{"id":1171,"date":"2015-05-19T04:32:24","date_gmt":"2015-05-19T09:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/focuspressblog.com\/?p=1171"},"modified":"2015-05-19T04:32:24","modified_gmt":"2015-05-19T09:32:24","slug":"heart-of-the-matter-lust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2015\/05\/19\/heart-of-the-matter-lust\/","title":{"rendered":"Heart of the Matter: Lust"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><em>Having looked into the tearful eyes of parents whose children have abandoned the Faith, I have learned there are a million miles between our\u00a0<\/em><em>children \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d in reference to their spiritual lives\u00a0<\/em><em>versus our children possessing hearts that dictate their actions. In this\u00a0<\/em><em>column, I plan to share with you what I hope to instill in the hearts of my\u00a0<\/em><em>own children and those whom I love.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In a hyper-sexualized nation we have almost become desensitized\u00a0to it: lust. Scantily clad billboards are the norm. Restaurants featuring\u00a0immodestly dressed women are not just doing well\u2014they are thriving and\u00a0new chains, also featuring immodest waitresses, are sprouting up in cities\u00a0all across the nation. Television has become a parade of indecently dressed\u00a0actors and actresses. Even many commercials use sex to sell products and\u00a0feature immodest actresses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Many people are dressing not just to just attract\u00a0attention, but to also accentuate their bodies. Our society\u00a0feels very comfortable wearing very little or very tight\u00a0clothes. A Christian would be hard pressed to go to a\u00a0local mall and not feel visually assaulted. Add to this the\u00a0epidemic of Internet pornography and you can easily see\u00a0the recipe for disaster. Infidelity has become the norm\u00a0in television sitcoms, and marriages are falling apart all\u00a0across the nation. And if we are honest with ourselves,\u00a0lust does not stop at the doorway of a church building.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>Here\u2019s what I intend to teach my children\u00a0regarding lust.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">God created our bodies\u2014and He created them\u00a0\u201cgood.\u201d The human body is an amazing thing. Unfortunately,\u00a0many people have taken the human body and\u00a0turned it into an ungodly object.\u00a0A simple definition of lust is longing for someone to whom you are not\u00a0married. Lust is not something that Christians should be doing. Jesus said,\u00a0\u201cBut I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already\u00a0committed adultery with her in his heart\u201d (Matthew 5:28).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">I believe part\u00a0of the reason Christ said this was because the act of lusting removes the\u00a0\u201chuman\u201d element that was created in the image and likeness of God, and\u00a0reduces that person down to an object. It also causes your mind to turn away\u00a0from good things and to focus on fleshly things. In that moment you are\u00a0walking away from a holy God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Your mom and I have tried hard to shelter you from much of this filth\u00a0during your short lifetimes\u2014and we encourage you to do the same in your\u00a0homes. We know you are exposed to many sexual images when we go out\u00a0in public, but we do everything we can to limit that exposure and to\u00a0protect your hearts and minds. Many people would argue that children should\u00a0not be sheltered because they claim that protective \u201cbubble\u201d is not what\u00a0the real world is like. However, God does not (and does not need to)\u00a0immerse His children in vile and graphic details so that you can \u201clearn\u201d and\u00a0recognize sin. You do not need to experience sin to know what it is (e.g.,\u00a0Jesus did not need to experience sin to know what was sinful).\u00a0We have\u00a0reared you in such a way that hopefully you will not even open your minds\u00a0to the sin of lust.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Many people lust because they view it to be a \u201csecret sin\u201d that no one\u00a0else is aware of. However, God is aware of everything\u2014and please\u00a0remember that what you are doing is bringing your mind into darkness\u00a0instead of the light. The writer of Proverbs instructed his son to keep his\u00a0father\u2019s command, \u201cTo keep you from the evil woman, from the flattering\u00a0tongue of a seductress. Do not lust after her beauty in your heart\u201d (Proverbs\u00a06:24-25). Later in that same book we read, \u201cThe righteousness of the\u00a0upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust\u201d\u00a0(Proverbs 11:6).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Lust is a battle of the mind. What you must do is constantly discipline\u00a0your mind against going there. Paul in writing to the church at Galatia\u00a0admonished, \u201cI say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust\u00a0of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the\u00a0flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things\u00a0that you wish\u201d (Galatians 5:16-17). Every time you find yourself in that\u00a0battle, consider that it was our wretched sin that put Jesus Christ on the\u00a0cross. Force yourself to consider the real cost of making someone into an\u00a0object for your pleasure. The cost of sin is death\u2014it\u2019s not worth a few minutes\u00a0of mental pleasure.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Love,\u00a0Dad<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><strong>By Brad Harrub, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>For more info on Dr. Brad Harrub&#8217;s book &#8220;Heart of the Matter: Letters to My Children,&#8221; click\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/stores.focuspress.org\/heart-of-the-matter\/\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em>This article originally appeared in the March 2013 issue of\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/stores.focuspress.org\/think-magazine-annual-subscription\/\">Think<\/a><em><a href=\"http:\/\/stores.focuspress.org\/think-magazine-annual-subscription\/\"> magazine<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having looked into the tearful eyes of parents whose children have abandoned the Faith, I have learned there are a million miles between our\u00a0children \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d in reference to their spiritual lives\u00a0versus our children possessing hearts that dictate their actions. In this\u00a0column, I plan to share with you what I hope to instill [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,59,35,148,66],"tags":[145,586,150,248,587,352],"class_list":["post-1171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all","category-christian-living","category-culture","category-entertainment","category-think-excerpts","tag-brad","tag-lust","tag-pornography","tag-sex","tag-sexual-sins","tag-think","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Heart of the Matter: Lust - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2015\/05\/19\/heart-of-the-matter-lust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heart of the Matter: Lust - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having looked into the tearful eyes of parents whose children have abandoned the Faith, I have learned there are a million miles between our\u00a0children \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d in reference to their spiritual lives\u00a0versus our children possessing hearts that dictate their actions. 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