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Blogging Vaca

Hey, everyone. I'm taking a summer blogging break. See you back here in a few weeks :)

God Be Praised

One of my favorite worship songs...

 

I Think I Lust You (Part 4)

There are some phrases that I know I'm just not cool enough to pull off.  I want to say "break your crayons" but I know people would laugh at me...so I just say it in my head.  ("Hey, man, that chick is just trying to break your crayons.  Forget her.")  I'd love to say "Tiger's-wife-mad" but younger, cooler people would just roll their eyes...so I say that one in my head, too ("Dude, Heather got all Tiger's-wife-mad at me when I forgot to record her show, and she threw the remote control at my head!")

"Flip the script" is just one of those phrases that I'm not sure about.  I might be able to use it, but I might not.  It's a toss up.  Oh well, I'm going to give it a shot.  Here goes:

I think the key to fighting lust is to flip the script.  Instead of blindly acquiescing to the cultural marketing machine, the temptations around us and the desires of our own sin nature, I believe we should be aggressive in our desire to live holy.  Fight offensively not defensively.

Philippians 4:8 says to purposely focus on things that are true, pure, admirable and right.  Jude 1:20 says to build yourselves up in your faith.  Galatians 5:24 says to crucify the sin nature.  These are all proactive and not reactive.  These are all offensive game plans.

Here are a few suggestions to go on the offensive:

• Begin your day in Bible reading and prayer.  
• Ask God to help you see other people the way He sees them, not as the world sees them.
• Realize that temptation will come and decide in advance how you will respond.  (Temptation isn't the sin, but sin can come in our response to temptation.)
• Set boundaries in your life. (Example: Before every click, word or action, think: "Would I click this, say that or act this way if fill-in-the-blank were standing right beside me?") 
• (For the marrieds) Create healthy sexual patterns that allow for the sexual fulfillment of both partners at home.
• (For the singles) Focus on becoming the person that your future spouse would be proud of if they knew you in your most private moments...because one day they will. 
• Limit carnal intake.  If all you hear is the volume of pop culture, you're going to be overwhelmed by misinformation.  Listen to better music, read better things.
• Humanize people.  Recognize and appreciate their beauty without putting it in a sexual context.  See them as creations of the perfect Creator.
• Identify sexual marketing.  These people are getting paid to look desirable.  They don't want you!  The companies that hired them just want your money.

I could go on and on.  There are a lot of different steps to take, but the point is to be aggressive.  Guard your heart and mind against the sin that would attack it.  Don't be passive...flip the script!

Sex was created by God.  It's good.  It's a gift.  Let's enjoy it without perverting it.  

 

I Think I Lust You (Part 3)

In Tuesday’s post I said, “Lust is our new national pastime.”  But let’s be honest, who really cares, right?  Baseball is our OLD national pastime and no one cares about that!  "Jeter got a double in the bottom of the seventh inning?  Wow, that’s fascinating…somebody wake Grandpa."  "You stared at Cindy’s cleavage for 4 consecutive minutes in the break room today?  Wow, who cares…annnnd, you’re creepy."

Seriously, is lust really THAT big of a deal?   Is it actually hurting anyone?  Is it really so wrong? 

The Bible seems to think that lust matters.  Peter says it wars against your soul (I Peter 2:11), Paul said you should run from it (2 Timothy 2:22), and Jesus said that lust is pretty much the same as adultery (Matthew 5:27,28).  Um, ouch!

So is the Bible just a book full of prudes who don’t understand the randomness of a wardrobe malfunction, the innocence of an impromptu late night web chat, or the subtlety of a flirtatious laugh for your coworker?  Or is possible that the Bible tells us to reject lust because this is a sin (like all sin) that hurts people.  This is a sin that degrades and diminishes our spirits.

The most popular sin in school comes with consequences.  Here are a few of the ways that lust affects us:

1. Lust corrodes the way we relate to people.  Intimacy and honesty go out the window with lust.  People become objects.  People become a means to an end.  This is not how we were created to view brothers and sisters in Christ. 
2. Lust destroys your independence.  It makes you subservient.  Your…um…libido calls the shots.  You’re ruled by fantasy and innuendo.  Jesus died to give us freedom from sin.   Lust is anything but freeing.
3. Lust cheapens your sex life.  If the sum of your sexuality is imitating adult on demand, you’re not the attentive lover your husband or wife needs.  You’re a sexual caricature. 
4. Lust is a gateway drug.  It starts as a sin of the mind but leads to a sin of the body.  If you’re consumed with lust, the only reason you haven’t cheated is because you haven’t had an opportunity…yet.
5. Lust separates us from God.  Sin grieves the Holy Spirit.  He won’t work in an environment of willful disobedience.  You have to choose…flesh or Spirit?  You can’t have both.  Light and darkness don’t coexist.

We’ll finish up tomorrow by talking about some ways to avoid lust and keep our minds pure.

I Think I Lust You (Part 2)

The Thong Song.  Yep…that’s what inspired this series of posts. 

A few weeks ago, I stopped at a gas station to get a soda and The Thong Song was blaring through the store.  That’s nothing unusual, I guess.  My local gas station doesn’t normally play the Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack (but one can hope).  Here is the weird part: it was 4:52...in the morning!!!

Isn’t that a little early for Sisqo?  Shouldn’t such inspired lyrics as “Baby, make your booty go ‘da na da na na’” be reserved for prime time?  Isn’t there a better song choice for my morning commute?  

And that’s when it hit me: sex is everywhere.  If The Thong Song is blaring at 4:52 in the morning, how many suggestive images and songs are blaring at 4:52 in the afternoon?   No wonder lust is so prevalent - you can’t get away from it.  It’s been marketed to us in overwhelming quantities, and we’ve become consumers. 

But we were built to reflect not consume.  We were created to reflect the glory of God not ingest the gore of the world.  When we consume what the air-brushed, auto-tuned, hyperbolic sexual marketing machine is selling, we stop reflecting and start regurgitating.   We lose our bearing and our sexual understanding becomes distorted.  We become poor mirrors of God’s glory, and we miss our calling.

The results are more than most have bargained for.  Porn doesn’t satisfy.  Affairs always destroy.  Sex and the City isn’t real.  And Jersey-Shore-style hook ups leave us with an embarrassing trip to the drug store. 

James 1:15 says “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  I believe that lust is right in the middle of this decaying process that James so bluntly talks about.

More on this tomorrow. 

I Think I Lust You (Part 1)

The only thing our culture loves more than sex is the idea of sex.  Like climate change or Bieber-mania, the thought of sex seems to affect everything.  We market it, laugh about it, elude to it, rate it, prescribe it, record it, tweet it, and…well, you get the idea.  It’s on our magazine stands, billboards, home computers and smart phones.  Boobs and buff bods abound.  Illusions of sex are everywhere.

GoDaddy, Hardees, and Cosmo can’t sell us their products without pointing at our groins; pop stars stay famous by hitting the town sans underwear; a congressional tweet has taken on a whole new meaning; and, let's be honest, we still have our suspicions about the whole Gayle and Oprah situation.   

We’re a culture that’s oversexed before we even get to the bedroom

All of this sexual imagery has quite an intended consequence: addiction.  Like chocolate milk in the school cafeteria or saturated fats in…well, in everything, we can’t help but drool and order.  We’re hooked.  We carry portfolios replete with decisions that fall under the “Oh my God, what was I thinking?!” category. Creepy stares, virus-laden downloads and friend requests at 3am.  Not our best choices.

Lust: it’s our new national pastime. 

So, what does this mean for the follower of Christ?  Do we abandon a culture gone wild?  Do we peek until we’re caught? Or do we live a better way?

In this series of posts, we’ll talk openly and plainly about the “L” word. And just to clarify, I’m talking about lust - not lesbian, lascivious, lewd or lecherous.  (apparently, there are a lot of “L” words when it comes to sex.)  If you don't think people in church should talk about sex or sexual temptation, you'll find this series offensive and I highly suggest you skip it.  But if you're a person who wants to be sexual without being sinful, who desires to be pure without being a prude, and strives to be clean in a culture that revels in dirty, I pray this series will be helpful.

Stick around, this is going to get good.

Weekend Recap | 06-20-11

Worlds colliding, Fee and Ke$ha on the playlist, a big shout-out to the CR dads, some love for Morgan Freeman, yummy treats, awesome volunteers, and the "Guidance of the Holy Spirit".  In case you missed it, here's the recap...

Pre-Encounter Playlist...

Hey, Soul Sister (Train); Sing, Sing, Sing (Chris Tomlin); Your Love Is My Drug (Ke$ha); Happy Day (Fee); Time After Time (Quietdrive); Our God (Chris Tomlin)

Worship Set...

Beautiful Jesus (Kristian Stanfill); All Because of Jesus (Steve Fee); Burn In Me (Then Came Morning)

Message...

Yesterday was week three of our series on the Holy Spirit.  We concluded our introduction of Him with a message titled, "The Guidance of the Holy Spirit".  The Holy Spirit is a Spirit, and He moves in the spiritual realm.  In order to walk in step with Him, we must develop our spiritual understanding because this is how He works.  Yesterday, we discussed the way in which the Holy Spirit guides, moves, directs and speaks to our spirits.

Highlight of the Week...

We had new volunteers serving and being trained yesterday on different teams.  I love to see new faces joining a team at Church Relevant - quickest way to get involved and get to know new people!

Video...

Here is the Youtube version of one of the videos we showed yesterday...

 

 

Are Your Friends Killing You?

To this day, the creepiest book I’ve ever read is Flowers In The Attic.  Hands down!  I can handle Harris, King, or Poe, but that story of those kids tucked away in their grandma’s attic eating little arsenic donuts still gives me the heebie-jeebies. 

FITA (that’s what we cool kids call it) had been donated to the Christian school library where I was banished to most afternoons.  Like a vice presidential nominee or a new American Idol judge, it had been poorly vetted because, in my school, it was unthinkable that such a book would be available.  There is no way a book with s-xual references, n-dity, and attempted m-rder (oh, wait, that one’s okay) murder would have made it through the normal screening process.  No way in h-ll.

But it did.  And I read it.  Twice.

The scariest part about FITA wasn’t just the discovery that the children were being poisoned, it was the discovery that they were being poisoned by someone they trusted.  Small amounts of poison…administered periodically…declining health…they never saw it coming.

I wonder if we live our own version of Flowers In The Attic every day.  Is it possible that there are people close to us who are poisoning us in small doses and we don’t even realize it?  It might not be intentional, but their bitterness makes you bitter, too.  No one is saying they do it on purpose, but their complaining discourages you.  They may not have intended for it to happen, but their offense is contagious and their arguments are persuasive.  The more you’re around them, the worse you feel.  Small amounts of poison…administered periodically…declining health…you never saw it coming.

Remember this: true friends encourage; true friends heal; true friends point you to Jesus.  Anything else is deadly.  Be careful.

Weekend Recap | 06-13-11

It was another awesome weekend at Church Relevant!  We talked about "The Person of the Holy Spirit", collected food for our community food pantry, and had an amazing time of worship!  Bruno Mars and Hillsong United made the pre-encounter playlist, CR shirts were everywhere, and it's possible that I may love my television a little too much.  In case you missed it, here's the recap... 

Pre-Encounter Playlist...

Light Will Shine (Hillsong United); Happily Ever After (He Is We); God Is With Us Now (Gateway Worship); Grenade (Bruno Mars); Sing, Sing, Sing (Chris Tomlin)

Worship Set...

Your Name High (Hillsong United); Arms Open Wide (Hillsong United); Came To My Rescue (Hillsong United)

Message...

In week two of our series titled "The Holy Spirit", we continued to introduce the Holy Spirit with a message titled "The Person of the Holy Spirit".  The Holy Spirit is not a thing, a force, an aura or an idea.  The Bible always refers to Him as a person.  In this message, we talk about the personal nature of the Holy Spirit and the way in which He wants to work in your life. 

Highlight of the Morning...

I love it when the congregation counts down with the video at the start of the encounter.  Makes me feel like we're NASA and there is about to be a shuttle launch!  

The Most Difficult Part About Faith

Some statements are so obvious they probably shouldn't even be made.  There needs to be a list hanging on a break room wall somewhere of phrases that aren't allowed to be uttered because they're a waste of time.  No one needs to tell us "there is no I in team" - we know how to spell.  When my plate of fajitas is sizzling and smoking like an Icelandic volcano, you don't need to warn me that "the plate is hot, sir" - I assumed that.  It's not necessary to report that "Lindsay Lohan is back in prison" - we all knew that would happen.

So when I tell you that "faith isn't easy", you're not enlightened.  It's common knowledge.  Add it to the list.  But let me interject one question: what kind of faith are we talking about, initial faith or sustained faith?  Because initial faith is easier than you think.

Anyone can have a dream.  Anyone can cast a vision.  Anyone can pray loudly the first time, believe passionately for a season, run quickly out of the blocks.  Initial faith isn't that hard.  But sustained faith is the true test.  Can you believe when the dream dies?  Can you cast the vision again and again?  Can you keep praying when you're met with silence, believe in spite of ridicule, run when you're tired?  

You see, sustained faith isn't loud or easy.  Sustained faith is about showing up...and then showing up again...and then showing up again.  It is knowing even when it's impossible to know.  It is about hope and dependence and trust.  That is sustained faith.  And it's the only real kind of faith.

If you've been praying for a while now...don't give up.  If you've been striving for longer than you thought you could...don't give up.  If you've been believing even after others stopped...don't give up.  God sees your faith, and He's closer than you think.