The Glorious Defeat- Final Reflection on Purity

This weekend, fifty something kids made vows of purity before God, their families, and the body of Christ.


I would like to be able to follow each one for the next ten to twenty years; I would like to see just how impactful this weekend really was. My goal is not to cast doubt on the genuineness of the intent of most of these students; my goal is to cast doubt on the follow-through of many of these students. It is one thing to go through the whole emotional ceremony of being pure; it is quite another to actually live it out in daily life, especially when there are no consequences other than breaking the heart of God.


There was a young man, a college age student, who said something that I deeply respect and who quoted the verses that I used with one my sessions:


Ecc 5:4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.


Ecc 5:5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. (ESV)


He told the gathered teens that he had, “never taken the vow, because he can’t keep a promise. He let his actions speak for him, rather than making a vow he won’t keep.”


I wish that many of us had half of the integrity and humility that this young man has.


How many of these students vowed something that they will not be able to pay? Only God knows the answer to that and I am not about to go around deciding whose was and whose was not a genuine decision. Yet, the young man’s words bear a weight that I cannot help but acknowledge; the seriousness of making a vow of purity and then breaking it.


Vows are often connected to emotions; they are not always emotion-driven, but a good portion of vows that are made are in the heat of the moment. Many times, we commit to something we are not even really convinced is the best way to go. How many people have “made a decision for Christ” and not really know whom they were supposed to believe? How many people have turned their hearts to God, supposedly, and have not even considered the ramifications of their actions. Thus, we have many, many conversion stories but so few actual converts; people jump with their emotions without counting the cost.


What is the cost of purity?


The answer is anything and everything; Jesus went as far as to say to hack off your own limbs (if your limbs were the actual problem, but a blind man can lust as well as a seeing man) if it meant you could maintain your purity. But what is purity and why is it so elusive to us? Are we unwittingly half-teaching the importance of purity and its effects on our daily walk with Christ?


Purity is found, as with all things spiritual, in love. Love gives; it does not demand, nor does it seize by force. If you are pursuing someone (any type of relationship) simply for what you may take from them, then your relationship is impure and based on lust rather than love. Purity then, is not a set of rules or even a state of being; it is an active pursuit of the God who is love. Purity is pursuing the holiness that comes from being set apart into the love of God.


So in order to pursue holiness and to be set apart into the love of God what must we give up? Or rather a better question is what can we give up? If my overarching desire is to pursue holiness in being set apart for the God who is love; what can I freely and joyfully rid myself of in order to pursue God with everything I have?


This is an entirely different mindset from our traditional list of rules and the old question, “how far is too far?” My answer is, if you even have to ask that question, you have already gone too far. We don’t need to be teaching behavior maintenance, we need to be teaching each other what it means to love and respect and protect one another in the love of God! If we love someone, are we really going to push them to compromise their purity until we take what is not ours?


Justin, our youth pastor, really put it well when he talked about how every time we take something in our lusts; we are robbing someone else of something precious. He used the story given to David by Nathan the prophet after David had Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, murdered. It was a powerful image, and one I think that we should keep in our minds as we approach this subject. Then, it becomes a matter of, “do I love this person enough, to not only respect him/her, but also to love their parents and their future spouse by protecting and guarding what is precious to them?”


Purity takes on a whole other meaning when its more than just you and the other person; we are interconnected and what hurts one, hurts the other. Christ made us this way so that our actions would have consequences for more than just ourselves. When we are diseased and ailing; the whole body suffers a long with us.


So, where do we go from here?


Let me be the first to second, the young man I spoke of earlier; I too am wary of making vows to God. On the issue of purity, across the board, I have suffered greatly. I daily have to remind myself that my righteousness does not depend on my performance, but on what Jesus Christ has already done on my behalf. All of the power, strength, and most importantly love, is available to me through the Holy Spirit who lives inside of me. If I do not pursue of life of purity it is my own fault.


I entitled this blog “The Glorious Defeat,” because being pure is about being defeated. I am now moving from the abstract thought of purity and landing the plane to a more practical level.


I used to think that there would come a day where I would be able to enter a perpetual state of purity (there is such a day coming, but not till Christ returns). It is interesting how we hate the struggle so much; we would rather do anything but struggle. I used to think it was because I desired to be like Christ and that to do that, I needed to be untouched by temptations to impurity.


I was wrong.


There is a reason we hate the struggle; it’s called our flesh. You know the verse that talks about the enemy masquerading as “an angel of light?” This is one of those instances. When we are in the midst of the struggle we want out of it; it kills us that we struggle. In fact, we firmly believe that if we did not have to struggle we would never sin. So, why then does the author of Hebrews admonish his readers by stating that they “have not yet strived unto blood?” That says struggle to me.


Now, I admit that we are supposed to flee temptation and there are some temptations we should physicallyflee from. Yet, I believe that the “fleeing” we have to do in many cases is a fleeing to God in prayer. Sometimes this involves making your body-temple turn to God in worship. This is not you doing the work; you are simply making your body yield to God. God is then able to do the work, and he does provide a way out in the midst of our temptations.


The struggle is actually a good thing; oh, and one more thing.


Most of the time, you will lose.


Ah, you will progress in holiness and purity; your old nemesis will be vanquished under the blood of Christ. However, you will find new enemies within yourself every time an old one is put down. The number of victories you will win will dramatically increase to the glory of God, but most of the time…you will lose.
This is where we come to the difference between the pure and the impure.


Those who are pure live a lifestyle of repentance; they are not victorious warriors; they are broken sinners. The pure are the ones who will engage in the struggle and they will lose, but they are ok with that because it is not about their victory, but their defeat. They realize that they are the problem and that the only solution is an even more thorough bearing of their weaknesses; for in their weakness Christ becomes strong. They are defeated, but they are never beaten. They lose the battle, but Christ has won the war.
The impure don’t want to struggle; they want to be like Christ without having to face the temptations that he faced. They want to be gods not men and in their arrogance they are routed; even if they manage to control their external behavior, the inside is full rotten corpses. They believe that their regulations or their willpower will save them; they believe their willpower will impress God enough to “help them out a little bit,” so they can handle the rest.


They are blind fools.


Do you wish to be pure? Be broken.


Do you wish to have victory? Accept defeat.


Do you wish to have strength? Embrace your weakness.


Do you wish to be free? Become enslaved.


Do you wish to live? Die to yourself.


The Gospel is a paradoxical message that seems foolish to the world, but if we don’t follow and practice ourselves, then aren’t we claiming the exact same thing?


Question:
Where has your pursuit of purity brought you; is there anything you would like to share?


Grace and Peace

Session 4: The Body (Purity DNOW)

For your viewing I have decided to post the two sessions I taught over this weekend. These were powerful words from the Lord and I hope he used them to impact some lives.
Grace and Peace


This is a really difficult session to teach about; to be honest I don’t take care of my body. I eat the wrong foods; I drink too many sodas. I don’t sleep on a steady sleep schedule and I do not exercise regularly. I have bad habits and behaviors that I should not be entertaining. If God were to ask me to give an account concerning the stewardship of my body, right now, I would not have anything to say. I have had good intentions and I make a lot of goals, but when it comes to looking after my body, I epically fail.

How can we take our bodies so lightly, when God has so many amazing things to say about them?

1Co 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
1Co 6:20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. (ESV)

1Co 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. (ESV)

1Co 15:53 For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. (ESV)

2Co 4:10 always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. (ESV)

Php 3:21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (ESV)

Col 1:22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, (ESV)

1Th 4:4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, (ESV)

1Pe 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Just from these verses we can gather that 1) our bodies are conduits of worship, 2) our bodies are living symbols of the unity of Christ and his Church, 3) our body will one day be transformed into a body like Christ’s resurrected body, and 4) Christ took our sin and punishment in his body and he also bears the marks of our resurrection in his new body.


Our Bodies as Temples


There are two extremes present in our day; one represents the traditional viewpoint that the church building is the temple of God and the other extreme that represents an individualistic viewpoint that we are all mini-temples of God and thus we can worship without the need of other individuals.
Both of these views are incorrect; we collectively are God’s temple. Our bodies are all parts of the Temple of God where the Holy Spirit resides. Look how the Apostle Peter describes it:

1Pe 2:5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

We are together the house of God. God has never, other than symbolically, lived in a house made by human hands; God dwells in the hearts, minds, and souls of his people.

There are serious implications for this:

1. Every time that we sin as an individual, we are contributing to the corporate sickness of the Body of Christ.

That sin you “got away with,” hurt other members of the Body of Christ spiritually. We are only as strong as our weakest link; in our case, the strong ones are the weak ones…weak ones who need the power of God.

2. All of the things that I allow into my life, I should be willing to share with all other members of the body.

Whether it is a destructive sexual habit, inappropriate humor, or questionable music that you have an issue, everything you would allow your body to be a part of should be suitable for all of the body of Christ to partake.

3. If our worship suffers as an individual, then it will cause everyone else’s worship to suffer.

God designed the Body to respond to the faithfulness and worship of all of its members; when we live in defiance of God and our worship is empty, it suppresses the worship of the entire congregation.
You may think this is extreme and you would be right, it is. We are not going to perfect this over night, but the point is that we should always be willing to evaluate our lives in light of following Christ and leading others to follow him.

Paul’s words in Romans 12:1 ring true:

Rom 12:1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.



Defiling our Temple-Bodies


In II Kings there is a story about a king of Judah named Josiah, listen to the biblical account,

2Ki 22:3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, the king sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, son of Meshullam, the secretary, to the house of the LORD, saying,
2Ki 22:4 "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money that has been brought into the house of the LORD, which the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people.
2Ki 22:5 And let it be given into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD, and let them give it to the workmen who are at the house of the LORD, repairing the house
2Ki 22:6 (that is, to the carpenters, and to the builders, and to the masons), and let them use it for buying timber and quarried stone to repair the house.
2Ki 22:7 But no accounting shall be asked from them for the money that is delivered into their hand, for they deal honestly."
2Ki 22:8 And Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD." And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
2Ki 22:9 And Shaphan the secretary came to the king, and reported to the king, "Your servants have emptied out the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hand of the workmen who have the oversight of the house of the LORD."
2Ki 22:10 Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read it before the king.
2Ki 22:11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes.
2Ki 22:12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Micaiah, and Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the king's servant, saying,
2Ki 22:13 "Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us." (ESV)


Josiah’s father, Manasseh, had been one of the wickedest kings to sit in Jerusalem. He had let the Temple fall into disrepair and had even allowed pagan idols and altars to be constructed on the Temple grounds! When Josiah was 18, he went about to repair the Temple, and while looking for some financial records, the high priest Hilkiah stumbled upon a forgotten copy of the Law of Moses. For years, this book had not been read or held to in all of Israel and when Hilkiah read it to Josiah he, “tore his clothes” in grief and recognition of the great sinfulness he had inherited. After consulting the Lord, this is what he did:


2Ki 23:1 Then the king sent, and all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem were gathered to him.
2Ki 23:2 And the king went up to the house of the LORD, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
2Ki 23:3 And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.
2Ki 23:4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven. He burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron and carried their ashes to Bethel.
2Ki 23:5 And he deposed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to make offerings in the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem; those also who burned incense to Baal, to the sun and the moon and the constellations and all the host of the heavens.
2Ki 23:6 And he brought out the Asherah from the house of the LORD, outside Jerusalem, to the brook Kidron, and burned it at the brook Kidron and beat it to dust and cast the dust of it upon the graves of the common people.
2Ki 23:7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the LORD, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.
2Ki 23:8 And he brought all the priests out of the cities of Judah, and defiled the high places where the priests had made offerings, from Geba to Beersheba. And he broke down the high places of the gates that were at the entrance of the gate of Joshua the governor of the city, which were on one's left at the gate of the city.
2Ki 23:9 However, the priests of the high places did not come up to the altar of the LORD in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brothers.
2Ki 23:10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech.
2Ki 23:11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun, at the entrance to the house of the LORD, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the precincts. And he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
2Ki 23:12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars that Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the LORD, he pulled down and broke in pieces and cast the dust of them into the brook Kidron.
2Ki 23:13 And the king defiled the high places that were east of Jerusalem, to the south of the mount of corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
2Ki 23:14 And he broke in pieces the pillars and cut down the Asherim and filled their places with the bones of men.

Josiah was zealous about cleaning out the Temple. He did not just say he was sorry and let the idolatry continue; he went in and started chopping and burning. Anything that dishonored the Lord was thrown out and destroyed. It was clear that Josiah was taking the Law of Moses seriously. But this was not all that Josiah did check out a few verses down:
2Ki 23:21 And the king commanded all the people, "Keep the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant."
2Ki 23:22 For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah.
2Ki 23:23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah this Passover was kept to the LORD in Jerusalem.
2Ki 23:24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums and the necromancers and the household gods and the idols and all the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Hilkiah the priest found in the house of the LORD.
2Ki 23:25 Before him there was no king like him, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his might, according to all the Law of Moses, nor did any like him arise after him.

Josiah was not content with just throwing out the idolatry; he restored the correct and proper worship of God in his Temple. Josiah had a negative reaction to the idolatry but had a positive pro-action to restoring God as the only one who was worshiped.

So, what does this mean for us?

1) In order to know what is defiling our temple-bodies we need to take time look inside.

A daily quiet time is necessary to be able to allow God to speak to you and for you to speak to God, but this goes beyond that. This kind of search requires more than just 15 min and it takes a lot of gut-wrenching, soul-searching that literally makes you broken and sometimes bleeding before God. It is never a pretty thing to look at the dark corners or even dark rooms of our lives; but we have to do it.

2) When we are confronted with our idolatry; we should be broken about it.

When Josiah heard the words of the Law of Moses he tore his clothes, an ancient ritual of deep grief and mourning. When we see the idolatry that defiles our temple-bodies, it should make us mourn with something more than regret…remorse and contrition; a willingness to not just confess but to repent and change.

3) Knowledge leads to repentance; repentance leads to action.

We can’t just acknowledge and feel bad about the idols in our lives; we have to take action against them! Anything that does not exalt and honor Christ as the Lord needs to be tossed out and burned (not necessarily literally…but it may come to that). We cannot expect to ever have pure temple-bodies if we continuously harbor and protect the idols that are defiling us. They have to go or God has no place in our lives.

4) Once we throw the idols out, we must restore God to his rightful place of worship.

It is not enough for us to just throw the idols out; we must also begin to worship God. We must rebuild the altar of honoring God in our lives. We must be proactive in our worship of God. Jesus warned about this in Luke 11:24-26:

Luk 11:24 "When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'
Luk 11:25 And when it comes, it finds the house swept and put in order.
Luk 11:26 Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there. And the last state of that person is worse than the first."
If we don’t take the time to rebuild our relationship with God; then worse things than we threw out will enter into our lives and we will once again be enslaved to idolatry. We cannot just hate sin; we have to love God!


The Ultimate Body Example

Joh 2:18 So the Jews said to him, "What sign do you show us for doing these things?"
Joh 2:19 Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up."
Joh 2:20 The Jews then said, "It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?"
Joh 2:21 But he was speaking about the temple of his body.
Joh 2:22 When therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and they believed the Scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Jesus is our example; if there is anyone who shows how to live pure in our current bodies it is he. Jesus’ human body was a Temple of the Holy Spirit just like any of our bodies. So, he lived the perfect sinless life, so that he could set the standard for all of those who would believe in him. Jesus Christ offered his body, his perfect temple, as an offering to God.

Isa 53:2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
Isa 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isa 53:4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
Isa 53:5 But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.

A large part of being a temple-body is to endure suffering; we must suffer as Jesus suffered or at least be willing to suffer if we want our bodies to be purely dedicated to God. Paul talked about keeping his temple-body in shape for suffering:

1Co 9:26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
1Co 9:27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

Paul was scared to death of preaching to others about the purity in the body and yet neglecting his own purity and end up being disqualified. Any athlete knows that in order to stay in shape you have to be willing to discipline yourself rigorously and that requires pain and suffering. We too, must embrace pain and suffering in order to discipline ourselves for purity. This means denying our bodies things that they crave that seek to usurp God out of our lives.

Did Paul’s talk match his actions?


2Co 11:23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one--I am talking like a madman--with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death.
2Co 11:24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one.
2Co 11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;
2Co 11:26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers;
2Co 11:27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
2Co 11:28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.
2Co 11:29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?
2Co 11:30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

Paul’s resume of suffering is quite impressive; he did not just talk up some faith, he walked in faith. How could someone endure all of that suffering? Paul knew that if was to rejected and even slain, just as Christ as was, he would also be raised, just as Christ is. Paul knew that this life was not the end and that in order to be ready for eternal life he would have to follow Jesus; through rejection, to the cross, and last but not least out of the grave. We suffer now and we live to fullest later; suffering is the only road to glory.

I close with the words of Jesus from Luke 9:23:

Luk 9:23 And he said to all, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

Here is the takeaway:

- Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit; so you need to honor God in everything you do in and with your body.

- You are interconnected with other members of the Body of Christ and choices you make impact their lives just as much as yours.

- In order to cleanse our temple bodies we have to spend time finding the defilement, mourn over the defilement, throw all of the idols out of our temples, and then restore the worship of God to our temples.

- Jesus is the ultimate example of how we should honor God in our bodies; he surrendered himself for pain and suffering so that God would be glorified. If we wish to follow him we must be willing to do the same

- Paul and other Christians sense have been able to rejected and slain in the body, because they know that, like Jesus, they will be raised into a new, eternal body which will endure forever.

Some questions:

- Do you treat your body like a temple of the Holy Spirit? What idols are you allowing in your lives that are defiling your temple?

- Do you need to repent of worshiping things other than Christ with your body? If so, what is preventing you from doing so?

- Do you embrace suffering as a regular part of being a follower of Christ? If not, how can you make suffering a bigger part of your daily walk?

- Do you believe that it is better to suffer now and be happy later? Or is your life spent grabbing all of what you can from this life?

Session 2: Emotions (Purity DNOW)

For your viewing I have decided to post the two sessions I taught over this weekend. These were powerful words from the Lord and I hope he used them to impact some lives.
Grace and Peace


I have been played the fool; I have got caught up in my emotions and paid the price.

My junior year of college, I began talking to this girl over Facebook (while we were on Christmas break) and we had agreed to go out. She said all of the right things for me at the time when I was emotionally distraught about my overall experiences with relationships in general. In my “need” to have an emotional connection with a female, I gave myself over to the emotional roller coaster of pain. We only dated for like a month (mostly long distance) and it was during that time that she decided to cheat on me with another friend of hers. I did not believe it at first, even though my good friend Thomas told me that it was the case, and I even went to her defense. My emotional connection with this girl was terrible and wretched but yet I did not want to detach it.

Well, she did detach it; it left me reeling for months.

Emotions have the power to make you do stupid things if they are leading the charge. Here I was thinking this much younger freshmen girl who just graduated from high school was going to be mature enough to have an adult relationship. Why would I ever think that? Especially, after dealing with a similar girl, freshmen year?

It is because my uncontrolled emotions did not leave room for thinking.

There is a story in Scripture that illustrates this well; take a look at the Book of Judges Ch. 11:

Jdg 11:28 But the king of the Ammonites did not listen to the words of Jephthah that he sent to him.
Jdg 11:29 Then the Spirit of the LORD was upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh and passed on to Mizpah of Gilead, and from Mizpah of Gilead he passed on to the Ammonites.
Jdg 11:30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD and said, "If you will give the Ammonites into my hand,
Jdg 11:31 then whatever comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the LORD's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
Jdg 11:32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD gave them into his hand.
Jdg 11:33 And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel.
Jdg 11:34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter.
Jdg 11:35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the LORD, and I cannot take back my vow."
Jdg 11:36 And she said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to the LORD; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the LORD has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites."
Jdg 11:37 So she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions."
Jdg 11:38 So he said, "Go." Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains.
Jdg 11:39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made. She had never known a man, and it became a custom in Israel
Jdg 11:40 that the daughters of Israel went year by year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in the year. (ESV)


The king of the Ammonites did not heed the speech Jephthah gave in the preceding verses, so what does he do? Caught up in the heat of the moment, Jephthah makes a vow of sacrifice to the Lord; he will give whatever comes out his house (thinking livestock) to greet him. Now, this seems to be, on the surface, a courageous and honorable thing. But look who comes out of the house first: his daughter. Jephthah is torn with grief, but what can he do? He made a vow he had to keep. Now, we are not told exactly what happened to his daughter but we do know that she requested time to lament her virginity. She would not have a husband or a family; the ultimate shame for a woman of her time.

Solomon, perhaps thinking about this story, later writes:

Ecc 5:4 When you vow a vow to God, do not delay paying it, for he has no pleasure in fools. Pay what you vow.
Ecc 5:5 It is better that you should not vow than that you should vow and not pay. (ESV)
In other words, don’t be a fool and make a vow to God in the heat of the moment you cannot pay. God will expect you to pay it.

Jesus expounded a similar concept in Luke 14:26-33:

Luk 14:26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
Luk 14:28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
Luk 14:29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him,
Luk 14:30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
Luk 14:31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
Luk 14:32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.
Luk 14:33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. (ESV)

Jesus’ point: Don’t commit to something without giving it careful weight and consideration.

Here is something that may make you a bit nervous, but I still want you to think about this: Did you become a Christian because you received the truth, weighed it by counting the cost, and then decided to embrace the cost and follow Christ? Or was your conversion more of an emotional response toward a message or a song that was played during an invitation? My point is not to make you doubt your salvation; my point is that if your coming to God was entirely motivated by temporary emotion and not by an eternal decision and choice; you may want to consider whether or not you are saved, especially if there is no desire for God and love for people in your life.

Don’t play around with your emotions or you may get burned.

Your book puts it this way:

“Emotions are powerful motivators, but poor engines.”

Emotions are not evil and it is not wrong to have an emotional response; in fact, if you read the Psalms they are filled with really emotional prayers and petitions to God. Sometimes they convey pleasant, joyful emotions, other times sad and despairing emotions, and still other times angry and bitter emotions. The point is that following Christ requires emotions, but those emotions cannot be what lead us.

The world says, “Oh, just follow your heart and do what it what it tells you to do, as long as you don’t hurt anyone else.” This is living being dragged around by your emotions.

But what does the Scripture say?

Pro 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. (ESV) – This is repeated in Proverbs 16:25

Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? (ESV)

Mar 7:21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
Mar 7:22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.
Mar 7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person." (ESV)

Basically, it comes down to the epitaph of Israel at the end of Judges:

Jdg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (ESV)

Most people see the lament in the verse and it is a truly sad verse, but there is also a promise or at least the hope of a promise…

What if there was a king in Israel?

What kind of difference would that make?

As Stephen put it before he was martyred in Acts 7:39,

Our fathers refused to obey him [Moses and by association God], but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt, (ESV)

The king that Israel (and that all mankind) has rejected is God; he desires to rule over our lives including our emotions and every time we reject his rule, we set our hearts on Egypt where only chains and slavery await us.

Here is where it hits home for us:

What if there was a king over our lives? What if we did not have to live by our emotions?

What kind of difference would that make for us?

2Co 4:6 For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (ESV)

Eph 1:18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, (ESV)

Col 3:15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. (ESV)
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (ESV)

1Pe 3:15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, (ESV)
Just hitting the highlights from some of these verses, our emotions become powerful tools and sacrifices to glorify the Father. We will have “the knowledge of the glory of God,” we will “know what is the hope to which he has called [us],” the “peace of Christ [will] rule in [our] hearts,” “the word of Christ [will] dwell in [us] richly with thankfulness in [our] hearts to God,” and we will “in [our] hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks [us] for the reason for the hope that is in [us].”

When turn over our hearts to God; our emotions become conduits for God’s love and holiness to run through and it overflows into the lives of those around us.

But what is the key to having Christ reign over our emotions?

Psa 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (ESV)

God is not against desires; he created strong, powerful desires for his glory! But he is against the desires of the heart that are not completely satisfied in who he is and what he has done on its behalf. The verse gives the command to make a decision to delight in the Lord. This seems to be contrary to how we work as human beings because most of our feelings are reactive instead of proactive. God does not want us to be ruled by our feelings, so he tells us to delight in him by a conscious choice of the will.

How do we do this?

We chose joy, which is the only lasting form of happiness; joy is a deep contentment in the Lord and it is not seeking circumstantial happiness. Anytime we subject how we think and live to our feelings, we are headed for disaster because our feelings change with the weather. Instead, we have to decide that everything that makes life enjoyable and worth living is found only in Jesus Christ. We must decide that he is one the only one who can make us happy.

This frees us from the emotional bondage of always having to live in “pink-fluffy-cloud land,” and allows us to have genuine emotions toward God without fearing that we are committing idolatry or that our desires our getting in the way.

So, what happens when we make this choice?

God gives us the desires of our hearts. Why? Because our desires have been radically changed; they are now his desires because we have chosen to delight in him! We no longer have to worry about whether our motives are wrong or if the emotions we are feeling are wrong when we decide to place God as the center of our lives. As “Christian-hedonist” and pastor John Piper writes:

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him.

Let me just make a clarification and then I wrap up and we will break off for discussion:

Jesus had something really powerful to say about our affections toward God,

Rev 3:15 "'I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot!
Rev 3:16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. (ESV )

While Jesus is referring to works in this passage, works come from our hearts; they are the byproduct of the transformation of our hearts by the Holy Spirit through the hearing and believing of the Gospel. So, he is talking about emotional responses to our commitments to do the Gospel. Commitments push our emotions on even when we don’t feel like it. There is something we need to learn from these verses.

1) God knows our hearts and how we really feel about him.
2) God is ok with us if our emotions toward him are cold or hot.
3) It makes God sick when our emotions toward him are lukewarm.
4) If we are lukewarm, God will literally “spew” us out.

Remember what I said earlier about emotional responses in the Psalms? Well, God is ok with our emotions when our hearts are set on him. We are not always going to have pleasant feelings toward God. There have been many times recently where I have had some really angry moments of conversation with God. There have been days where God and I were just not on good terms. God can handle that, you know why? Because these are our responses toward him and it show that we care about the relationship; even when it is painful.

But if you have no emotional response toward God whatsoever; something is wrong. Something is very wrong. Mind you, there will be days that your emotions will be half-hearted and you will need to remember what the Scriptures say about God’s love for you. However, if you have no desire at all or if you are complacent and comfortable with your relationship with God, you need to get that straight.

Again, this is not meant to make you doubt your salvation; it is meant for you to be pursuing God with all of your heart, mind, and strength.

Here is the takeaway:

- Emotions, when not under control can play havoc with your life and leave you with consequences that you will have to live with.

- Emotions, in of themselves, are not bad. However, you cannot trust your emotions by themselves because our hearts are corrupted by sin; emotions can push you, but they cannot lead you.

- Emotions, when submitted to God, are conduits for the love and blessings of God to overflow out of your life into the lives of others.

- Emotions, if they are to be pure, must be submitted to a desire for and contentment to God as he is and what he has done in our lives.

- Emotions are necessary for a relationship with God and if we have not desire for God and for what God reveals to us in the Scriptures, then we need to take care of that immediately.

Ok, here are some questions to think about:

- What things have I done in my life that were inspired by out of control emotions? What consequences did they bring?

- What choices are I making now that could be being led by my emotions? What could happen if I make those choices based on my emotions?

- When was the last time I felt anything toward God? Do I feel anything toward God now; why not?

- Am I willing to delight myself only in the Lord and in his provision for me, even if that means that I don’t get what I want?

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 8

Well, the sessions are over and the guys are just hanging out and relaxing.

I refuse to reflect on all of this yet; I am still in the midst of it and I have to live in the now.

However, I will say that God has spoken to me, if no one else, about recent compromises in purity. I know that there are some things that I need to act on in repentance and I am going to go about doing that. But more importantly something else in me has healed. I have not dated someone since Christmas of 2009. I kind of filtered with another relationship that summer but God put a stop to it. I have been single now almost two years; I have not had the best of histories with relationships. There are a lot of things I regret doing; if I could turn back time I would.

But I cannot and I think that I am ready to completely let that part of my life go.
I don’t want to be married; I don’t want to be dating. I want to be single; I want to be independent and free. I want to be able to go anywhere and do anything God wants me to do at the drop of the hat. I really have not inclinations to constantly worry about someone else.

But I am starting to reflect, aren’t I?

Purity is pursued in and out of relationship; if I never get married (which is possible, but not likely) I need to be able to practice sexual purity as well as purity in other areas of life.

God can supply what we are willing to give away; are we willing to give it up?

Grace and Peace

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 7

I write this while staying back from the Scavenger Hunt to pray over and practice my Session.

This is a big one.

We have talked about mind, heart, and spirit…now we are going to talk about the body.

Our bodies are temples; pieces of the Temple of God.

So, why then do we clog it slap full with idols? Why must we cram it completely overflowing with defilement? It is almost as if we don’t really believe that we are temples. Maybe it has something to do with our “edifice complex” regarding the church building; I honestly don’t know. There is just a disconnect with the refuse we let our bodies get filled with and the biblical call to a holy life.

I mean our entertainment is our biggest stumbling block; what we allow our bodies to be exposed to is often a plethora of dirty jokes, sexually provocative images, vulgar profanity, and even values and beliefs that directly attempt to refute the word of God.

So, what am I saying? Do we have to stop watching TV, listening to anything but Christian music, and going to movies?

I am not making that call; what I am saying is that we need to actively partake in entertainment and be willing to shut it off or walk it out if it becomes absolutely intolerable and offensive to the Holy Spirit.

I guess that is part of the suffering that leads to glory.

After all, if we are seeking to honor God are we really missing that much in exchange for our purity?

Father, help us to be aware of the idols that we justify existing in our temples; may we be willing to purge them and restore you to your place of rightful worship.

Amen.

Grace and Peace

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 6

Session 2 is done and Session 4 is a work in progress…progress that will arrive at the proper destination hopefully tomorrow.

I am relieved and yet at the same time there is still fear and trepidation; I take this subject so carelessly. Like tonight, for instance, I watched your typical Late Night TV (I am big fan of Conan O’Brian) and within two hours I have been bombarded with sleaze and filth. No, it wasn’t hard core porn or a Lewis Black routine; but it was still trash.

I am watching this on the night before the DNOW.

I know I seem to be too hard on myself and yeah, I am being a little tough. However, how easy is it for me to use that as an excuse to bail on purity? How many times have I raped the grace of God so that I could go ahead and justify my entertainment, food, or other choices?

God understands, right?

We’re losing kids left and right…this is not a debatable fact; our kids are leaving the Church and they are leaving the faith. We are in some desperate times because reproductive growth is coming mostly from internal rather than external. So, the only means of positive church growth is being cut off.

Our children are abandoning ship.

Are we sinking? Are we clinging to a vessel that just keeps taking on water? Is there hope for us to be examples of purity and holiness covered with God’s love?

Pastor Tim is right; Jesus is the only hope for the world and he has chosen to use his Church to spread the Gospel of his salvation. If our own children don’t believe it, why should the rest of the unbelieving world? If we don’t believe it, why should our children believe it?

Get prepared; this is not for the faint of heart.

Grace and Peace

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 5

So, I am chilling here at the house of Joseph Billions, reading over Session 2 and preparing for my first Paul/Timothy meeting with Austin Sims.

I am so organized.

I have everything all bulleted, organized, and laid out so as to provide me with an ease of use.

I will say though, the tiredness and spiritual oppression still hangs; I guess that is evident by the fact that I am working on DNOW stuff when I should be relaxing and enjoying myself. There is just a burden on my heart to really take this message to heart and to teach from a place of brokenness and repentance. It really is the only way for God to use me.

It does not depend on me; that is not why this is such a big deal. It is not about me at all; that is why it is a big deal.

It is about God coming down and grabbing a hold of his people in a firm, but loving embrace.

It is about kids making the choice to pursue of life of purity rather than to defile themselves in the world.

It is about a bunch of leaders reckoning themselves before God for our own lack of purity and being willing to be held accountable.

Purity is not a subject we can’t take lightly; God is holy and we are called to be like him.

Grace and Peace

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 4

The Lord has graciously provided my first session and I am excited about what he has to say to all of us.

Including me.

You can bet that I will read all of this over and that I will wrestle with it and make sure that God wants me to say it. I never teach something I don’t take to heart.

However, I am glad that God has begun to pour into me the words he wants to say. The kids will have the books and they will be able to read through the sessions and the material, but rather than just give them word for word from the book; I have supplemented by doing my homework and expounded the theme into something that makes this stuff manageable and gives some meat for chewing.

Here is the takeaway that I devised from the session just for your consideration:

- Emotions, when not under control can play havoc with your life and leave you with consequences that you will have to live with.

- Emotions, in of themselves, are not bad. However, you cannot trust your emotions by themselves because our hearts are corrupted by sin; emotions can push you, but they cannot lead you.
- Emotions, when submitted to God, are conduits for the love and blessings of God to overflow out of your life into the lives of others.

- Emotions, if they are to be pure, must be submitted to a desire for and contentment to God as he is and what he has done in our lives.

- Emotions are necessary for a relationship with God and if we have not desire for God and for what God reveals to us in the Scriptures, then we need to take care of that immediately.
Grace and Peace

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 3

I took the time to stop and worship; I am glad I did.
I came across a Shane and Shane song from a few years ago, Embracing Accusations from their “Pages” album. The crescendo occurs with this stirring composition:


Oh the devil’s singing over me an age old song, that I am cursed and gone astray. Singing the first verse so conveniently, over me; he’s forgotten the refrain: Jesus saves.


I need this reminder in a week where it seems that I have been fighting a losing battle in preparing my heart for this DNOW on purity. As we learned from our curriculum (and the Scriptures), purity involves so much more than sexual purity; it involves purity in all areas of life.


We live in one of the most impure cultures in the world.


And often we are right in the middle of it.


How do you tell a group of high school guys about purity, when you are not really sure you have embraced it yourself? Again, move beyond the sexual stuff and examine other areas of purity. For instance, emotions; do I have pure motives? Am I motivated by something other than the glory of God? Do I let my negative emotions dictate what I believe about God and about life? Are my emotions being used to enhance my walk with God or to pursue my own lusts?


How about the body? Am I eating the best things for my body? Do I limit things that are unhealthy for my body to consume? Do I exercise regularly? Am I getting enough sleep? Do I let my emotions (interconnectedness) leave my body in a hyper-stressed state? What is it that I let myself indulge in that is ok for most people, but because of its history as an idol; is not ok for me?


We have become so permissive (because we did not want to become Puritans) that we don’t really evaluate any of the habits or practices that come into our lives. So, if we just let anything in, how the heck can we tell any of these kids to take their purity in life seriously?


We don’t.


Why should they?


I am encouraged by Psalm 103 and 124 today. I encourage you to read them as well.


Here is a snippet:


Psalm 103:1-5 ESV
Psa 103:1 Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!
Psa 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,
Psa 103:3 who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,
Psa 103:4 who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
Psa 103:5 who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.


Psalm 124 ESV
Psa 124:1 A Song of Ascents. Of David. If it had not been the LORD who was on our side-- let Israel now say-
Psa 124:2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side when people rose up against us,
Psa 124:3 then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their anger was kindled against us;
Psa 124:4 then the flood would have swept us away, the torrent would have gone over us;
Psa 124:5 then over us would have gone the raging waters.
Psa 124:6 Blessed be the LORD, who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
Psa 124:7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
Psa 124:8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.


Grace and Peace

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week – Entry 2

Praise God for a complete night sleep. Over the last few evenings I have gotten around six hours on average.

I cannot function in a high stress setting with so little sleep.

I have been praying and will soon be praying again for God to open up the heaven of brass and pour out his words and fill me with his Spirit, so that I can have something to say to these guys coming up in three days.

I was exhausted, but before I went to sleep, I prayed for help; I prayed for a spirit of desperation and brokenness.

Because you see, it so easy to operate in my gift set without God’s help.

Or at least it used to be.

All the creativity and ingenuity I normally have when doing this sort of thing is gone; replaced by a gaping hole where my gifts should be. It is almost as if God took them away because he knew I would lean on them.

It is almost as if God wants me to beg for them back, but not so I can complete this DNOW, but so that I can realize who it is who own these gifts and why it is not the gifts that matter but the close walk with
God, the gift giver.

So, without the empowerment of the Spirit, I feel off kilter and kind of nervous; I don’t like to be in this position.

This morning if you read this, pray for desperation and brokenness; pray that God gives the words not only to teach these kids but that pierce my own heart as well.

Grace and Peace

PS: I still have lots of house cleaning to do, church is tonight, and then I will probably be over at a friend’s house. I need to put in those applications but right now, I just don’t have the time. Each one is going to take about an hour; that is two hours I do not have. Tomorrow, is packed full of things and I will not be back in the house till like 3 ish; shortly after I will meet with my “Timothy” for the first time (or at least one of them, the other one, I was informed yesterday, suffered some sort of head injury and will be back around shortly). Then, DNOW needs setting up on Friday; once that is done, I will need to race back here and finish last minute cleaning and stuff like that.

Please pray.

DNOW: Pure Joy (TLW) Week - Entry 1

This has been the most difficult DNOW to prepare for, in fact, I would say this has been one of the most difficult things that

I have ever had to prepare for…

And I am starting to panic.

I do not like to get within a few days of a deadline, and projects/tasks not be done; it seriously stresses me out. So, in order to eliminate this stress, I get things done uber-early, so that I am not lying awake with my eyes open thinking about all of the work I have to do
.
I am concerned that may just be my pattern this week.

I need to sleep.

I need to think.

I need to pray.

I need…no, I need God.

That is where I am right now and it makes no sense that I would be so concerned about a DNOW that most of these kids will not even remember; I have preached sermons I have been less worried about.

Could it have to do with the fact that I was assigned the sessions that deal with my two weaknesses: my emotions and proper care of my body?

So, I am staring at a task that I am sure a lot of our leaders are kind of just taking on a prayer and a breath; I can’t do that.

I can’t just wing something…it is wrong for me because I know what God has entrusted me with and I know the stewardship that goes with that.

So, no matter what…

No matter if I don’t get any sleep.

No matter that my to-do list may equal all of things that I have had to do combined since I got back from the Caymans.

No matter if these kids will be in and out.

No matter if it is just two, hour sessions.

I cannot and will not just present just anything to these guys.

So, I will be praying to break; to break me and to breakthrough.

Oh, did I mention Snagajob just informed me that Radioshack and Starbucks is hiring?
Oh, now you tell me...


More to Come This Week