of sexually abusing some of the girls. Now I know the atheist jihadists will see this as a vindication of their view that "fundamentalist" religion is the cause of all suffering. However, the truth is simply this, unfortunately, when we try to remove ourselves from influences that we think will corrupt us, we forget that sin comes with us into our segregated communities, because we have sinful natures! In the world or out of it, as long as people are there, before Christ returns, there will ALWAYS be sin issues.

OK, so having said that I still think there is a good argument for Christian schools, and other methods of living "not of the world". Particularly with children, it is scary how impressionable they are, and I think it doesn't matter which school you send them to all children will be indoctrinated. Every school will have a prevailing philosophy and agenda which it is trying to push. Recent comments from the federal Education Minister's advisor suggested that they saw Christian schools as subversive to the cohesion of society because Christian schools would not promote the secular "doctrines" of abortion, free sex and evolution that were necessary for the smooth operation of society. I think if I have the choice between my children being indoctrinated with the doctrines of abortion, free sex and evolution compared to grace, love, forgiveness, service, love, love, (did I mention love?) I'd choose the later everytime. I do not want my children growing up believing that sexual immorality is normal and appropriate. It isn't. It's enslaving (and I say that out of painful experience not just 'high ideals') and sinful, whether or not our society realises it.

For this same reason I am careful about what television I watch, because I am conscious of how much of an impact secular media has made on the way I think. Many of the strongholds and deceptive philosophies that I have fought against, and still fight against were formed in me through watching popular media. Based on the Romans 12:1-2 principle, "You are what you eat" (The Bec Paraphrase), I choose to abstain from junk food (worldly media) and eat healthy (bible, christian books/blogs, bible, bible, bible etc). I particularly don't watch things that promote/depict violence or sexual immorality. (For this reason, I am in NO hurry to watch Underbelly! ;-)) I also don't listen to secular music if I can avoid it, since so much of the content falls into the following categories, (a) idolatry of love; (b) idolatry of sex; (c) disrespect of women, authority etc. I am quite capable of coming up with enough sinful and rebellious thoughts on my own, I don't need any help with that!

In all honesty, I can see a point where this might make evangelism difficult. In not engaging the culture I live in, perhaps this makes relating to non-Christians more difficult. However, this hasn't been my experience to date. The times I clash most with non-Christians ideologically is over issues of trusting God versus doing things in my human strength, my relationship with money particularly has come up a number of times in this context. After all why does one need to worry and grasp after riches when we have a Father who graciously provides all that we need? I can't remember the last time I lost a conversation over whether or not I had seen such and such on telly, or whether or not I liked a certain song. In all honesty I've probably always been a bit different from "everyone else" anyway, I guess being different and seperate because of my Christianity mightn't feel that weird because I've always been an outsider. So if I'm going to be a weirdo, why not be a weirdo for Christ?

God bless,
Bec

Judging, Correcting, Rebuking

I have been thinking recently about the whole issue of judging people, or saying things that can be construed as judgement. I rather wonder whether when we are corrected or rebuked we confuse it for judgement, and use that as an excuse to not hear something that we really really need to hear. Of course this could also have to do with the balance of “grace and truth” that is used. Too much truth without grace is hard to swallow.

Scripture is quite clear about not judging people. Jesus said, don’t judge or you’ll be judged (Mt 7:1, Lk 6:37). He also says we need to deal with our own “plank” before worrying about our brother’s “speck” (Mt 7:3-5, Lk 6:41-42) but it is interesting that He then says, “then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye” which means that He does intend for us to correct each other, as long as we’ve got our own house in order. Given that none of us are ever going to be perfect in every issue in this life, I’d hazard a guess that this means when we judge others for the same thing we ourselves fail at Jesus isn’t happy. For example, someone who puts in a dodgy tax return and judges someone for stealing their wallet. I think what Jesus is really objecting to here is hypocrisy. Given that we are all sinners, all fallen to some extent we are always hypocritical when we judge others for being sinners and fallen. This is picked up further in Romans 2:1-3, which says that we condemn ourselves when we pass judgement on others, because we do the same things. Hypocrisy is the issue, and we will not escape God’s judgement for doing this.

Sometimes the process of removing a speck from our own eye is hard-fought and painful, but the learning and value of that experience is inestimable in terms of its helpfulness for ourselves and others. I think it is also interesting that the next verse in Matthew (7:6) says to be careful about who we share these things with, to not “throw your pearls to pigs” and that if we do, “they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces”. How often does that happen! You tell someone something because you’ve learnt the hard way that living a certain way isn’t good and you just want to save them the pain of learning that the hard way, and yet they turn and bite you because you have “judged them”.

Within the church, Paul instructs that we SHOULD judge each other when someone is in gross sin. He is responding to the case of the man who was sleeping with his step-mother, and says not to associate with sexually immoral, greedy, idolatrous, slanderous, drunkard or swindling people within the church (1 Cor 5:9-11). He goes on to say “what business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. "Expel the wicked man from among you."” (1 Cor 5:12-13). There clearly is a place for judging people within the church and taking action when they are not living according to their professed faith. The purpose of doing this is so that “the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord.” (1 Cor 5:5) So this is to be done for the GOOD of our Christian brothers and sisters, not out of hypocrisy and not because it makes us feel good. Paul says that we should be “filled with grief” (1 Cor 5:2), but yet take action.

In the Pastoral Epistles both Timothy and Titus are instructed to correct and rebuke people:

• “Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.” (2 Tim 4:2)
• “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim 3:16-17)
• “Those who sin are to be rebuked publicly, so that the others may take warning.” (1 Tim 5:20)
• “… Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith” (Titus 1:13)
• “These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.” (Titus 2:15)

In terms of eternal judgement, that clearly is only for Jesus to do:

• “There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.” (John 12:48)
• “For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:31)

So this is something we do need to do, but with humility. Some key passages to think about when looking at how to do the grace bit of “grace and truth”:

• “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” (Col 3:12-13)
• “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom... But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.” (James 3:13, 17-18)

God bless,
Bec

P.S. I love being rebuked - that's how I got saved ;)

The bubble suit

If only such an apparatus could deal with the sinful desires of the heart eh!? :)

(Swiped from the funny folks at Mars Hill Church)

Mark Driscoll on Sexual Sin

Adam vs Jesus: The Temptation Showdown

Don't you love it when quite accidentally you read two bible passages on the same day that teach you about the same thing?? I had that this morning. My normal quiet time habit is to read a chapter of two of the OT and a chapter or two of the NT each morning, and work my way through sequentially each testament in parallel. Last year that meant I got through the OT once and the NT twice. Since the end of last year up until yesterday I'd had a bit of a break by just working through the epistles, reading each in one go where I had time. Yesterday I restarted the OT/NT reading pattern. So this morning I read Genesis 3 and Matthew 4.

Genesis 3 is the story of the Fall of Humanity. Matthew 4 is an account of Jesus' temptation in the desert after His baptism. Both look at the ways we can approach temptation.

In both cases there is DESIRE. Eve was made with a desire to eat and a desire to gain wisdom. Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights so He had a desire to eat. In and of themselves these desires are not wrong, they are healthy.

Next the devil comes along and introduces the LIE. He questions Eve, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" This manipulates her into a response that will highlight not the 99 the trees that she can eat from but the 1 she can't. Her response also falsely exagerates how 'forbidden' it is, "we can't even touch the tree". The devil lies more, appealing to her desire to gain wisdom. Then she saw that "the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom" and so they ate. The LIES here include, what God told you was wrong, He is mean and is trying to hold you back from something that is good. The lies the devil uses do two things, questions the truth about a situation, and questions the loving, good and faithful character of God. When the devil tempted Jesus he raised questions about whether Jesus really was the Son of God, and tried to use Jesus' desire to fulfil His role as the Son of God, and His desire to eat to try and tempt Him. Each time Jesus responded with TRUTH and He did not sin.

This suggests to me the following:

DESIRE + LIE(S) = WRONG BELIEF = SIN
DESIRE + TRUTH = RIGHT BELIEF = RIGHT BEHAVIOUR

This is the point where the two stories diverge. For Adam & Eve there was a descent into SHAME. This manifested itself in two behaviours HIDING and REFUSAL TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY. After they had sinned they realised what they had done, and first of all tried to hide their nakedness (which had not previously been a source of shame between them) from each other, and then when they hear God walking in the Garden they try to hide from Him too. When God calls them out, and asks them if they have eaten the fruit they pass the buck, they refuse to take responsibility for their behaviour. Adam says "The woman you put here with me" - so it was God's fault for giving him "the woman" and "the woman's" fault. Eve says it was the serpent's fault.

As a result of this there are a number of CONSEQUENCES of that sin. Pain in childbirth, desire for the husband who will rule over the woman, the ground is cursed, and death. Ick... Not good. But God also says some other stuff. In verse 15 when God is talking to the serpent about what he has done, God makes the first messianic promise, His PROMISE OF DELIVERANCE. He foretells when one of the offspring of Eve will crush Satan's head. God also has GRACE on them and provides them with better coverings than the fig leaves they had sewed together, by providing animal skins. In this way demonstrating that the shedding of blood is required for forgiveness.

In contrast after Jesus had stood against each of the devil's temptations, "...the devil left him, and angels came and attended him" (v. 11). God met Jesus' needs when the time was right. God is faithful, one of the lies the devil uses is that if we don't take care of ourselves in accordance with our perceived needs that God won't and nobody else will either.

I was thinking about each step in the Genesis 3 account and how good God has been to provide instruction on how to deal with each step or how God has already dealt with it:

• Lies - Romans 12:2
• Wrong belief / Unbelief - Ephesians 6:10-20; Matthew 4:1-11
• Desire - Ezekiel 11:19-20; Galatians 5:13-25; Romans 8:5-13
• Sin - James 1:22, 4:1-10
• Shame - Romans 8:1, 33-34
• Hiding - Hebrews 4:16
• Refusal to take responsibility - 1 John 1:8-10
• Consequences - Romans 8:10-11, John 10:10 (Death); Romans 8:38-39 (Seperation from God); Romans 3:21-24 (Insecurity)
• Covering of shame, cleansing - Hebrews 9:14, 22; Hebrews 10:14, 17-18.

I also noted with some interest that Jesus' temptation comes right after a SPIRITUAL HIGH for Him. At the end of Mt 3, Jesus is baptised and a voice is heard from heaven saying "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." (v.17). This is interesting for a couple of reasons, firstly this temptation is not because God is displeased with Jesus, or that He didn't love Him. Secondly, was the temptation an attempt from the devil to undo the good that what God had said to Jesus had done in His life? This seems plausible as the first thing the devil says to Jesus is "If you are the Son of God...", he questions the very thing that God has just said to Jesus.

The other thing that was interesting contexually to the temptation story is that immediately following the temptation Jesus starts His public MINISTRY. In chapter 4, verses 12-17 he starts preaching, in verses 18-22 he calls His first disciples and in verses 23-25 he heals the sick. This leads me to wonder, what would have happened if Adam & Eve had not eaten the fruit, if they had withstood the temptation? What amazing things would God have done in their lives following that?

This lead me to: "For if, by the trespass of the one man [Adam], death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. " Romans 5:17 and "The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:47-49.

So we've seen how to deal with lies, the devil and temptation through two examples; that of Adam & Eve and that of Jesus. I know which I think is the better way :-)

God bless,
Bec

Weight Loss as a Parable for Spiritual Transformation

It often strikes me that weight loss is a great parable for spiritual transformation. There are three types of people who try to lose weight, and these parallel the ways we try to deal with sin:


1. Fad Dieter
These are the people who want a quick fix, they don't want to change their habits, and who see minimal change as a result. They want a miracle fix, that will help them lose lots of weight really really quickly. They really love weight loss products/plans that promise that they can continue to eat everything they are currently eating, and that they will still end up a size 8. Most usually this approach does not work. It is psychologically comforting, however, because if you are taking some "miracle weight loss pills" you can make the excuse that you "are trying", despair and return to your old ways with the comfort that it's not as though you didn't try, it's just that it's too hard.


2. Starvation Protest Dieter
The starvation dieter decides that it isn't really their fault that they are overweight, it's the food's fault. As a result, war is declared against all food. All food is evil, it is the enemy and must be stopped at all costs. They either refuse to eat at all, or go the way of the bulimic. This results in massive weight loss, but not only does fat get broken down, so does muscle. In time they become emaciated and die.


3. Change-in-Lifestyle Dieter
The dieters that have the most success are those that understand that food is NOT evil, food is not the problem. The problem lies in their relationship TO food. They simply over-indulge in something that is by nature GOOD. They seek to change their lifestyle so that their relationship with food and exercise is a healthy one. They seek advice from doctors and other health experts. They organise a support group, so that they are encouraged to keep going, particularly when things get difficult. They do what their personal trainer tells them to do even when it hurts or doesn't make sense. Instead of worrying about what they SHOULDN'T eat, they make sure that they ARE eating the right things. They don't buy problem foods, they buy lots of fresh fruit and veg. Once they've got the 5 veg, 2 fruit, meat, legumes etc etc thing down, there is less room for the higher fat foods. Over time they begin to enjoy more and more healthy food, and not having the higher fat foods all the time becomes less of an issue. Because life is meant to be fun, they do have the occasional slice of cake or tim-tam, but because they are now not eating them constantly, the effect on their waist line is negligle or non-existant, and they do not desire to eat more than a healthy portion.


I think weight loss illustrates the following spiritual transformation principles:

• Don't look for the latest fad or instant fix. Such change is unsustainable.
• Don't look for the "New Idea" / "Woman's Day" solution. Such solutions are unrealistic.
• Don't go on a starvation diet, cutting everything good out of life for fear that you may become corrupted by it. John 10:10, we are called to abundant life.
• Focus on what you SHOULD be eating rather than what you SHOULDN'T. If you fill up on "The Bread of Life" you won't have room for unhealthy "spiritual foods".
• Don't buy the "chocolate", if it isn't in the house, you can't eat it. Control the things you allow into your life that you know will later be a temptation. Win the battle at the "supermarket".
• Don't try to do it on your own, get help from 'experts' like mature Christians, elders, pastors etc. Have a support group in place, people who will remind you of God's grace, and support you in prayer.
• Follow your personal trainer's (Holy Spirit) instructions
• Don't kick yourself if you have the occasional tim-tam, God's grace is sufficient, get up have another go.
• Don't believe labels about yourself that define you in terms of your problem. You are not "Fat" or "a Loser" or "weak" because you struggle. Those labels are not from God. He labels you as "chosen", "redeemed", "accepted", "loved", "son/daughter of the King".

God bless,
Bec

Virtue vs. Innocence

I found the following quote a few months ago, I can't remember where, but it struck me at the time as being very insightful:

"There is a difference between virtue and innocence. Virtue has successfully passed a point of temptation. No one is a mature Christian until they have attained virtue--innocence is not enough." Anonymous

I hate temptation, I quite often pray that God will remove it. But as a good friend pointed out in his comment on my post about the Desert Fathers, according to James 1:2-4, the testing of our faith is a good thing, because persevering through trials and temptations brings us to maturity.

I was reading 2 Peter this morning. I really really love the first chapter, particularly verses 3-9. It also addresses this issue of growing in virtue. Peter lists a number of virtues that the Christian should add to their faith; goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. Peter says if we possess these qualities in "increasing measure" we will be productive and effective in our knowledge of Christ. I think "increasing measure" indicates a process of growth, as the wording around the list of virtues does by use of the "and to this quality add that" phrasing.

What I think is particularly useful is verse 9. Sometimes when we are going through a season of temptation and are not seeing progress it can be difficult to see how we will ever move forward, and think will I always be this sinful?? Is this the area of my life that will never be sanctified this side of eternity. God's answer in verse 9, is that we are short-sighted to think like that, and that we "have forgotten that he has cleansed us from our past sins". I think this means we trust in Him to cleanse us again and again, we trust in the finished work of Christ.

So I think we keep at it, keep working to add those virtues, keep facing the temptations knowing that He is using them to work in us, and remember the cross, and that as much as we continue to fail He is still faithful to forgive us when we confess our sins.

God bless,
Bec

Some interesting thoughts from the Desert Fathers...

From The Desert Fathers: Sayings of the Early Christian Monks, Penguin Classics

On controlling the tongue
"They said of Agatho that for three years he kept a stone in his mouth in order to teach himself silence." (p20)

On temptation
"When Cyrus of Alexandria was asked about the temptation of lust, he said, 'If you are not tempted, you have no hope; if you are not tempted, it is because you are sinning. The man who does not fight sin at the stage of temptation is sinning already in his body. The man who is sinning in his flesh has no trouble from temptation.'" (p35)

"Poeman said, 'The character of the genuine monk only appears when he is tempted.'" (p63)

"A hermit said, 'We do not make progress because we do not realize how much we can do. We lose interest in the work we have begun, and we want to be good without even trying.'" (p66)

"A brother came to Poemen and said to him, 'Many thoughts come into my mind and put me in danger.' He sent him out into the open air, and said, 'Open your lungs and do not breathe.' He replied, 'I can't do that.' Then he said to him: 'Just as you can't stop air coming into your lungs, so you can't stop thoughts coming into your mind. Your part is to resist them.'" (p101)

"A hermit said, 'Satan has three powers, which lead to all the sins. The first is forgetfulness, the second negligence, the third selfish desire. If forgetfulness comes, it causes negligence, negligence is the mother of selfish desire, and by selfish desire we fall. If the mind is serious, it repels forgetfulness, negligence does not come, selfish desire finds no entry, and so with the help of Christ we shall never fall." (p127)

On Fasting & Humility
"Joseph asked Poemen, 'How should we fast?' Poemen said, 'I suggest that everyone should eat a little less than he wants, every day.'" (p99)

"Antony also said, 'I saw the devil's snares set all over the eart, and I groaned and said, "What can pass through them?" I heard a voice saying, "Humility".' (p148)

"Evagrius said, 'To go against self is the beginning of salvation.'" (p153)

On the Word of God
"John who had been exiled by the Emperor Marcion, said, 'One day we went into Syria to see Poemen for we wanted to ask him about hardness of heart. But he did not know Greek and we did not have an interpreter. When he saw we were embarassed, he began to speak in Greek saying, 'The nature of water is soft, the nature of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above a stone letting water drip down, it wears away the stone. It is like that with the word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but if a man hears the word of God often, it will break open his heart to the fear of God.'" (p191)

God bless,
Bec

Pursuing Holiness

I've just finished reading a collection of sayings of the desert fathers. These dudes were intense! In the third century they moved off into the desert often on their own, some became hermits or lived in communities with other hermits/monks and dedicated themselves to putting their flesh to death.

It was very interesting. Partly, because the austerity of their way of living is SO in contrast to the way the average modern believer lives. I'm not entirely sure that they were completely right in the way they lived, my biggest objection being that it is hard to love your neighbour as yourself if you don't have any neighbours. Also hard to spread the gospel if you are not at all in contact with the world. However, I am really impressed with the intensity with which they desired and sought after holiness. OK, so some of it was probably in reliance upon themselves rather than God, but they definitely seemed to live that verse where Paul says, "I beat my body and make it my slave" (1 Cor 9:27). They fasted, they lived in seclusion, avoided women, kept vows of silence, subjected themselves to suffering for their sins. A couple of them went so far as to castrate themselves based on an overly literal interpretation of Jesus' statement, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off" (Mark 9:43) Ouch!!!

There were some bits that suggested to me that they were working on a works based theology rather than grace, but you could equally interpret their behaviour in light of James 2:14-26. Faith without deeds is dead. If we truly believe that He has redeemed us, and called us to live holy lives, then surely some degree of zealousness in pursuing holiness would be a sign of faith.

I was challenged by the desert fathers. Not to move into the desert, praise God! But to take more seriously the call to live a holy life. I think I need to stop making excuses to myself about the weakness of my nature, and be more determined to lean on God for the strength to make the hard choices that are needed in my life in order to overcome sin. God willing that won't be actual bodily amputation (although some days I think that physical bodily mutilation would be easier than dealing with the sinfulness of my heart). But I think it is wise to cut off opportunities for sin. Proverbs 5:8 is illuminating, and I think applies more broadly than just to the context of avoiding adultery, "Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house".

I want to learn better to follow the promptings of the Spirit, and work with Him better to live a life that is pleasing to God. I want to understand more fully the offensiveness of my sin to God, so that my desire to not sin will be more motivated out of a desire to please Him rather than a sense of guilt and condemnation that makes me feel bad. I do not want to presume on His grace, although I know that my entire existence presumes on His grace. I want to better understand Christ and what He did for me at Calvary. I want to walk free because He paid so dearly for my freedom. Mostly, I want to know Him better, more closely, more deeply, more intimately. I want to know Him better than I know myself.

God bless,
Bec

The effects of pornography

Following on from my post yesterday about Rudd's clean feed policy the following article from The Age today is interesting:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-internet-and-the-rise-of-porn/2008/01/02/1198949896984.html

If anyone doubts that the internet has meant that children are being exposed to sexually explicit material at an earlier age than in previous generations, then the statistic that 84% of boys and 60% of girls had been accidentally exposed to pornography on the net is illuminating. And as this article shows, much of the content is not only sexual but of a violent nature as well. If this is the material upon which young people are forming their values regarding what is right within a sexual relationship then we can expect to see a big rise in sexual violence. The sad part will be that as that behaviour is normalised in society people will become increasingly accepting of being used by each other in degrading and violent ways.

This to some extent is already true. There is already a culture that teaches young women that their value is in their looks, and in their ability to attract men. It teaches women that they need to be sexually available and if they do not want to participate in some sexual acts that they won't be able to get/keep a man. The disturbing thing is that this has all happened in such a way that women defend this sort of thinking and behaviour as "equality with men". The other attitude that can accompany this is a pleasure in the power that men's lust gives women over men.

All of this is SOOOOO far from what God intended. A relationship that is based on taking from each other, and manipulating each other by what each person can give/withhold from the other, and on various power-plays is sick and doomed to failure. There is no intimacy, no sharing of hearts & minds. This is slavery not freedom.

It is hugely important that as a society we do something about the proliferation of pornography. Since the advent of the internet, because of the increase ease of access, as an emotional, spiritual and pyschological threat it is like this threat has gone nuclear. It will destroy the lives and loves of children, teenagers, adults, men and women if something is not done. It destroys relationships, marriages, tears apart families. It hurts our relationship with God. It isn't just "a bit of fun".

What God wants for us all is SO much better. Mark Conner's Sacred Sex series was great on the topic of what God DOES intend sex to be. See especially the first part!

God bless,
Bec

Rudd's Clean Feed (Internet Filtering) Policy

As a part of the recent election campaign, the Labor party promised to protect Australian children whilst online. The Labor policy is here: http://www.alp.org.au/download/now/labors_plan_for_cyber_safety.pdf

One important part of this policy is the promise of a "mandatory ‘clean feed’ internet service for all homes, schools and public computers that are used by Australian children". This filtering will be done at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level NOT on the user's PC.

In light of the detail of the Labor policy (ie. ISP NOT PC Filtering) it is interesting that the NSW Council for Civil Liberties says that a computer saavy child will be able to get around the filters. Hmmm. Unlikely. To do that they would need access into the ISP's computer systems to tamper with the filtering software. The majority of children would not be capable of hacking their ISP. In fact if you read Labor's policy (as linked above) it is clear that the reason they have selected the 'clean feed' approach is that they understand that filtering inside the home IS simple to get around.

I rather think that this comment by the NSW Council for Civil Liberties is just a distracting tactic. I think later comments reflect more what their objection is, "adults would be restricted by the filters" and "Will there be some database of people who want to access adult pornography, which is legal in most democratic countries?" and "It has serious implications for freedom of expression. When you start filtering material on political grounds - even if the material is objectionable or quite awful - we're heading in the same direction as China and Singapore."

OK so there are really two points here, firstly adults will also be restricted in their access of pornographic material, which is seen to be undesirable because it "is legal in most democratic countries" and has "serious implications for freedom of expression".

There are some an interesting assumptions in this:

1. Legality in democratic countries is a measure of what is moral or good
2. Freedom of expression is an absolute ethic

The first statement is quite obviously false. There is of course the extreme example of Nazi Germany; where murder of Jews was legal and yet obviously not moral or good. Another less extreme example would be the way laws regarding smoking have been changing over the last 20 years. 20 years ago you could smoke anywhere, anytime pretty much. The laws have subsequently changed to protect others from passive smoking, such that now it is not legal to smoke in restaurants and pubs. One cannot say that at the time that smoking in restaurants and pubs was legal that it was GOOD. The law has changed, because that original law that allowed smoking in restaurants and pubs was not beneficial or constructive. I would say that it equally follows that just because it is legal for adults to view pornographic material that it is necessarily good.

The second statement that makes freedom of expression an absolute is naive. Freedom is good. It is wonderful to live in a country that allows me choice and freedom. But there is obviously a level of restriction that is good for us. For instance, one could view road laws as inflicting an unecessary level of restriction of freedom. However, I for one am GLAD that when I cross the road when the green man is blinking, that the freedom of drivers is restricted so that I may get to the other side without being run over. I am equally glad to have MY freedom restricted by not crossing the road until the green man blinks, because I know that it is for my good. The NSW Council for Civil Liberties comment that this moves us closer to China or Singapore is a scare tactic. It is common sense that our freedom can and should be restricted at times, and that this is good.

The other side of this is that what is ok for me is not necessarily ok for others. Even if one buys the argument that adults can safely view pornography without harming themselves, it does not necessarily follow that adults SHOULD view pornography knowing that having it accessible means that children may be exposed to it. In 1 Cor 10:23-24, Paul writes that everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial or constructive, and that we should seek the good of others not ourselves. We live in community. As much as our individualistic society tells us that each of us individually are the centre of the universe, the fact is that none of us are. We are responsible not just for feeding our own appetites but also for looking out for one another.

For this reason, even if instituting the clean feed policy means that adults are also restricted from viewing pornographic material, it should most definitely be implemented to protect the children in our community. Actually, I believe this policy is beneficial for adults as well. I think it will mean that fewer adolescents fall into sexual addictions. I think that it will mean less adults will develop unrealistic expectations about sex, and thus will be freed up to better enjoy what sex really IS rather than they imagine it is. I think it will also have a positive impact on women having realistic and positive body images. If the image of women that men desire is not distorted by pornography then the pressure to be a barbie-doll will diminish, and real beauty will be rediscovered.

So personally, I am EXCITED about the clean feed policy! It will protect our children, but also will provide an opportunity for us to rediscover real sex and real beauty. The real is always better than what is imagined, fantasies dry out and get boring with time. True contentment can only be found in appreciating what is real and true.

God bless,
Bec