“In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Philippians 2:5-7 (NIV) I remain in awe of how Jesus made Himself nothing. It is beyond my comprehension to...
Following Fantasies
“What are you really looking for?” Chris was in the midst of searching for pornography when he ended up on the phone asking an older Christian brother for help. Chris had struggled with viewing porn for so many years at this point, and he’d tried and tried to break free from his habit. Yet here he was again. He thought what he was looking for was self-evident, so his friend’s question seemed so...
Engage in Better Fantasies
I wrote last week about the importance of moving the battle line from resisting porn to resisting sexual fantasy. Far from being benign, sexual fantasy is dangerous because it is where a person disconnects from reality and moves into unreality. And so sexual fantasy is both what opens the door to porn and what fuels it. When we engage in sexual fantasy, we place illusionary images over-top real...
A Bigger Problem Than Porn
People everywhere are starting to get serious about pornography addiction. But for everyone who struggles with porn, they have a much more dangerous problem. Sexual fantasy. We need to talk more about this. I think we typically don’t, both because fantasy is very personal and because people don’t think fantasy is very significant, especially in comparison with the “weightier” problem of...
Choosing Forgiveness
Has someone ever hurt so badly that you feel the need for revenge? Or is forgiveness something you looked for in a person? As we close the series Blockbuster Truths, we will be looking at the movie The Avengers (or as we have named it, in The Revengers) . What does it do to our soul when seeking revenge on someone who wrongs us and what does it look like to forgive them? Scripture: Matthew 6:9...
Loving Healers
I haven’t yet seen the new movie Boy Erased (starring Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe), but several people have expressed concerns to me, and it’s caught my attention, too. When I was in the midst of my own struggle with sexual sin, God surprised me repeatedly in ways that moved me toward Him. And so many times, He did this through the good help of people—wounded and loving healers who extended...