The Power of Community

Basically, the witness of community is more powerful than an individual witness. Loving your neighbors is much easier if you never have to deal with them. Living in light of the gospel is much harder in community where people sin against you. Your neighbors know this and that is why talk is cheap. Experiencing a people who confess their sins against one another, repent, and forgive is foreign to the world. Communities that live in this way, transformed by the gospel, will not only have a good reputation among their neighbors, but also they will point them to hope in Jesus. This is a community that has joined the mission of God.

- Brad House, Community: Taking Your Small Group Off Life Support, p. 41

(ht: TakeVitaminZ)

What is Forgiveness?

"Forgiveness is a promise not to 1) bring the matter up to the other person, 2) bring the matter up to others, or 3) continually bring the matter up to yourself."

 - Tim Keller

Raquel Welch Says Pornography “Annihilates” Men

Raquel Welch recently sat for an interview with Men’s Health in which she commented that pornography is destroying men. I do not recommend the entire article, but I thought it remarkable and insightful that a secular former sex-symbol recognizes the dehumanizing effects of pornography:

I think we’ve gotten to the point in our culture where we’re all sex addicts, literally. We have equated happiness in life with as many orgasms as you can possibly pack in, regardless of where it is that you deposit your love interest…

It’s just dehumanizing. And I have to honestly say, I think this era of porn is at least partially responsible for it. Where is the anticipation and the personalization? It’s all pre-fab now. You have these images coming at you unannounced and unsolicited. It just gets to be so plastic and phony to me. Maybe men respond to that. But is it really better than an experience with a real life girl that he cares about? It’s an exploitation of the poor male’s libidos. Poor babies, they can’t control themselves…

I just imagine them sitting in front of their computers, completely annihilated. They haven’t done anything, they don’t have a job, they barely have ambition anymore. And it makes for laziness and a not very good sex partner. Do they know how to negotiate something that isn’t pre-fab and injected directly into their brain?

Pornography hollows out the soul and leaves Gollum in the place of the man. But the “annihilation” that a man risks is worse than the one Welch refers to. Jesus said it this way:

Matthew 5:28-30 “Everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

For some practical advice on winning the battle against pornography, I recommend the following resources:

Brian Croft, Help! He’s Struggling with Pornography (booklet).

CovenantEyes free e-books
John Piper, “A.N.T.H.E.M: Strategies for Fighting Sexual Lust” (article)
John Piper, “Battling the Unbelief of Lust” (sermon in manuscript, audio)
David Powlison, “Breaking Pornography Addiction” (article: part 1, part 2)
David Powlison, “Making All Things New: Restoring Pure Joy to the Sexually Broken” (conference talk: audio, video, and chapter)
Tim Challies, Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Single Guy (free eBook)
Tim Challies, Sexual Detox: A Guide for the Married Guy (free eBook)

(ht: Denny Burk, Hunter Baker, Justin Taylor)

Sins of the Flesh

“The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong… the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal Self and the Diabolical Self. The Diabolical Self is the worse of the two. That is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute.” 

-C.S. Lewis