Sin Wants To Be Your Friend - by Tim Challies
A compelling look at how sin entices us, seeks to know us and eventually often destroys our credibility, friendships, and ability to positively impact others for Christ.
"Sin makes so many promises. Sin promises joy, it promises fulfillment. Sin promises to be your friend. When you first meet a new friend you reveal only little bits of who you are, what you believe, what is important to you. But over time, if that friendship is to grow, you need to reveal more and more of yourself, you need to open yourself up. Friendship grows out of the vulnerability of allowing another person to see who you really are beneath the polite exterior. Sin asks you to give just a little bit more of yourself to it every time. Just a bit more. Just a bit more after that. But over time sin comes to own you. It comes to know everything there is to know about you. And then it stabs you in the back and laughs with glee as you are left sputtering and humiliated and destroyed. It laughs as your marriage is destroyed, as your church is shamed, as your friends are betrayed. That’s the kind of friend it is."
Being "Gay" Is Not Just About Sex - by Matt Moore
I have been reading Matt's blog for awhile now and sometimes felt that he was over-simplifying this by making homosexuality out to be something that was just about sex. It is so apparent that it is much more than sex.
"What I’ve not been remembering when recollecting my experiences in the “gay life” is the desire that I had—and still have—to be loved, to be shown affection…to be wanted."I found this particular entry by him to be refreshing and much more true to my experiences in many ways.
37 Ways To Love One Another - by Paul Tautges
I have felt that some of the greatest growth I have experienced in the past couple of years has come as a result of learning to better relate to my fellow man. Paul does a great job in reminding us how we are to love our Christian brothers and sisters...
The Christian life is all about relationships. It’s God’s design for our personal growth, which then translates into church growth—the real kind. Loving one another is a powerful evangelistic tool, as Jesus says: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”.
You Are Not Alone - by Alan Chambers
A good post by Alan reflecting on his preparation and address at the 2012 Exodus Freedom Conference which was also the first conference of this kind that I attended. The conference was undoubtedly one of my most pivotal experiences since becoming a follower of Christ in 2010. Prior to the conference, I felt that I was very alone in my struggle with homosexuality, however, since attending I know that I share my struggle with many others. Probably the most important change resulting from the conference was a diminishing of that feeling that my problems are totally unique. This allowed me to turn my focus from myself and from the ways that I felt others were letting me down, toward a more Christ-like posture of focusing more outwardly on the brothers and sisters that the Lord has brought into my life with the goal of loving them. I definitely still struggle at times with that distressing feeling of being alone, but not with the severity that I had.
"But, if nothing else, I pray that you don’t feel alone anymore, that you don’t feel an island unto yourself. That you don’t feel abandoned, forgotten, left behind. That one of the encouragements that God instills in you is the understanding that with Him you are never alone and that there are people He will provide to walk along side you on this journey towards holiness, fullness in Him and a life that glorifies Christ."
No comments:
Post a Comment