Staying Pure in an Impure World

I have been very consumed with the idea of sexual purity lately because it has occurred to me how incredibly important this issue is to our society.  Churches are destroyed over it, lives are laid waste as we as men succumb time and time again to the pressures of temptation to be sexually immoral.

I have to share this with whoever reads this post:  Sexual purity is an attainable goal for ALL men.  Impurity is not an impenetrable state that we cannot escape from, a veritable moral black hole.  Impurity is a set of bad habits built in our mind and in our eyes.  Impurity is something that we can control if we decide to.

The challenge I have for men is this:  if we as men ask for the Holy Spirit to enter our lives, to enter our thoughts and hearts, He will be faithful to enter into our lives and begin to transform our minds and hearts so that we will rise up and grasp for sexual purity.  We can’t break sexual addictions alone.  I can’t stay pure in my mind without the strength of the Holy Spirit.  I have not been pure in my mind because I have not relied on Him.

I would offer a few verses of the Bible to spur men on to sexual purity: 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 says this:  “Flee from sexual immorality.  All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.  Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?  You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”

Guys, we are in a battle with spirits and principalities that are not of this world.  Sexual impurity is just one of many ways in which the enemy takes the wind out of our sails and makes it hard for us to fulfill our purposes in Christ.  Pray for strength and an infilling of the Holy Spirit.  God will be faithful to provide you with strength and peace.

Being a Good Man

It’s hard today to be a good man.  Hollywood doesn’t want you to.  Culture doesn’t want you to.  Heck, in many ways, your own government doesn’t want you to.  It takes courage to step up to the plate and really be a man.  I don’t know how to get the church in an uproar over this and stop the bleeding, but there has to be a way for us to get men and women to stop allowing culture to pull us in the wrong direction.  The divorce rate is the same in the church as outside the church.  7 out of 10 pastors calling Focus on the Family for help are calling for help with sexual addictions.  Worse yet, it is the one thing that no one in the church wants to blow the lid off of and get out of our churches.

Why is that?  Sometimes, being a male myself, I believe that it is because men want to be able to keep their own little hidden sins and pet pleasures without having to change and really be a man.  I know I have done that in the past.  Sadly, I think it would have been hard for me before to work up the courage to blare out my own iniquities even in cyberspace.  I find that getting the truth out really does make you a freer person.  Men struggle with faithfulness, and a large part of the struggle is based in an unwillingness to admit the problem.  As men, we should challenge ourselve to be more than just biologically male.  Stomp out the secret sins and pet pleasures.  Eradicate them from our lives.  It is hard!!!!  I recently gave up a part of my “sexual enjoyment” that was actually hampering my relationship with my wife and my family, because I was placing it above them.  It is stupidly hard to get rid of these things, but it is a call to purity that the church needs before we can successfully stop the bleeding of our hearts and souls by society.  Until we are willing to stand up and say “NO MORE,” we will continue to head down this path of no return, where marriage and faithfulness are less the norm than they are a curiosity.

I pray that men in the church will get down on their knees and pray for strength in fighting this killer of marriages.  I pray that we will be open and honest, to bring all of our resources against this ensnaring evil that Satan knows is so easy to bring us down with.  I will pray for the church and for men, and for myself to be a good example to my children.  I still recommend Fireproof and the Love Dare for anyone who is serious about bringing love and openness and restoration to their marriage.  They are great resources, and no one should be without them!