RT @JohnPiper: “Trust in him at all times, O people;
pour out your heart before him;
God is a refuge for us.” Psalm 62:8
Ponder this invit… 45 minutes ago
RT @dougclay: Little things do make a difference. ‘Bees carry pollen. Worms dig tunnels that freshen soil. Hummingbirds would win the 100-m… 46 minutes ago
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…1 day ago
Maturing Christians are learning to say, “Father, I’m willing to trust you with the ‘No’ now, because I believe you… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…2 days ago
Our selfless, Christ-like compassion paints a vivid picture for a skeptical world to see and embrace the love of Go… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…2 days ago
Of peace on earth, goodwill to men. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
How many “old familiar carols” have you heard Christmas after Christmas, until the words have almost lost their meaning? If we’re not careful, any song repeated too often can lose the richness of its original intent.
There are some amazing messages in many of our old familiar Christmas carols, because many of those messages are saturated with the old familiar story of Redemption that the Bible tells over and over again.
Please join me this Sunday as we once again take a new look at the old familiar messages in our Christmas carols. These messages will bring a new appreciation of God’s love that was sung at Christ’s First Advent, and reawaken the sweetness of meaning for this Christmas Day.
If you would like to check out some of the carols we have already looked at, check out these posts:
Billy Graham said, “It has always been the mark of decaying civilizations to become obsessed with sex.” Right in the opening pages of the Bible, God lays out the way sex can be fulfilling and productive, and throughout the rest of Scripture (and all of history) we see how trying to get sexual fulfillment any other way is unfulfilling and destructive.
Becky McDonald, the founder of Women At Risk International recently wrote:
“Sexuality is a real subject addressed daily in the journey of healing with the men, women, and children in our care who are facing female circumcision, sexual slavery, torture, rape, and honor killings—the list is endless. There’s no pretending behind our closed doors. I try to read every book—Christian and secular—touted as ground-breaking. None of them are. We are driven by a reality placed in us by the Creator God with legitimate ways, context, and relationship to express our sexuality. If we don’t find those legitimate outlets, we will spend our lives searching for fulfillment in self-destructive ways to fill that God-given need for community, intimacy, relationship, and meaning. We cannot live without intimacy, and here I don’t mean sex. Sex is simply one of the most powerful forms of intimacy. We are not asexual beings. Being Christ-followers, striving for integrity in all things, doesn’t neuter us.”
Pornography is one of the cheap ways men and women try to find satisfaction. But porn not only doesn’t satisfy, it keeps its victims trapped in a downward spiral of dissatisfaction and self-destruction.
Even if you remove the mandates in Scripture, science itself tells us how destructive watching pornography is. An organization I have come to appreciate for their science-based warning about pornography is Fight The New Drug.
“Parents need to take a leading role in encouraging an environment of loving accountability in the home, showing sympathy for present struggles (if there are any) while setting appropriate limits on what should and should not be accessed on mobile devices.Accountability software should be installed on all mobile deviceswith a clear expectation that there is no room for privacy when it comes to harmful content online. (By the way, if you use Covenant Eyes Internet Accountability, you can now use our Android app tolock down other apps, like unmonitored browsers.)”
If you want help breaking free from the stranglehold of pornography, the folks at Fight The New Drug have a very helpful resource called Fortify. Please click the link and sign up today!
You can break free!You can know the fulfilling, satisfying sex life that God intended for you to have all along! But you must take the first step today… do it God’s way and start really loving!