Overcoming Lust And Unhealthy Sexual Desires

Temptation is a common human experience and it comes in various forms. It is the enticement to do something we ought not to do. The persuasion often comes from the evil desire of the sinful nature in humankind which is often in war with the Holy Spirit. Of all the various forms of temptations, I think the biggest giant that overshadows a Christian’s life is lust and unhealthy and unrestrained sexual desires.

Any man or woman who claims that he/she had never had a lustful or unhealthy desire towards another human is a big lier. Desire is one of the God-given aspects of a human’s personality and life itself would be quite dull without it. But when we become slaves to desire that’s when we have a problem.

We live in a world where we are constantly bombarded with sexualized images in our papers, magazines and most prominently the internet. It is very easy to gain access to pornography on the internet these days. A lot of harm has been caused not just to adult relationships but also to teenagers by the easy access to internet pornography.

Although their isn’t exactly a table that shows which sin is the greatest but an unrestrained sexual desire could lead to greater sins. A very good example is King David. David’s unrestrained sexual desire for Bathsheba made him to commit murder and this also led to a great punishment by God (II Samuel Chapter 11 & 12). Sadly it’s not uncommon to hear or read about Church leaders and other prominent people in the society who have derailed not only their lives but also the lives of those around them because they allowed their unhealthy sexual desires to control them.

Our God is a merciful God and he always provides an escape route from temptation. God sometimes allows Christians to be tested in their spiritual journeys but these tests are not meant to cause them to fall into sin because God always provides a way to overcome it. Even Christ was tempted by the devil.

The most important thing to be careful about when facing any form of temptation is over-confidence. Self-confidence has always been the problem of man, especially amongst seemingly mature believers. No one is immune to sexual temptation or any other form of temptation. You’re not and I am also not. Even the most pious of us may not be able to resist sexual temptations.

Christians can overcome temptations through the power of the Holy Spirit but how can you do this if the Holy Spirit is not dwelling in you. Any Christian who isn’t familiar with the words of God will also find it had to resist falling into temptation. Like they always say “prayer is the masterkey”; a prayerless Christian will also find it hard to overcome temptation. To be tempted is not a sin but temptation becomes a sin when we yield to it. We must all be careful not to see ourselves as being above temptation. Pride goes before a fall.

Mother Of The Year

I have been a member of Pilgrim Baptist Church for almost a year now. Something occurred during my first day at the church that I’ll never forget. It happened during the time of tithes and offerings.

The whole congregation has to dance to the front of the auditorium and drop their offerings in boxes placed there. I was walking between one of the aisles (I rarely dance), when I looked towards another aisle and I saw an old woman also going to the front of the church to drop her offering also.

I’ve seen a lot of old women in my twenty-something years on earth but I couldn’t stop staring at her. Her back was completely bent and she was using an umbrella to support herself. I’m not that good at guessing people’s age but I think she ought to be over a century old. She dropped her offering and went back to the pew were she was sitting down and I must confess I didn’t stop staring at her.

In the following Sundays, I noticed that she always gets to church early. I made a promise to myself that I will always get to church before her ( I hate loosing and it would be embarrassing to be beaten by an old woman).

Sunday, eleventh of May 2014 was the day that Mother’s day was celebrated at Pilgrim Baptist Church. After a series of events, it was time to announce the mother of the year. The women leader of the church went to the pulpit and after a brief speech she said:

“Our Mother of the year 2014 is someone who doesn’t need much introduction. Her name is Mama Josephine Okocha.”

All the women in the church auditorium and 90% of the men in the church stood up and started clapping. I was curious to see who deserved such a standing ovation and I also stood up to get a better view.

When I saw that it was the old woman, I also started clapping and I was one of the last set of people to stop clapping. She really deserved such an honour and a lot of people showered her with gifts and money.

A lot of our youths who are still very young ain’t vibrant at all. Most of them come to church late and leave early. They are also usually busy IMing and updating their social networks status’ while the service is going on.

Only God knows what the future is gonna be like for these generation of youths.

ADEWUYI.

Bad Saturday

Yesterday, Friday18th April 2014 was GOOD FRIDAY. It was a day that was sacred to all christians and you could see a lot of them going to church.

Christians believe that christ died for our sins on friday and he then rose up on the third day after his death. In fact, the christian faith and testimony rests largely on the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have heard of some religious leaders who died and came back to life but they died again.

When I was a kid, I always wondered why a day that Someone as important as Christ died is known as GOOD FRIDAY. As the years went by and I began to understand the bible more, I finally understood why it was known as GOOD FRIDAY.

Christ’s death was not ordinary. He suffered and died on the cross of calvary in order to save us all. What day could be as good as that?

Today is Saturday and Christ is in the grave. I wonder how his disciples and the Christians who were alive when Christ was on earth felt on the Saturday after his death.

I think today should be known as bad saturday because Christ is dead and in the grave.

ADEWUYI

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy

David was singing along to the track playing on his stereo. He was on his way to the airport to wait for his wife’s arrival. Her flight got delayed due to adverse weather conditions.

It was around 10pm on a sunday and most of the roads were deserted. When he got to a junction and turned to a new street he saw a fairly large crowd ahead of him. He slowed down a bit and turned down the volume of his stereo.

When he got to were the crowd was, he saw that they were pointing at a man and laughing. He was about to drive past when he thought he recognised the man. He parked his car and approached the crowd. He wanted to take a closer look at the man.

David wove his way through the crowd till he got very close to the man. When he saw the man’s face, he stood on a spot with his mouth wide open in surprise.

The man was clearly drunk. He was dancing to an imaginary song because there wasn’t any music playing in that vicinity. He stopped dancing at intervals, stared at the crowd and said;
“remember the sabbath day and keep it holy”.

When David heard this, he remembered the sermon preached by his pastor earlier that day. His pastor had spoken about the ten commandments but he had laid more emphasis on the fourth one ( remember the sabbath day and keep it holy).

A short and stocky man approached David.
“Judging by your reaction, it seems you know this drunkard?”
“Yes”, David answered.
“He is well known around here. He patronizes that bar”, the short man said while pointing at a building.

David looked towards the direction of the building without saying anything.

“So, who is he?”, the short man asked.
“He was my Pastor”, David answered and he went back towards his car.

ADEWUYI

THE TWELFTH COMMANDMENT (thou shalt do what you feel is right)

Have you read The Eleventh Commandment(thou shalt not get caught)? If your answer is no, you need to read this good thriller by a great author, Jeffery Archer.

Since there’s already an Eleventh Commandment, I’m writing about the Twelfth.

Although most people claim to be Christians and even go to church regularly, they don’t adhere to the ten commandments (Exodus 20:3-17). They find one excuse or the other not to follow what the ten commandments says.

The Twelfth Commandment (thou shalt do what you feel is right), on the other hand, is a commandment that almost everybody use daily. I must confess that I’m also guilty. I’ll like to focus on our special country NIGERIA.

Nigeria, is a land flowing with milk and honey but most of the citizens are suffering. Countries that don’t have half as much resources as Nigeria are living comfortably and they’ve got a good economy. Our so called leaders are greedy and selfish. They embezzle public funds and they usually don’t get punished. The annoying part is that those that claim to be christians are sometimes the worst.

The fact that our leaders don’t adhere to their oath of office has also affected most of the citizens. A friend once told me that he was going to steal as much money as he can whenever he gets appointed to a public office.

There’s this Chinese saying
“live as if there’s a God, if there’s a God you will gain eternity, if there’s no God, then you will loose nothing”

We should try as much as possible to do what is right morally and not what we feel will benefit us alone. Whenever we find ourselves in a difficult and tempting situation we should ask God for guidance. We should try as much as possible to use the twelfth commandment for the right reasons. May God grant us wisdom. Amen