I'd Rather Be Stupid
(C) 2016 Lee Lumley
I'd rather be stupid with basic knowledge of Christ
Than understand the deepest truth and know not to apply it
I'd rather be stupid, begging for guidance
Than a leader of men made of pride and angry rants
I'd rather be stupid with hope in my words
Than amaze and astound with exegesis profound but love be a bi-word
For knowledge is useless and wisdom is lost
If not for the image, in me, of the cross
I'd rather be stupid and know only this
That Jesus was crucified, died, is alive and I'm His
For what good is knowledge if men are put off?
And what good is scripture if my life makes them scoff?
Who am I to "thy kingdom come"
If my perceived greatness shadows your son?
For knowledge is useless and wisdom is lost
If not for the image, in me, of the cross
Dear Lord hear my prayer, this my simple plea
Remove all I've learned and give me the wisdom of stupidity
Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Thursday, January 14, 2016
The Lies of Lust, part 1
I believe lust is the number one threat to the rise of a Man of God
in today's society. You don't have to look far to see it being peddled
everywhere around us. We live in a culture powered by lust. Businesses
take advantage of it's lure in order to get you to buy their products.
Television shows put sex related material or commentary in their
commercials to draw you in. Even if you get rid of television and
Internet, you walk outside the door and see an ocean of bare flesh
thinly veiled by short skirts and low cut blouses beckoning you to
desire more. I am a songwriter and just today on my Facebook page I saw a
post from the Performance Rights Organization I am a member of with a
naked woman laying across the laps of three musicians. I'm not talking
about strategically covered anatomy either. The world is a battle zone
in the war to destroy the heart of the Man of God!
Most men, if they are honest, will admit they find themselves being tempted by lust daily. Those who are experiencing victory over it, still find thoughts that have to be captured and destroyed hitting them daily. The men I know don't want to be in bondage to lust. They love their wives desperately and want to be devoted to her and her only. They struggle daily to keep their thoughts pure and yet, they see a beautiful woman walking down the street and all hell breaks lose. In that moment, their heart starts racing and blood begins to flow, bringing certain parts of their body into full alert. Suddenly, they get tunnel vision and the only thing their eyes can find to focus on is her anatomy. These men are not scum of the earth who are lacking in morals but they are men who love their wives and God. They desperately want to live holy lives but simply don't know how to defeat a very ancient and powerful foe.
The church world's approach to lust has been relatively ineffective for the most part. Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful for the movement that has been rising up to restore sanity to the hearts and minds of men but to be honest, my experience has been that the church's idea of how to deal with lust is, "don't do it". Okay, but how? I don't know of a single man I've spoken with about lust who wakes up in the morning and says, "I think I'll go find a woman to lust after today. I don't want to feel intimacy with my wife or God. I'd rather be bound up with a guilty conscience." All the while, the church tells us to "renew our mind in Christ Jesus", "think on these things", "cut off the hand that offends". These are all great tools in the fight against lust but there's something we have been missing. You see, in order to renew our mind, think on these things and cut off the offender, we have to find the strength to do so. Where does that come from? The simple answer is Jesus but the truth is, it's a journey that is long and treacherous.
So, the million dollar question is how do we defeat lust? I believe the answer doesn't lie in running from it but embracing it.
Whoa! I can feel the angry thoughts and cries of heresy now. "He just said that lust is okay!". Let me explain myself before you go gather a lynch mob to kill the false prophet. I believe the biggest impediment to the success of a man's battle against lust is an unhealthy understanding of the truth of this God given desire for the opposite sex. I have a friend who also struggles with lust and we speak about it often. He once told me he read a book that said he should train himself to look away from beautiful women when they walk by in order to avoid lusting after them. The idea is that if we don't look at them, we won't be able to notice how great their breasts, butt and legs are and therefore we won't lust. Aside from the fact that we are surrounded by women and looking away might simply reveal another beautiful woman on that side, there is a big problem with this idea.
You see, lust doesn't require eyesight to exist. It is a mind issue, not a sight issue. Sure, you may look away but instead of looking at her breasts you are now wishing you could look at them. You are still lusting, you just aren't acting on that lust and your heart is still being ravaged. Although depriving yourself of the pleasure of staring at a woman in an unhealthy way is a good thing, it is insufficient to deal with the lust that makes us want to do so. Not to mention the fact that this causes us to have fear every time a beautiful woman walks in our path. That's not deliverance but another type of bondage.
The most popular passage on lust in the Bible is probably Matthew 5:27-28 where Jesus tells us lusting after a woman makes us an adulterer. "But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." These words ring in the ears of men who struggle with lust and pornography throughout the day. We hear them repeated in our minds when we feel an attraction to a woman and it brings a chill to our heart when we read it. The Greek word used here is epithumeo and it comes from two words meaning "in the mind". The word is not exclusively used in a negative sense but is also used throughout the New Testament in a positive sense (see Luke 22:15, 1 Timothy 3:1). The truth is there is nothing inherently wrong lust. Our culture has narrowed lust's definition down to only the negative connotation of it but at it's heart it simply means desire. That is where most approaches at overcoming an addiction to lust fail. We teach men it is wrong to be attracted to a woman who isn't our wife. We tell them being a godly husband means you'll never see another woman and think she is beautiful. As if the part of us that caused us to find our wife attractive when we met, miraculously quit working for anyone except her once we began a relationship. As a result when men do find a woman attractive, they feel condemned. Condemnation then opens the door to lost hope, guilt and a belief that we are a failure. Satan loves when we reach this point because it means open season on our heart!
Let me stop here and issue a warning to those reading this article who may be of the female community, I'm going to be brutally honest with you. If you want to marry a man who will never be attracted to another woman, you need to be looking for that man in the gay community. Sorry, but it's the truth. Your husband, your father, your son and that wonderful uncle you look up to because he loves his wife are all hard wired to find beauty in the female body. They will be attracted to other women at some point in their life and there is nothing wrong with that. Instead of being angry that they are, you should be thankful that in spite of finding other women attractive, they choose to spend their life with you!
God created man and woman to be attracted to each other. He made the land of the female with it's beautiful curves and mysterious valleys and peaks, not simply for mechanical purposes but because He wanted men to find pleasure and desire in it, to pursue it like we pursue Him. John Eldredge, in his book Wild At Heart says God created everything on earth, including Adam but waited until the very last to create the crown of God's creation, Eve. I love that. The beauty of woman is the greatest achievement of God's creation. Yes, she is a "helpmate" but there is so much more to her than that. She is the culmination of creative beauty, physical pleasure, driving passion, sensual touch and abandon-all-for-the-pearl-of-great-price-worth. At the risk of sounding like a cheesy comedian, that is why Adam called her Whoa-man! It is not a bad thing but it is a God given desire.
Most of you who are reading this felt uncomfortable during that last paragraph with the descriptive analogy of the female body and words like pleasure, passion and sensual. That's the problem we have and that is why Satan's attack on the minds of men is so effective. We need to realize this in order to be able to defeat the grip of lust in our hearts.
I am told that when banks train new tellers how to spot a counterfeit bill, they don't sit them down with hundreds of counterfeits and point out the flaws in them. Instead, they sit them down with one real, US Mint-made bill or coin and let them study it. By learning what the real thing looks and feels like, they are able to spot the counterfeits by knowing what the real thing is.
That is the approach we need to take in the battle against lust. We need to teach men God's view of sexuality. We need to equip them with the right attitudes toward sexual attraction. We need to embrace the positive side of desire instead of trying to deprive ourselves of it. That way, when Satan throws a counterfeit in our way, we can spot it. Once a man tastes God's version of sexuality, they will find Satan's version to be unfulfilling.
That is why, if the Lord allows me to, I am going to begin a series here on Square Watermelons dealing with the subject of lust. I am going to attack the mentality's we have been taught which hinder our recovery from an unhealthy lust and together, we will learn what a godly desire for the opposite sex looks like. The most asked question I hear from people and one that I have asked myself many times is, "when have I crossed over into lust". To be honest with you, many times when men feel condemned for lust, they haven't actually done so because they don't really understand what constitutes lust. That is what I hope to address in the next installment. In the mean time, feel free to check out the article I wrote titled Let There Be...SEX!
Thanks for reading!
Live Square my friends!
Lee Lumley
Romans 6:6 "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. FOR HE WHO HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED FROM SIN"
Thursday, January 7, 2016
What Frozen Pipes Say About Righteousness
Right now Georgia is experiencing some of the coldest weather I have seen. Last night it dropped to single digits and I'm talking real temp not wind chill. We simply aren't used to that. I beg you, please pray for Georgians because we are in danger of extinction over the next few days! ;-)
Anyway, Facebook was plastered last night with Georgians helping other Georgians remember to leave their water running. I heard the message of doom and heeded its call. I was not going to get caught up in the wretchedness of busted pipes. So I left the water running like I was told.
I went to bed last night feeling confident that the little trickle of water would be enough to keep it flowing. However, I woke up with frozen pipes. Really? But I left my water running! How can this be? Luckily the hot water side is still flowing so I have coffee! All is well.
As I was thinking about my pipe delemna it occurred to me there is a spiritual truth found in this. When seasons in our life try to destroy us, our righteousness (water) is what helps us survive. The water of righteousness washes away the filth that clings to us from a sinful world. The problem is, sometimes we miss it. Sometimes, when faced with a frigid winter of the soul, we take the wrong approach and end up in a season of pain and regret. There are three different approaches we can take when faced with the frigid temps of a soul-winter.
Thursday, December 24, 2015
The Jabez Generation
Below is the blurb that describes the book on Christianbook.com
"Do you want to be extravagantly blessed by God? Are you ready to reach for the extraordinary? To ask God for the abundant blessings He longs to give you? Let Bruce Wilkinson help you discover how the remarkable prayer of a little-known Bible hero can release God's favor, power and protection. You'll see how one daily prayer can help you leave the past behind and break through to the life you were meant to live."
This blurb sounds just like all the hype I have heard about the book. According to what I've heard, the "truth" of this prayer seems to focus around "enlarge my territory" and "bless me indeed". But this is a very superficial and selfish warping of the truth of Jabez's prayer.
Is it possible that we completely missed the point of Jabez's prayer?
Is it possible that our obsession with the Prosperity Gospel has blinded us to the true heart of Jabez?
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Avoiding The Eighth Day
A little over a year ago, God birthed a desire in my heart
that I had never felt before. It began as I was reading classic
Christian books by A.W. Tozer and Charles Spurgeon. It was a desire for
revival but not some pop-corn revival where only a hand full of churches
experience it. I wanted to see a national move of God, another great
awakening that changes the religious landscape of our nation and the
world! I found myself praying daily, "Lord, let me be the spark that
starts a revival that spreads throughout America and the world!". Some
would call that a presumptious prayer, Stephen Furtick in his book Sun Stand Still calls it a Sun Stand Still prayer that is made possible by audacious faith, a faith that dares to ask for the impossible.
In our day and age the word revival has lost it's effectiveness. We think of it as a series of meetings. We tend to think that it is an evangelistic crusade to win the lost. Evangelists base their effectiveness on how many souls come to Christ. But true revival always begins with one person's desperate cry for change in their personal situation. A cry to be revived and once again feel the joy of fellowship with the Lord. Once revival comes to that one person, it will spread to those around like wildfire. There is no magic formula that starts it. You don't have to be blessed by a message of a great orator. It may begin in a church but it will be perfected in the quite place where only one man and his God meet.
I want to be a part of a move of God. Not the cliche move of God that we proudly proclaim to boost our church's street cred to others. I'm not talking about some marketing program that promises big but delivers little. I'm talking about the move of God that the early church experienced when new followers were added every day! When miracles were common place and they considered themselves blessed to be counted worthy to be tortured for the sake of a move of God!
I want to be THAT man! I want to be a Peter who stood up and preached a message which resulted in the church doubling in size in one day! I want to be a Paul who plants churches throughout the known world and whose written words inspire others to do the same! I want to be a Stephen who stood while being stoned to death and saw Jesus sitting on the right hand of the father and had the moral fortitude to pray, "Father forgive them"! I want be a Charles Wesley, a DL Moody, AW Tozer, Charles Spurgeon. I want to be my generation's Billy Graham or John Piper!
I want to be that man!
Moses, was one of those men and yet he almost didn't make it into the club. There is a little known verse that reveals a great truth of what may be keeping each one of us from our destiny of becoming men of God!
In our day and age the word revival has lost it's effectiveness. We think of it as a series of meetings. We tend to think that it is an evangelistic crusade to win the lost. Evangelists base their effectiveness on how many souls come to Christ. But true revival always begins with one person's desperate cry for change in their personal situation. A cry to be revived and once again feel the joy of fellowship with the Lord. Once revival comes to that one person, it will spread to those around like wildfire. There is no magic formula that starts it. You don't have to be blessed by a message of a great orator. It may begin in a church but it will be perfected in the quite place where only one man and his God meet.
I want to be a part of a move of God. Not the cliche move of God that we proudly proclaim to boost our church's street cred to others. I'm not talking about some marketing program that promises big but delivers little. I'm talking about the move of God that the early church experienced when new followers were added every day! When miracles were common place and they considered themselves blessed to be counted worthy to be tortured for the sake of a move of God!
I want to be THAT man! I want to be a Peter who stood up and preached a message which resulted in the church doubling in size in one day! I want to be a Paul who plants churches throughout the known world and whose written words inspire others to do the same! I want to be a Stephen who stood while being stoned to death and saw Jesus sitting on the right hand of the father and had the moral fortitude to pray, "Father forgive them"! I want be a Charles Wesley, a DL Moody, AW Tozer, Charles Spurgeon. I want to be my generation's Billy Graham or John Piper!
I want to be that man!
Moses, was one of those men and yet he almost didn't make it into the club. There is a little known verse that reveals a great truth of what may be keeping each one of us from our destiny of becoming men of God!
Thursday, December 3, 2015
Let There Be...Sex?
Genesis 1:28
And God blessed them and God said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply..."
God had spoken life into existence. The entire world was created and available for man to find pleasure in and explore. The sun, moon and stars were in place, plants were in full bloom creating a beautiful scene of majesty. Think about it, Adam and Eve at this point where like babies and just as clueless how to do even something as vital as eating and yet God's first words spoken to them were "be fruitful and multiply"...that's Christianise for "Go have sex"! No wonder Satan fights men and women with the false view of what sex is. No wonder he makes it seem so dirty that Christians in Medieval times had hundreds of restrictions such as to forbid sex during the forty days prior to holidays and festivals like Pentecost. According Mary Ann McPherson Oliver in Conjugal Spirituality the Medieval church had so many restrictions on when you could have sex that "There would have been eighty-three remaining days in the year when couples could, with the permission of the Church, have indulged in (but not enjoy) sexual intercourse!"
If sex is an ugly and sinful thing the why would God's first command to man be to have sex? Was it simply for the purpose of replenishing the earth? Did the God who spoke the heavens and earth into existence and breathed life into man not have the ability to create more than one man and one woman? Was his strength and power now so spent after six days of creation that he needed man's help?
On the contrary, God doesn't need sex to populate the earth. Think about it, Jesus was born without any intercourse and if you want a modern example to look at for proof you don't have to look any further than the hammerhead shark who's female has been know to come to full pregnancy without the presence of a male for mating. (This process is called parthenogenesis) No my friend God didn't create sex for mechanical reasons but instead He had a spiritual purpose in mind. Sex was not a "necessary evil" but a beautiful experience that will help us to better know our creator.
Sex, in it's intended purpose, is a spiritual act of worship. It is supposed to represent the intimacy between God and man. It represents how we are to know and understand God. There is something called "The Law of First Mentions" that tells us we should look to the first mention of a subject in the bible for the purest and least complex form of that subject, in other words start from the bottom and work your way up to gain a better understanding of the subject. The first mention of the word "know" in the bible is in Genesis chapter 4 when we are told that "Adam knew Eve and she conceived". The Hebrew word used here is Yada (yaw-DAH) which means to discern, experience, confess, consider and know relationally. Sex with our spouse has a two fold purpose, in addition to experiencing the hidden emotional depths of each other we are also becoming intimate with God. In essence when we have sex with our spouse we are transported to back to the Garden of Eden when it was okay to be naked before God and each other and we walked with God in the cool of the day.
The word "know" here is the same word the Psalmist used in Psalms 1:6 "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish". When we look at this through the backdrop of marital intercourse it shines a new light on this verse. Think about this for a moment, Adam and Eve were told to be "fruitful and multiply". A tree cannot bare fruit unless a seed is first planted. The seed has something inside it that needs, by nature, to be on the outside but it first must be inserted into the ground to be nurtured and cared for until it grows to it's full potential. Just as the tree is able to grow strong and mighty because of the seed being inserted into the ground so are the righteous able to grow when God penetrates the fertile soil of our heart with His seed of love. That is what intercourse points to and that my friend is why God didn't call His creation "very good" until He created sex! (Genesis 1:31)
In case you have forgotten, there is a flip-side to this verse. The Psalmist goes on to say that "the way of the ungodly shall perish". That's where Satan comes in with his evil manipulation of God's true meaning of sex. Satan knows that if he can warp our thoughts of what sex is and cause it no longer to be an act of worship but instead a selfish, ugly act of hedonistic pleasure then we won't learn how to open ourselves up to God to be "known". As a result our "way" is not able to penetrated with the life that God gives and we are unable to be fruitful and multiply...in other words we die.
In his book Sacred Marriage Gary Thomas says, "our restlessness for the sexual experience mirrors our restlessness for God" but Satan's goal is to cause us to look away from God for sexual fulfillment which means our desires for intercourse can no longer mirror God's image but instead we become the mirror of sex as the World views it. In the World's mirror sex is not about worship but about selfishness. It's about what I deserve. Worldly sex asks the question "what can you do for me?" instead of being an act of giving yourself to another. In the world's eyes sex is simply there for our pleasure and doesn't require intimacy. It can be found in a one night stand with someone you met at a bar or in the solitary corners of your home with only the company of a computer, a magazine and some fantasies to assist in pleasuring yourself. It can be purchased on a street corner in darkness of night and experienced in a hotel that's paid for by the hour. It's dirty, it's shady and it has lost every resemblance of the sacredness it was created with. God is not found in this twisted form of intercourse and as a result we trade the fullness of joy that is found in sacred sexuality for the unclean emptiness of sinful sexuality.
Ephesians 5:25-26 says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her..." The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from "all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9) but as Beth Moore says in her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, "Satan so vehemently despises what Christ has done for mortals that one of his chief objectives is to make the clean feel unclean [that is ] why one of Satan's most powerful weapons is sexual seduction." If Satan can get us to fall for the seduction of worldly sex then he knows that the dirtiness of it will make us feel unclean or unsaved. Although Paul tells us that "nothing can separate us from the love of God" when we feel dirty we run and hide from God, just as Adam and Eve did after Satan's first victory in the garden. When we hide from God we are no longer able to know Him intimately. He is no longer able to infuse His life and love into our hearts and we also are no longer able to experience the true pleasure of sexuality even when it is experienced in boundaries of marital intercourse. Score one for Satan!
In order for spirituality to reach a point of maturity we have press into God until we truly know Him. The more we know God, the more we become like Him. Do you desire to know God? Are you tired of not being able to experience Him intimately? Are you still a baby Christian who can't handle the mature meat and potatoes of the Word but can only stomach the milk? Maybe you need to change the way you look at sex. Maybe you need to realize the reality that sex is a wonderful tool for guiding us into the presence and holiness of God. Gary Thomas asked a very poignant question in the book I mentioned previously, "If God looked at nothing other than my sexuality, would I be known as a mature Christian?"
If that question hit you between the eyes the throw out the magazines, turn off the computer, quit watching the shows that promote promiscuous lifestyles and grab your wife's hand - beg her forgiveness - then embark on journey filled with unmeasurable pleasure that will climax in an amazing knowledge of the sacredness of God's first command to us..."Go have sex!"
A slave no more, except to Him who saved me!
Lee Lumley
Romans 6:6
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. FOR HE WHO HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED FROM SIN"
And God blessed them and God said unto them, "Be fruitful and multiply..."
God had spoken life into existence. The entire world was created and available for man to find pleasure in and explore. The sun, moon and stars were in place, plants were in full bloom creating a beautiful scene of majesty. Think about it, Adam and Eve at this point where like babies and just as clueless how to do even something as vital as eating and yet God's first words spoken to them were "be fruitful and multiply"...that's Christianise for "Go have sex"! No wonder Satan fights men and women with the false view of what sex is. No wonder he makes it seem so dirty that Christians in Medieval times had hundreds of restrictions such as to forbid sex during the forty days prior to holidays and festivals like Pentecost. According Mary Ann McPherson Oliver in Conjugal Spirituality the Medieval church had so many restrictions on when you could have sex that "There would have been eighty-three remaining days in the year when couples could, with the permission of the Church, have indulged in (but not enjoy) sexual intercourse!"
If sex is an ugly and sinful thing the why would God's first command to man be to have sex? Was it simply for the purpose of replenishing the earth? Did the God who spoke the heavens and earth into existence and breathed life into man not have the ability to create more than one man and one woman? Was his strength and power now so spent after six days of creation that he needed man's help?
On the contrary, God doesn't need sex to populate the earth. Think about it, Jesus was born without any intercourse and if you want a modern example to look at for proof you don't have to look any further than the hammerhead shark who's female has been know to come to full pregnancy without the presence of a male for mating. (This process is called parthenogenesis) No my friend God didn't create sex for mechanical reasons but instead He had a spiritual purpose in mind. Sex was not a "necessary evil" but a beautiful experience that will help us to better know our creator.
We find God in the contact of our bodies,
not just in the longing of our souls.
-Evelyn and James Whitehead
Sex, in it's intended purpose, is a spiritual act of worship. It is supposed to represent the intimacy between God and man. It represents how we are to know and understand God. There is something called "The Law of First Mentions" that tells us we should look to the first mention of a subject in the bible for the purest and least complex form of that subject, in other words start from the bottom and work your way up to gain a better understanding of the subject. The first mention of the word "know" in the bible is in Genesis chapter 4 when we are told that "Adam knew Eve and she conceived". The Hebrew word used here is Yada (yaw-DAH) which means to discern, experience, confess, consider and know relationally. Sex with our spouse has a two fold purpose, in addition to experiencing the hidden emotional depths of each other we are also becoming intimate with God. In essence when we have sex with our spouse we are transported to back to the Garden of Eden when it was okay to be naked before God and each other and we walked with God in the cool of the day.
The word "know" here is the same word the Psalmist used in Psalms 1:6 "For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish". When we look at this through the backdrop of marital intercourse it shines a new light on this verse. Think about this for a moment, Adam and Eve were told to be "fruitful and multiply". A tree cannot bare fruit unless a seed is first planted. The seed has something inside it that needs, by nature, to be on the outside but it first must be inserted into the ground to be nurtured and cared for until it grows to it's full potential. Just as the tree is able to grow strong and mighty because of the seed being inserted into the ground so are the righteous able to grow when God penetrates the fertile soil of our heart with His seed of love. That is what intercourse points to and that my friend is why God didn't call His creation "very good" until He created sex! (Genesis 1:31)
In case you have forgotten, there is a flip-side to this verse. The Psalmist goes on to say that "the way of the ungodly shall perish". That's where Satan comes in with his evil manipulation of God's true meaning of sex. Satan knows that if he can warp our thoughts of what sex is and cause it no longer to be an act of worship but instead a selfish, ugly act of hedonistic pleasure then we won't learn how to open ourselves up to God to be "known". As a result our "way" is not able to penetrated with the life that God gives and we are unable to be fruitful and multiply...in other words we die.
In his book Sacred Marriage Gary Thomas says, "our restlessness for the sexual experience mirrors our restlessness for God" but Satan's goal is to cause us to look away from God for sexual fulfillment which means our desires for intercourse can no longer mirror God's image but instead we become the mirror of sex as the World views it. In the World's mirror sex is not about worship but about selfishness. It's about what I deserve. Worldly sex asks the question "what can you do for me?" instead of being an act of giving yourself to another. In the world's eyes sex is simply there for our pleasure and doesn't require intimacy. It can be found in a one night stand with someone you met at a bar or in the solitary corners of your home with only the company of a computer, a magazine and some fantasies to assist in pleasuring yourself. It can be purchased on a street corner in darkness of night and experienced in a hotel that's paid for by the hour. It's dirty, it's shady and it has lost every resemblance of the sacredness it was created with. God is not found in this twisted form of intercourse and as a result we trade the fullness of joy that is found in sacred sexuality for the unclean emptiness of sinful sexuality.
Ephesians 5:25-26 says, "Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her..." The blood of Jesus has cleansed us from "all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9) but as Beth Moore says in her book When Godly People Do Ungodly Things, "Satan so vehemently despises what Christ has done for mortals that one of his chief objectives is to make the clean feel unclean [that is ] why one of Satan's most powerful weapons is sexual seduction." If Satan can get us to fall for the seduction of worldly sex then he knows that the dirtiness of it will make us feel unclean or unsaved. Although Paul tells us that "nothing can separate us from the love of God" when we feel dirty we run and hide from God, just as Adam and Eve did after Satan's first victory in the garden. When we hide from God we are no longer able to know Him intimately. He is no longer able to infuse His life and love into our hearts and we also are no longer able to experience the true pleasure of sexuality even when it is experienced in boundaries of marital intercourse. Score one for Satan!
In order for spirituality to reach a point of maturity we have press into God until we truly know Him. The more we know God, the more we become like Him. Do you desire to know God? Are you tired of not being able to experience Him intimately? Are you still a baby Christian who can't handle the mature meat and potatoes of the Word but can only stomach the milk? Maybe you need to change the way you look at sex. Maybe you need to realize the reality that sex is a wonderful tool for guiding us into the presence and holiness of God. Gary Thomas asked a very poignant question in the book I mentioned previously, "If God looked at nothing other than my sexuality, would I be known as a mature Christian?"
If that question hit you between the eyes the throw out the magazines, turn off the computer, quit watching the shows that promote promiscuous lifestyles and grab your wife's hand - beg her forgiveness - then embark on journey filled with unmeasurable pleasure that will climax in an amazing knowledge of the sacredness of God's first command to us..."Go have sex!"
A slave no more, except to Him who saved me!
Lee Lumley
Romans 6:6
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. FOR HE WHO HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED FROM SIN"
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Life After The D-Word
It's an ugly word and God hates it. No matter how you use it it brings
anger and bitterness. When used in a relationship it's guaranteed to
turn ugly very quickly. This word has brought even the brightest
relationships to the gallows to lay down and be separated by it's cruel
blood stained blade. The D word I'm referring to is not the four letter
word that is a homophone for Dam. No this word is much worse and has
far greater impact on the stability of humanity. The D-Word I'm
referring to is the word DIVORCE! It literally means to cut in two, an
idea that boldly goes against what Jesus commands..."What God has put
together let no man separate" (Matthew 19:6). Unfortunately in this day
and age divorce is a common occurrence. We are so full of ourselves
today that we no longer work things out but instead we take the easy
route and pay a lawyer thousands of dollars to drag each other through
the mud so we can get "everything we deserve".
Now if you think I'm writing this blog to condemn anyone you are wrong. How could I condemn someone for something that is also touching me and my family right now. I am currently going through a divorce and I know how easily Satan can get inside your mind and make you want to "fight for your rights". You see Satan's greatest tool is get you to pray against someone else. He'll bring scriptures to your mind about God destroying your enemies and cause you to believe that's the attitude you should have. Satan knows that if he can get you to pray against those who hurt you then He's won the battle because you're failing to pray against him, the real source of your battle! Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said "pray for you enemies". That's where the power is.
So men this is where I'm gonna step on your toes and like a former pastor of mine says "I don't step on your toes with anything that God hasn't already stepped on mine with". Part of becoming a Square Watermelon is realizing that your ex-wife is not your enemy. No matter what the court says, no matter what that stack of legal mumbo-jumbo locked away in a box says, and no matter what your broken heart says your ex-wife is still your CALLING and your RESPONSIBILITY!
Getting a divorce doesn't free you of your God given responsibility as a husband. In fact in God's eyes you are still married to your ex-wife. Your divorce is not even something God acknowledges. Jesus said that divorce was allowed because of the "hardness of your heart" but "from the beginning it was not so". (Matthew 19:8) He goes on to say that a man who is divorced and marries another woman is committing adultery.(verse 9) Now correct me if I'm wrong but in order to commit adultery you have to be married. So according to Jesus you may hold a piece of paper that says you are no longer married but in heaven you are still one flesh.
Now again I want to be clear that I am not condemning anyone. If you are divorced and remarried please don't feel like I'm calling you out. I know many Godly people who have been divorced. God "works all things together for good to those who love Him"...even divorce! What I am saying is that we, as ex-husbands, are still responsible for loving our ex-wives "as Christ loved the church" (Ephesians 5:25) How did Jesus love the church? He died for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8) Sin separates us from God and is a choice on our part. We choose to sin, which means that ultimately we choose to be separated from God. That sounds a lot like divorce to me. Yet even in the midst of our divorce from God He still chose to die for us. He put aside His rights and laid down His life to save us. That's what we as Square Watermelons must decide to do with our exes. We must put our selfishness aside and start putting them first.
So how do we flesh this out in real life? Do we start buying our exes flowers and asking them out for supper? Dedicate love songs to them on the radio? No. (unless of course God tells you to that)
First of all we must forgive them. I have a friend who says that all divorces happen because of a decision not to forgive. That is so true. Divorces ultimately don't occur because of adultery. They don't occur because of addiction. They don't even occur because of finances. They occur because at least one, but most of the time both spouses make a conscious decision not to forgive the other spouse for a wrong done. This is not the way Jesus loved the church and so we as ex-husbands have to forgive our spouse. The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 2:13 "And you being dead in your sins...He has made alive together with Him having forgiven you all sin" As I said earlier divorce means to cut in two. Literally to separate flesh. In other words to murder. When a couple gets divorced it's as if the spouses have become "dead" in their divorce. This type of "dead" is similar to the "dead" we were when we were in sin. It's a spiritual death that can only be dealt with by forgiveness...unforgiveness is not an option!
The next thing Jesus does regularly is He prays for us. Jesus is our heavenly intercessor. He even prays for us when we make mistakes and sin. I love the story of when Jesus tells Peter "Satan has requested to sift you as wheat but I have prayed for you that when you return you will strengthen your brothers". Jesus knew that during Peter's sifting he would fail Him. He knew He would deny Him yet He prayed for Peter. We also have to pray for our ex-wives no matter how badly we have been hurt. We are still the spiritual head of our household. Now obviously we can't go over to there house and have a bible study each night. It's too late for that but we can intercede on our wives behalf. We have to protect them and bind any stronghold that Satan has on their mind that keeps them from being free in Jesus. We have to ask God to give us opportunities to show them His love. We have to pray for God to bless our exes with peace. We have to pray for God to bless them financially...better yet pray for God to bless US financially so we can bless THEM! Their spiritual well being is at risk when the divorce occurs and Satan would love nothing better than to get a foot in the door and exploit that weakness. We have to spiritually stand in front of them to protect them from the true enemy.
Maybe you've been divorced or maybe you're like me and you're in the middle of one right now. Maybe you've fallen for Satan's lies and started thinking of your wife as your enemy. Don't get discouraged and think that you can't start over. It may be too late to save your marriage but you most definitely can help protect your exes soul from the attack of Satan. Make a decision today to pray for your ex. Notice I said pray FOR your ex. Ask God to change your heart to still think of her as your wife. Ask Him to help you have the resolve to love Her even though she is "dead" in divorce. If you'll do this I promise you'll live a better life. You won't be wrapped up in fighting for your rights but instead you be living the way Jesus calls us to, by "putting others first"!
With God's help your D Word can be transformed into a new word. It will no longer be thought of in the negative form as a Divorce but instead it will be Delightful! Who knows, God may even raise the dead and bring the separated halves back together again! He does great things like that when we're obedient.
A slave no more, except to Him who saved me!
Lee Lumley
Romans 6:6
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. FOR HE WHO HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED FROM SIN"
Now if you think I'm writing this blog to condemn anyone you are wrong. How could I condemn someone for something that is also touching me and my family right now. I am currently going through a divorce and I know how easily Satan can get inside your mind and make you want to "fight for your rights". You see Satan's greatest tool is get you to pray against someone else. He'll bring scriptures to your mind about God destroying your enemies and cause you to believe that's the attitude you should have. Satan knows that if he can get you to pray against those who hurt you then He's won the battle because you're failing to pray against him, the real source of your battle! Jesus knew what He was talking about when He said "pray for you enemies". That's where the power is.
So men this is where I'm gonna step on your toes and like a former pastor of mine says "I don't step on your toes with anything that God hasn't already stepped on mine with". Part of becoming a Square Watermelon is realizing that your ex-wife is not your enemy. No matter what the court says, no matter what that stack of legal mumbo-jumbo locked away in a box says, and no matter what your broken heart says your ex-wife is still your CALLING and your RESPONSIBILITY!
Getting a divorce doesn't free you of your God given responsibility as a husband. In fact in God's eyes you are still married to your ex-wife. Your divorce is not even something God acknowledges. Jesus said that divorce was allowed because of the "hardness of your heart" but "from the beginning it was not so". (Matthew 19:8) He goes on to say that a man who is divorced and marries another woman is committing adultery.(verse 9) Now correct me if I'm wrong but in order to commit adultery you have to be married. So according to Jesus you may hold a piece of paper that says you are no longer married but in heaven you are still one flesh.
Now again I want to be clear that I am not condemning anyone. If you are divorced and remarried please don't feel like I'm calling you out. I know many Godly people who have been divorced. God "works all things together for good to those who love Him"...even divorce! What I am saying is that we, as ex-husbands, are still responsible for loving our ex-wives "as Christ loved the church" (Ephesians 5:25) How did Jesus love the church? He died for us while we were yet sinners. (Romans 5:8) Sin separates us from God and is a choice on our part. We choose to sin, which means that ultimately we choose to be separated from God. That sounds a lot like divorce to me. Yet even in the midst of our divorce from God He still chose to die for us. He put aside His rights and laid down His life to save us. That's what we as Square Watermelons must decide to do with our exes. We must put our selfishness aside and start putting them first.
So how do we flesh this out in real life? Do we start buying our exes flowers and asking them out for supper? Dedicate love songs to them on the radio? No. (unless of course God tells you to that)
First of all we must forgive them. I have a friend who says that all divorces happen because of a decision not to forgive. That is so true. Divorces ultimately don't occur because of adultery. They don't occur because of addiction. They don't even occur because of finances. They occur because at least one, but most of the time both spouses make a conscious decision not to forgive the other spouse for a wrong done. This is not the way Jesus loved the church and so we as ex-husbands have to forgive our spouse. The Apostle Paul said in Colossians 2:13 "And you being dead in your sins...He has made alive together with Him having forgiven you all sin" As I said earlier divorce means to cut in two. Literally to separate flesh. In other words to murder. When a couple gets divorced it's as if the spouses have become "dead" in their divorce. This type of "dead" is similar to the "dead" we were when we were in sin. It's a spiritual death that can only be dealt with by forgiveness...unforgiveness is not an option!
The next thing Jesus does regularly is He prays for us. Jesus is our heavenly intercessor. He even prays for us when we make mistakes and sin. I love the story of when Jesus tells Peter "Satan has requested to sift you as wheat but I have prayed for you that when you return you will strengthen your brothers". Jesus knew that during Peter's sifting he would fail Him. He knew He would deny Him yet He prayed for Peter. We also have to pray for our ex-wives no matter how badly we have been hurt. We are still the spiritual head of our household. Now obviously we can't go over to there house and have a bible study each night. It's too late for that but we can intercede on our wives behalf. We have to protect them and bind any stronghold that Satan has on their mind that keeps them from being free in Jesus. We have to ask God to give us opportunities to show them His love. We have to pray for God to bless our exes with peace. We have to pray for God to bless them financially...better yet pray for God to bless US financially so we can bless THEM! Their spiritual well being is at risk when the divorce occurs and Satan would love nothing better than to get a foot in the door and exploit that weakness. We have to spiritually stand in front of them to protect them from the true enemy.
Maybe you've been divorced or maybe you're like me and you're in the middle of one right now. Maybe you've fallen for Satan's lies and started thinking of your wife as your enemy. Don't get discouraged and think that you can't start over. It may be too late to save your marriage but you most definitely can help protect your exes soul from the attack of Satan. Make a decision today to pray for your ex. Notice I said pray FOR your ex. Ask God to change your heart to still think of her as your wife. Ask Him to help you have the resolve to love Her even though she is "dead" in divorce. If you'll do this I promise you'll live a better life. You won't be wrapped up in fighting for your rights but instead you be living the way Jesus calls us to, by "putting others first"!
With God's help your D Word can be transformed into a new word. It will no longer be thought of in the negative form as a Divorce but instead it will be Delightful! Who knows, God may even raise the dead and bring the separated halves back together again! He does great things like that when we're obedient.
A slave no more, except to Him who saved me!
Lee Lumley
Romans 6:6
"Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. FOR HE WHO HAS DIED HAS BEEN FREED FROM SIN"
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