Dr Paul Allen

The longer you fight against your sin, the more temptations you may face to no longer fight so hard. Once, perhaps, your zeal burned, your spiritual blood boiled. But as months passed and years passed, desires for a more comfortable Christianity were somehow wedged beneath your armour. Paul talks of killing sin and starving sin (Romans 8:13; 13:14), but you have begun to wonder whether a less decisive, more long-term approach may work just as well. Jesus speaks of tearing out an eye and cutting off a hand (Matthew 5:29) — you theoretically agree but, if honest, can hardly imagine self-denial so extreme. You may have once found relish in the righteous ferocity of a man like John Owen, who wrote of walking “over the bellies of his lusts” (Works, 6:14). But some time has passed since your boots have trampled your lusts. And as another Puritan once put it, you may feel tempted to speak of your sins as Lot did of Zoar: “Is it, not a little one?” (Genesis 19:20). Time makes way for many litt...

LUST: The word was originally a neutral term describing any strong desire; hence its use in early translations of Gn. 3:16; Jn. 1:13; Nu. 14:8; Heb. 10:6. In its modern restricted sense of sexual passion it cannot adequately render many familiar contexts in AV. The Heb. nep̱eš expresses craving or desire in Ex. 15:9 and Ps. 78:18, and carries the promise of satisfaction in Pr. 10:24. Gk. epithymia expresses any strong desire, the context or a qualifying adjective determining its nature, whether good or evil. Hence it is used of the intensely pure desire of Christ , Lk. 22:15, and of Paul’s desire to be with Christ, Phil. 1:23, and of his longing to see his converts, 1 Thes. 2:17. Yet in 1 Pet. 4:3 it stands among a list of Gentile vices, and the adjectives ‘worldly’, ‘evil’, ‘youthful’ and ‘deceitful’ are attached to it in Tit. 2:12; Col. 3:5; 2 Tim. 2:22; and Eph. 4:22 respectively. The restricted reference to sexual passion is found in Eph. 2:3; 1 Jn. 2:16; 1 Pet. 2:11 (c...

Use of pornography and other sexual sins are rampant in our culture and in the church. Many have concluded that such behavior or at least the lust that drives them is fundamentally an unsolvable problem, a sin that will not be defeated in the lives of God's children. But this response is unacceptable in the face of the severe and incalculable damage that lust inflicts upon lives, families, and fellowships. If we want to overcome lust, we need to recognize what we are dealing with. A good place to start is to understand the "sexual buzz"—the electric feeling of pleasure that makes sex so enjoyable. The psychobiologic sexual buzz involves our emotions, our bodies, and our cognitive functions. God designed these feelings for good. The sexual buzz occupies an essential role as an early phase of intimacy within the sexual union of marriage. Without it, we would not become aroused and sex probably would not happen enough to keep reproduction going or marital ties bindin...

Take an inventory of your life. What do you own right now? Whatever possessions you have are no accident, and not a product of mere happenstance. At the micro level, Jesus promises to care for even the minutest everyday details, like pocket money and food and clothes. As we see in Scripture, in these small possessions, God calls us to live with moral standards because we are susceptible to sinning our way into big problems (like unreasonable consumer debt). God calls us to be wise with money and to work and live economically fruitful lives, and to be careful with our possessions. At the macro level, all wealth distribution and re-distribution is the work of our sovereign God (Ecclesiastes 5:18 –6:2). All of our possessions are his, and he gives (and takes away) as he sees fit. God makes the poor and he makes the rich (1 Samuel 2:7). So how does God decide to distribute wealth in the lives of his creatures? This plays out in many different ways. God may give you many posse...

Hieronymus Bosch- The Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Last Things - Gluttony (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When we hear the expression " spiritual formation ," we immediately think of meditating on Scripture, praying, journaling, and other spiritual practices. If, however, the goal of spiritual formation is that one's "whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ " ( 1 Thess. 5:23), then an essential aspect of spiritual formation is to overcome sins of the body. If we consider the seven deadly sins —pride, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, sloth, and covetousness—three are directly connected to our bodies: lust, gluttony, and sloth.[1] Overcoming Lust God created human beings as male and female and told them to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth" (Gen 1:28). This universal command means that the majority of human beings will be married. Sexual intercourse is to be enjoyed within the bounds of this cov...

It Rhymes with Lust (1950), an early graphic-novel precursor. Cover art by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Matthew 5:27 –30 “I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful  intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (v. 28). Note that the antitheses found in the Sermon on the Mount do not say that all  sins are equal in degree. For example, ungodly anger and the act of murder  both violate the intent of Exodus 20:13 ( Matt. 5:21–22), but the hot-head and the murderer do not get the same punishment (Num. 35:9–29). Both sins make men guilty before our Creator and bring eternal death if there is no repentance (Rom. 3:23). Nevertheless, God punishes sinners in hell in proportion to the gravity of their sin and what has been revealed to them (Matt. 11:20–24). Furthermore, Christ ’s teaching on anger also shows us that we must not only refrain from forbidden acts, we must do all we can to enco...

Stained glass at St John the Baptist's Anglican Church http://www.stjohnsashfield.org.au, Ashfield, New South Wales. Illustrates Jesus' description of himself "I am the Good Shepherd" (from the Gospel of John, chapter 10, verse 11). This version of the image shows the detail of his face. The memorial window is also captioned: "To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of William Wright. Died 6th November, 1932. Aged 70 Yrs." (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Author: Tim Challies. John Owen goes on to list several of those dangerous symptoms. Inveterateness (hardened or deep-rooted). Here is what he says: “If it has lain long corrupting in your heart , if you have suffered it to abide in power and prevalency, without attempting vigorously the killing of it and the healing of the wounds you have received by it for some long season, your distemper is dangerous. … When a lust has lain long in the heart, corrupting, festering, cankering, it brings the soul to a woefu...