More Than a Battle by Rigney Joe;

Author:Rigney, Joe;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion/Christian Living/Men's Interests
Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
Published: 2021-02-02T00:00:00+00:00

You don’t have to write a dissertation—just enough information to be able to discuss it with other men in your life.

Keeping this sort of journal serves a number of additional purposes as well. For one, it provides its own kind of immunity to temptation by examining the nature and circumstances surrounding lust. C. S. Lewis noted that one of the quickest ways to disarm a lust is to turn your attention to the lust itself rather than to lust’s object. Stop looking at the woman and examine yourself and your desires. Try to identify what lie you’re currently believing. Because you can’t lust and think about lust at the same time. Additionally, a journal like this will help you identify patterns of temptation and then take measures to anticipate and resist them. Lust will cease to be a mysterious force that just happens to you and, instead, become something that can be planned for and defeated.

Passivity, Idolatry, Blame

This sort of exercise will also expose how much we are sons of our father Adam. When the serpent tempted Eve, Adam was passive. The Bible says he was there during the temptation, but he said and did nothing until Eve gave him the fruit (Gen. 3:6). Then, having drifted in passivity along with his deceived wife, he takes up sin with a high hand. He listens to her and not to God. He chooses her over his Maker. Adam is not deceived about God’s command; he heard it directly from God himself. Instead, he’s idolatrous. And then, when he’s exposed, Adam shifts the blame: “The woman you gave . . . me” (Gen. 3:12). He sins and then points the finger at God and his wife.

Passivity. Idolatry. Blame. Those are the hallmarks of Adamic masculinity, and it’s a pattern that recurs throughout the Bible. When Moses is up on the mountain, the people come to Aaron demanding gods to worship. Aaron goes along with it, telling them to bring gold, which he then fashions into an idol. He leads them in false worship before the golden calf. When Moses comes down and interrupts the idolatry, Aaron, like Adam, blames the people: “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil” (Exod. 32:22). And then he acts as though the idol just happened: “They brought me the gold, I threw it into the fire, and out came the calf” (see v. 24). Same pattern: passivity, idolatry, blame.

When it comes to the fight against sexual sin, many men adopt a subtly passive attitude. It’s often not fully conscious. It’s a drifting. It’s the rider allowing the elephant to steer. I think it’s what Paul has in mind in Romans 13:14 when he exhorts us to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.” We are skilled at subtly making provision for the flesh. Long before we sin willfully and deliberately, we grease the skids. We’ll ignore the patterns in our behavior. We’ll resist attempts to widen the battle.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.