Stop, Pray, Love

We all get temptations. Some are harder for us to avoid than others. The key with temptations is stop, pray, love God. Most of the time, when we are dealing with temptations and fall into them, we are wandering. Wandering in our thoughts, not thinking critically, etc. The key with a temptation is to deal with it. Don't continue to wander towards it. Identify it. Pray about it. Then deal with it. Joseph identified that Potiphar's wife was seducing him. He immediately left. This is very important. Don't hang around a situation where you feel tempted. Whether it's lust, or anger, or envy, being unloving, or laziness, etc. If your brain is going towards a place it shouldn't be, take out the Word and meditate on it. You have to control your mind. You have to control your body. Proverbs says "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls." This is so true. 

Self-control is extremely difficult. But with the Lord's help, and if you aren't constantly putting yourself in situations where self-control is harder then it should be, you will grow more self-controlled. Self-control is a character trait that we all need to work on.

Love

Love is about others. It's not about you. Until you love someone because it's about them and not about your own desires and feelings, it's not love. Of course, it's never going to be perfect. But, yeah.. Something I'm working on.

Why Feminism is so Destructive - Rant Thursday

Feminism. I hate it. I really do. Not because I hate the people who subscribe to such a belief. But I hate the idea of it. Feminism is in many ways a spawn of the sins of our day. Women no longer have any respect for their husbands. If you're a dude who wants to get something done in life. Do not marry someone who calls herself a feminist. She will tear you down so hard, and trust me, you will hate life. These men (which I've noticed more men are angry feminists than women) and women who buy into the ideas of equality of roles for men and women are number one, fools. They don't live in the real world. I spend a good amount of my time managing projects, managing people/relationships/etc. If there's one thing I've learned, there needs to be a manager in any relationship. There needs to be someone saying, let's go here. Let's go there. Of course, you're a team. You have to work hard to keep unity. Which means you don't treat your team members like trash. But you need a leader, you need vision!

Feminists have this fallacious idea that when men get married, they are looking for a toy. A real life woman who acts like a porn doll. Are you kidding me?! Any man worth his salt wants to marry someone who will be a good team member. A good support. If you've ever played LoL you'll understand this. There are two roles that reign in bottom lane. One is adc (attack damage carry). The other support. Adc = builds damage. Support = keeps adc alive and gives adc kills. Can either one survive without the other? No. Do they play different roles? Yes. Is one more important than the other? No.

Still not convinced, 100 games of adc, 100 games of support for you. Then come back to me. :-)

On a more serious note, feminism undermines the very roles that were established by God. That's why if someone were to come to me and say, well you just need a manager in a relationship, the woman can be the manager. Were you born blind sir? What kind of ideology do you subscribe to? The Bible from the very beginning, clearly demonstrated the roles of man and woman. If you don't believe in the Bible, I don't understand why we are even talking about this issue. You have a more basic problem.

In the garden, the curses that were given by God equaled that (Matthew Henry quote) "If man had not sinned, he would always have ruled with wisdom and love; if the woman had not sinned, she would always have obeyed with humility and meekness."

When a woman begins to complain about how her husband is not ruling with wisdom and love, do not say that her option is to become proud and rule over her husband. Do two sins make a right? No! Also, if your wife is proud and wants to rule over you, does that mean a man should not rule with wisdom and love? No.

Feminism is destructive because it gives men and women license to their sinful natures. Our sinful natures should be smacked across the face, over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Not given license to live by immoralistic ideologies created by angry and proud men and women.

I pray the Lord blesses me with a wife someday, I'm not sure who would like me, with rants like these... ;-P. But I want someone I can spend time with. Someone who is my best friend. We can talk about our dreams and vision for our lives. I can, Lord willing, lead her and help her grow her gifts and talents God has given her. I can pray for her and wash her with the Word. She can follow my imperfect leading with imperfect humility, and we can be a team that takes on many battles together. But also, we can enjoy the good times, and watch our children grow up. We will disappoint each other. I will be tempted to be angry, unloving, or not lead. She will tempted to be unloving and unsubmissive as well. But through God's grace, we will come out on the other side of the river, bloody and bruised. But redeemed by the blood of Christ.

And that is a much more beautiful image than any of the trash the quiverful complainers post.

And thus ends my epic rant. w00t. lol.

Live in Unity

One balance that as Christians, we have to balance involves cliffs. Number one, if someone else is jumping off a theological cliff, a moral cliff, basically any cliff that involves sin, unity is not jumping over that cliff with them. Also, unity is not you jumping off a cliff and wondering why no one else is jumping off with you. Unity would be seeing someone jumping over a cliff, and tell them "Nuh, uh dude. Not cool bro. You jump over cliff. You die. ..."

Also, if the cliff is only six inches tall, it's okay to continue to hold their hand. But if it's a 100 foot cliff, sometimes you have to let them go. :-(

Opens My Eyes

There are times when I feel God's hand reach into my life more than he does at any other time. Those moments, when you aren't struggling to focus when you're doing your morning devotions, or pray without other images or ideas flash into your head, are so beautiful. A peace from God. I pray God gives me more of these moments. Moments to think on how good and wonderful he is in my day to day life. The feeling that I can sit in His lap and see His amazing work around me. But at the same time, the ability to go out in the battlefield and take on the enemies of the world, flesh, and the devil. However, I don't do it alone. And I can't do it alone. God is good.

Confess Your Sins

I live in a bedroom. And in that bedroom there is a bed. And too often, under that bed there grows a disgusting pile of dirty clothes, worn out socks, tattered books, happy dust bunnies, and the occasional used plate. ... At some point, this combination of items begins to have more and more negative consequences on the entire state of the room. The room slowly begins to smell like sewage lite, the contents under the bed slowly begin to grow legs and scoot their way out from under the bed, and my entire family decide to put a radioactive sign on my bedroom door.

In many ways, this relates to our lives in a very real sense. It's very easy to take a sin, and stuff it under the bed for no one else to see. You pretend that it's okay to put this sin under the bed. Thoughts begin to flash through your mind. It's just one little sin.. It's too much work to confess this sin.. It's going to hurt my reputation.. I want to just savor this sin a little more later..

And ever so slowly, these sins begin to pile up. And maybe those around you haven't noticed, yet.. But the pile that started as one little dirty sin, eventually grows to this enormous toxic waste heap. And in some sense, you can't tell. It's similar to when you walk into someone's house that has some sort of odd odor. Initially, you perceive the odor, and it may be pungent. But as time goes on, your senses accept this to be a new state of normal. It doesn't smell to you. But as soon as someone else comes close to you. Immediately, they can tell that your life reeks.

But what do we do? Start confessing sin. Start taking that dirty underwear, those food crusted plates, and begin to take them out and deal with them. Get a mentor, or someone who is willing to wade into the filth and help you clean up. You may not know how. You may have no idea how to clean this stuff up. But through God's grace, as you reach under that bed and feel the morass of filth, you will begin to pull out pieces and expel them from your life. And your room will start to smell less rancid. Your life will be filled with mercy, as Proverbs 28:13 says, "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy."

And remember, this doesn't happen without the mercy and faithfulness of God. 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

God is faithful to forgive. He will cleanse. 

Making Us New

As Christians, God is making beautiful things out of the dust. We are dry bones. And God breathes life into those dry bones. And he will continue to make us new. We are complete in Christ and in Him, we are beautiful. Otherwise, we are cracked and dry bones. Quite the image. 0.o