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Key Bible Verse: Temptation comes from the lure of our own evil desires [fantasies]. These evil desires lead to evil actions, and evil actions lead to death (James 1:14-15). Bonus Reading: Matthew 5:27-30

Imagine you're making love to your wife late one night. She's more responsive than you can ever remember. At the height of the moment she cries out, "Oh Charlie, you are sooo wonderful. Charlie, I'm all yours!" But your name is Jim.

How would you feel?

This is exactly what many of us deserve because we've so fueled our fantasies that they're invading our bedrooms. In An Affair of the Mind, Laurie Hall describes how a husband imposes unrealistic expectations on his wife in comparison to his dream women of porn. If she's a normal wife and mother, he comes to believe she's, in Hall's words, "too flat, too fat, too old, or too average to suit his gourmet taste." Eventually, he expects her to function as a voluptuous sex fiend.

[Today's Key Bible Verse] describes the process and final product of fantasies. Sinful fantasy kills romance and reality. It kills the purity and pleasure of marriage. That's why we must keep it out of our marriage bed. "As the spiritual leaders of our homes," Fred Stoeker wrote, "we're responsible for protecting our wives, not withering them. We're to honor their essence, not feed our lust. Sex with us should be as pure as prayer."

—Daniel Henderson in Think Before You Look

My Response: Have I been subverting the trust and privacy of my marriage bed?

Thought to Apply: You mustn't force sex to do the work of love, or love to do the work of sex.—MARY MCCARTHY

Adapted from Think Before You Look (Living Ink Books, 2005) by permission.

Copyright © 2006 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

I admit, Lord, that my heart can't be pure if my mind is morally smeared. Help me crowd out the junk with what is "true and honorable and right."

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