Advice on Sexual Temptation

The following advice was given to a brother struggling with sexual sin: "Like most men you will struggle with sexual temptation all your life. But let's be honest, most of our failures are deliberate. When you provide yourself with privacy and opportunity (dating alone, late nights with a computer, hotel rooms, isolation, locked doors, etc.) you will inevitably fail. Our penchant for 'alone-time' is planned failure sexually. Stop putting yourself in situations where you know you could fail because this is only allowing yourself to fail knowing that you will apologize to God later. This is pathetic discipleship. I admitted to myself years ago that I was a sexual wretch. I come by it naturally. So instead of trying to be pure I decided to be wise. My success or failure is seldom dependent on my self-control but on my living in open community where I don't allow myself the privacy to fail. Yes we need to work on self-control but even more effective I have found is confession of sin, communal living, pre-sin accountability (telling brothers where and when I will be in known danger), and orchestrating my environment to minimize privacy. This would include where and when you go on dates, with whom you live, placement of computers, and who knows your schedule. If you can't be a good man you better be a wise man."

First and Last Red Letters

How can we share Jesus' a single-minded devotion to the purpose of God? Clearly, he is impressive in his focused obedience to God's plan for his life. Even if he was not the Son of God, one would have to admit that his life is exemplary for his clarity of focus. So what factor(s) contributed to Jesus' uncanny ability toward a single-minded goal? One could, of course, point to dozens of attributes of Jesus, particularly with an idealized portrait of omniscience, omnipotence, and a number of other Docetic attributes of a superhuman untouched be mortal limitations. However, Jesus lived with real pressures and temptations as part of his self-imposed limitations of incarnation. That being said, what can be said about his peculiarly focused life? For the time being, we can focus merely on two texts from one author. Luke provides us with the very first and the very last red letters of Jesus' earthly life. In Luke 2:49, the pubescent 'run-away' retorted to his mother's impassioned rebuke, "Why were you searching for me? Didn't you know I had to be about my Father's business?" [Some versions will translate: "In my Father's House."] Then Luke 23:46 offers the other book-end of Jesus-speak from the cross: "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." These two form a fascinating inclusio. Both offer two striking characteristics of Jesus that really speak to the question of his single-minded focus. First, both of them indicate Jesus' self-abnegation under the shadow of his absolute theism. He was so convinced that God would care for him that he willingly poured out his own life in self-less service to Yahweh. Second, as was his habit, he addressed Yahweh as "Father," fully persuaded that his great God would care tenderly and intimately for his needs. If we have those two tandem commitments—self-abnegation and the goodness of Father-God—then our lives will display incredible focus of purpose and energy.

Greg Fish on Hispanic Ministry

I love the church.  I love ministry.  I love Hispanic ministry.  But there is one thing that I don't like about many models out there.  To give a little context to my thoughts here, I've been in Brownsville, TX (on the border by the sea) for two years.  I have taken part in and am a member of the Alianza Ministerial Evangélica de Brownsville (an Spanish ministerial alliance) which is celebrating 50 years this year to be precise, this week.  So the big 3 day celebration is underway and will culminate with tonight's dinner/ concert.  Over 900 tickets have been sold, the event center is ready and waiting.  It would have been good for me to be present at the last meeting, but I was busy pulling into the gates of Sea World with my boys only to find that they were closed, but that's beside the point.  Had I been there, I would have known what exactly was being planned.  I found this little detail last night over the loudspeaker-- that the "princes of the church" (a reference made of pastors) would be seated together at the front (the head table, so to speak), a place of honor.  Having conversed with another pastor over the phone this morning, I came to know that "we" would be served on china, and everyone else on cardboard plates. 

 
 

I know I'm not the only one who feels this way, but I would rather be with my people than up there.  My people asked if there was arranged seating.  I told them we'd all try and sit together.  In fact, the speaker that has been flown in to speak three nights has been hammering this point in, community-- not individualism.  Yet those running the show really seem to relish this place of honor.  Self-abnegation is lacking in many circles in the Hispanic Christian community.  This is not the only instance, it's just something that has brought it all back.  I've even lost people to another church, because I was too down to earth.  Down here, the pastor is elevated so high, to a place that certainly does not jive with scripture.  It would do some people good to revisit John 3:30.  I would guess that if Jesus were at tonight's event, even He would rather sit with the sheep, over dining with the "dignitaries".

 
 

I just may have to make a subtle statement tonight.  One of my jobs tonight is to video the event.  So I can probably discreetly choose an outside table for video-filming purposes.  After all, who's gonna want the distraction of a video camera up front and center?