Posted on Monday, August 1, 2016

How to Change Your Past with 2 Mind Hacks

A couple of daily decisions can help you change the past that will be.

Think about the worst mistake you’ve made. If you’re like me, it probably ranks as the worst because of the fallout it caused. After all, some wrong things we did seem to have had little effect. But the ones that backfired on us we view as the big ones.

How to Change Your Past with 2 Mind Hacks

(Photo courtesy of Unsplash)

The trouble is, we never know which compromises will end up being the big ones.

Reuben, the oldest son of Jacob, blew it big-time. From his example, we can learn to make two daily decisions that can change your past.

More specifically, we can change your past that will be.

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Posted on Friday, June 13, 2014

Self-Control—It’s More than Sexual

Marrying context and desire brings joy—not shame.

Too often, self-control kicks in only as a matter of pride. We apply the brakes by asking questions like: Will I look foolish if I have a third slice of cake? Not terribly spiritual, but hey.

(Photo by Photodune)

Life hands us daily situations in which self-control seems impractical, irrational, and even impossible. And yet, amazingly, at other times:

While arguing with our spouse, and the phone rings, we answer the call and suddenly we have self-control.
Our boss lays into us about something that’s totally unfair. We fume, but bite our tongue.
Our tummies start to expand beyond our belts and bathing suits. So we cut back on sweets.

When our reputations, our jobs, and our physiques are at risk, we apply self-control. Why? Because something more important than immediate satisfaction seems threatened.

But somehow sex is different?

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Posted on Friday, May 16, 2014

My Biblical Encounter with a Russian Prostitute

I discovered there isn’t time to ponder your reaction when propositioned by a prostitute. Your first response is your response. It happened to me in a Russian hotel.

My Experience with the Bible and a Russian Prostitute

(Photo: St. Basils Cathedral in Moscow’s Red Square. By Soerfm. Own work. CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

I went with some missionaries to Moscow to help train national pastors. On our first morning, I headed to the hotel lobby to meet our team. Stepping out of the elevator, I scanned the lobby for others in our group. I saw no one I knew.

A small group of ladies at the bar sat and chatted with each other. All of them, that is, except one. This one very attractive woman was smiling and staring—straight at me.

As our eyes met, I suddenly remembered someone told me that prostitutes sat in the bar, looking for customers. This woman kept smiling and then leaned forward—and a literal chill ran up my back. I can still feel it. I froze.

At that moment, I heard three very distinctive words in my head.

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Posted on Friday, February 14, 2014

How Your Marriage is Like the Death Star

Your marriage is like the Death Star. Oh, I don’t mean it’s a large instrument of destruction and devastation. It’s something else. See if you can spot it in this clip.

Did you see it? Perhaps this quote by Plato will help:

The life of the nation is the life of the family written large. —Plato

Still stumped? The foundation of a nation is the family, and the foundation of the family is the marriage. If you can destroy marriage, you have begun a chain reaction that will dissolve the family, and eventually, the nation.

The key word is vulnerability.

Here’s how your marriage is like the Death Star—and more importantly, how you can protect it from what makes it vulnerable.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 5, 2014

The City of David’s Strength and King David’s Weakness

In King David’s day, the city of Jerusalem stood as a renovation and expansion of Jebus, a site the Hebrews never occupied in the territory of Benjamin.

(Photo: The City of David at right, opposite the modern village of Silwan. Courtesy of the Pictorial Library of Bible Lands)

Those who come to Jerusalem today for the first time are often surprised to learn that the original Jerusalem, “The City of David,” sat on a mere ten acres just south of the Temple Mount. Hardly impressive, it looks like some third-world neighborhood.

Steep slopes surround the City of David and gave it in a strategic advantage during any military threat. So much so, the inhabitants of Jebus felt confident “David cannot enter here” (2 Samuel 5:6). But he did, and David made the site his new capital.

The steep slopes became King David’s military strength.

But the slopes also played into his moral weakness. Here’s how.

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Posted on Wednesday, April 4, 2012

We’ve Only Just Begun [Podcast]

P art 8 – (Commitment) “Love: The Greatest of Songs”
– Song of Solomon 8:3-14 –
In this intimate book, The Song of Solomon, we get to stare wide-eyed at love as God intended it to be. From its beginning in what makes one attractive to the struggle with that attraction in sexuality as a single. From the passion of physical intimacy given and blessed by God, to the passion of marital conflict and how it may be resolved. We shouldn’t be ashamed to study what God was not ashamed to reveal. In this practical book, we come to understand in a very practical way why the greatest of songs is love.

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Posted on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Keeping the Love of Marriage Alive [Podcast]

Song of Solomon 7:1-8:4

Keeping the love of marriage alive requires deliberate attention, time, and humility. God’s Word shows us how.

In this intimate book, The Song of Solomon, we get to stare wide-eyed at love as God intended it to be. From its beginning in what makes one attractive to the struggle with that attraction in sexuality as a single. From the passion of physical intimacy given and blessed by God, to the passion of marital conflict and how it may be resolved. We shouldn’t be ashamed to study what God was not ashamed to reveal. In this practical book, we come to understand in a very practical way why the greatest of songs is love.