Sunday, January 14, 2007

the blinding

'What broke George Verwer’s heart back in the eighties, and breaks mine today, is not mainly that you have sinned sexually, but that this morning Satan took your 2 AM encounter in the hotel room—whether on TV or in bed—and told you: “See, you’re a loser. You may as well not even go to worship. No way are you going to make any serious commitment of your life to Jesus Christ! You may as well go back to school and get a good practical education, and then a good job so you can buy yourself a big wide screen and watch sex till you drop.”

I want to take that weapon out of his hand. Yes, I want you to have the joyful courage not to even do the channel surfing. But sooner or later, whether it’s that sin or another, you are going to fall. I have come to Atlanta to help you deal with the guilt of that failure so that Satan does not use it to produce another wasted life.'

How many times have you felt like that? If you're anything like me, the answer will be something like 'oh gosh, a whole heap'. Go read: 'How to deal with the guilt of sexual failure for the glory of Christ and His global cause'. (HT: Paul)

*nutella for the eyes*

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Who is going to be the person brave enough to post the first comment on this one...? Well done Ed for being so vulnerable!!

Related, (but not directly), to this, I have to say I have found regular fasting and prayer so helpful. I have no scientific evidence to prove it, but when you take on the biggest appetite of your body and subdue it with fasting, (with the Spirit's help of course, no He-man theology here!) All the others fall into line.

You can, believe it or not, live without sex. You can't live without food, consequently the desire for it is so much stronger. Yet we men don't often recognise it, because we rarely try and discipline our eating habits. Only when we try to stop for the sake of prayer do we realise what a slippery and deceptive monster lies within us! With the Spirit's help, it must be tamed and brought into conformity with the will of God!

Women will know this battle much more keenly given our figure-obsessed culture, but not necessarily from a godly perspective.

So go for the juggular, fill yourself with the glorious vision of Isaiah 58, get ready to fight with all God's power that is at work in you one and watch the big beast of lust deflate like an old balloon. That is certainly my experience, I pray that would be multiplied across all those who read this too!