Week 2 Video: Strategies

A few strategies are included in this week's video from the Conquerer DVD series.

Do any of these strategies seem ridiculous? If so, perhaps that is the strategy you most need to try. One action suggested in this video deals with access to the internet, especially before bed. I know that, for years I kept my phone beside my bed. I never questioned whether I might put it in another room...or even out of arm's reach- in an effort to maintain purity. The phone location was defensible. I mean, I needed it for an alarm clock! On a more practical level, the mere presence of a cell phone is known to adversely affect the quality of sleep.

The same could be said for any of these. Does the idea of signing a covenant of contention seem corny? Or the idea of taking the SAST seem a bit overkill? And while we don't force anyone to implement any of these strategies, realize that if you are reading this blog and these steps seem ridiculous to you, don't dismiss them out of hand.

The point is, Jesus says twice in the book of Matthew "If your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out." Almost every time I have heard an exposition or commentary on that passage-almost in the same breath- the statement is followed by ...now clearly, Jesus wasn't being literal!

Or was he? Because in reviewing my failure to mortify sin, I see a history of rather comfortable mortification. That is, I will put sin aside as long as it doesn't cost me anything or inconvenience me too greatly. 

As Spurgeon wrote: Better to be but a maimed believer than to be an accomplished unbeliever. Better that thou lose an eye, or lose a hand, than lose thy faith in God and his word.

Or Calvin wrote: Christ must employ an exaggerated form of speech expressly because men allow themselves too much liberty. It might be thought that Christ pressed too severely on men, and therefore he anticipates complaints. However difficult, or severe, or troublesome, or harsh, any commandment of God may be, no excuse ought to be pleaded on those grounds, because the justice of God ought to stand higher in our estimation, than all that we reckon most precious and valuable. You have no right to object to me, that you can scarcely turn your eyes in any direction, without being suddenly drawn away by some temptation: for you ought rather to part with your eyes, than to depart from the commandments of God. 

Or Ligon Duncon in his sermon God's Law vs Human Tradition: 

The Lord Jesus is saying that sin must not be pampered; it must be put to death. And notice that He uses the most graphic language:"Tear out your right eye" and "cut off your right arm." Mortification is not passive. This is a striving against sin. The Lord Jesus is calling on us to wage war against this sin in our hearts and in our lives. It must be flung aside immediately and decisively.

What does that mean? It means that that book which is causing you to think thoughts that you ought not think needs to be turned aside from. Perhaps it needs to be burned. It means that that film which is titillating your heart, your mind it needs to be turned aside from. It means that social relationship that we have begun to develop and we sense the inappropriateness of the action that we have with another, it needs to be turned aside from. 

Believers should know that we are no match for this temptation. What are we to do as believers when faced with this temptation? There are several things which we should be prepared to do. First, we must immediately resort to Christ. We must be absolutely dependent on Him. Human resources cannot match this desire. We must have desire for Christ which exceeds our desire for the pleasure of the flesh. That means going to Him in prayer. That is the first step back to Christ. Our first step is back into His arms because the desires that are building in us are so powerful that they can be matched by no desire except a supernatural desire implanted into our hearts. 

[Then] we must deal with the real cause of our sin. If there is an occasion which is causing us to stumble, we must not come back to God and negotiate with Him by promising Him to read our Bible more and pray more as long as we can keep going back to that occasion of sin. Obedience knows no negotiation. When we see an occasion for sin, the Lord Jesus says, "Don’t go back and read your Bible and pray more, you cut off your right hand. If that is an occasion for sin, don’t put yourself there." He further more says that we must do this decisively and immediately. It requires drastic action. 

If you are in the grip of this sin you know how hopeless it is to struggle against. Let me tell you that very hopelessness is your greatest hope because if you have learned that you are hopeless against this sin, you have just learned that there is no hope in you. Only hope in Him and in Him alone. Now Satan will be saying to you, "If I confess this sin Christ will reject me," and Satan will be saying to you, "If you confess this sin they (the church) will reject you." I assure you these are lies. Christ's arms are open wide, His peoples' arms are open wide, and there are few men in here who cannot sympathize and empathize with this temptation. Put aside the obstacles of Satan and come to Christ. The only way you will ever overcome this temptation is in the arms of Christ, who will give you a greater desire that the flesh can ever fulfill.

Hope to see some of you this week for our meeting. Information is at the top of the screen.

Nate Larkin Testimony

Nate Larkin is a former pastor and founder of the Samson Society. His boldness and sense of community is a huge inspiration for this group. Watch his powerful testimony in the clip above. Below is a quote from his book Samson and the Pirate Monks which you can purchase here.

He writes:

Deep within my DNA, apparently, lies the conviction that I have been put on earth to do huge things, spectacular things, and that by virtue of my destiny I occupy a privileged place above the common run of humanity. It is an attitude that expresses itself in strange ways, such as a reluctance to stand in line and wait my turn, or fill our forms, or follow rules. Rules, after all, are for ordinary people and I am a special case. My grandiosity manipulates every situation to achieve its own ends, and does so shamelessly.

Oddly enough, I am also prone to bouts of self loathing...an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. These are the two faces of my pride, and both of them cajole me to greater effort. They tell me that I must justify myself by doing more. They say that I must get more at-bats and that I must hit the ball harder and farther. I must do great things for God.

My friends tell me something different. They remind me that I am merely part of a team. I am unique, they say, but only in the way that every snowflake is unique. We are different, but not so easily distinguished. We are all composed of the same stuff. We all fall to the ground and we achieve our most captivating beauty  in community.

When I listen to the stories of my brothers, I find to my surprise that they are telling my story too. A friend shares his weakness, and I am strengthened by it. Another shares his experience, and it fills a hole in my own. As my ego deflates and I take my rightful place within the created order, I feel the joy that comes from living as a worker among workers, a man among men.

...The city of God is being built, and it is being built one brick at at  time. A game with a child. An honest conversation with a friend. An evening with a  spouse. A phone call. An admission. An apology. A disclosure. A small fidelity.

One brick at at time.

Points of Departure

Day One.

How many times have we all said that before, right? 

If you have found your way here, we're glad. Its a very good place to start. This blog is intended to be an outpost. It is a forward operating base placed in enemy territory and stocked with resources to prevent a counter attack from the enemy. Think of it as a way of taking back the internet. Our goal is to have videos, podcasts and links that will encourage you. 

But for my first post, we begin where I began when this journey started for me, when someone gave me a copy of J.I. Packer's excellent book Knowing God. I immediately encountered this section...namely because it was in the introduction. For the record, I did make it farther than the introduction, although that hasn't always been the case with my Christian book scholarship. 

I hope this will frame the goal for this blog. I have taken a little creative license at the end which I hope you will permit:

In A Preface to Christian Theology, John Mackay illustrated two kinds of interest in Christian things by picturing persons sitting on the high front balcony of a Spanish house, watching travelers go by on the road below. The "balconeers" can overhear the travelers' talk and chat with them; they may comment critically on the way that the travelers walk; or they may discuss questions about the road, how it can exist at all or lead anywhere, what might be seen from different points along it, and so forth; but they are onlookers, and their problems are theoretical only.

The travelers, by contrast, face problems which are essentially practical- problems of the "which-way-to-go" and "how-to-make-it" type, problems which call not merely for comprehension but for decision and action too.

Balconeers and travelers may think over the same area, yet their problems differ. For instance, in relation to evil, the balconeer's problem is to find a theoretical explanation of how evil can consist with God's sovereignty and goodness, but the traveler's problem is how to master evil and bring good out of it. Or in relation to sin, the balconeer asks whether sinfulness and personal perversity are really credible, while the traveler, knowing sin from within, asks what hope there is of deliverance. 

Now this a blog for travelers, and it is with travelers' questions that it deals.