Category: Addictions

Internet porn & the decline of faith

4/15/2014

Joel J. Miller takes note of a new study positing the decline in religious faith with the rise of Internet use, but doesn’t buy the hypothesis that the Internet makes it possible for people to discover other viewpoints, undermining their own commitment. But he does think that there’s a more plausible reason to connect the Internet to faith’s loss.

Excerpt:

"Porn has been part of the Web from day one. And the stats for online consumption are staggering, even among Christians."

Disaffiliation should come as no surprise. We’ve already seen that porn makes prayer and beneficial contemplation impossible. Given the Christian understanding of the spiritual life, we’re not capable of simultaneously pursuing our lusts and sanctification. Such a pursuit causes internal dissonance, and the only resolution involves eventually conceding to the pull of one or the other. (I’ve talked about that before here.)

Personal testimony adds to the picture. In his book Samson and the Pirate Monks, Nate Larkin discusses his battle with sexual sin and its effect on his state of belief. The deeper he got the further away he felt from God.

As I’ve written before, if you accept the modern world’s view on sex, and abandon Christianity’s teaching, you will soon abandon Christianity. People don’t like to hear that, but it’s true.

This post was written by Rod Dreher. The original post can be found here

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Something up his sleeve

4/12/2014

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Rescuing the human heart is the hardest mission in the world.

The dilemma of the Story is this: we don't know if we want to be rescued. We are so enamored with our small stories and our false gods, we are so bound up in our addictions and our self-centeredness and take-it-for-granted unbelief that we don't even know how to cry out for help. And the Evil One has no intention of letting his captives walk away scot-free. He seduces us, deceives us, assaults us—whatever it takes to keep us in darkness.

Like a woman bound to an affair from which she cannot get free, like a man so corrupted he no longer knows his own name, the human race is captive in the worst way possible—we are captives of the heart.

Their hearts are always going astray. (Hebrews 3:10)

God is filled with the jealousy of a wounded lover. He has been betrayed time and again.

The challenge God faces is rescuing a people who have no idea how captive they are; no real idea how desperate they are. We know we long for Eden, but we hesitate to give ourselves back to God in abandoned trust. We are captivated by the lies of our Enemy.

But God has something up his sleeve...

This post is excerpted from the book Epic by John Eldredge.

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Heavenly drinking

2/26/2014

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Let me tell you about my experience with Jesus at a bar. Would Jesus drink beer or Dr Pepper?

I had been going to a bar for about a year. I would go at the same time every week and in the early evening when there weren't a lot of women there. This bar was one of the tougher ones in the community and was known for having rough characters. However, during the time that I went, it was retired guys and men just getting off the factory day shift.

My activity at this bar had nothing to do with drinking alcohol. I abstain from alcohol, always have and always will. I felt God telling me that He wanted me to go there. I didn't go alone and would always take another Christian friend with me. I knew that it wasn't good to go alone so that if any rumors started, they could be easily squelched.

My church friends and I had garnered a reputation in this bar as not drinking but rather hanging out and talking to the guys that went there. I've noticed that men in bars aren't known for their social skills. There is a lot of just sitting there looking at your drink and watching TV. However, there were times in the conversations where openings to speak about more pressing matters came about. I remember sitting there and one gentleman came over to me and said, "you're one of those preachers that comes in here every week aren't you? Why do you come in here?" I responded, "I'm not a preacher but I am a Christian. I come in here because I could use some friends. I heard that this was a great place to make friends." This conversation wasn't outstanding but it was significant. He came to the realization that there were at least a few Christians who were willing to be with him in a "normal" (his term) environment.

I had a friendship with one man in particular. He wasn't necessarily well-liked in that bar but he was tolerated. I found out that his life was rather troubling and that he had significant physical and emotional challenges. It seemed, over time, that he enjoyed talking with me. He would, even at times, initiate the conversation. I tried talking to him about spiritual things but he typically shrugged them off.

I prayed that God would give me opportunities to make an impact on this man's life. One time, I was in earnest prayer about what God could do with me at the bar, praying in the parking lot before entering. After about 30 minutes of discussion, this one man whom I spoke about in the previous paragraph said that he was gonna call a taxi so that he could go home. I thought to myself, "I wonder if this is one of the opportunities that God has given me to help him?" So, I offered to take him to his home. He complied and as I was driving, I asked where he lived. He started to direct me one way and then said, "I need to go by the carryout to get some beer to take home with me."

I gulped.

I didn't know what to say. I said a quick prayer in my mind: "Help!!!" I felt a peace come over me and was impressed that God wanted me to go ahead and let this man buy beer.

I drove into the carry-out and had them throw the case in the bed of my truck and my friend paid for it and off we went. As I was pulling out of the carry-out, I was hoping that nobody saw me. After all, people may think that I buy and drink beer!

I tried to strike up a conversation with my friend and he said how much he appreciated it that I was giving him a ride home. Yet, he continued to be fairly closed to a spiritual discussion.

After I dropped him off, I went to my church and talked to the associate pastor, a good friend of mine, and told him what happened. He said something that was very comforting, "you prayed for God to give you an opening. God did but not in the way you were thinking. God knew that you were going to that carry-out. God wasn't surprised, just you were."

I don't know what happened to my friend after that. I never saw him again. I heard, a few months later, at the bar, that he had passed away shortly after my last contact with him. He died of liver failure. All of his years of drinking had finally caught up with him.

I'm hopeful that my contact with him was meaningful. I'm hopeful that he came to know Jesus as his Savior and that I was instrumental in helping him reach out to God. However, I won't know until I get to heaven.

I'm hoping that when we get to heaven, there will be a bar there and my friend and I will be at the bar with Jesus, and we will be drinking Dr Pepper. The real stuff with cane sugar, not the caffeine-free diet stuff that I drink now. The good stuff...with greasy cheesy fries.

Beer? Not needed, there are no sorrows to drown in heaven.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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A house divided

2/20/2014

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He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. (Ps. 147:3)

Yes, we have all been wounded in this battle. And we will be wounded again. But something deeper has also happened to us than mere wounds.

I expect that all of us at one time or another have said, "Well, part of me wants to, and another part of me doesn't." You know the feeling—part of you pulled one direction, part of you the other. Part of me loves writing and genuinely looks forward to a day at my desk. But not all of me. Sometimes I'm also afraid of it. Part of me fears that I will fail—that I am simply stating what is painfully obvious, or saying something vital but incoherent. I'm drawn to it, and I also feel ambivalent about it. Come to think of it, I feel that way about a lot of things. Part of me wants to go ahead and dive into friendship, take the risk. I'm tired of living alone. Another part says, Stay away—you'll get hurt. Nobody really cares anyway. Part of me says, Wow! Maybe God really is going to come through for me. Another voice rises up and says, You are on your own.

Don't you feel sometimes like a house divided?

Take your little phobias. Why are you afraid of heights or intimacy or public speaking? All the discipline in the world wouldn't get you to go skydiving, share something really personal in a small group, or take the pulpit next Sunday. Why do you hate it when people touch you or criticize you? And what about those little "idiosyncrasies" you can't give up to save your life? Why do you bite your nails? Why do you work so many hours? Why do you get irritated at these questions? Something in you "freezes" when your dad calls—what's that all about? You clean and organize; you demand perfection—did you ever wonder why?

This post is taken from the book, Waking the Dead, by John Eldredge

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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How pornographers stalk your kids online

1/17/2014

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Porn is part of your son’s everyday life. He sees it every day on television, in movies, and on computers. The pornography industry is working hard to catch your son’s attention and addict him early in life to their product. The porn industry is a $57-billion-a-year rapidly growing industry—over twice that of McDonalds Corporation. They generate more money than CBS, NBC, and ABC combined, and more than the revenues from professional football, basketball, and baseball combined.

The porn industry spends an incredible amount of money and guile trying to get young people hooked on their product. Because they know that even a glimpse of pornography causes a biological reaction (releases endorphins and adrenaline which causes a “rush”) within the body, they go to great lengths to ensure that children “accidently” catch a glimpse. And once that “rush” happens, it imprints upon the brain a desire for more. For instance, if a child wants to learn about nearly any topic, he can enter it in a website browser and find information. However, if they misspell even just one letter of the word, it can take them to a site that they never intended. Porn distributors do this with nearly all words associated with children and popular topics. If you don’t believe me, just test it out on your computer. Because of those efforts, the largest consumer group of pornography is reported to be young men between the ages of twelve and seventeen

Pornographers consider everyone to fall into one of three categories: targeted, baited, or trapped. They target everyone, even people who aren’t looking—especially young people. They bait people by using the strategy described above, in hopes that once those images have been viewed, either curiosity or a desire for that “high” will lead them again to their site. Since porn is highly addictive, once someone becomes addicted they are trapped in a never-ending cycle.

Tools Used by Pornographers:

Deception

Porn-napping: purchasing expired domain names when owners forget to renew and redirecting the expired address to porn sites.
Cyber-squatting: using a name that sounds like a legitimate topic. (for example: driverslicense.com instead of driverslicense.org)
Misspelling: purposefully buying misspelled domain names for trendy, high-traffic sites.
Advertising: using false error messages, alert boxes, and false forms where one click will open a porn site.

Entrapment

Looping: making a never-ending loop with new porn pages appearing.
Mouse-trapping: altering the use of the back and close button so a person is trapped on that site.
Start-up alterations: booting up your computer opens a porn site.
Cookies: placing small files on your computers hard drive to keep track of every move you make.

The average age young people admit to being exposed to pornography is between eight and eleven years old. Because males are so visual (especially sexually), pornography is almost irresistibly attractive to them. Pornography is so addictive in the male’s mind because it causes a hormone to be released that actually creates a high. It works in the male brain similar to the way cocaine does. This hormone needs greater stimulation and causes the user to need and want more each time it is released. Porn users need bigger prizes, more degrading, more graphic, and more explicit images. The erotic images viewed are cataloged in a males’ mind for further use at a later time. They also cause him to be desensitized toward women and to make unfair and unrealistic comparisons.

Because males are able to compartmentalize sex, it is vitally important for them to understand that the women in porn are victims, even if willing participants. They need to recognize that those women are someone’s daughter and sister and will probably be a wife and mother some day. Many are addicted to drugs, and some are performing against their own will. It is estimated that between 100,000 to 300,000 young women a year in the US are abducted into human trafficking and sexual slavery. I once spoke at a men’s conference where one of the other presenters was a woman who was a former porn star. Her story of how the women in porn movies are abused and victimized was shocking. Her account of the crying and vomiting of women behind the scenes of the movie sets was matched in ferocity only by the universal hatred of men the women possessed.

Pornography is a scourge on the landscape of masculinity. It seems almost irresistible to males because of our visual nature. We are bombarded with sexually graphic images from the time we wake until we go to sleep. (Just so you know young women are one of the fastest growing demographics watching pornography–statistics show that 17% of all women currently struggle with porn addiction)

So what can parents do to help protect their son? First of all, keep the door of communication open. Talk with him often about the dangers of pornography and the potential for addiction—just like you would with any other drug. Let him know your opinion of pornography. If he respects you, your opinion will make a difference. If you have reason to suspect that he has been viewing pornography, do not over react—approach him with respect. Make sure that you monitor activity on the computers in your home and keep them in an area of heavy traffic. Do not let him have a computer in his bedroom. Use a pre-filtered internet system on your computers (Safe Eyes, Net Nanny, and bsecure are just a few software programs that help block internet porn). Check the history files on your computers often. Dig deep because young people know how to change the history. Check CDs, flash drives, and cell phones regularly. Always maintain access to your son’s online account and randomly check it. Use parental controls on your computers.

This subject is difficult to talk about and difficult to deal with. But it is worth the effort because of the negative lifelong effects it causes. Make this a priority and a battle to fight.

This post was written by Rick Johnson. For the original post, go to: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/afewgrownmen/2014/01/pornographers-are-stalking-your-son-and-daughter/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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What men need to live a happy life: Harvard 75-year study

1/16/2014

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In 1938 Harvard University began following 268 male undergraduate students and kicked off the longest-running longitudinal studies of human development in history. The study’s goal was to determine as best as possible what factors contribute most strongly to human flourishing. The astonishing range of psychological, anthropological, and physical traits — ranging from personality type to IQ to drinking habits to family relationships to “hanging length of his scrotum” — indicates just how exhaustive and quantifiable the research data has become. Recently, George Vaillant, who directed the study for more than three decades, published the study’s findings in the 2012 book Triumphs of Experience (Amazon) and the following is the book’s synopsis:

“At a time when many people around the world are living into their tenth decade, the longest longitudinal study of human development ever undertaken offers some welcome news for the new old age: our lives continue to evolve in our later years, and often become more fulfilling than before. Begun in 1938, the Grant Study of Adult Development charted the physical and emotional health of over 200 men, starting with their undergraduate days. The now-classic ‘Adaptation to Life’ reported on the men’s lives up to age 55 and helped us understand adult maturation. Now George Vaillant follows the men into their nineties, documenting for the first time what it is like to flourish far beyond conventional retirement. Reporting on all aspects of male life, including relationships, politics and religion, coping strategies, and alcohol use (its abuse being by far the greatest disruptor of health and happiness for the study’s subjects), ‘Triumphs of Experience’ shares a number of surprising findings. For example, the people who do well in old age did not necessarily do so well in midlife, and vice versa. While the study confirms that recovery from a lousy childhood is possible, memories of a happy childhood are a lifelong source of strength. Marriages bring much more contentment after age 70, and physical aging after 80 is determined less by heredity than by habits formed prior to age 50. The credit for growing old with grace and vitality, it seems, goes more to ourselves than to our stellar genetic makeup.”

As you can imagine, the study’s discoveries are bountiful, but the most significant finding of all is that “Alcoholism is a disorder of great destructive power.” In fact, alcoholism is the single strongest cause of divorce between the Grant Study men and their wives. Alcoholism was also found to be strongly coupled with neurosis and depression (which most often follows alcohol abuse, rather than preceding it). Together with cigarette smoking, alcoholism proves to be the #1 greatest cause of morbidity and death. And above a certain level, intelligence doesn’t prevent the damage.

With regards to income, there was no noticeable difference in maximum income earned by men with IQs in the 110-115 range vs. men with IQs above 150. With regards to sex lives, one of the most fascinating discoveries is that aging liberals have way more sex. Political ideology had no bearing on overall life satisfaction, but the most conservative men on average shut down their sex lives around age 68, while the most liberal men had healthy sex lives well into their 80s. Vaillant writes, “I have consulted urologists about this, they have no idea why it might be so.”

In Triumphs of Experience, Vaillant raises a number of factors more often than others, but the one he refers to most often is the powerful correlation between the warmth of your relationships and your health and happiness in your later years. In 2009, Vaillant’s insistance on the importance of this part of the data was challenged, so Vaillant returned to the data to be sure the finding merited such important focus. Not only did Vaillant discover that his focus on warm relationships was warranted, he placed even more importance on this factor than he had previously. Vallant notes that the 58 men who scored highest on the measurements of “warm relationships” (WR) earned an average of $141,000 a year more during their peak salaries (between ages 55-60) than the 31 men who scored the lowest in WR. The high WR scorers were also 3-times more likely to have professional success worthy of inclusion in Who’s Who.

One of the most intriguing discoveries of the Grant Study was how significant men’s relationships with their mothers are in determining their well-being in life. For instance, Business Insider writes: “Men who had ‘warm’ childhood relationships with their mothers took home $87,000 more per year than men whose mothers were uncaring. Men who had poor childhood relationships with their mothers were much more likely to develop dementia when old. Late in their professional lives, the men’s boyhood relationships with their mothers — but not their fathers — were associated with effectiveness at work. On the other hand, warm childhood relations with fathers correlated with lower rates of adult anxiety, greater enjoyment on vacations, and increased ‘life satisfaction’ at age 75 — whereas the warmth of childhood relationships with mothers had no significant bearing on life satisfaction at 75.”

In Vallant’s own words, the #1 most important finding from the Grant Study is this: “The seventy-five years and twenty million dollars expended on the Grant Study points to a straightforward five-word conclusion: Happiness is love. Full stop.” You can purchase your own copy of Triumphs of Experience by visiting Amazon.

This post was written by Brent Lambert. For the original post, go to: http://www.feelguide.com/2013/04/29/75-years-in-th-making-harvard-just-released-its-epic-study-on-what-men-require-to-live-a-happy-life/

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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A caution for alcohol drinking Christians

1/7/2014

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Something disturbing has crept into the american church and it’s not pretty.

Many Christians have allowed themselves to take drinking alcohol lightly.

Now before you start throwing the legalistic stones at me, let me first make the following clear:

I don’t believe drinking alcohol is a sin.

(Editorial comment by Ironstrikes: I agree, drinking alcohol is not a sin. However, as a member of the Church of the Nazarene, I vowed before God and His congregation that I would abstain from the use of alcohol. I believe in honoring my vows.)

Of course, getting drunk is. Alcohol is one of the biggest killers in our society, and as always it continues to take a destructive toll on marriages and families.

But, there’s another problem:

The often overlooked sin that is rearing its ugly head are Christians displaying their love and consumption of alcohol to those around them in public and on social media, when there are many around them that struggle with this temptation and addiction.

The Apostle Paul addressed a similar situation when dealing with those in the church arguing over whether they could eat meat sacrificed to idols. Paul declared that even though they had the freedom to eat meat sacrificed to idols, they should love those that struggled with this practice enough to not do it front of them.

1 Cor. 8:9-13
But take care that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will he not be encouraged, if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? And so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. Thus, sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

We sin against other Christians and “wound their conscience” (as well as sin against Christ) when we openly act in a way that would cause them to stumble.

Now, before you say you only do this with others that are like-minded or with your spouse, let me ask the following questions:

Do you highlight or joke about your drinking in person or on social media (posting pictures of your margarita, wine or bottles of beer)?

Do you drink in public when there’s a good chance you might meet someone struggling with alcohol?

Like it or not, people hold Christians to a higher standard (as they should). Do you love alcohol so much that you’re willing to let your witness be tarnished? Do you love your “freedom” so much that you could care less how it affects another brother or sister?

This isn’t about rules being broken. This is about loving our brother and sister enough to limit our freedom in Christ so as to not cause them to stumble.

Would you consider this truth?

I love you and I don’t want anything to dim the light that’s shining in and through you.

This post was written by Pastor Nathan Rouse. For the original post with comments, go to: http://www.nathanrouse.org/2014/01/01/a-caution-for-every-christian-that-drinks-alcohol/

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Time to be honest

12/28/2013

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I was surfing the web today when I came across something very interesting. A pastor in Virginia used one of my blog posts in her church newsletter. You can see the church newsletter here. It was written based on my blog entitled “The Truth About My Church (And Others)” .

In this letter, she adds a portion that I would like to respond to publicly. It is a great question and one that needs exploring. It is a question about the role of openness and honesty in the pastoral position. Basically, the pastor wants to know the result of such openness. Allow me to respond through an example.

Today was an incredible day at my church. It was an informal service in which everything was simplified. We had a good crowd there, sang a capella Christmas songs, experienced communion, and most notably heard many spontaneous testimonies. These testimonies were amazing and depicted the reality of God’s saving grace, healing power, and His general faithfulness despite our circumstances. We heard testimonies of people being delivered from addiction, and saved from certain destruction. We also heard about struggles currently happening in the lives of some. These struggles were articulated to gain support and accountability for the strugglers growth in the faith.

As a pastor, I can stand up in front of my congregation all day and tell them what they ought to do. As author Calvin Miller says in his book called “Preaching: The Art of Narrative Exposition”….a preacher, in some cases, is a “veteran sinner that tells amateur sinners what they ought not to do.” I don’t adhere to the fullness of that statement, but I understand the concept and agree with the heart behind it. If I think for one moment that I am somehow more elite than everyone else then my testimony is not beneficial.

Studying to be a pastor, I started out thinking that church growth and encouraging people into involvement was based in production, staging, and talent. What I have found through experience is that churches grow in depth and number when the leadership and attenders are authentic, honest, and caring. No matter the style of music or the way the preacher delivers his or her message, people generally want to feel welcome, they want to know that the faith they are observing is real to those who follow and they want to know that they matter to the community.

When we are real about our imperfections; we will see growth. We may have a fear that people will run for the hills, but if we truly believe that God is real and active than no amount of marketing or false fronts will surpass His blessing in our lives.

These are the types of things that get me up in the morning.

This post was written by Rev DeCrastos. For the original post, go to: http://other-words.net/2013/12/22/time-to-be-honest/

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Do you practice sin in your life? - part two

12/27/2013

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The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Yesterday, we discussed the first part of this section of this scripture. Today, we will finish. Let God's Holy Spirit speak to you about your life.

9. Fits of rage (wrath) - The Greek word thumos is used throughout the New Testament to picture a person who is literally boiling with anger about something. Although the person tries to restrain his anger by shoving it down deeper into his soul, it intermittently flares up. When that happens, this person is like a volcano that suddenly blow it top, scorching everything within its reach as it hurls its load of deadly molten lava on the entire surrounding landscape.

10. Selfish ambition (strife) - The Greek word eritheia describes a self-seeking ambition that is more concerned about itself and the fulfillment of its own wants, desires, and pleasures that it is in meeting the same needs in others. When eritheia is working in someone's life, it means that a person's principle concern is to take care of himself and to get what he wants. He is so bent on getting what he wants that he is willing to do anything, say anything, or sacrifice any standard, rule, or relationship to achieve his goals. Because this self-consumed, self-focused attitude is engrossed with its own desires and ambitions, it is blinded to the desires and ambitions of other people.

11. Dissensions - The Greek word dichostasia means to stand apart, as one who rebels and steps away from someone to whom he should have been loyal. Thus the word "dissension" gives the impression of disloyalty. It is the ultimate act of defiance or disloyalty to an established authority.

12. Factions - The Greek word hairesis carries the idea of a group of people who adheres to the same doctrine or who ardently follow the same leader and are sectarian. The adherents of a sect are usually limited in their scope and closed to outsiders, staying primarily to themselves. In New Testament times, these groups were considered to be unauthorized because they were not submitted to the authority of the church leadership. In today's contemporary language, we would call them "cliques" - a group of people who believe or conduct themselves as if they are exclusive.

13. Envy - The Greek word phthonos implies a deeply felt grudge because someone possess what a person wishes was his own. Because this person has a chip on his shoulder, he begrudges what the other person possesses and is covetous of that person's belongings, accomplishments, relationships, or titles in life. Every time he see that other person, he inwardly seethes about his success. He deeply resents that person's blessing and tries to figure out a way to seize it away from the person he envies in order to make it his own.

14. Drunkenness - The Greek word methe refers to strong drink or to drunkenness. The consumption of wine for the sake of intoxication was common in the first century due to many pagan religions that employed wine as a part of their religious practices. A drunken state suppressed the mind's ability to think correctly and releases the flesh to fully express itself. The believers in the first century were trying to walk free from the power of their flesh. The last thing they needed was to drink wine, inhibit their ability to think correctly, revive their flesh, and then do things that were sinful or damaging! That is why Paul urged them to leave wine alone!

15. Orgies - The Greek word komoi describes a person who can't bear the thought of boredom and therefore constantly seems forms of amusement or entertainment. This person is actually afraid of being bored, so he constantly contemplates what he can do next to have fun or be entertained. The word komoi can refer to a person who endlessly eats at parties or who seeks constant laughter and hilarity. Although there is nothing wrong with laughter, this person is consumed with the need for comedy, light moments, fun, pleasure, entertainment, or constant eating. He lives for his next meal, the next restaurant, the next movie, the next vacation.

16. and the like - Paul ends this list with this Greek phrase, which alerts us to the fact that this list of the works of the flesh is not comprehensive; it is just the beginning of the works of the flesh! Many more examples of works of the flesh could be added to the list, but Paul uses these as examples of how the flesh behaves, ending the list once he has sufficiently made the point to his readers.

If you routinely do these things as a matter of lifestyle, I believe you need to go to God and ask Him to tell you the truth about your spiritual status!

You cannot afford to make a mistake about this eternal question!!

This entry and yesterday's entry are taken from the book, Sparkling Gems From the Greek by R. Renner

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Do you practice sin in your life? - part one

12/26/2013

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The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Let's break this down, go over each word. Let God's Holy Spirit speak to you about your lifestyle:

1. Sexual immorality - some translations call this adultery. The Greek word porneia describes any sexual relationship that occurs outside the sanctified boundaries of marriage.

2. Impurity - The Greek word here means "uncleanness." This refers to lewd or unclean thoughts that eventually produce lewd of unclean actions. It strongly suggests that these actions begin in the the mind as unclean thoughts before they manifest themselves as unclean deeds.

3. Debauchery - The Greek word here describes "excess." It primarily refers to the excessive consumption of food or wild, undisciplined living that is especially marked by unbridled sex.

4. Idolatry - The Greek word eidoloatria depicts the worship of idols, or simply put, "idolatry." The act of idolatry transpires when an individual gives his complete, undivided attention, devotion, passion, love or commitment to a person, project of object rather than God. When something other than God takes first place in a person's mind, he has entered, at least to a measure, in the the sin of idolatry.

5. Witchcraft - The word "witchcraft" is from the Greek word pharmakeia, the Greek work for medicines or drugs that inhibit a person's personality or changes his behavior. We would call these mind-altering drugs. The Greek work pharmakeia is where we get the words pharmaceuticals and the word pharmacy. This word was used in connection with sorcery, magic, or witchcraft. However, for our purposes in today's world, the word "witchcraft" describes the flesh's attempts to avoid being confronted and changed.

6. Hatred - The Greek word echthra pictures people who cannot get along with each other. They have deep issues with each other, holding resentments, grievances, complaints, and grudges that go way back in time and have very deep roots. Something occurred along the way that caused one or both of them to be offended. Instead of letting it go, they are divided, hostile, and fiercely opposed to each other. They are antagonistic, aggressive, and harsh. They hate each other. They have a grudge and are determined to hold on to their offense.

7. Discord - The Greek word eris depicts a bitterly mean spirit that is so consumed with its own self-interests and self-ambitions that it would rather split and divide than admit it is wrong or to give an inch to its opponent! This is exactly why churches end up divided and families frequently dissolve. Most of the issues that bring such division are not important. Nevertheless, division occurs because the flesh simply hates to surrender, to admit that it's wrong, to let someone else be right, or to compromise. Flesh would rather blow all issues out of proportion and wreak havoc than to let someone else have his way!

8. Jealousy - The Greek word zelos is used in a negative sense to depict a person who is upset because someone else achieved more or received more; therefore, the first person is jealous, envious, resentful, and filled with ill will for that other person who received the blessing he wanted. As a result of not getting what he desired, this person is irritated, infuriated, irate, annoyed, provoked, and fuming that the other person did get it! In short, you could say that this person is really incensed and ticked off!

Tomorrow, we will finish with this section of scripture.

This entry and tomorrow's entry are taken from the book, Sparkling Gems From the Greek by Rick Renner

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

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Do you practice sin in your life? - part two

Do you practice sin in your life? - part one

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