Which of the following are similar to the ways you've served Christ in your family? [check all that apply]
• Taught your kids to see God's glory in nature
• Washed the dishes without being asked
• Played a board game with your kids
• Encouraged your wife to finish her master's degree
• Attended a child's open house at school
• Worked fewer hours to be with your family
• Set an example of a godly prayer life for your children
• Held a crying child
• Swung on the tire swing with your daughter
• Told your wife why you're still in love with her
• Told your son he's got what it takes
• Coached soccer
• Let you child correct you now and then
• Fixed the vacuum cleaner
• Taught your sons to ride a bike
• Listened patiently to a complaint of your wife
• Taped your child's artwork to your office wall
• Admitted to your kids that you were wrong
• Told your children how Christ entered your life
• Cleaned up vomit
• Taught your children to love books
• Been romantic without expecting sex
• Told your daughter she's smart/beautiful
• Set standards for your kids and stuck to them
• Dealt graciously with a busybody neighbor
• Peeled carrots
• Watched movies together
We're Equally Messed Up Theme of the Week: The Sensuality Snare Friday, March 26, 2004
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Men of IntegrityMarch/April 2004We're Equally Messed UpTheme of the Week: The Sensuality SnareFriday, March 2672
Key Bible Verse: Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is … full of lust and deception (Ephesians 4:22). Bonus Reading:Eph. 4:17–24
Talking with a friend at lunch, I asked, "How are you doing with pornography when you're on the road?"
Taken aback by my directness, he looked away. "Why do you ask?"
"I find it an ever-present temptation. I care about you and felt I should ask."
"I'm not doing well," he admitted, "but I want to." The next Tuesday he joined two other guys and me for a weekly meeting. To help us maintain purity, we've come up with these guidelines and commitments:
1. My goal is to become like Jesus Christ, to keep my promises to God and my wife, and to be sexually pure.
2. I'll never discuss our specific struggles with anyone outside the group (unless it involves a crime or physical danger).
3. I'll never lie to a group member.
4. I'll always assume that each group member wants to hide his sin as much as I do. So I'm giving the other men permission to ask me specific questions that can't be evaded about my behavior. They expect the same from me.
5. I'll identify the rituals that precede acting out and share them so the group can check up on how I'm doing.
—Bill Perkins in When Good Men Are Tempted
My Response: I'll look for a friend I can meet with who also wants to be pure.
Thought to Apply: Those in the grasp of sensuality can never rise to godliness while in its sweaty grip.
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