Sanctification

I recently had a counseling appointment with a young inmate—a drug addict raised by drug addicts. His only sister is in jail. His nephew is dead. His mother is in jail, and his father died from a drug overdose. In jail, this story is not remarkable. The only thing that made this meeting somewhat unique was the timing. He had just been informed about his father's death. As he walked in the door, his eyes were still red from crying. The last relative he had "on the outside" was gone. 

There was no question in this young man's mind about where the path of his life was leading. He saw death and misery before him, and he hated it. However, two things still stood in his way of turning to Christ. First, he still wouldn't take responsibility for his sin, blaming others, blaming his situation, and ultimately blaming God. Second, he did not believe there was any hope for him to change...

Harry Schaumburg and Brian Bunn invited a group of pastors and elders up to Port Washington, Wisconsin, this past week. Harry is the author of two classic books written to help Christians on the road of repentance for sexual sin. The books titled False Intimacy and Undefiled are an extension of the one-week Biblical intensive counselling program Harry provides...

The problem with my original writings was the focus on sin, the labeling of people according to their sin, the sharing and discussing of sin, and the constant reminders of the sin. This is Old Covenant law-oriented, problem-focused doctrine and not according to biblical truth, and it hurt many people to whom I’ve recently been apologizing.

- Mike Cleveland, announcing his repudiation of thirteen years of work with Setting Captives Free

One change in the past quarter-century that has been terribly destructive within the Church and Her households is the ubiquity of the internet through smartphones, tablets, and laptops. These tools have enabled the private consumption of horrendous moral filth and Christian men and (increasingly) women have found this wickedness almost irresistible. The percentage of young Christian men who have succumbed to internet fornication on a regular basis is likely close to ninety percent, and now women have joined men and are consuming thirty percent of the internet filth.

At Clearnote, we've given ourselves to working closely with men and women repenting of this sin. A critical part of our work with those repenting of this sin is that each man and woman has been required to enroll in an internet discipleship program called Setting Captives Free (SCF).

For this reason we were quite sad to be notified recently by several men of our congregation that SCF is now repudiating and will no longer be offering their former courses, including the Way of Purity (for heterosexuals who are struggling with sexual sin) and Door of Hope (for homosexuals in the same position). After a preliminary investigation, one of our elders wrote "it would appear [they] are watering down the gospel by shifting focus away from sin and the need to repent from it."

We contacted SCF to express our concern and this was their...

[This post is sixth in a series (the first, second, third, fourth, fifth) working through Pastor Scott Sauls and Christ Presbyterian Church's "Same-Sex Attraction Forum."]

A major underlying premise of Christ Presbyterian Church's Same-Sex Attraction Forum was this: men and women who struggle with same-sex attraction cannot marry without being healed of that attraction. This premise is accepted without debate but, in reality, should be rejected. The assumption being made is that one's attractions are iron-clad and monolithic. Closer to the truth would be that most who struggle with same-sex attraction also find themselves to be sexually and romantically attracted to members of the opposite sex. That, you will find, to be the testimony of many homosexually tempted men and women. If that is the case, a refusal to pursue marriage is likely motivated by the same factors motivating many young men to live in their parents' basement well into their thirties: they don't want to bear the responsibility of a wife and children and the discipline of the marriage bed. 

To put it delicately, if a man can be sexually aroused by a woman even though he may have predominantly same-sex desires... 

Listening to the talking heads doing a postmortem on Brazil's epic loss to Germany last night, I was fascinated to hear former soccer heroes lampooning Brazil's "passion." They kept saying things like, "it takes more than passion to win a football game" and "Brazil's emotions came up short against Germany's discipline."

For years I've been embarrassed for all the Christian men who take every conceivable opportunity to announce to the world what they're passionate about. I'm waiting for one of them to tell me he's passionate in bed with his wife, but of course that is what is never said. Instead these men simper and coo about their great passion...

By faith, will you join me in this prayer:

A Psalm of David. I will sing of lovingkindness and justice, To You, O LORD, I will sing praises. I will give heed to the blameless way. When will You come to me? I will walk within my house in the integrity of my heart. I will set no worthless thing before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; It shall not fasten its grip on me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will know no evil. Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him I will destroy; No one who has a haughty look and an arrogant heart will I endure...