"Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. . ." (I Corinthians 13:4-8a).
"A ChristiaNet.com and Second Glance Ministries poll found 20% of Christian women (vs 50% of Christian men) are addicted to pornography. Sixty percent of women respondents admitted to significant struggles with lust, 40% admitted being involved in sexual sin in the past year, and 20% of church-going female participants struggled with viewing pornography." (Foster Report, Christian Counseling Connection).
These are astounding numbers, even if the research is flawed, which I think it is, half those numbers are huge. How do they define addiction? How do they define lust? How large is the sample? These are some of the questions that need to be asked. There are those who do ask the question, what is the harm in pornography? It is harmful because it is addictive, needing more and greater stimulation to receive the same "high." Thus it leads to all kinds of perversity, physically abusive and even homicidal results.
The biggest problem with pornography is it teaches that another person has no value except what they can do for me, completely contradicting the teaching of the Scriptures. The Bible says that each person has value, not because of what they can produce, but because God created them and Jesus died for them.
God created us as sexual beings. Sex is good, but it is of the flesh. The flesh does not come first--the Spirit does! Keep it in that order and you will have the best sex--I promise!
Grace&Peace,
Tom
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Our Irrational Beliefs
"The word of the Lord came to me again:'What do you mean by repeating this proverb concerning the land of Israel, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge'? As I live, says the Lord God, this proverb shall no more be used by you in Israel. Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sins shall die'" (Ezekiel 18:1-4).
I know, I have used that text many times. It is almost a proof text for me, but it is a very important text in the Scripture because it emphasizes our personal responsibility to God. We blame our sinfulness on "original sin," how our mothers treated us or because our fathers were not involved in our lives or because of some other trauma that we experienced. I know these kinds of things do have some power, but they are not determiners of our behavior!
The Scripture says that the just shall live by faith, meaning faith in Christ. In reality, everyone lives by faith, but most of the time our beliefs are irrational. The reason the past has power over our lives is because of how we think about it. The reason present problems cause depression and anxiety is because of what we believe about them.
I've said all this to lead up to this quote by Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational-Emotive-behavioral therapy, who, himself, suffers with the irrational belief in atheism, which I want to share with you: "The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny." I think he and God agree.
Grace&Peace,
Tom
I know, I have used that text many times. It is almost a proof text for me, but it is a very important text in the Scripture because it emphasizes our personal responsibility to God. We blame our sinfulness on "original sin," how our mothers treated us or because our fathers were not involved in our lives or because of some other trauma that we experienced. I know these kinds of things do have some power, but they are not determiners of our behavior!
The Scripture says that the just shall live by faith, meaning faith in Christ. In reality, everyone lives by faith, but most of the time our beliefs are irrational. The reason the past has power over our lives is because of how we think about it. The reason present problems cause depression and anxiety is because of what we believe about them.
I've said all this to lead up to this quote by Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational-Emotive-behavioral therapy, who, himself, suffers with the irrational belief in atheism, which I want to share with you: "The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny." I think he and God agree.
Grace&Peace,
Tom
Monday, June 11, 2007
PRAYER
"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:11-13).
We have had quite a lot happening around our place lately, and it looks like it will be that way for much of the summer. Soooo, my postings will probably be a little more infrequent, and/or a little more borrowed. This posting is like that. I found the following quotes about prayer in Christian Counseling Today by Harold Koenig M.D. that I wanted to share with you all.
"I have seen prayer active in the lives of many patients in my clinical practice, so I don't need scientific proof of this. In the early days of my work as a family physician, I would often ask patients, 'What enables you to cope with the stress of your medical illness? What keeps you going, despite these difficult circumstances?' Patients would so often tell me that it was prayer."
"I have also had patients tell me how prayer for them or a loved one changed the course of an illness and doctors could not explain it. Even more often though, patients report to me that prayer changes how they view their illness or the situations they are in."
Grace&Peace,
Tom
We have had quite a lot happening around our place lately, and it looks like it will be that way for much of the summer. Soooo, my postings will probably be a little more infrequent, and/or a little more borrowed. This posting is like that. I found the following quotes about prayer in Christian Counseling Today by Harold Koenig M.D. that I wanted to share with you all.
"I have seen prayer active in the lives of many patients in my clinical practice, so I don't need scientific proof of this. In the early days of my work as a family physician, I would often ask patients, 'What enables you to cope with the stress of your medical illness? What keeps you going, despite these difficult circumstances?' Patients would so often tell me that it was prayer."
"I have also had patients tell me how prayer for them or a loved one changed the course of an illness and doctors could not explain it. Even more often though, patients report to me that prayer changes how they view their illness or the situations they are in."
Grace&Peace,
Tom
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