The first chapter of "Porn Again Christian" is available now—here. Please tell all of the guys you know about this.
When all of the chapters are on the site, the complete book will be available as a free pdf.
"In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful." 2 Samuel 11:1-2
In this passage we see that David has neglected his responsibility to go out to battle, has sent others to fight, stays home, sleeps until evening, finally gets up, and starts looking at a naked woman that is not his wife! Most of us know where the story goes from here, the plot and the resulting pain to himself and others is all too familiar to us as we look around at our families, churches and the broader culture in which we live.
The only real difference between David and too many of us in our modern age is that we do not have to stand at a distance on a rooftop, squinting to try and get a better view of the naked woman’s body. It gets streamed directly into our offices, bedrooms, and laptops in high definition. Thanks to advances in recent technology, it is even available on our cell phones to be seen on demand at any moment or location. So thousands of years later, we men are still suffering from the same progression of events as David did in 2nd Samuel.
While it would be easy to blame our situation on the ubiquity of pornography in this age of technology, I believe the problem starts earlier in the story. Long before David stares at Bathsheeba, long before he has Uriah killed, long before all the terrible consequences have played out in David’s life and that of his family, something much more sinister had taken place. Somewhere along the way he lost sight of the mission that he had been given by God himself. He was the king of Israel and he was supposed to be at war fighting the forces of evil and expanding the kingdom! Yet he chose to stay home.
Unfortunately, most men in the church today have made the same decision. Even worse, many churches today actually tell men that they are not here to fight. And so we stay home and our stories become eerily similar to that of David. But the truth is that just like David, we have a mission from God to fight! We have a mission from God to continue the work of rescuing his people from captivity, we have an enemy who opposes us that is described as “a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour’, and at stake are the very souls of people for eternity! There is no greater struggle that we could be involved in.
When Paul tells Timothy to “fight the good fight”, he does not say “live like you are in a fight”. It is not a metaphor that Paul is using; he is telling Timothy something very real and very specific. We are here to fight, and we are to fight “good”!
Our lives share another very important element with the story of David's failure, God was winning even though David chose to stay home! It says that Israel “destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah”. With or without David, God was winning. It is the same today; with or without us, God is winning. So where is God active and winning battles today?
One area that stands out is Mixed Martial Arts (Ultimate Fighting). I do not believe it is coincidental that while the church is struggling to attract young men, God is raising up men who are committed to him in the one area that everyone agrees young men (actually men of all ages) are drawn to. Fighting. Fighters such as Matt Lindland, Trevor Prangley, Ken Shamrock, Matt Horwich, Matt and Mark Hughes, Pat Miletich, and many more of the most popular people in the sport are all committed Christian men who have chosen to speak openly about their faith in Jesus Christ.
This means that most men in the church today need to get off their blessed assurance and follow God into battle! To that end, I will be using this blog in the future to help train men in the biblical fight principles that Paul outlines in his epistles and we will be using real fighters and real fighting to help illustrate these. But first, I want to talk about the young men in this country who are conspicuously absent from our churches and how we can follow God into the battle for these men's souls.
Question 122 - What is the first petition?
Answer - Hallowed be Thy Name. That is: Grant us first of all that we may rightly know Thee,1 and sanctify, glorify, and praise Thee in all Thy works, in which shine forth Thy almighty power, wisdom, goodness, righteousness, mercy, and truth.2 Grant us also that we may so direct our whole life-- our thoughts, words, and actions-- that Thy Name is not blasphemed because of us but always honoured and praised.3
1 Jer. 9:23-24; 31:33-34; Matt. 16:17; John 17:3. 2 Ex. 34:5-8; Ps. 145; Jer. 32:16-20; Luke 1:46-55, 68-75; Rom. 11:33-36. 3 Ps. 115:1; Matt. 5:16.
Question 113 - What does the tenth commandment require of us?
Answer - That not even the slightest thought or desire contrary to any of God's commandments should ever arise in our heart. Rather, we should always hate all sin with all our heart, and delight in all righteousness.1
Question 88 - What is the true repentance or conversion of man?
Answer - It is the dying of the old nature and the coming to life of the new.1
1 Rom. 6:1-11; I Cor. 5:7; II Cor. 5:17; Eph. 4:22-24; Col. 3:5-10.
Question 86 - Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace alone through Christ, without any merit of our own, why must we yet do good works?
Answer - Because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit to be His image, so that with our whole life we may show ourselves thankful to God for His benefits,1 and He may be praised by us.2 Further, that we ourselves may be assured of our faith by its fruits,3 and that by our godly walk of life we may win our neighbours for Christ.4
In this audio from the first session of the inaugural Gospel Coalition conference, listen as Dr. Don Carson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School talks on just exactly "what is the Gospel?" In this mp3, Dr. Carson lists eight summarizing words that help to define the Gospel, five clarifying sentence to differentiate the Gospel from what it is not, and one evocative summary. We pray that as you hear Dr. Carson's words you will learn what it means to truly be about the Gospel and to experience the transformation that inevitably accompanies it.
In this video from the first session of the inaugural Gospel Coalition conference, watch as Dr. Don Carson of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School talks on just exactly "what is the Gospel?" In this video, Dr. Carson lists eight summarizing words that help to define the Gospel, five clarifying sentence to differentiate the Gospel from what it is not, and one evocative summary. We pray that as you hear Dr. Carson's words you will learn what it means to truly be about the Gospel and to experience the transformation that inevitably accompanies it.
It may seem patently self-evident that faith must be primary in knowing God. But nothing seems more frequently and easily missed, especially by those who profess the greatest loyalty to Christ theologically! Protestants will often argue about the nature of faith alone in order to keep out all human works, or merit, in salvation. This is generally done in fierce opposition to Rome's teaching, because of the long debates about justification. The phrase sola fide becomes a kind of rallying cry for the faithful as if saying the words makes you faithful to the gospel. This is an argument that I have great sympathy for since I am persuaded that nothing I bring to God contributes a meritorious thing to my salvation. Catholics have responded to this sola fide argument by saying that real faith is always active. Thus any notion of "faith alone" that separates faith from love and active Christian obedience is not real faith at all. For Catholics, sola fide sounds like bare faith with no love and no action. I can also find biblical support for this argument in places like Hebrews 11. The Scripture puts this very simply: "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).
The Faith Chapter
The great faith chapter of Hebrews 11 makes it quite obvious that faith will always love. It will also be active in receiving God's promises, and it will faithfully obey God in the midst of real trials and challenges. Faith is never, not once, defined in passive terms in Scripture. In this sense we must never say that faith is alone. Hear the Word of the Lord:
I have been reading an unbelievable book entitled The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification: Growing in Holiness by Living in Union with Christ by Walter Marshall. The back of the book reads:
The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification by Walter Marshall, first published in 1692, is one of the classic works of Christian spirituality. It is a deep and rich biblical study of sanctification—how Christians grow in holiness and become more like Jesus. In a day when Christians are very prone to pursue self-help methods to grow in obedience to Christ, Walter Marshall lays out the biblical way of growth: Obedience comes as Christians live by grace, in union with Christ by faith. Growth comes, as Paul says in Galatians 2:20, through "Christ living in me."
I have been stunned by the gospel-centeredness of this book. I have been even more stunned that I have never heard of this book before, nor have I spoken with anyone else who has heard of this book either. Shocking for a book that Dr. John Murray, the late professor of systematic theology at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia, said that this book was the most important book on sanctification that had ever been written. The introduction of the book, written by Bruce McRae, states:
The great theme of Walter Marshall's book is that Christians grow in obedience by the power of the gospel, not by their own strength. Christians are in union with Christ, and their Christian growth flows from this union, not from their own efforts. The gospel is essential for growth in holiness…The gospel says that through faith in Christ, you are completely forgiven of all your sins. Then, having been forgiven, you are called to sanctification by faith in Christ as well. Sanctification is the lifelong process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. All Christians agree on this point: Christians are called to pursue godly, holy living. On this point there is simply no debate. However, confusion sets in as soon as the question is asked, "How do Christians become holy? Where does the power for godly living come from?
The Resurgence is a movement that resources multiple generations to live for Jesus so that they can effectively reach their cities with the Gospel by staying culturally accessible and Biblically faithful.