We're Equally Messed Up
Theme of the Week: The Sensuality Snare
Bill Perkins
Friday, March 26, 2004
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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.
—Kent Hughes (Illinois pastor)
Adapted from When Good Men Are Tempted (Zondervan, 1997) by permission.
Copyright © 2004 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
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Lord, you created me with sexual impulses. To avoid abusing them, I desperately need to submit to Your power.
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