Recently, I made several trips to the paint store to find a certain color of paint to cover a newly spackled door frame. This project, which is in the process of being complete by someone I work with, is one of many that need to be done at work. My job, like any administrator of my type, is to visit the necessary stores that have the requisite supplies for the assigned tasks.

Last week, the man who does odd jobs for the church told me to go get paint for the door frame. He said that the paint store would have record of this paint color and all I would have to tell them is that it was a yellow shade, and the only bucket of that kind of color we have ever bought from them.

Well, I traveled to the paint store only to realize that we had used the other paint store down the road. When we both visited the correct place, we found out that we have never bought any yellow-type paint that we were describing.

When I went downstairs to look at the color, I thought it looked more beige than yellow (people who know me are laughing right now….because I am color-blind)…and the search process started over again.

After taking a chip off the wall and bringing it into my office, we realized that we were both wrong. The inadequate lighting was the culprit…in combination with the fact that I can’t see color properly.

If the enemy of our souls had his way, he would be the one providing the lens by which we view the world. He wants us to view the world in the dark, and miss the details.

When we talk about things like “being the light of the world”, and “Jesus is the light”, we are describing more than just a solution for darkness. Proper light can allow us to see things as they truly are made to be. God’s perfect light allows us to see the world through the lens of truth. We cannot simply rely on our abilities, discernment, or sight.

Today, ask God to show you the needs of the world around you. Shine God’s light so that His message can be clearer.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos.  For the original post with comments, go to:  http://other-words.net/2013/01/21/the-right-lighting/

“My car ran out of gas and it stranded me on the highway for a while.” “The store at the mall declined my credit card because it was maxed out.” “I didn’t get my coffee today”.

Have you ever heard phrases like these? Have you ever been the one to say them?

In our culture, I hear phrases like these every day. Sometimes, I hear them on TV, sometimes in the midst of counseling sessions, and more often online. The attitude behind these statements reflects a reason for the deterioration of the world around us.

It is a victim mentality that convinces us that everything that is bad in this world is a personal attack.

As a result of this idea, we fail to take responsibility for our own actions. If your car ran out of gas, it may be because you didn’t fill it (sometimes it is a money issue). If you are on a shopping spree for things you don’t need, and your credit card declines…then maybe one of the culprits could be your spending habits.

Also, yes, you are still responsible for your behavior if you did not get your coffee…go to bed earlier if possible! Granted, there are times when we can’t help or prevent what happens to us, but true character is displayed when we respond to these adversities in a noble manner.

Now before I start getting hate mail accusing me of being judgmental, it is important to note that I have fallen victim of a victim mentality many times in my life. I was convinced that the bad I was experiencing was happening to me and I never questioned whether I was contributing.

If we never take responsibility for what we have caused, what we have done, or who we have hurt, then our spiritual growth will be stunted. We will never see the need for redemption and will continue to believe that the world is out to make our lives miserable. This is no way to live.

Examine yourself. 
Take steps to grow.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos.  For the original post, go to:  http://other-words.net/2012/12/05/oops-did-i-just-say-that/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

No more lying then. Everyone must tell the truth to his fellow believers because we are all members together in the body of Christ.

Honesty is essential to recovery. Honesty is essential to intimacy. 
But honesty is not easy.

We were not created to be isolated, independent creatures. We were created to be interdependent. We need each other. And in order for us to be helped by others and to be helpful to others, we need to practice honesty. That means we must learn how to talk to each other about our thoughts and our feelings and our needs. We must learn to talk about our struggles and failures, about our dreams and our successes.

Honesty is the soil in which intimate relationships grow. It creates the possibility of being known and loved for who we really are. But it is also full of risks. If we tell the truth about ourselves, people may not listen. They may not want to know. They may not understand. They may judge and reject. They may dislike us. They may give us simple answers to unanswerable questions. They may repeat what we have said to others.

We hesitate to be honest because we have experienced these things in the past. Our feelings may have been minimized. Our thoughts may have been devalued. Our reality may have been denied. But in order to grow healthy relationships, in order to heal and recover, we need to begin to take risks. Learning honesty will be a process for us. It will not come quickly. But as we practice the disciplines of honesty we gradually become more secure in telling the truth.

I am tired of lying, when it would be just as easy to tell the truth.
But I am afraid of honesty, Lord.
It's not as easy as it sounds.
Help me to pursue honesty today.
Help me to be honest with you.
Help me to be honest with myself.
Help me to build a community of faith
where honesty is the norm.
Build in me a capacity for truth.

Amen.

Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan
National Association for Christian Recovery

Are you, believer, the sum total of your actions or choices? Does behavior always follow beliefs? Who are you? What defines you? Who defines you? Who do you allow to define you? How we answer these questions individually will, no doubt, vary; but answer them we must, at some time and in some manner, if we are to understand not only who we are but whose we are.

After the LORD had graciously caught me in my sin, I remember an officer telling me, after I had quite the breakdown in front of her: 

"This act does not define you. This is something that you did, not who you
 are." I was not expecting her to tell me that, and I will not soon forget it.

I have come to learn that many times our various behaviors and decisions do not always consistently follow our beliefs. We can be quite inconsistent creatures. We can believe and reason in one manner, holding tenaciously to our beliefs, and then behave in the exact opposite manner, thus betraying our beliefs.

Some people often quote Proverbs 23:7 from some semblance of the King James Version: "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he." Contextually, however, that is not a proper concept, and there are better translations which accurately capture the essence of this proverb: "Do not eat the bread of the stingy; do not desire their delicacies; for like a hair in the throat, so are they. 'Eat and drink!' they say to you; but they do not mean it" (Prov. 23:6-7 NRSV).

Or, for another example: "Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. 'Eat and drink!' he says to you, but his heart is not with you" (Prov. 23:6-7 ESV). This man makes one statement with his mouth, but in his heart, he is not being honest. He offers a nice gesture, but he does not really want to grant the offer. 

In other words, he appears genuine and generous, but inwardly he is uncharitable. What he feels and thinks inwardly is not how he appears outwardly. Others may think of him as generous and even thrust such an identity upon him. But generous is not his true nature; stinginess and greed are in his heart. When he appears generous, he is acting against his true desires. 

Do you wonder what people think of you? Do you wonder what identity people thrust upon you? Those with low self-esteem believe people think very lowly of them. People who think much of themselves believe others think very highly of them. There may be a small amount of necessity as to what others think of us. "A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold" (Prov. 22:1 NRSV). But who we are in Christ Jesus is what matters most. 

Moreover, not who we are but whose we are is of utmost importance. Even if the societal perception of us is less than pleasant, God's perception of us is paramount. If we have trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, God views us as holy and blameless (cf. Eph. 1:4). We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21). What is the righteousness of God?

The word righteousness -- dikaiosuné -- refers to justice, just or justness (link). From the word dikaiosýnē, it refers to being judicially approved, what is deemed right by the Lord and what is approved in His view. For all my wrongs, I am right from God's perspective, by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. Though I have sinned, I am counted as sinless in Christ.

Now that is an identity perspective in which I can rejoice! My past behaviors donot define me, nor do they define you. I am not the sum total of my respective decisions and actions from God's perspective, and in Christ neither are you. Moreover, I will not allow others to dictate my identity, and neither will you. Our actions are merely symptoms. Jesus is the solution and cure.  

This post was written by William W. Birch.  For the original post go to:  http://www.wpfences.com/2012/10/actions-and-identity.html

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Have you ever felt the pressure to "be somebody"? I have, and I hated it. I still hate it. Have you noticed how subjective and relative "being somebody" actually is, depending upon who is telling you to "be somebody"?

The measure of success differs among varying standards of individuals. For example, to some people, being a doctor, nurse, lawyer, insurance adjuster, realtor, business owner -- or any other number of professions -- constitutes "being somebody." To others, as long as people are wealthy, they imagine themselves as "being somebody." The Kardashians come to mind immediately. 

But who, really, are the Kardashians? What is their claim to fame -- money? Does wealth define a person? If someone is wealthy, is that an indicator of worth or prestige or honor? Is an individual finally "somebody" if he or she is wealthy or famous?       

One of Jesus' half-brothers was a man named James. Certainly being the half-brother of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world and Son of God Himself, indicated that he was "somebody." Not only did James call himself "a servant [or slave -- doúlos] of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ" (James 1:1), but he also wrote: "Let the believer who is lowly boast in being raised up, and the rich in being brought low, because the rich will disappear like a flower in the field" (James 1:9-10 NRSV). James was unimpressed with wealth and social status or prestige.

He also argued against prejudice and favoritism, implying that such people are not true believers in Jesus Christ, and thus not saved:
My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ? For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, "Have a seat here, please," while to the one who is poor you say, "Stand there," or, "Sit at my feet," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? (James 2:1-4 NRSV) James could abide no semblance of what culture perceived as "being somebody." He explained that God has chosen "the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him" (James 2:5 NRSV). Treating the unfortunate with disdain or dishonor is a dishonorable and despicable act in God's view.

James added, "Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court? Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?" (James 2:6 NRSV) Sadly, too many believers grant preference to wealthy and "notable" persons while neglecting the poor and needy every day. Daily we pray, in the sets of Suffrages, "Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten; nor the hope of the poor be taken away" (BCP, 98). The "poor" and "needy" deserve our full attention, not the wealthy and famous. 

The apostle Paul was no advocate for favoritism either: "For if those who are nothing think they are something, they deceive themselves" (Gal. 6:3 NRSV). If Christ, the Savior, is "everything," then we are free to count ourselves as "nothing." If we think we are "somebody," when actually we are "nobody," we only deceive ourselves.

Jesus is somebody. I am nobody. "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30). You are loved not because you are somebody but because He was, is, and always will be somebody -- somebody who loves His creation. You are loved not for your accomplishments but because your worth derives from the Worthy One Himself.

Though I am a sinner whom Jesus saved, by grace through faith in Him, compared to Christ I am nobody and nothing, nor do I care to be somebody by the standards of this culture. "I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked" (Ps. 84:10 NLT). Christ alone deserves all honor, prestige, preeminence and worship.    

This post was written by William W. Birch.  For the original post go to:  
http://www.wpfences.com/2012/10/be-somebody.html


BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Last week was anti-porn week here at Ironstrikes.  I hope that you were able to read about the five topics:

1.  Porn and sexual satisfaction
2.  Porn and fake relationships
3.  Porn and women
4.  Porn and cruelty
5.  Porn is insidious

Readers have asked about the Zillman-Bryant study from which these five posts were taken.  In the early 1980s, Dr. Doll Zillmann of Indiana University and Dr. Jennings Bryant of the University of Alabama wondered whether continued exposure to video pornography had any impact on people's sexual beliefs and their attitudes towards women.  For their experiment, 80 male and 80 female college-age participants were divided into three subgroups, and each group was shown 4 hours and 48 minutes of media.  

1.  The first group, the “Massive Exposure Group,” was shown 36 non-violent pornographic films over a six-week period. 

2.  The second group, the “Intermediate Exposure Group,” was exposed to 18 pornographic films and 18 regular films over a six-week period. 

3.  The third (control) group, the “No Exposure Group,” was shown 36 non-pornographic movies over a six--week period

You may be saying, "that is an old study, what relevance does it have to today?"

At a 2011 conference, Dr. Mary Anne Layden commented about Zillmann and Bryant’s 25-year-old research. “When this study was done, what was called the ‘Massive Exposure Group" -- seeing five hours of porn over  a six-week period -- "I now call that the Friday Afternoon Group."

Her statement is far from an exaggeration.  A recent survey of 29,000 people at North American universities, shows 51% of men and 16% of women spend up to five hours per week online for sexual purposes, and another 11% of men spend anywhere from five to twenty  hours per week. What used to be “massive” exposure is now common practice.

Furthermore, the Internet has not only increased the public’s exposure to porn, but has also changed the way it is consumed. Dr. Jill Manning believes Zillmann and Bryant’s findings have greater applicability in the modern age because Internet porn tends to be more interactive and consumer-driven. Viewers can select exactly who and what they want to see, custom-tailored to their greatest specifications.

This week, I will be giving four solid tips in helping to curb your vulnerability to porn.

This post is taken from the booklet, YOUR BRAIN ON PORN by Luke Gilkerson.  The booklet can be found at:  http://www.covenanteyes.com/brain-ebook/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.