Can I Really Gain Victory Over Sin?

If you struggle with the same sins over and over again, it is tempting to believe that you will never see victory this side of Heaven. Even many modern Christian voices (in the form of Christian books, Christian music, and Christian messages) tell us that being enslaved to sin is part of a normal Christian existence.

Of course, if we try to overcome the power of sin in our own strength and determination, we will fail every time. Only one power is strong enough to defeat sin- the power of God. The secret to gaining victory over sin is to allow Jesus Christ to overtake our being and to yield to His supernatural, enabling power within us.

Grace, as defined in the New Testament, is not merely the "hug" or acceptance of God. Grace is the enabling power of God to accomplish on our behalf what we are incapable of accomplishing on our own. There are about one hundred verses in the Bible that define grace in this way. Here are just a few that encourage me:

"Through him and for his name's sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith." -Romans 1:15

"By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds." -1 Corinthians 3:10

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." -2 Corinthians 12:9

"We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ." -2 Thessalonians 1:12

"And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast." -1 Peter 5:10

Kick out the lie that you are a helpless victim who will always be enslaved to sin. You are called to live a life victorious over sin, a life that showcases the light the light of God- not through your own strength but through the strength of Christ within you, as it says in Colossians 1:27:
"To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Ian Thomas, a Christian author in the twentieth century, expresses it beautifully:
"It is not a matter of doing our best for Him, but of Christ being His best in us. All that He is in all that we are. We can never have more...and need never enjoy less." (Indwelling of Christ, page 88.)

-C

Today I Cry

Today I cry.

For a mommy who took her last breath

empty armed.

No babies to hold.

Did she feel the pain?

Or did she remain numb

in her drug induced

euphoria?

My heart aches,

my eyes flood tears.

MY arms hold her flesh and blood.

I pray over,

And with,

And for,

that LITTLE ONE who does not know.

I, mommy, hold her.

She is part of me.

And I ache.

And she is my drug euphoria.

---for my Bre'---

I see beauty.

My family and I received news yesterday that my little sister's birth mother died from a drug overdose on Sunday. It has shaken us all. We knew that Bre's birth mother was a drug addict, but we all hoped and prayed she would wake up one day, and desire to hold her baby in her arms and come to accept the Lord as her Saviour. My mom wrote the poem above this morning. She is talented, and her words express all of our emotions better than I ever could.

"You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you." -Isaiah 26:3

-C

What Do You Think...

... of this statement concerning a man's role in dating/courting? -C

"It is the man's job to win the heart of the father and the daughter’s will follow."

-C

Superficial Communications

I wrote this last year as my final essay. There are some typo's, like with any writing, but I think that the message is solid. I look forward to reading your thoughts in the comment section.

Turn off your iPod, do not read that email, forego the Google search, do not enter another social event into your Palm, and ignore that text you just received. Right now is the time to stop all communications and reflect on the consequences of technology toward you and your generation. C.S Lewis’s book The Screwtape Letters captures the harsh reality of distractions:

My Dear Wormwood, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian. Do not indulge in the hope that you will escape in the unusual penalties. Indeed, in your better moments, I trust you would hardly wish to do so. In the meantime, we must make the best of the situation. You can make your patient waste his time not only in conversation with those whom he likes, but also in conversation with those whom he cares about, on subjects that bore him. You can make him do nothing for long periods of time. All the healthy and outgoing activities, that we want him to avoid, can be inhibited and nothing given in return so that he might say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here, “I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought, nor what I liked.”

Over the past 20 years, people have morphed technology from a useful tool that organized and simplified our lives into an addicting and crippling necessity that we cannot survive without. To be addicted is to be enslaved to a habit or practice to such an extent that it causes a severe withdrawal when removed. Relationships are critical in a person’s life but superficial relationships are detrimental. Network communications prohibits teenagers from building three critical relationships: genuine friends, family bonding and intimacy with Jesus Christ.

Network communications prohibit teenagers from building genuine friendships. Within internet relationships, social capital refers to the quantity and quality of internet relationships between people. An increase in social capital means an increase in popularity. Most teenagers believe that technology is the best way to establish and maintain those friendships. For many teens, checking MySpace or Facebook is the first and last thing they do each day. Technology venues, such as Facebook and Twitter, have provided a way to ‘network’ popularity. Companies such as Disney, Time Warner, AOL and Viacom claim to "study America’s children like laboratory rats, in order to sell them billions of dollars in merchandise by tempting them, degrading them and corrupting them…[Teens] want to be cool. They are impressionable and they have the cash. They are corporate America’s $150 billion dream." (Harris) This explains why, in the "next 60 seconds, over four million text messages will be sent; 233,000 tweets on Twitter; one million emails in route nationally and 200 million people logging into Facebook globally." (Verizon)

Welcome to the Generation of the Millennia’s, those born after the year 1980. “They are plugged-in, switched on, charged up and constantly connected to a network of digital devices and multimedia, bringing the ‘world’ to their fingertips in a way no other generation has experienced.” (Harris) According to a study conducted by Harris Interactive and Teenage Research Unlimited, “the average 13-24 years old spends a cumulative 50 hours per week talking on the phone, listening to the radio, surfing the internet and watching television.” This study does not count watching movies or communicating with friends over the internet or texting. Studies continue to show that media and technology dominate our lives. Teenagers believe that they cannot live without it.

Technology has its benefits but we must remember its limitations. “Heavy use of the internet can actually isolate younger socially connected people.” (Staples) Brent Staples, a New York Times editorial writer, stated that internet communication and text messaging can retard the personal growth that comes from learning how to interact with others in the real world. By constantly communicating through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, texting and email teenagers sacrifice “social encounters that have historically prepared young people for the move into adulthood.” (Staples) By losing the real-world experiences, they are disabling themselves to leave adolescence behind and ultimately making it difficult for them to grow into mature adults. Social scientists have labeled a new category of age: Kidult.

"In the past people moved from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to adulthood, but today there is a new, intermediate phase along the way. The years from 18 to 25 and even beyond have become a distinct and separate life stage, a strange, transitional never-ever land between adolescence and adulthood in which people stall for a few extra years, putting off the adult responsibility. These “kidults” still live with their parents and hop around from job-to-job and relationship-to-relationship. They lack direction, commitment, financial independence, and personal responsibility. They are boomerang kids, adult teenagers, and they are much more than a generational hiccup or a temporary fad." (Grossman) Teenagers certainly have accomplished one part of social capital. They have extensive friend lists, but they lack quality friendships.

Network communications prohibits teenagers from family bonding. Checking email, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and text messages have turned out to be more isolating than watching television. Researchers have found that the “time spent in direct contact with family drops as much as half for every hour a teenager uses the internet [this includes text messaging] to communicate.” (Staples)

Teens allow internet communications to replace face-to-face interactions with their families. A recent study from the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University has shown that heavy internet communications can have strong effects on the home. ‘Well-connected’ teenagers have actually “lost friends, experienced symptoms of loneliness and depression and feel empty and emotionally frustrated.” Professor Robert Kraut, from Carnegie Mellon, commented “such people allowed low-quality relationships developed in a virtual reality to replace higher-quality relationships in the real world” like those found in one’s family.

Due to internet communications and text messaging, teenagers have succeeded in shielding their social lives from adult scrutiny. Teenagers have developed their own “language”, a dictionary of codes or abbreviations used in texting. These codes allow teens to secretly warn one another when the ‘enemy’ abounds: CD9 meaning code nine parent around; P911 meaning alert- parents coming; PIR means parent in room and lastly PSOS means parents standing over shoulder. Parents, perceived as the enemy, are virtually clueless to these meanings. Respect and reverence for parental authority has been lost in cyberspace only to be replaced by internet savvy youth, equipped with the skills to outflank adults on the web. Ironically, however, teenage America’s obsession with their cell phones, especially with popular text messaging, could be damaging their IQ’s. A recent study conducted by Kings College London shows the average reduction of 10 IQ points due to interruptions by incoming e-mails and text messages, though temporary, is more than double the four point loss caused from smoking marijuana. Doziness, lethargy and an increasing inability to focus reached “startlingly levels.”

Network communications prohibits teenagers from building intimacy with Jesus Christ. Teenagers multitask. A study performed by Kaiser Family Foundation discovered that an average teenager packs 44-hours of activity into a 24-hour day. A recent Harrison Group study reports that teens spend more than 72 hours per week using electronic media, including the Internet, cell phones, television, music and video games. Teenagers have the ability to interact with more than one medium at a time, causing many experts to argue that the number of actual hours spent on media consumption is much higher.

Of course, multitasking can often be useful and is a truly unique ability that God has given to man; however, Christians must remember their calling. In 1 Corinthians, Paul commands Christians “whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” In 1 Thessalonians Paul says that we are to “pray without ceasing.” Modern teenagers spend over 10 hours a day communicating through various electronic media in their substitute world of cyberspace. Teenagers are so preoccupied with constantly communicating in their virtual world that they do not have time remaining in a day to truly communicate with God. The constant communication Christian teens should engage in is with Jesus Christ. As David wrote in Psalm:“In the morning, O Lord, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation…My tongue will speak of your righteousness and of your praises all day long…At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws.”

Modern day media can be useful devices for spreading the ‘good news’ of the gospel. great men-of-God use the internet. John Piper ‘tweets’ to the glory of God. Piper writes:

Now what about Twitter? I find Twitter to be a kind of taunt: “Okay, truth-lover, see what you can do with 140 characters! You say your mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things! Well, this is one of those ‘all things.’ Can you magnify Christ with this thimble-full of letters?” To which I respond:

The sovereign Lord of the earth and sky

Puts camels through a needle’s eye.

And if his wisdom see it mete,

He will put worlds inside a tweet.

So I am not inclined to tweet that at 10AM the cat pulled the curtains down. But it might remind me that the Lion of Judah will roll up the heavens like a garment, and blow out the sun like a candle, because he just turned the light on. That tweet might distract someone from pornography and make them look up.

Teens could have a radical impact on the world if they converted the 72 hours per week on the various media to sharing the impact that God has on their daily lives; telling the world that He is real and active and returning for His people.

Teenagers’ addiction to the superficial world of cyberspace reflects a desperate need to increase their social capital by constantly being connected. Think about it: this generation of teenagers is the “first to have high-speed (wireless) Internet access. They are the first generation to widely use cell phones. They have learned to 'juggle the myriad doodads' of text messaging, search engines, PDA’s, blogs (including Facebook, MySpace and Twitter), Wi-Fi and cell phones (that try to do all the above).” (Harris) Most significantly, they have been promised bigger and better; they have been told that they ‘have not seen anything yet.’ Some people argue that teens learn responsibility by multitasking. Numerous studies show divided attention decreases productivity. One job well done is better than several jobs poorly done. Teenagers say that keeping connected increases popularity and makes them look “cool”. This argument appeals to emotion rather than evidence. One true friend is greater than hundreds of superficial friends. C.S. Lewis summarizes the effects of Christian’s distractions from the Lord in his book Screwtape Letters:

You will say that these are very small sins: Doubtless, like all other young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light into the nothing.

There is a tremendous need for teenagers to take a step back and reassess their generation’s necessity for technology and constant communication. Time is wasting. Network communications prohibits teenagers from building genuine friendship, family bonding, and an intimacy with Jesus Christ.

-C

Bibliography

Grossman, Lev. “Grow Up? Not So Fast” Times Magazine http://tinyurl.com/5vuea3, January 16, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Merchants of Cool: Teens, Culture, and MTV” http://tinyurl.com/ya2b6tn, March 31, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Busy Signals: Cell-ing Our Souls to Death” http://tinyurl.com/yavwepy, June 28, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Busy Signals: Our Wired Generation” http://tinyurl.com/y9buwgf, March 21, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “True Love Meets Multitasking” http://tinyurl.com/yau8u5u, August 3, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Multitasking: Mental Obesity” http://tinyurl.com/yby4zpm, July 26, 2006. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Multitasking: Brining it All Together” http://tinyurl.com/yd6uxhf. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Laptops Vs. Learning” http://tinyurl.com/yb2pr4c, August 26, 2007. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “The Myth of Adolescence Part 1” http://tinyurl.com/yahpaf4, August 19, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “The Myth of Adolescence Part 2” http://tinyurl.com/ye8w3ox, August 21, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “My iPod is My Best Friend” http://tinyurl.com/ycxqq6b, Septemeber 3, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Harris, Alex and Brett. “Kidults Part Two: Peter Pans That Shave” http://tinyurl.com/ydqzagu, September 8, 2005. (Accessed April, 2009)

Piper, John. “Why and How I Am Tweeting” Desiring God Blog. http://tinyurl.com/o2cauu, June 3, 2009. (Accessed October, 2009)

Pleshette, Ann and Laura Lacy. “Cracking the Teen Texting Code” http://tinyurl.com/ybgf2s9,
June 12, 2007. (Accessed April, 2009)

Staples, Brent. “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up in Cyberspace” New York Times, May 29, 2004. (Accessed April, 2009)

“Text Messaging Abbreviations.” http://tinyurl.com/5o61. (Accessed April, 2009)

Too High?

I had a very extensive list of "expectations" for my Mr. Wonderful.

My list included:

- A strong Christian
- Not complacent with his spiritual life
- Hardworking/diligent
- Considerate of others
- Sense of humor
- Unique
- Sensible
- Somewhat romantic
- Respects my space
- Close to his family (and mine)
- Sporty (in shape)
- Well Respected
- Charismatic
- Willing to make himself look like a dork
- Trust worthy
- Respectful of authority
- Calls when he says he will
- Will not betray me
- Can make me laugh when I am stressed out
- Is a mentor to younger men
- Selfless
- Able to listen
- Prompt (on time)
- Has a passion for youth and desires to help them grow closer to Christ
- Optimistic
- Not a push over
- Down to earth
- Good with directions
- Consistent
- Can handle puke
- Attractive
- Charming

Quite a list, huh? I recently ditched my 'list of desires' for my Mr. Wonderful and replaced it with this one simple sentence: "I desire for my husband to be a godly young man, always striving to pursue true, mature, manliness." Eventually, my Mr. Wonderful will acquire my previous desires, if he is always striving to pursue true, mature, manliness- which is rooted in a constant relationship with Christ.

My previous list was setting unachievable expectations on my Mr. Wonderful; I was setting him up for failure. I was leaving no room for improvement. With this new "expectation," or desire, both my Mr. Wonderful and I can both grow in Christ.

You might be asking- “Wait, I thought we were supposed to have high expectations?”

Absolutely! I am not saying that I have lower expectations for him- actually, I would say that my expectations have become more difficult to achieve because they require constant growth, not complacency. With my previous list, I was encouraging complacency. I expected my Mr. Wonderful to get to a spot where he successfully demonstrated all the desires on my list, and then stop growing. This is wrong. I still have high expectations. I just don't have a "do's and don'ts list."

Let me try to explain it in a different way:

I am not a patient person. Patience does not come to me naturally; I have to work really hard at it. Although, I am striving to be a godly women and patience is an attribute that a mature godly woman will acquire (for some, over time spent developing a constant relationship with Christ, for others is comes natural.) I would hate for a guy, that I could potentially marry, not to "consider" me as marriage material because I was not patient right here and right now. Patience is something that I will gain over time, as long as I am striving for godliness. So, I guess you could say that my list was becoming a distraction. I was expecting for my Mr. Wonderful to have an unrealistic amount of attributes the day we got married. What I failed to realize, until recently, is the fact that he is still man; he will not have all of these attributes right away. They take time to develop while he is striving to be a a mature man. Just like some characteristics will take time to develop in me (ex, patience.)

-C

Are You Valuable?

This was taken from Nancy Leigh Demoss and Dannah Gresh's book entitled Lies Young Women Believe: And the Truth That Sets Them Free.
___________________________________________________________

Lie: I have to preform to be loved and accepted.

A whopping 95% of girls admit that they are always or sometimes plagued by thie lie.

Are you sure that is how everone sees you? It might feel like everyone, including God and your parents, is judging you based on your perfmormance. But is that really true? Let's begin to expose this lie by first looking at God's view of you.

Your value is not determined by what you do, but by how God views you. God chose you before the world was created. "He chose us in him before the creation of the world to be homely and blameless in his sight."(Ephesians 1:4) He knit you together in your mother's womb and declared that you have been "wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). He loved you before you could love Him. "This is how God showed his love amoung us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him." (1 John 4:9) And, if you belong to Him, nothing can seperate you from His love. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to seperate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord." (Romans 8:38-39) Your value isnt determined by what you do. It is determined by the simple fact that you are.

The notion that you can do something to have value or to earn God's love is heretical. At the root of this lie is a mind-set that is based on works rather than grace. "And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace." (Romans 11:6) Responding to God's love, which He expressed profoundly in the death of His precious Son, is all that is required for you to experience His favor. Rather than trying to do something for Him (works-based), you need to recieve what He has done for you (grace-based)! You can not get this free gift through works, because then you could boast that you earned it. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast."
(Ephesians 2:8-9) Christ died so that you can experience God's love and acceptance as a gift of grace.

Your good works are to glorify God, not yourself. Whether you are a swimmer, a ball player, a straight-A students, or the leader of your youth group, every effort you put forth should be for God's glory, not your own. "So whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31) If you are feeling pressure for things that you do to make you valuable, you are doing them for the wrong reasons. God does want you to do good things, but only as an offering back to Him for His great gift to us. (See James 2:12-18)

Getting straigh-A's or being a champion ball player isn't bad in and of itself. But it can become a measure of your worth or value. When I hit a "home-run," I feel affirmed and secure; when I do "so-so," I easily become discouraged and vulnerable to self-doubt. I have to consiously counter those feelings with the Truth that I am fully accepted in Christ and that my worth to Him (and others) has nothing to do with my preformances. Otherwise, I tend to drive myself endlessly and to always be looking for "positive feedback" on "how I am doing."

This kind of thinking is prideful, performance-based Christianity. Actually, it is diametrically opposed to true Christianity, which from start to finish is based on humble faith in Christ's performances and the underserved, unmeritited grace of God!
___________________________________________________________

Here are some questions for you to think about:

- In what areas do you feel pressure to prefrom in order to win the favor of God or others?

- Take the answers from the first question to fill in the blanks:

• Why do you _________?
• Who do you give glory to when you ________?
• What if you fail at _______, are you still worth God's love?
• If you could no longer _______ how would you feel?

- Why is it difficult to accept that God's love for you is not based on what you can accplish or on your ability to do good?

I hope that you found this helpful, I did.

-C

To Love or Not To Love...Some Clarification

I want to apologize to anyone who I might have offended with my previous post "To Love or Not to Love." When I wrote that post, I was frusterated with things I had been hearing amoung people my age, and the media concerning the word 'love.' I expressed my feelings without evaluating them. I should have turned to God's Word to see what He had to say about love. Afterall, God created love, right? Therefore, it must be beautiful (if it is properly communicated.) Earlier this week I looked at what God had to say about 'love.' I looked at two different types of love, some of the information is nothing new while other pieces were thought provoking:

Jesus commanded that we first and foremost love the Lord:

"Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One
of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is
the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.' " Matthew 22:34-37

WARNING! I am going to ramble here, but what I have to say is still interesting (it just doesn't have much to do with love.) I give you permission to skip the next couple of paragraphs (in blue) if you are compelled to do so.

Last week I translated the verse above from latin to english. This verse in latin is the following:

"Ille respondens dixit, 'Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto carde tuo, et ex toto anima tua, et ex amnibus viribus tuis, et ex amni mente, tua et proximum twum sicut te ipsuni.' "

Translated to english it reads:

"He answering said, 'you shall love the Lord you God out of your whole heart, and out of your whole soul, and out of your whole strength, and out of your whole mind, and your neighbor as yourself.' "

I experienced my first "benefit" from studying latin while translating this verse. The word used in the passage for "mind" also translates to thoughts and intentions. Thus, we are commanded to love the Lord "with all your mind, thoughts, and intentions." How powerful!

OK- enough of my ramblings! Back to the main focus of this post...

Jesus commanded us to "love" in these verses. The greek word for love used here is agapao. Agapao means to love in a social or moral sense. I encourage you to look up the definition for moral. It made me feel overwhelmed, and ashamed; as much as I love the Lord, it is not the the full extent to how I am instructed to love Him. You can see the defintion here . I thought about including the definition, but my dad always says, "If you look it up, you own it." I desire for you to own this definition.

Furthermore, Christians are commanded to love their spouse.

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her." Ephesians 5:25

"Each of you must also love his wife as he loves himself." Ephesians 5:33

"They can train the youngest women to love their
husbands." Titus 4:2

Here is where I found it to get interesting...

In the first two versus, directed to the husbands, the word agapao is used again. Husbands are to love their wives in a social or moral sense, just as they are to love the Lord. In the last verse, directed to the wives, the greek word used is philandros. Philandros means to love your husband tenderly. So, in a marriage there should be a moral love and a tender love. Amazing.

Lastly, I would like to clarify that I will (prayerfully) love my husband the way God intended. I hope this straightens some things out, I truly did not intend to offend anyone.

-C