The Voice of Truth

“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...