Blog Archives - IRONSTRIKES

My Strange Addiction

9/20/2014

A recent television series called MY STRANGE ADDICTION features tortured folks with varied compulsions such as bathing in bleach, collecting dead things, or ingesting chalk. Each episode gives curious viewers a glimpse into the lives of those with unusual habits. Sadly, these addictions are not habits that give people a full, rich, healthy life.

In his letter to the Romans, the apostle Paul details the human conflict between living according to the temptations of our sinful nature. Far from casting stones at the sins of others, Paul said, "So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." The Greek word sarx, which Paul uses for sinful nature, is also the word translated elsewhere as "the flesh." Paul is contrasting the life controlled by a mind set on the flesh with one controlled by a mind set on the Spirit. Paul recognizes that a life driven by the carnal yearnings -- whether bodily for pleasure, food, or sex, or emotionally for status, power, or control -- contradicts God's law.

Pitting body against spirit was typical of ancient Greek thinking. Sadly, centuries later many Christians are still tempted to view the body itself as bad. But that's not what Scripture is saying. In fact, as part of Paul's argument he reminds his audience that God's own Son was in the "likeness" of sinful flesh in order to be a sin offering on our behalf. It's not the body that is bad, but rather it is the life that is controlled by the desires of the body that kills. To be "obligated" to the flesh, Paul says, is to die. To live a life driven by the Spirit is to live!

This post is taken from Today in the Word.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Porn and sexist attitudes

9/19/2014

Pornography has long held a controversial place in society, and its relationship with a number of behaviors and attitudes has been highly debated.

But the concern remains: How does viewing pornography affect our attitudes towards women? A recent paper published in the Journal of Communication found that exposure to pornography was related to and increased sexist attitudes, but only among a subgroup of users.

Gert Martin Hald, Theis Lange, University of Copenhagen, and Neil Malamuth, University of California, Los Angeles, asked 200 Danish adults aged 18-30 about their past pornography consumption; assessed a central part of their personality (the trait of agreeableness i.e., individual low in agreeableness typically holder higher levels of antagonism, coldness, hostility, suspiciousness, disagreeability, unfriendliness, and self-interest); and exposed them to hardcore pornography in the laboratory. They then evaluated how participants’ personality and the exposure to pornography affected a variety of sexist attitudes.

Among women increased past pornography consumption was not found to be associated with any of the sexist attitudes investigated. Among men increased past pornography consumption was initially found to be associated with more negative attitudes toward women including more hostility, negative prejudices, and stereotypes.

However, when the researchers actually exposed participants to pornography, personality (agreeableness) was found to influence the relationship between pornography and sexist attitudes so that it was only among participants low in agreeableness that pornography was found to increase sexist attitudes. Among this group it was found that laboratory exposure to pornography modestly increased hostile sexist attitudes. Further, this increase was found to be brought about by increases in sexual arousal to the pornographic exposure material. For all other participants, pornography exposure was found not to influence sexist attitudes.

“The study is important because it may help nuance the view of effects of porn and enable us to better understand for whom adverse effects of porn are most likely and the mechanisms by which such effects occur. This could be used in prevention, education, or clinical interventions,” said Hald, the lead author. “The study shows the importance of individual differences in research on pornography and underscores that effects of pornography on attitudes may not be the same for everyone”.

This post was taken from PSYPOST. The original post can be found at: http://www.psypost.org/2013/09/pornography-reinforces-sexist-attitudes-among-a-subgroup-of-heterosexuals-20077

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

What porn does to intimacy

9/18/2014

The rapid proliferation of pornography is one of the digital age’s legacies; some 40 million people in the United States visit porn websites regularly, many of them emerging or young adults. Popular media have capitalized on cautionary tales about porn addiction and stories of boyfriends objectifying their girlfriends and wanting them to behave like porn stars. But studies confirm that the preponderance of young men—and slightly less than half of women—thinks that watching sexually explicit material is okay.

That’s what Spencer B. Olmstead and his colleagues found when they asked college students about the use of pornography in future romantic relationships: 70.8 percent of men and 45.5 percent of women thought they would watch. In contrast, only 22.3 percent of men and 26.3 percent of women thought pornography had no role in a romantic partnership.

Men and women tend to disagree on two issues: How porn is watched (alone, in groups, with a sexual partner); and how often it is watched. As Michael Kimmel reported in his 2008 book Guyland, young men often watch porn with their peers and for different reasons than older men. Kimmel writes that “guys tend to like the extreme stuff, the double penetrations and humiliating scenes. They watch it together with guys and they make fun of the women in the scene.” In contrast, older men with more experience either watch by themselves or with a partner, and with what Kimmel calls “wistfulness” about their younger selves; they tend to prefer material “where the women look like they are filled with desire and experience pleasure.”

The Olmstead study found that women’s concerns had more to do with whether consumption of porn was limited than whom it was watched with. Men tend to think that watching porn has only positive consequences.

As reported by Nathaniel Lambert and others in a review of studies, women whose partners watched porn regularly thought less of those partners and saw porn as more of a threat to the stability of their relationship. On the other hand, other studies have shown that young men and women alike think that sexually explicit material can help them explore their sexuality and adds “spice” to what they do in bed.

Is watching pornography really as benign as people think? The following three studies reveal that it has a greater effect on relationships than those we usually discuss.

1. Porn-free relationships are stronger, with a lower rate of infidelity.

That’s what Amanda Maddox and her colleagues found in a study of men and women, ages 18 to 34, who were in romantic relationships. The researchers measured the levels of negative communication, relationship adjustment, dedication or interpersonal commitment, sexual satisfaction, and infidelity. In their study, 76.8 percent of men and 34.6 percent of women looked at sexually explicit material alone; 44.8 percent reported viewing it with partners. They found that people who didn’t view any porn had lower levels of negative communication, were more committed to the relationship, and had higher sexual satisfaction and relationship adjustment. Their rate of infidelity was at least half of those who had watched sexual material alone and with their partners. But people who onlywatched porn with their partners were more dedicated to the relationship and more sexually satisfied than those who watched alone.

2. Watching porn diminishes relationship commitment.

What these researchers discovered is that watching porn reminds you of all the potential sexual partners out there, which in turn lowers your dedication to the person you’re actually involved with. It also leads you to swap out the person who’s actually lying in bed with you for some fantasy person you’ve never met (and probably never will).

Does that sound healthy?

Nathaniel Lambert, Sesen Negash and others conducted five separate experiments to find out. In the first, they asked participants, age 17 to 26, who were in relationships (as long as three years and as brief as two months) about their porn consumption and measured levels of commitment. They found that porn consumption lowered commitment in both men and women, but with a stronger effect on men.

In their second study, they had independent observers watch videos of couples performing an interactive task—one partner was blind-folded and had to draw something while the other gave instructions. Among the observers, lower commitment was observed among porn users.

The third study only tested participants who had consumed porn. They had half the group give up porn for three weeks. The other half was asked to give up their favorite food, but were allowed to watch porn. The result? Those who had abstained from sexually explicit material showed increased commitment to the relationship at the end of the three weeks.

The last two studies focused on the effect of greater attentiveness to alternatives on potential infidelity and infidelity itself. And yes, people who watched porn were more likely to engage in flirting (and more) outside their relationships in one experiment; and more likely to cheat and hook-up in the other.

3. The fantasy alternative leads to real-world cheating.

In another study, Andrea Mariea Gwinn, Nathaniel Lambert, and others further explored the nature of the other alternatives imaginatively offered up by pornography. They suggested two possibilities: First, that seeing physically attractive and sexually available partners on screen may heighten a person’s perceptions of his own possible partners. And second, that porn may make the idea of multiple sexual partners more appealing—another wound to a committed relationship.

And that’s exactly what they found.

In one study, the researchers found that people who thought about porn they’d watched reported having better alternatives to their current relationship than those who didn’t. A second study showed that, over time, exposure to porn was a robust predictor of infidelity.

More strikingly, the team found that both thinking about possible partners and acting on the impulse to find those alternatives operated separately from dissatisfaction with one's current relationship and partner. In other words, even though one's own pasture may be plenty green enough, just the thought of a greener one can be enough to send one roving.

You might want to keep that in mind if you’ve been watching the hard stuff or if you've become inured to seeing your partner just flip open his laptop "just for fun.”

Pornography is not as benign as you think, especially when it comes to romantic relationships.

This post is from Psychology Today, written by P Streep. The original post can be found at: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/tech-support/201407/what-porn-does-intimacy

Manly praying

9/17/2014

Have you ever noticed that Christians speak normally to one another, but when they speak to aloud to God they lapse into a strange language and tone? I call this “prayer-speak” and it’s epidemic in evangelical churches today.

Prayer-speak is especially prevalent among worship leaders.

Prayer speak silences men. Guys who might otherwise pray aloud are intimidated because they don’t know the “prayer code.”

A guy might be tempted to open his mouth and say, “God, I got a problem.” But he keeps quiet because his oration doesn’t sound holy enough.

The other problem with prayer-speak is that it makes our prayers sound rather wimpy. Here is a prayer I heard recently from a musician as he closed his first set:

Dear God, we need you. God, we just need your love. God, we just need your presence. Father be with us in this time of worship. Lord just send your spirit so that every heart is touched. Father, that no one would go home the same.

Lord, I just pray that we would run into your arms and seek safety there. Father nothing compares to your love for us.

Father God we just pray that we would honor you in all we do. Lord, give us boldness to proclaim your word to every nation. Father make us your witnesses unto the ends of the earth. We just pray that your Word would go out into the world and change lives.

Father we just ask all these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Does this sound familiar? You probably heard something like it last Sunday.

I don’t really have a problem with what the prayer said. It’s how it was said.

Notice the prayer invoked the name of God twelve times – at the beginning of each sentence. This is just odd. Did Jesus instruct us to repeat God’s name over and over when we pray? When we speak to a flesh-and-blood person do we say their name each time we open our mouths? “Jeremy, thanks for having lunch with me. Jeremy, what will you be ordering? I’m thinking about the tilapia, Jeremy. Jeremy, can you pass the salt?”

And what’s with the frequent use of the word just? Placing a just before a verb softens it. It gives our prayers the sound of a beggar. Would you just give me a crust of bread, God? Lord, I’m just a miserable sinner, just begging you for some little thing.

We are God’s sons, not his slaves. John Wesley said, “Storm the Throne of Grace and persevere therein, and mercy will come down.” We should enter his presence with appropriate confidence. The tone of our prayers should reflect our place as God’s beloved children. Jesus was bold and familiar with his Father; we should be too.

Let’s reimagine the prayer above:

Lord, in the next hour we’re going to set aside all our worries and burdens and ask you to take care of those. We want to focus on what’s really important, but we’re so easily distracted by things that don’t matter. Forgive us for that.

We’re a needy people. We are nothing without you and your Spirit. We get beat up by life all week long, and we need this time with you. Thanks for loving us.

And we know you have a mission for us. You called us to be your witnesses, but we’re scared. We shouldn’t be – but we are. Next time we have an opportunity to speak up for you, fill us with your power.

We really look forward to this time in your presence. Speak to us now. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Feel the difference between the two prayers? They say basically the same things, but the second prayer sounds confident. You feel it in you gut. It’s not repetitive, hesitant or sing-songy. It’s surprising in its candor. It’s not stuffed with the usual churchy phrases.

Guys, we need to start modeling boldness in prayer. The next time you have an opportunity to pray aloud in a group I challenge you to do three things:

Invoke the name of God once, at the beginning.
Don’t place the word “just” before the verbs.
Speak to God as if he’s a real person. Make your prayer as conversational and “normal” as possible.

When our prayers sound like real conversation with a real God, more men will join in.

This post was written by David Murrow. You can find the original post here: http://churchformen.com/discipling-men/how-to-pray-aloud-like-a-man/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

2 pray or not to 2 pray

9/16/2014

God has given us instructions in His Word that prayer is something that every Christian needs to be doing.  Prayer is, simply put, the way we come to know God personally.  Earnest, honest prayer that is filled with praise, confession, thankfulness, and requests is what God desires. Prayer also needs to be filled with times of solitude, to be free from distractions, so one can hear from God.

1) Is there ever a time we should not pray? We had a couple of American friends visit us while we were living in Germany and we were out to eat, enjoying the local flammkuchen at a little eatery. My friend ordered water because he didn't want to spend the money on soda and as the waitress opened the bottle and was about to pour, she told him that the bottle was going to be 6 Euro. My friend, who didn't understand European customs, didn't remember that we had told him that water is not free in European restaurants.  He became upset and the waitress withdrew his order of water. Instead she offered soda which was only 2 Euro. He agreed to that. However, you could tell that the waitress was visibly upset. We apologized to her as best we could. When she brought the flammkuchen to the table, we were about to pray aloud when I said, "I don't think we should pray. I'm afraid that it would give this waitress a bad impression of Christians." Now don't get me wrong I think it IS appropriate to pray in public but God reminds us that prayer can become sin.  In this instance we all agreed that praying publicly wasn't God-honoring in this situation.

2) Is there ever a time we should not pray? I had a friend one time who had a severe debt and asked God to pay the debt for him. He told everyone the exact amount and prayed fervently (personally, I don't think it's wise to publicly state an exact amount of money). Within a week, God miraculously provided that money and more. The person again broadcast the exact amount that God provided. The reactions were predictable. "Wow!" "Prayer works." "God is so good." "Praise the Lord!" and so forth...

I wonder what his friends who have been praying that God would work a miracle in their lives thought when God did not seemingly answer their prayers. Maybe they were encouraged. Maybe it lifted their faith. Maybe it caused them to pray more.

or

Maybe it discouraged them. Maybe they were like, "Why does he always get the breaks? Why did God answer his prayers and not mine?" Maybe they told themselves, "I guess I have to pray harder."

I wonder what the reaction would have been if God had not provided the amount or the amount with extra to spare. "Is God still good?" "Does prayer still work?"

3) Finally, I believe that God can heal people. God may choose to heal miraculously or he may heal slowly or he may heal at the hands of doctors. Healing is a biblical concept.

My friend had fallen on an icy patch and went to see his physician who told him it would be 6-8 weeks before he would be pain free. He was having severe pain and muscle spasms. He believed he was going to lose his job because he could hardly move. As he told me, just two days later, you can tell his pain was real. He was almost in tears as he was describing what he was going thru. When he was talking, I heard clearly in my mind, "You need to pray for him." So when he finished I grabbed a couple more guys and we prayed for him on the spot.  I walked away thinking, "OK I did what God told me to do. I was obedient. But nothing's gonna happen."

The next morning, I felt prompted to pray for him again and I did during my devotions. Later that day, I texted him. Here's the convo:

Me: How did it go today?
Him: Pain free and awesome, thanks for asking :-)
Me: You're kidding! No pain? The MD said 6-8 weeks.
Him: No pain, no spasms, no discomfort, no kidding!
Me: Wow! So work was good?
Him: It was great!

I was floored. I told Karyn about his healing and I said, "this is scary. God answered our prayers for his healing." Karyn said, "why is that scary?" I said, "because I obeyed and God healed. What else does that mean God wants to do?"

Later that week, I talked to my friend in person. He said when he woke up the next day (the day after we prayed together) he got ready for work and had forgotten all about his pain until I texted him. He said that it was then that he realized that God had healed him.

When I heard of his healing, I had mixed emotions:

- I had doubt. "Did God really do that?"
- I had some fear. "What else will happen if I pray? Will God do it again?"

but also

- I became more encouraged to pray right away with people in need.

- I had my faith lifted.

There may be people who heard of my friend's healing who may have also asked themselves, "Why won't God heal me? I have asked God numerous times and nothing has changed." Maybe his healing caused them to feel discouraged.

Yet...

Who knows the mind of God?
Who can understand the ways He works?
Who can bring an accusation before God?

These are all definitively unanswerable in my mind.

Still, I will pray.
I continue to attempt to understand, trust and believe.
I try to rejoice with those who have their prayers answered.
I mourn with those who don't seemingly have their prayers answered.

Yet, even in my imperfection and weakness, I point to God. What we see can't be all there is...

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Let nothing hinder your prayers

9/15/2014

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.

Peter is very clear here.

As husbands we are to:

1. Be considerate as we live with our wife - Do you put up roadblocks to her happiness and to her success? Being considerate is thinking about how to make her life better and easier. Being considerate is acting upon those thoughts. Consideration is asking, "can I do something for you?" and "is there something you need done?" Consideration is trying to anticipate her needs and doing them before she asks.

2. Treat our wife with respect - Being respectful is treating her like she is the most important person in the world. Having the niceties that a gentleman displays: Saying please, thank you, excuse me, etc. To respect her is to honor her. Do you dishonor her with your actions? Do you take her for granted? Do you tell your children how wonderful she is and that they need to respect her like you do? Are you brave enough to challenge your children to treat her like you do?

3. Remember that she is an heir of the gracious gift of life - Most importantly, she is a child of God. The Maker of the Universe, the Creator, has made her uniquely to serve His purposes. Do you treat her like a Christian sister? Do you encourage her spiritual growth? Do you encourage her to spend time with other godly women? Do you offer to take care of your children so that she can have some alone time with God?

"Christian husbands and wives share a common experience of grace and a common destiny of salvation. A husband must honor his wife since she, as much as he, has access to God's grace in Christ. In addition, since husbands and wives are partners together in grace, a husband's relationship with God will be affected for good or ill by his relationship with his wife. When husbands treat their wives with consideration and honor, they are true to the nature of grace. They are acting as God's people, and thus their relationship with God may be deepened through prayer."

Peter is very clear here:

If you don't honor your wife, your prayers will be hindered

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Sunday Meditation

9/14/2014

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Isaiah 40:29

Grief is exhausting. Physically we are fatigued. Mentally we are spent. Emotionally we are drained. Spiritually we are crushed. Weariness seems to cast a shadow over all of life. We drag through the days. We are without strength and without power.

Our bodies need to be refreshed with sleep and recreation. Our minds need to be stimulated with hopeful thoughts about our future. Our hearts need to be soothed. Our spirits need to be infused with a desire to engage in life again.

God comes to us in the weariness and weakness of grief with gifts of strength and power. God does not shame us for our weakness. God does not reject us for being too weary to function. We may be tempted to refuse God's gifts either because we want to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, or because we don't believe we are entitled to receive good gifts. But, nevertheless, God offers us good gifts in seasons of grief. God offers strength and power. When we can admit our need and are ready to be honored by the Giver of these gifts, they can be ours.

I am weary, Lord.
Sometimes I think I am suppose to stay weary.
I do not feel entitled to be strong.
And sometimes I want to manage without your help.
I don't feel that I deserve help.

Thank you for your offer of strength and power.
Give me strength today.
Give me the power I need to make it through this day.
Give me the grace to accept your gifts.
Strengthen and empower me as I grieve today.

Amen.

Copyright Dale and Juanita Ryan
National Association for Christian Recovery

This post has "sex" in it

9/13/2014

Greetings!

This is your friendly neighborhood blogging pastor, and I would like to talk to you today about sex. That’s right; sex. You cringed a little bit didn’t you? You are also probably wondering why a pastor would be talking about such madness…Well, I am so you get the benefit of my thoughts today. The reason you slightly cringed when I told you my subject for this post was because you couldn’t imagine things like church and sex being remotely connected. They are. More than you know.

Unless you were some weirdo, there is no way you enjoyed the 5th grade “talk” about the birds and the bees. Guys and girls would be split up for their gender appropriate talks. Guys would learn about their bodies and, girls would have their pillow fights and do make up or something…I don’t know. I wasn’t there. Anyway, my point is, sometimes this subject makes us uncomfortable and it is taboo in mixed company…but why?

Sex has become so uncomfortable to talk about because, for the most part, we have allowed our culture to define what it is. It is an act that is performed by two parties who want the other to love them more and make them feel valuable. Of course I am being sarcastic about this, but it is almost true according to what we see everyday.

Last night, I was watching a TV show and a comment was made that nearly cause my jaw to hit the floor. Long story short, a few girls were talking about the previous night and all of them except one had sex with the man they were dating. The girl who did not was crying, because she didn’t feel loved and appreciated by this man. She also questioned whether this guy liked her at all or not. WHHHAAAAAATTTTTT????????!?!?!?!

Oddly, enough I wanted to cry too. AND, it was for all of the exact reasons why this lady was crying on TV. I was grieving because she did not feel loved. I was in sorrow because she did not feel appreciated. Most of all, I was frustrated because she thought that sex was the way to get these needs met. I guess even part of it was the fact that I have a beautiful daughter and I thought about the world she will grow up in.

Folks, I am no sex expert but I can tell you one thing. Looking at the “dirty deed” in this way leads to destruction. Every human being was created as a valuable vessel for God’s mission. We can either reject that or embrace that purpose. In our culture, we are told that couples have to “try each other out” to see if they are compatible. Do we realize how much that destroys the value that humans were created to have? Looking at sex in this way tells the other person that, in order for you to be loved by me, I must see if you meet my needs wants first. Thus, I am going to use you until I feel better, and when I don’t feel better, I will move on.

This set of thought processes are what leads to dissolving marriages, rape, depression, and even addiction. These are the people I see paraded through my counseling office…the hurt, broked, and used. In pain and jaded abut humanity in general.

Why are we doing this to ourselves? The pain that comes from this type of life breeds more pain…and then trying to cope with this pain on our own hurts others in many cases. Let’s redeem what this subject is all about. Sex was created by God as a way to serve each other and fulfill the ancient mission of multiplication.

Don’t allow the culture to feed you lies.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos. For the original post, go to: http://other-words.net/2014/09/09/this-blog-post-has-the-word-sex-in-it/

We are carriers of God's kingdom

9/12/2014

Random thoughts on the Kingdom of God: We are carriers of the Kingdom of God. It is like a circle around us—like a huge hulahoop and where we go it goes with us. We carry the Kingdom with us into different arenas of life. Or imagine a frog sitting on a lily pad. There is friction between the frog’s feet and the surface of the lily pad. And friction is connection. If I were to push the frog the lily pad under him would be carried along with him. Where the lily pad goes the frog goes and where the frog goes the lily pad goes. The Kingdom of God is like that lily pad stuck to our feet. Where we go the Kingdom of God goes and where the Kingdom goes we are carried along with it.

Therefore our job is to develop a connection of friction with the Kingdom of God so that it becomes “stuck” to the soles of our feet. As Kingdom people we have the capacity to bring new “ground”, new “soil” and a new “atmosphere” into a country simply by bringing our presence into a country and abiding there. It is not necessarily us that changes and transforms anything within a culture. Rather it is the presence of our Lord and Savior abiding within us and being lived out through us. In that sense we are simply carriers of the presence of our King and therefore carriers of His Kingdom.

This post was written by StriderMTB. He directs an orphanage in an Asian country. For the original post, go to: http://atheologyintension.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/we-are-carriers-of-gods-kingdom/

Hating sin

9/11/2014

Within the heart of every disciple of Jesus should be an intense hatred for sin. We despise not just the sins that we sin in the world but we detest even more so the sin that we sin in us. We hate the sin of pride, the sin of hypocrisy that we sin in us. We long to be like Jesus in all that we say and do (1 John 2:6) but we see that we are often far from that perfect standard (Matthew 5:48).

And I believe this is a great assurance that we are truly saved. This hatred for sin. There is no denying that the Bible forbids us from dwelling in sin (1 John 3:4-10). Paul the Apostle teaches us in Romans 6 that having been baptized into Christ Jesus, we are now free from sin and its power. We are free to be slaves of righteousness.

However, I still see sin in my life. I don't mean that I wake up and commit sin. I hate sin. But I still find the Holy Spirit placing His gentle hand upon me and revealing to me my own arrogance, my own pride, my own self-righteousness and my sins of the tongue (James 3:1-12). There are seasons it seems where the Spirit will give me that assurance that I am focused on Christ and He truly is my reward but then there are times where the Holy Spirit reveals to me my sins. I have learned to love those times. I have learned that the Holy Spirit is doing this out of love for me and not out of condemnation (Romans 8:1). I remember that Hebrews 12:5-6 and I keep coming back to that text as the Spirit opens my wicked heart up to show me what I need to repent of.

Repentance is an ongoing process. I have been a disciple of Jesus for over 20 years and I find that He is still working on me. The Spirit of God is still in the process of making me more like Christ. I don't doubt that I am much different from when I first repented. I have come a long ways. Yet I still have far to go. I might not struggle with what I struggled with as a 17-year-old when I was baptized into Christ but I am still far from what I want to be.

We live in a sinful fallen world. We live in a world with sin all around us. Satan uses these tools to attract the world to its destruction. For the disciple of Christ, we hate this world (1 John 2:15-17). We long to be clothed in perfect righteousness where we will not struggle with sin. We long to forever with our Lord and away from this sinful world. Yet we remain here and we have to fight against sin. We do this not by our own will power but in the power of the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-17) and through the hope that we have in the gospel. Our salvation is based on the work of Jesus Christ and what He has done (John 19:30; Ephesians 1:7). Our salvation is based not on our works but upon the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:8-9). This does not take away our personal responsibility before God but empowers us toward holiness (Titus 2:12). Holiness flows from grace (Ephesians 2:10).

I pray that all disciples of Jesus will hate sin. I pray that we all would long to be like Christ in all that we are (Ephesians 5:1-2). God calls us to holiness (1 Peter 1:15-16) and this is accomplished one step at a time. Along the way, I trust the Lord to be faithful to His promises and sanctify me (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24).

This post was written by my friend, The Seeking Disciple. For the original post, go to: http://arminiantoday.wordpress.com/2014/09/07/hating-sin/