God's story and porn

I really enjoyed our men's breakfast today. God has laid this on my heart and today I had the privilege of talking to our men about it. Here is the outline of a very short talk. Hope it blesses you.

Men's breakfast:
God's story and porn.

Gn 1:1
Gn 1 everything is good: God places man in a perfect world. SHALOM. Peace, rythm, harmony, perfect synchronism in everything. Even with that perfect set up, God gifts man with a suitable helper. He says that it is not good for man to be alone. He marries them and it is interesting to notice 2 things:
1) Shalom was not compromised by marriage but extended to marriage. Perfect rhythm and union between man and wife. Which points to God himself. Perfect union within the Godhead where 1 God exists in three persons that are in complete and perfect harmony eternally.
2) Thus picture is further displayed with the phrase: "they shall become ONE". This word is used in the SHAMA. Deut 6 the Lord your God is ONE. Diversity within the absolute unity.

We see then that the union between a man and a woman is a very beautiful picture of God. This beauty is loved by those who love God and hated by those who hate Him.
In chapter 3 they get lured by Satan, their pride and desire to be independent from God and they sin.
Now Shalom was shattered. No peace, no synchronism, no rythm, no harmony. No relationship will ever be the same, death comes into the world and even creation itself groans waiting eagerly for the revealing of the sobs of God.
Gn 3:15 the first gospel is announced. Seed of the WOMAN. (no mention of a biological father) Satan has been attacking men ever since.
In Gn 6 God declares the estate of the human heart " every intention is evil". V5
God floods the earth saves 1 family. Another picture of Jesus.
(The ark)
Gen 12 God calls Abram and makes a covenant with him. ( make him a great nation, bless those who bless him. Curse those who curse him.)
From then on the pictures and prophecies of Christ get more and more clear to the point where the prophet Isaiah describes Jesus and his substitutionary death in detail.
God's story culminates in what we call the NT where God himself takes humanity upon himself lives, dies and is resurrected for his people. Jesus Christ ascended into heaven and has promised to come back to wrap up history redeeming completely the totality of his children and condemning those who aren't his, who do not obey his Gospel. (2 thess 1:8,9)
Between now and then we live in a very interesting time wher there is pain, sorrow, tears, death. There is a fierce spiritual battle between God's people and Satan and his servants. They do not want the kingdom of God to be expanded and the surest way they have is to destroy men. If we are behaving like little boys, churches won't flourish, families will not flourish, the next generation won't be trained in the fear of the Lord, our wives won't grow in the Lord because they have to spend the totality of their time acting like our moms and not like a suitable helper the way Gid intended to be so that his glory would be displayed in holy matrimony.
Brothers, St. Paul says in 2 Cor 2:11 that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices. I love you and I don't want you to be ignorant of his devices. I don't want you to be defeated. I don't want you to be a loser. I don't want your family destroyed. I want you to grow into mature men of God. Jesus loving, bible believing, God fearing men who look like Jesus.
Satan has been feeding the lust of our flesh with porn:
Stats:
Seventy percent of American men ages 18–34 view Internet pornography once a month.
Fifty percent of Christian men viewed pornography recently. 60% have viewed it in the last year.
The average age for first time viewing porn is 11 years old. That means that thousands of 9 year olds are exposed to this daily.
Seventy percent of women in the sex industry have been molested as a child. In most cases by a relative or close friend of the family.
I want you to know that as a child of God, you are not enslaved to sin anymore. You have the power by the holy Spirit to say "NO" and not click and not pop that DVD in, not look at that magazine, not use your internet enabled phone as a "porn to go" device.
Also, as men of God, we don't get to live in a lie. If God loves you, he will expose your sin to correct you. The best path for the child of God is repentance.
As men of God, we have to put on the mind of Christ and as we see the women in porn we should remember how much brokenness there is inside that human being who is created in the image of God and think: I wonder who she lost her virginity to. Was it her dad? Uncle? Was it a violent rape? Brokenness in the world should ignite in us compassion and desire to join God in mission, not sexual arousal. Sexual sin is a demonic, cheap imitation of God's great plan for intimacy in marriage and one of the surest ways to welcome demonic activity.
I'll leave you with this verse:


1Cr 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

UFC 109 Educated guesses

The UFC has titled it "Relentless" but these guys came up with a better, funnier title: "UFC 109 Can't get it up". While I do think the main event is lame, unless it's 2002 again, and the Serra x Trigg should be a words only fight, at an elderly home weekend bingo or something, I am actually looking forward to the other fights. From the bottom I'll start:

Trigg x Serra: Wrestling goes to Trigg, BJJ to Serra who also has heavier hands. That puts Serra in a pretty comfortable spot for this one, so I'll go with Serra via TKO 2nd round. (But who cares..)

MIke Swick x Paulo Thiago: This fight is tougher than people think and Swick will be in danger of a TKO because Thiago has "1 punch Knock Down power" on both hands and he can smell blood from afar, while Swick relies more on landing sequences a la Wand style, but he, most likely will not be able to land many of those on Thiago. Having said that, I do think Swick will stay away from the big punches and barely out strike Thiago, yanking a split decision on this one.

Nate Marquardt x Chael Sonnen: When I first heard the rumor of this fight I begged Nate (via Twitter) not to take this fight. Henderson was still in the mix and the Silva x Belfort deal was not done yet. Since Silva was still healing from his surgery, I thought Nate could fight either Victor or Henderson but Joe Silva apparently had different plans. I mean no disrespect to Sonnen but he hasn't really done anything to deserve the number 1 contender. Sonnen is a good fighter with a good history and an even better future in my opinion. Having said that, he's got his work cut out for him on this one. Simply put, Marquardt does everything Sonnen does, better. I honestly feel that Nate will give him an ugly beating for 3 rounds and either get a very convincing unanimous decision or a ref stoppage, deep in the 3rd round. Nate will not finish Sonnen because there is no "quit" in that man. Sonnen will take a beating that would make many fighters give up, but not Sonnen and for that, he deserves our respect.
Marquardt by unanimous decision. (10-26)

The main event: Couture x Coleman may be an interesting fight according to a friend of mine and I agree but let's just put it this way: "It will not be up for fight of the year", not even close. I think it will be painfully boring to see two excellent wrestlers pressing against the cage, fighting for under hooks for 13 minutes. On the brighter side, we may get to enjoy a little bit of sub par striking devoid of any knockout power before they clinch for 3 minutes and Coleman gets out of gas and Couture scores a TKO before the bell ends the 1st round. So I'm thinking Couture via TKO before 7:30 minutes. If that happens, we'll actually be able to see Danzig and Rolles Gracie at work. Two very interesting match ups.

Fight of the night: Marquardt x Sonnen

It's Halloween again.

Once again the streets of America have a different face, a scary face. Carved pumpkins and spider webs everywhere. Kids dress up in their cute costumes (some cutter than others) and go out on the streets "Trick or Treating". I won't pretend to be an expert on Halloween because I am clearly not. I have to say though, having been brought up elsewhere, the fact that children go out on the streets knocking on strangers' doors asking for candy does trip me out. But why is it that we don't do Halloween? Are we being over zealous parents? After all, the triplets are 3 1/2 and this is the first year we have to really deal with it. And mind you, we haven't slept in 3 1/2 years.
I do think that it is possible for godly parents to go trick or treating with their children and use that as opportunity to teach them about Christ while at the same time engaging the culture, being part of a community and etc...Having said that i am fully convinced in my conscience that I should not participate in it. It's not like I don't want to do Halloween because of all the child sacrifices and satanists looking for little children to murder on that day, which the police records in the country don't know much about anyway. It's not like that at all. So why don't we do Halloween?
One reason is a fascination for the ugly. I think there is already too much ugly and negative in the world that we have no control about. For that reason, Halloween is not attractive to me. It's actually a turn off.This is why I do believe in Halloween alternatives where kids can have a lot of fun in, what I think, is a healthier way. There are other reasons too. I, in my BC days, was deeply involved in a religion very similar to the Cuban Santeria. One of the "deities" we celebrated was a pair of twin children that was appeased by candy or they would trick you. People all over the country would go out on the streets and lay their offers to this deity in hopes of getting on their good side through out the year and to thank them for the past year. Children would go out at the same time all over the streets stealing the offerings from every corner and the whole thing was a big celebration for worshipers and children alike. That has too many similarities to Halloween for me, and it hits me in a way that makes me not want to take any part of it.
When I was writing this post, a pastor, church planter I follow on Twitter posted his reasons for not celebrating Halloween on his blog and I was blessed as he conveyed my sentiments exactly. I asked for his permission to steal it and he replied: " Post away", so here we go:

Why we don't do Halloween, by Joe Holland.

The Hollands don't do Halloween.

To be honest, Halloween makes my stomach turn. I'm a pastor. I daily face death and its destruction—physical and spiritual. In hospitals, counseling sessions, and sermons I teach people about Jesus's triumph over sin, death, and the devil. Mortality, spiritual malevolence, demons, twisted sensuality, devils and the like aren't just costumes at RiteAid. They are daily realities.

So when it comes around to Halloween and I see ghoulish decorations, 5 year old zombies, 8 year -olds in fish net stockings, bloody corpses in front yards, and resurrecting dead it hits a little too close to home. How can I laugh and give kids sugar highs when I'm facing grotesque, cartoonish representations of the things that literally haunt people's souls? Do I really want my kids thinking that death and the demonic are only lawn decorations for a few weeks a year?

I know what you're thinking, "Dude, lighten up!" Well, I've tried and have been unsuccessful. I'm not angry at Halloween or the folks that will pad my street on the eve of October 31. I'm not really all that concerned with the historicity of the cultural practice. I don't even think there is a whole lot of malevolence going on—in fact I'm more concerned with the relative ease in interacting with Halloween on a thematic level.

I just can't keep from cringing when I think about it.

It comes down to the cross. I actually believe that Jesus triumphed over malevolent spiritual forces at the cross—Col 2:15. The cross has changed me and my affections in ways I could never have predicted. I'm more serious about death and the spiritual world than I've ever been. I'm also more joyful in God's power over sin, death, and devil through Christ than I have ever been.

For so many Halloween is about good times, candy, and fun. Put simply it is joyful frivolity and dress up. For me it is sobering and sharpening.

So we don't do Halloween. Not because we think it earns us anything with God. It's just the way the cross has affected me and my family.

Now for all of the disclaimers:

1. If you participate in Halloween with a clear conscience then please continue to do so. I don't think you're a pagan Satan worshiper.
2. I know not all of Halloween is about death and the creepy. If you want your little pumpkin to parade up and down the street with Freddy and 12 year old bar maids, then go for it.
3. I love my neighbors and actively and aggressively look for ways to tell them about Jesus. The whole, "You're not really into evangelizing if you don't do Halloween" is one of the more stupid arguments I've heard.
4. I'm not really into Halloween alternatives either.
5. The whole argument not do Halloween based on its historical basis is silly too. Although, if Halloween occurred for the very first time this year, would you participate? Something to think about.
6. Don't worry about my poor deprived children. We have a large tupperware full of costumes and I give them enough candy to make a dentist's drill finger twitch. They do just fine on the other 364 days a year when it comes to dress-up and sugar consumption."

Additionally, I read something very interesting on The Resurgence blog. The history of the holiday and its connection with the protestant Reformation.Give it a read.

Radical video

This is more radical than Piper on divorce or the Duncan brothers rapping. Check it out.

JR Vassar

I don't remember how I came across @jrvassar from @apostlesNYC or why I started to follow him on twitter, but I am glad I did it. Pastor Vassar's preaching engages you in a way that gives you the feeling that he's talking directly and only to you. I recently listened to a brief series of his and I highly recommend it. Here are the titles:

1-Marriage and Men
2-Gospel, Community, and Mission
3-Marriage and Women
4-Intentional Singleness
5-Gospel parenting.

Keep close attention

Men of God,pay close attention to your life and doctrine. This is a little bit of what it looks like.

Where is God?

If this baby had been crushed, some would cry out: "Where is God?" Will they acknowledge his hand on this train?