Fighting the Appetites pt. 2: Fighting Desire with Desire

So a few weeks back I posted a quote from Russell Moore which you can read here. In it, he focuses on how our struggles against our appetites come in the form of constantly resisting temptations; temptations that could last for days, years, or lifetimes. As I was running yesterday, I was thinking of the nature of courage. And I honestly think it takes more courage to constantly fight one's sinful desires, to daily live as a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom. 12:1) and "to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him" (Col. 1:10) than it does to jump in front of a bullet. Because, let's be honest; you receive praise and respect from your fellow man for sacrificing yourself for a cause or a fellow human. But you rarely receive praise for putting to death "what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). But if indeed, "On account of these the wrath of God is coming" (Col. 3:6), the daily, hourly courageous struggle against these sinful desires should be greatly praised.

But if our sins are first and foremost against God (see this recent blog post), then how do we put to death the sinful desires that come from our very own hearts (Matt. 15:18-19)? If we put them to death, but don't put anything in their place, we will surely fall back into them. In my devotional today, Kevin DeYoung, reflects on the Heidelberg Catechism section dealing with the Seventh Commandment. He offers 12 verses and reflections thereof as a source of strength and encouragement to those fighting lustful desires. This one I found particularly encouraging, no matter what sins you are fighting and/or conquering:

"Matthew 5:8: "Blesses are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This has been the most helpful verse for me in fighting lust and temptation to sexual immorality. We need to fight desire with desire. Satan tempts us by holding out something that will be pleasurable to us. We aren't tempted to gorge ourselves on liverwurst, because for most it doesn't hold out the promise of great pleasure. But sex does. Pornography does. A second look does. The Bible gives us many weapons to fight temptation. We need to fight the fleeting pleasure of sexual sin with the far greater, more abiding pleasure of knowing God. The fight for sexual purity is the fight of faith. It may sound like nothing but hard work and gritting your teeth, the very opposite of faith. But faith is at the heart of this struggle. Do we believe that a glimpse of God is better than a glimpse of skin? Do we believe that God's steadfast love is better than life (Ps. 63:3)? We'd probably sin less if we spent less time thinking about our sins, sexual or otherwise, and more time meditating on the love and holiness of God." -KDY, The Good News We Almost Forgot

Just like they took away the Polaroid picture

They're gonna take away everything that means something.
Today I think I saw ten thousand cellphones
But not one decent conversation.
-Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Write Me a Letter

One of the frustrations of Newport Folk Festival now that the printable schedule is out is making the tough decisions of Emmylou Harris or M. Ward (or the Civil Wars), Gillian Welch or Tegan and Sara, etc. But one of the perks is figuring out what to see when there are no scheduling conflicts. Hence, over the weekend I checked out The Head and The Heart, with whom I am quite impressed. Rivers & Roads is one of the most gorgeous arrangements I've heard in a while. And while their lyrics need work, the driving force of the piano and Charity's violin make this young band one I'm considerably looking forward to seeing (and dancing to).

However, today my ears feasted on another band from the Pacific Northwest. Namely, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, and I am blown away. Drawing on inspirations such as Tom Waits and Cat Power, the band is extremely talented, ranging from ragtime to jazz to blues, rocking a mean upright base and a vast array of other instruments the whole way through. But the carrying power rests in Ford's unrestrained voice. In its rawness, it jerks you out of your seat and takes you down a wonderful road. I urge you to buy their album, Dirty Radio, as it's easily one of the best I've heard in a while. And if you need convincing, check out this video for Cage (where Ford's use of the megaphone is a direct shout-out to Waits' Chocolate Jesus).

How do we view sin?

"The Bible focuses on the vertical breach of God's law as the source of weal or woe in horizontal relationships. The curse of original sin and guilt is God's judgment based on his unalterable holiness and righteousness. The word "curse" belongs to the world of ancient Near Eastern diplomacy, with its threats for violating a treaty. God's curse upon humanity (and creation because of humankind) was the sanction that God warned about when he commissioned Adam as his covenant servant.

It is striking that even though he had seduced Bathsheba and then had her husband sent to his death in battle, David's confession begins with the cry, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:4-5). Can we identify today with that sharply vertical sense of sin--even horrible atrocities committed against our neighbor--as first and foremost an offense against God?

The impression that we often get today is that sin offends God only indirectly--because it hurts other people or ourselves, not because it is first and foremost an act of treason against our good and faithful Creator. Ironically, fundamentalism and the emergent movement sound alike at this point. The former may single out sex, drugs, and rock and roll while the latter targets militarism, greed, and environmental recklessness. However, both reduce sin primarily to sins (bad behaviors) apart from seeing the latter as the fruit of a moral condition that has swallowed our entire race and provoked the wrath of God: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Rom. 3:10-12, citing Ps. 14:1-3; 53:1-3).

Once we lose the vertical dimension of sin--that makes it truly sinful--there is no longer any place for understanding the cross as that marvelous paradox of love and wrath, mercy and justice. No longer a vicarious and propitiatory sacrifice (as if there was anything like God's wrath to worry about), Christ's work simply becomes a paradigmatic act of healing and restoring relationships between human beings and the environment."

-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission

God's Presence and Our Presence in His Script

"The main point to always bear in mind is that God is present where he promises to be present. We don't pull him down out of heaven or bring him up from the grave; rather, he comes to us through his Word, especially as it is preached. God is omnipresent, but the question for us is not where he is present in his majesty and glory, but where he is present in his mercy and grace toward us as sinners. Surely God is present in a beautiful sunset, in a violin concerto, in the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, and in the kindness even of my non-Christian neighbors. However, the question is where God is present in peace, with the assurance that he accepts me, forgives me, and adopts me as an heir of his estate. This comes only through the gospel--a strange and surprising report that we do not know as a matter of course or learn about through common culture. It is a story that can only be told, Good News that can only be announced...
The Bible is a grand story, from Genesis to Revelation, with Christ as the lead character. The more we hear the story, the more we find ourselves being written into it as characters. We discover ourselves not in the fading scripts of this age or in glossy magazine images but in the story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. We are there with Adam and Eve, capitulating to the lie. We are there with Abraham and Sarah, hearing and believing the gospel and being justified. We are walking along with the disciples, not getting it, then getting it, then not getting it again, and then really discovering what his journey was all about. And we are there with the company of heaven, worshiping the Lamb. It is the purpose of preaching and sacrament to put us there, to kill our dead-end character and to write us into God's script."
-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission

Bold I Approach

In my Bible study, we're working through a study on prayer called Bold I approach. Admittedly, I thought it was Bold-Roman Numeral I-Approach. It's Bold, I Approach. They seriously need a comma. But I'm reading through the third book in what is one of the best trilogies ever written, Michael Horton's Christless Christianity, The Gospel-Driven Life, and The Gospel Commission. If there's one word I could choose to sum up why I am appreciative for Michael Horton, it's for his boldness. Both in arguing against what the Gospel is not and in arguing for what it is. While Christless Christianity (which is so, so worth reading) provides a much-needed critique of Christianity in America, The Gospel-Driven Life offers the alternative, the solution, to many of those issues. As I read The Gospel Commission, I am challenged in a gut-wrenching way as I see what we are called to do in this time between Christ's first coming and His return. So many passages have weighed on my heart thus far, but I thought I'd share this one, as he sums things up so clearly:

"The mere fact that we live in a religiously pluralistic society today creates new pressures to soften the message, to remove its offense, and to present it as helpful for everybody rather than saving for those who believe.
In recent years, different views regarding the destiny of the unevangelized have been grouped under three classifications: pluralism, which holds that all paths lead to God; inclusivism, which teaches that although Christ is the only Savior, explicit faith in Christ is not ordinarily necessary for salvation; and exclusivism, which maintains that ordinarily there is no salvation apart from hearing and believing in Jesus Christ.
I am not a fan of these terms. Although I believe that the third view is consistently and clearly taught in Scripture, calling it "exclusive" stacks the deck against it. God loves the world and sent his Son so that whoever believes in him has eternal life (John 3:16). God includes in Christ a vast number from every nation who would have excluded themselves if it were not for God's sovereign, gracious intervention. It hardly seems appropriate to denigrate this announcement with the epithet "exclusive.""
-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission

Fighting the Appetites

"Sometimes we actually empower Satan by the way we speak of Christian conversion. We highlight the testimony of the ex-alcoholic who says, "Since I met Jesus I've never wanted another drink." Now that happens sometimes, and we should give thanks for God's power here. But this liberation is no more miraculous, indeed in some ways less so, than the testimony of the repentant drunk who says, "Every time I hear a clink of ice in a glass I tremble with desire, but God is faithful in keeping me sober."
The girl with same-sex desires might conclude she is doomed to be a lesbian because she isn't drawn to boys and still fights her attraction to girls. Family members who have to cut up their credit cards to keep from spending every paycheck on what they see advertised may conclude they're just not "spiritual" enough to follow Christ because they still war against their wants. Nonsense. You are not what you want. You are who you are. And that's defined by the Word of God. It might be that God frees your appetite from whatever it's drawn toward, but usually he instead enables you to fight it. This might go on for forty days, for forty years, for an entire lifetime. That's all right. There must be room then in our churches for a genuine bearing of one another's burdens when it comes to the appetites. Pretending the appetites are instantly nullified by conversion is a rejection of what God has told us--that we are still in the war zone."
-Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried

There's plenty of time to make you mine

"We expect Jesus to have endured temptation as we endure temptation--and he did. But much of what we include in "temptation" isn't temptation at all. It's beyond our good, created desires being appealed to. It's instead those embryonic stages of sinful desire. Jesus' desert testing was indeed forty days of torture, but his torture was not because he, like we, longed to do the forbidden. It is because embedded with those good, natural human desires, he longed for what was good in each of the things he was (temporarily) denied." -Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried

Seriously, though, buy this book or let me buy it for you. It's been a personally convicting and challenging page-turner thus far. The chapter "Starved to Death: Why We'd Rather Be Fed Than Fathered" hit me on so many levels. Buy it or let me buy it for you, seriously: Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ