February 12

Friday is Accountability Day send me an email. If you have fallen behind, just pick up with today’s reading and catch up this summer.

Don’t Let Your Hormones Guide Your Life. Numbers 25

The Midianites realized they could not physically destroy the Israelites, so they planned on luring them into bed. Guys have a tendency to be directed by their hormones more than their brains. Sorry guys, but this is absolutely true. So, these guys jumped into bed with these women and a plague wipes out 24,000 of them. AIDS has wiped out a lot more than that. Right now in NYC, one in four people have herpes. In today’s politically correct culture, this passage makes no sense. If Phinehas were on Jerry Springer, he would have been booed off stage. The Israelites were just expressing themselves. Who are you Phinehas to say what is right and wrong sexually? Young people just do these things; the best we can do is to buy condoms for them. This is part of the new morality in our culture. Sin of any kind is always grievous, but sin that destroys the family evokes the highest of response from a holy God. God is for the family and marriage. He wants couples to commit to “The Notebook” type of love. There is a huge difference between lust and love. His design is for men and women to make a lifetime commitment to each other and from the security of that love to build into the lives of the next generation. Fragmented families destroy the next generation. The Midianites knew this, why don’t we get it? When we see the lives of Eliot Spitzer, Tiger Woods, Mark Sanford, John Edwards we all know in our hearts that something has gone wrong in these guys. When the families are destroyed, it is only a matter of time before the whole society will crumble. That is why God wants it to be one man, one woman for a lifetime of Valentines Day love and intimacy.
Here is a written thought I keep close to me during times of temptation:

If I go further down this road, I will probably grieve the One who redeemed me. I will probably drag His sacred name into the mud, which I know leads to unbelievers laughing at Christianity. One day I will have to look Jesus, the righteous Savior, in the face and give an account of my actions. If I go farther, I will probably inflict untold hurt on my wife Kathie, who is my best friend and who has been faithful to me. I will lose my wife's respect and trust: I will hurt my beloved sons and daughter. I will destroy my example and credibility with my children. I might lose my wife and my children forever. I would cause incredible shame and reproach to fall upon my family. I would lose self-respect. I could create a form of guilt awfully hard to shake. Even though God would forgive me, would I ever be able to forgive myself? I could form memories
and flashbacks that could plague future intimacy with my spouse. I could heap judgment and endless difficulty on the person with whom I committed adultery. I could possibly reap the consequences of disease like gonorrhea, syphilis, herpes or AIDS. Maybe I could cause a pregnancy, and that would be a lifelong reminder of my sin.

As a man of God, I am not a victim of my hormones nor a slave to the seductions of the world. Through Christ, I can control every thought that passes through my mind. Real men of God allow God's power to keep them from such senseless sin.


Thought for today: What method do you think Satan is using today to destroy our young men and women? Is there any possibility that he is seducing them into sexual promiscuity for the purpose of destroying their lives and future happiness?

Not much has changed in 3000 years.