Winning Over Temptation

Something that is common to every single person on the planet is temptation. There is not a person who doesn’t know what it is like to struggle to do what we ought and not do what we should not. And there is a lot of advice that gets handed out on the subject as well. There is the whole ‘will power’ thing the world seems to emphasize and we Christians have our own thoughts.

One of the most popular movements in this regard in the past few decades puts the focus on accountability. I think accountability is very important. However, I read a really interesting article today. It was an interview with Dr. Arnold Cole. He is the CEO and Director of Bible Engagement Research for Back to the Bible. Apparently they conducted an extensive study over the course of 4 years that included several surveys with over 40,000 respondents. Some of their findings are quite interesting.

For example:

“Very few respondents said that other people (at 5.5%), accountability relationships (at 2.1%) or church (at just 0.5%) helped them to stand firm against temptation. Three out of four had shared their temptation with another person, but only a tiny percentage named Christian friends as helping them resist temptation.”

I think this would come as a pretty big surprise in light of all of the conventional wisdom about what we need to keep us on the ‘straight and narrow’. So, do you want to know what people identified as the one thing that really did help them live right?

“When asked, ‘What currently helps you win the day spiritually’, Christ-followers named reading the Bible as number one.”

That in itself is pretty significant but there’s more and the more is even more significant:

“For several of the behaviors we examined there is no statistical difference between Christians who read or listen to the Bible two to three days a week and those who do not engage Scripture at all or only once a week! And for those where there is an effect for engaging Scripture two to three days a week, the effect is much smaller than for four or more days a week. So there is a clear crossover point at four days. Those who read or listen to the Bible at least four days a week are 36% less likely to smoke, 57% less likely to get drunk, 61% less likely to use pornography, and 68% less likely to have sex outside marriage.”

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking that this research has some pretty profound implications. Reading the Bible, even three times a week doesn’t really have a lot of effect on people’s capacity to withstand temptation. But reading the Bible 4 times a week or more has a very significant effect. What’s the message? I guess the old discipline of being in the Word daily is very sound practice for us. It really drives home the urgency of this tried and true devotion to the Word of God and it should certainly challenge us to be setting at His feet each day.

Maybe we need to take a fresh look at Jesus’ prayer to the Father for us:

“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” Jn 17:15-17

Cannibals in Christendom

So, how do you like my new blog page? Pretty neat eh!? I appreciate Geoff finding this avenue for me because it allows me to do my own posting and what not which means I don't have to bug him, accept for some troubleshooting now and then most likely.

It will also allow me, for that reason, to post more often I hope.

Today I wanted to share with you an article that Karen Casey Arneson wrote. I came across it last week and I was wondering if you might want to give it a read and let me know what you think. For my part, I think in the process of her own 'confession' she has highlighted a key area of our lives where we often let sin go - what we say about others when they aren't around to hear it! I think she has written an amazing little piece.

The article is called 'Cannibals in Christendom' and here is the link. Let me know what you think.
Steve

VIRAL

I have a virus, a bad head cold to be more specific. And while I am thankful that it isn’t something more serious, it has got me thinking about how a virus works and what it means for something to be contagious?

It wasn’t that long ago that if someone spoke of a virus they had one thing in mind – the biological type. But with the dawn of the computer age, and more specifically the internet, we now talk about computer viruses. And now it seems we have a whole new usage for the term ‘viral’. The term has been adopted out of the world of biology and given a new assignment. It is now used to refer to pretty much anything that has the ability to replicate or multiply itself through simple exposure. It has become a common way to describe how information, thoughts or trends move throughout our society.

I saw an add the other day for some instructional information on how to produce ‘viral videos’. It is common to hear people speak about something that suddenly ‘went viral’ meaning that it went from being something known only within a small locale or by a limited number of people to suddenly spreading rapidly throughout the world. No surprise that the commercial players are in love with the whole idea.

Between sneezes, I have been thinking about how the gospel is meant to be viral. It is not as much taught as caught. It isn’t just some teaching. It’s way more than that. It is something that happens to us. It is the ‘living’ word that gets inside of us and takes over our systems. And, it is meant to be contagious. Like Jesus said, “Freely you have received, freely give”.

When allowed to move freely, the gospel can have such an exponential effect that it can become almost irresistible, sweeping through whole families and people groups. The problem though, often, is that the things of this world have a way of inoculating us. The Parable of the Sower comes to mind. Jesus said that in some cases, the ‘cares of this world’ and the ‘deceitfulness of riches’ can choke out the life of the seed before it has a chance to really take hold and produce. (see Matt 13)

So what we really need is just even a very small number of people but each with a serious full blown case of the gospel. That kind of infection would cause a serious outbreak of the gospel to spread and before long we would find ourselves in a global pandemic; every tribe, tongue and nation!!!