The Voice of Truth

Just a quick post to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  In the midst of the stress of travelling, shopping, partying, and visiting, remember our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ.  Celebrate Him and be blessed!

“It is written: ‘As surely as I live’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’  So then, each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”  (Romans 14:11-12, NIV, CR Bible) Over the last several weeks, circumstances in my life have caused me to think a lot about accountability.  I have faced many situations recently in which the presence or absence of accountability was a major determining factor in how the situation was settled.  One such occasion happened a couple of weeks ago when due to a professional obligation, I found myself with lots of free time in a place where I used to engage in same-sex sexual activity.  To be honest, I did not even think about it until after I had been there for several hours legitimately carrying out my professional duties.  However, there came a time in the day that I found myself with a two-hour span of time with nothing to do.  That is when the thoughts of my past activi...

This video is really well done.  It is a video montage covering the 12 steps of recovery. (credits at the end of the video) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN9x3xWn1Ck&feature=youtube_gdata_player&noredirect=1

"For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience; joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light.  For He rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:9-14, NASB) If you have been following my blog, you probably have noticed there hasn’t been much to follow lately.  Part of it has been that life has gotten so very busy.  I am in my same position at work but I have taken on much more re...

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.   For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10, NASB) Prayer is a topic that has been on my mind for some time now.   I believe God has given me a burden to pray for many people including my wife, my mother, my brothers and my sister and their families, my brothers and sisters in Christ in Celebrate Recovery and church, colleagues at work, the students I teach, friends who do not know the Lord, and the list goes on and on.   Admittedly, it is not something that comes naturally for me, in part because I feel inadequate to pray as I should and I simply sometimes do not know what to ask for or how to ask for it.   I sometimes wrestle with a number of other issues like, who should I pray for, how often should I pray, is there a correct posture for prayer, etc.   Then there are the de...

"The LORD is the one who goes ahead of you; He will be with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.” (Deuteronomy 31:8, NASB) Lord, I feel like I am under some sort of spiritual attack.   My mind is shifting to and fro from one negative thought to another.   You seem so far away.   It would be easy and even natural to allow my feelings and emotions to dictate to me who I am and how I should think and believe.   I know from experience that that is not TRUTH.   This morning, I choose to believe YOU!   I am still a child of the Living God.   I am forgiven.   I am accepted and loved in Christ Jesus.   Your Holy Spirit lives in me empowering me to do all that you have asked me to do.   Sin has no power over me whatsoever.   I go into this day knowing that your Holy Presence is with me everywhere I go.   That statement is not some insignificant, insincere platitude; rather it is a profound statemen...

Talking with a friend today, I remembered what is was like to be full of guilt and shame over the sin and in my life and how difficult, even impossible, it was to look my wife or anyone else in the eyes.   The eyes are the windows to the soul.  You can often discern a person's emotional state or state of mind simply by looking into their eyes.  The hurt, disappointment, depression, joy, sadness, expectation, etc., can all be read in the eyes.  It was a simple thing really.  As I was enjoying my lunch today with a good friend, I caught myself looking directly into his eyes as he was talking with me.  In that moment, I realized that this was something that was relatively new for me.  I remember being so overwhelmed with guilt and shame over my sin, that I could hardly look anyone in the eyes for fear they would see the real me in my gaze.  The idea of someone being able to see my emotional insides, my true self, was scary; it s...

I don’t do this too often, but today I want to share on this blog something I wrote in my personal journal.   I started journaling over two years ago as a recovery tool and initially I really did not like it and resisted doing it.   Everyone in my recovery circle though was talking about how helpful it was to write down their struggles and insights into their own lives.   I relented and finally started to journal, and was very inconsistent with it, but something told me to keep trying.   Eventually, I actually began to enjoy the writing process and found it very helpful in spotting patterns in my life, positive or negative.     There is something about seeing something in print that makes it very real and makes it difficult for me to run from.   Writing about myself forced me to think more thoughtfully about the things I think, do, and say. Anyway, yesterday marked four years of continuous sobriety for me.   I try not to view it as something to ...

This is absolutely amazing. I have not heard from anyone the the clarity in which the speaker defines the struggle that I and so many others experience on a daily basis. More importantly, he explains the grace of God with such profound simplicity and truth. A must see for all of God's children. All I can say is "Wow!"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr1ABKXY1YI&feature=player_embedded#at=463

“This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.   If we say we have fellowship in Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” (1 John 1:5-7, NASB) “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:16, NASB) I remember the first time I shared my struggle against same-sex attraction in a small open share group in Celebrate Recovery.   Next to confessing all of this to my wife, it was the single most difficult thing I had ever done.   The idea of confessing this fault to a group of men whom I did not know was very scary.   As each man shared openly about his struggle with alcohol, drugs, anger and other issues, I sat quietly and thought how brave these guys wer...

“The steadfast of mind He will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3, NASB) I meditated on this Biblical passage this morning.   It speaks to me about the battle that is raging for control of my mind.   All of the spiritual attack I have been experiencing lately has been centered on creating doubts in my mind about one thing or another—Is God purposefully engaged in and controlling my life, has He truly “taken me on”?   Am I in God’s will for my home life, work life, ministry, etc.?   I have to continually reaffirm that what I am doing, how I am living my life is what God would have me to do.   The World is shouting a different message to me.   Being steadfast of mind comes only as I stay my focus on God’s presence with me.   Whenever I get away from that, I feel ill-at-ease, uncomfortable, and vulnerable to the schemes of the devil and the error of the World’s thinking.   I have to remember that God and His Word are fai...

“Commit your works to the Lord and your plans will be established.” (Proverbs 16:3, NASB) “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.   In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6, NASB) “The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9, NASB) Before I got into recovery, I managed to find the time to devote to the sexual addiction and same-sex lust that ruled my life for so long.   It never mattered how busy the other parts of my life were, I was fully devoted to making time for those habits.   My productivity at work suffered greatly.   I rarely had enough energy at the end of a day to spend engaging with my wife or other people who were important to me.   I would often use my lunch hour to pursue my habit—forgoing lunch in favor of getting my sexual high.   I was willing to sacrifice anything and do anything it took to satisfy those inordinat...

"For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.   For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.   But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good.   So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.   For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.   For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.   But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.   I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.   For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my...

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.   So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself.   Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:33-34, NASB)   I am writing this post not on the topic of having random thoughts but just as some random thoughts I am currently having—if that makes any sense.   My nature is to try to be organized and orderly in everything I do, so it is a little out of character for me to write something so haphazard and random as what I am about to write (even this introduction shows how uncomfortable I am with just writing whatever comes to mind, I have to preface it with an explanation!) This time of year is always a challenge for me in my Christian walk.   It is the end of the school year (at least for us college types) and instead of winding down, activity is picking up.   End of the year meetings and paperwork and student projects just to name a few,...

I found out this past week that my mom has cancer. It has been a roller coaster of emotions for me and all of my family ever since. I have been praying a lot for her and all of us since I found out and would ask if you are reading this to pray also. I will probably write something soon about my mother as my next post, but I don't know when that will be. Thanks to all of you who read my blog and thanks for praying. God bless!

“The Lord is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear?   The Lord is the defense (stronghold) of my life; Whom shall I dread? ” (Psalm 27:1, NASB) Maybe it is because I am stubborn, or just resistant to change, but I spent a lot of time looking up the word “stronghold” in several different resources simply because each definition I saw did not fit with what I thought the definition was!   I am glad I stuck with that process because it made me realize, and in a sense meditate on the word and what it truly means.   I had always thought that a stronghold was some mysterious force that had an overpowering grip on me.   I used the word loosely to label some struggle or difficulty I was experiencing in my life.   As I kept reading various definitions, I had enlightenment.   As part of the definition, a stronghold is a “ place ”, or a “ location ”.   The Free Dictionary online ( http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ ) defines stronghold as “a fortified plac...

This was so good, I coudn't resist posting it on my blog.  A dear friend taught about Step 3 and Principle 3 in our Celebrate Recovery Meeting on Monday night and it was truly inspiring! I am very proud of you dude!  Check it out! Celebrating Recovery at NLC: Step 3 Practical Applications : "Practical surrender: Reminders for ACTION - “B’s Attitudes”(from Assimilation Coach and Men's Mixed Issues small group leader - Br..."

“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1:21, NASB) "...and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead." (Philippians 3:9-11, NASB) Jesus wants all of me.   In my own strength and in my own way, I am woefully inadequate (in matter of fact, I am powerless) to do anything God would have me to do in thought, word, or deed.   Whether it is prayer, worship, relating to my wife or to a friend, ministry, forgiveness, eating sleeping…, whatever I may do, I need Christ Jesus to do it in me.   Everyday I wake up in the morning I am faced with a choice: Do I begin to tackle the myriad of tasks that await me in my career, at home, in min...

“For by grace you have been saved through faith: and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.   For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, NASB) God knows me and understands me perfectly and also accepts me and forgives me continually.   God’s love is absolute toward me and his acceptance of me and forgiveness of me is immutable in Christ.   These truths gave me much hope during the darkest times in my life.   When I felt unlovable and far from God because of my sin, I knew that God still loved me despite His full knowledge and understanding of me, and that He accepted and forgave me in Christ. When I was in the throes of sexual sin, not a single day passed that I was not engaged in some sort of physical acting out (and sometimes several times a day).   It is an amazing thing to realize that none ...

Temptations Temptation is NOT sin.   It has sometimes been difficult for me to buy into the truth of that statement.   I know this to be truth because our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ while He was here on earth was tempted just as we are, yet without sin.   The specific instance of His forty-day fasting and prayer session in the wilderness and then being tempted by Satan is well documented in the Scriptures (Matthew 4, Luke 4, etc.).   It only makes sense too that this was not the only instance in which Jesus was tempted.   I am sure he faced the same day-to-day temptations as we do.   He subjected Himself to temptations so He could experience fully what it is to be human, so He could be sympathetic in every way to what we experience in the flesh. I know that in my struggle against sexual sin, the temptations can sometimes be so intense that it is easy to believe that I have committed a sin, but in reality it is simply a strong temptation, an urging to...

Everything I decide to do or to believe begins somewhere in the not so distant past with a single thought.   Multiple thoughts in succession together form a particular perception or understanding of a situation, or they come together to establish belief patterns that shape every aspect of my life.   If the thoughts I have are not based on Truth, then those perceptions, understanding, and belief patterns I have are not true.   The nature of my thoughts can range anywhere from a subtle suggestion in my mind, all the way to a conclusion I have drawn on the basis of deliberate reasoning.   Often it is the subtle suggestions that pass through my mind that are the most powerful (whether good or evil).   Sometimes even what I think is a well-reasoned conclusion, can be fraught with error if the reasoning is not based in Truth.   How very powerful are all our thoughts!   It’s no wonder that it is in our thoughts, in our mind, where the devil seeks to first, ga...

In recovery I have learned that “You are only as sick as your secrets”. I have always had a strong sense of faith even from childhood.   I enjoyed going to church, reading the Bible, and studying and thinking about religious and spiritual things.   I still do.   I am not exactly sure where all of that came from.   I am sure some of it came from my mother who had us kids go to church fairly regularly when I was growing up.   Some of it came from my own curiosity—things I had read or heard on television, radio programs, etc.   One thing I am sure of is that deep in my heart I knew that God existed, that He loved me, and He implanted in my heart a desire to know Him and have a relationship with Him.   I instinctively knew that before I was formally taught about it from God’s Word.   I believe that is true for all of us. However, I was also vividly aware of the apparent conflict between my spiritual desire and the desire of my flesh.   The in...

Just yesterday, I was reminded that no matter how carefully and thoughtfully I plan my day, God sometimes has a few surprises for me which I believe are designed specifically to teach me something about myself or to grow me spiritually in some way.  By all accounts the day was typical, until I arrived home for lunch to discover that the water heater in the garage was leaking.  There was water in the garage closet where the water heater is located, on the floor of the garage, and I subsequently found water in the house in the closet of the master bathroom and into the bathroom.  Needless to say, this situation produced a certain amount of anxiety on the one hand, but on the other hand, it gave me an opportunity to trust God, to put into practice letting God be in control of my life.  So I proceeded to thank God for the situation and ask His guidance on how to respond.  I called a professional plumbing company and was told that they would page a tec...

I Believe… What I believe already may be apparent from what you have read thus far.  I believe in the same God who spoke into existence all that is, who moved across the face of the deep at Creation, who created the first man and the first woman, who parted the Red Sea for Moses and the children of Israel.  My God is sovereign, holy, righteous, all-knowing, all-powerful, and present everywhere at the same time all of the time.  He is bigger than even can be imagined.  There are aspects of God I will never fully understand in this lifetime nor even in the life to come.  God created me for His enjoyment and for me to fellowship with Him and to worship Him.  Jesus Christ is God!  He is the Son of God who laid aside his privilege as God to come to earth as a man so that He could identify with each and every one of us (and that includes me).  He chose to endure ridicule, taunting, torture, and ultimately death in order that he might ...

There are a lot of voices in the world today.  Political, social, economic, religious voices (to name a few) are all screaming loudly to gain an audience and a following.  This can be very easily verified simply by going to any bookstore and observing the myriad of different opinions and viewpoints represented by the various literary offerings on the shelves.  You can turn on the television and click through the channels to find even more varied topics to feast upon.  Not a day goes by that I don't hear from the media about a lot of different opinions on government and politics, social and lifestyle issues, religion and spiritual concerns, and any number of other issues on which we crave perspective.  With such a wide array of perspectives on all of these issues, it is easy to become confused, or complacent, or even angry.  All of those reactions can intensify (depending on your own personal views and to what extent you hold them) as t...