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Singleness, Sex, and Cold Showers
“Boys will be boys.” “It’s not healthy to suppress those sexual urges.” “You can’t expect a person to go without it for too long.” “If she (or he) doesn’t ‘put out,’ I’ll just look elsewhere.” We’ve all heard, or been told, one of these lines. Sexual purity and fidelity seem to be values of the past. Just read the most recent headlines associated with the #MeToo (#YoTambien) movement, and you will quickly learn of yet another actor, CEO, judge, pastor, president, reporter, or news broadcaster who has fallen from grace because of his or her history of promiscuity and/or sexual harassment. Where are our role models? How can we…
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Help Teens Live in Purity
Today I'm happy to have Kim as my guest. She has tons of experience working with youth. And she has some interesting stuff to say about Living Pure: Virginal vs. Virtuous. I recently got to hang out with some friends who work in different student ministries, and we had a blast telling war stories, reliving some of our dumber mistakes when working with teens (and parents), and lamenting some of the ongoing difficulties facing student ministries and workers, as well as the challenges students themselves are facing in this increasingly technological world. I seized the opportunity to casually float some questions to my friends about how they encourage their youth…
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Blessed Are the Pure In Heart
When Blessings Abound Series The Beatitudes Attitude: Passionately Pursuing Christlikeness Through Desperate Dependence on Him { Hidden in The Folds } Who can be pure in heart? Who I ask? Certainly not I! Can I think I am pure in heart? Of course. Can I be pure in heart “as far as I know?” I can—as far as I know. The problem is I don’t know very far. Only God knows if I’m pure in heat, and He’s not telling me. The heart is an active deceiver (Jer. 17:9), and this is why God searches us (Jer. 17:10) so He can reward us according to the secrets hidden away in…
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How do we speak from failure with integrity?
We who follow Jesus have a high calling. And often a high privilege of telling others about him and his way of life, equipping or simply encouraging them on their journey. But we are all sinners, desperately in need of God’s saving grace. So when our lives haven’t aligned with the way of Jesus how do we decide if we still should speak (or write) about following Jesus in that way? For example, How can we best honor Jesus and speak with integrity to our children about sexual purity if we were not sexually pure? Or should we counsel and minister to other couples about how to have…
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Has God’s definition of “bad words” evolved?
When Ashley and I met for coffee, she told me her story, peppered with potty language and a few "swear" words. Should I have confronted her with Colossians 3:8: But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips? What would you have done? Over the last couple of decades I've observed the slow erosion of wholesome language, especially among younger Christians. Not surprising in light of cultural disintegration, the crude soup in which we now swim. Ashley's way of expressing herself has been thoroughly influenced by that soup. But how should Christians respond? And should…
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What Would You Say to Your 8-Year-Old Self?
Recently I watched Disney’s The Kid again. This is a movie recommended by a counselor friend of mine, and I have heard of several other counselors who assign people to watch it because of its insights into why we can become the adults we are. Bruce Willis plays a not very nice man who meets up with his 8-year-old self, and the two have some important information to give each other. There is a scene where a friend helps him process what it means to be talking to his little boy self, and asks, “What would I say if little Deirdre turned up, bursting out of her St. Mary’s uniform,…
