{"id":5700,"date":"2018-01-08T13:12:49","date_gmt":"2018-01-08T19:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5700"},"modified":"2018-01-08T13:12:49","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T19:12:49","slug":"lust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/01\/08\/lust\/","title":{"rendered":"Lust"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brad Harrub, Ph.D<\/strong>
\nHaving looked into the tearful eyes of parents whose children have abandoned the Faith, I have learned there are a million miles between our children \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d in reference to their spiritual lives versus our children possessing hearts that dictate their actions. In this column, I plan to share with you what I hope to instill in the hearts of my own children and those whom I love.<\/i>\u00a0<\/span>
\nIn a hyper-sexualized nation we have almost become desensitized to it: lust. Scantily clad billboards are the norm. Restaurants featuring immodestly dressed women are not just doing well\u2014they are thriving, and new chains, also featuring immodest waitresses, are sprouting up in cities all across the nation. Television has become a parade of indecently dressed actors and actresses. Even many commercials use sex to sell products and feature immodest actresses.\u00a0<\/span>
\nMany people are dressing not just to\u00a0just\u00a0attract attention, but to\u00a0also\u00a0accentuate\u00a0their body. Our society feels very comfortable wearing very little or very tight clothes.\u00a0A Christian would be hard pressed to go to a local mall and not feel visually assaulted.\u00a0Add to this the epidemic of Internet pornography\u00a0and you can easily see the recipe for disaster. Infidelity has become the norm in television sitcoms, and marriages are falling apart all across the nation. And if we are honest with ourselves, lust does not stop at the doorway of a church building.\u00a0<\/span>
\nHere\u2019s what I intend to teach my<\/b>\u00a0children regarding lust.<\/b>\u00a0<\/span>
\nGod created our bodies\u2014and He created them \u201cgood.\u201d The human body is an amazing thing. Unfortunately, many people have taken the human body and turned it into an\u00a0ungodly object.\u00a0<\/span>
\nA simple definition of lust is longing for someone to whom you are not married.\u00a0Lust\u00a0is not something that Christians should be doing. Jesus said, \u201cBut I say to you that\u00a0whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart\u201d\u00a0(Matthew 5:28). I believe part of the reason Christ said this was because the act of lusting removes the \u201chuman\u201d element that was created in the image and likeness of God, and reduces that person down to an object. It also causes your mind to turn away from good things and to focus on fleshly things.\u00a0In that moment you are walking away from a holy God.\u00a0<\/span>
\nYour mom and I have tried hard to shelter you from much of this filth during your short lifetimes\u2014and we encourage you to do the same in your homes.\u00a0We know you are exposed to many sexual images when we go out in public, but we do everything we can to limit that exposure and to protect your hearts and minds.\u00a0Many people would argue that children should not be sheltered because they claim that protective \u201cbubble\u201d is not what the real world is like.\u00a0However, God does\u00a0not (and does not need to)\u00a0immerse His children in vile and graphic details so that you can \u201clearn\u201d and recognize sin. You\u00a0do not need to experience sin to know what it is (e.g., Jesus did not need to experience sin to know what was sinful). We have raised you in such a way that hopefully you will not even open your minds to the sin of lust.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nMany\u00a0people lust because they view it to be a \u201csecret sin\u201d that no one else is aware of. However, God is aware of everything\u2014and please remember that what you are doing is bringing your mind into darkness instead of the light.\u00a0The writer of Proverbs instructed his son to keep his father\u2019s command, \u201cTo keep you from the evil\u00a0woman,\u2028From the flattering tongue of a seductress.\u00a0<\/b>Do not lust after her beauty in your heart\u201d (Proverbs 6:24-25).\u00a0Later in that same book we read, \u201cThe righteousness of\u00a0the upright will deliver them,\u2028but the unfaithful will be caught by\u00a0their<\/i>\u00a0lust\u201d (Proverbs 11:6).\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>
\nLust is a battle of the mind. What you must do is constantly discipline your mind against going there.\u00a0Paul in writing to the church at Galatia admonished,\u00a0\u201cI say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish\u201d (Galatians 5:16-17).\u00a0Every time you find yourself in that battle, consider that it was our wretched sin that put Jesus Christ on the cross. Force yourself to consider the real cost of making someone into an object for your pleasure. The cost of sin is death\u2014it\u2019s not worth a few minutes of mental pleasure.\u00a0<\/span>
\nLove,\u00a0<\/span>
\nDad\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Brad Harrub, Ph.D Having looked into the tearful eyes of parents whose children have abandoned the Faith, I have learned there are a million miles between our children \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d in reference to their spiritual lives versus our children possessing hearts that dictate their actions. In this column, I plan to share […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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":[59,66],"tags":[904,236,586,1307,284,29],"class_list":["post-5700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living","category-think-excerpts","tag-brad-harrub","tag-heart-of-the-matter","tag-lust","tag-march-2013","tag-relationships","tag-sin","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nLust - 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\/2018\/01\/08\/lust\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lust - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Brad Harrub, Ph.D Having looked into the tearful eyes of parents whose children have abandoned the Faith, I have learned there are a million miles between our children \u201cgoing through the motions\u201d in reference to their spiritual lives versus our children possessing hearts that dictate their actions. 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