Book Review: Not Even A Hint by Joshua Harris

I wrote this book for both men and women. Why? Because lust isn’t a male problem. It is a human problem. It ruins our relationships, robs us of spiritual passion, and leaves us feeling hollow…

But the truth is that you and I don’t have to stay on that treadmill of guilt and shame. God calls us to a high standard - not even a hit of sexual impurity. And he gives us everything we need to make it a reality.

If you’re ready for a practical grace-centered plan for defeating lust and celebrating purity, I hope you’ll join me on a most promising journey.

- Joshua Harris

Lust goes beyond attraction, an appreciation of beauty, or even a healthy desire for sex - it makes these desires more important than God. Lust wants to go outside God’s guidelines to find satisfaction. - Joshua Harris, Not Even A Hint, Chapter 1 - The truth about Lust.

This is what lust is. It goes beyond God and centers on self. You’ll find that lust’s only concern is self satisfaction. We shouldn’t look far more than ourselves when we lust after the things that we do. What we first have to distinguish is the truths between what’s healthy and what’s not. Joshua Harris’ book, Not even a Hint made clear for that. 

He later on changed the title for this book to Sex is not the problem, lust is. This is what we should know. Sex shouldn’t be feared nor considered taboo. Lust is what makes this gift of God towards married couples dirty. This is what this book is addressing. I find the book really helpful the second time around. I have read this before and I would say that I have forgotten mostly what it said. Now that I’m in the will of God’s learning curve of sanctification in my life I find that the words that Harris wrote here helps more.

If you find yourself in a sick cycle of falling into this trap, and wanting to get out, I would suggest you pick up this book. Men and women alike. As Harris bluntly said, this is not just a man’s problem but a human problem. We need to know when to open ourselves towards this idea.

This book is split into 10 chapters and 3 parts. 

Part One discusses the Truth about Lust. This part consists of 3 chapters that will redeem the purpose for sex, the proper identification between our design to have sex drives and lust and the reality of us not being able to save ourselves from it. 

Part two, In the Thick of the Battle, gives perspective of the authors personal journey in battling lust and gives suggestions and ideas on why we’re in it and what we could possibly do to avoid it. I personally liked one of his suggestions but I’ll leave you, the next reader to see it for yourself.

Part three, Strategies for Long-Term Change, will give you suggestions by the author on what we could possibly do to make our desire to defeat lust gain ground over the shackles that held us in it.

I would really suggest this book for everyone who would want to defeat lust in order for them to be more that just a Christian in title but also a blessing towards the people around them. May you be not just a good partner for the one you’re with but also a sturdy support for others who are weak against it.

Not even a hint will not just leave you with self written contracts and ideas on how you, yourself alone, will be able to fight this sin that the Bible instructs us to flee from. Joshua Harris will really point you towards the truths about God as was stated in the Bible to fight against it.

With all that is said and done, if you haven’t done so yet, pick it up. If you already have this one in your library and still desiring to live a life closer to God and away from this, read it all over again.

“We must fight fire with fire. The fire of lust’s pleasures must be fought with the fire of God’s pleasures. If we try to fight the fire of lust with prohibitions and threats alone - even the terrible warnings of Jesus - we will fail. We must fight it with the massive promise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flicker of lust’s pleasure in the confagration of holy satisfaction” John Piper - Future Grace

Other Book Recommendations with regards to this topic:

Porn-Again Christian - Mark Driscoll

Triumph over Temptation - John Owen

Tap: Defeating the sins that defeat you - Yancey Arrington

Book Review: C.H. Spurgeon, All of Grace

The object of this book is the salvation of the reader

This 128 paged book that’s about 8 inches long is one that I would call a pocket dynamite. It fits in the back pocket of my jeans but has contents that would last forever.

In All of Grace, Spurgeon tackled the essentials of faith. He explains in detail, and in old english, the truths on justification and our nothingness.

Spurgeon concentrates on the technicalities or what happens in the background throughout salvation. It will give you a solid idea on what Justification is and an understanding on Faith and Grace.

One chapter in particular that made me weep as I understood the gravity of it was on Man’s Nothingness. It’s the 11th chapter that he entitled as I Can Do Nothing!. It will give you an understanding on Romans chapter 5.

It contains 20 short, concrete and straightforward chapters that goes from Justification to Preservation. It won’t leave you hanging as a perfect conclusion was written towards the end.

If you would like to see and understand God’s grace, then I would highly suggest you to read this book. I’d probably suggest that you’d get to pickup a more modern translation as I endured thee, thy, and all the -est from this guy.

The Lord does, in fact, produce the new birth in all who believe in Jesus, and their believing is the surest evidence that they are born again.
- C.H. Spurgeon

Psalm 104 Notes: Trust, Faith, Creation and Suffering

O Lord, how manifold are your works. In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures

Psalm 104:24

The whole Psalm 104 talks about the things that we normally see happen around us. But one thing I cannot deny as I was pondering on this Psalm is how everything just works together like a perfectly planned blueprint of creation. Everything, working together.

One thing that I have picked up from this is seeing and being confident in trusting the Lord’s wisdom.
I look all around and there, everywhere, I see the Lord’s wisdom through his creation.

Book Review: Don't Waste Your Life

After 9 days of 1 chapter each, I would say, this book by far… the most enjoyable book I have read this year (hehe).

But with all seriousness. Don’t Waste Your Life is something that I would suggest all Christians to read. This book will certainly act as a compass to where we should look and what we should look at.

It addresses the most common sickness known to men, and Christians alike, is complacency. We tend to see the cross of Christ, learn about salvation and sit back relax and be satisfied that we won’t suffer from guilt of sin and the fires of hell. This book should challenge you to look more beyond that.

So if you want to challenge yourself to look beyond that mediocrity and know what we should be gunning for, go ahead and pick this book up. Read it, understand it and hopefully enjoy it. Hopefully you’ll get to understand that it’s not us that we should be making much of, but Him who is worthy of all praise. Let’s all strive to understand and be satisfied by that fact so that in the end, we’ll look back and say yes, we didn’t waste our life.

God loves us by liberating us from the bondage of self so that we can enjoy knowing and admiring him forever. — John Piper

A Blog About God's Grace and the Seriousness of Sin

He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
Psalm 103:10-12

Gift - noun

something bestowed or acquired without any particular effort by the recipient orwithout its being earned

----

And if there's anything that wrecks my heart more, its this.

"He does not treat us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities."

I don't think one would get to see this clearly if one wouldn't consider the seriousness of sin.

Let me share to you how I came into having an idea of how serious sin is.

Psalm 1 Notes

So I was helping my Bubby memorize Psalm 1 for her Bible Study group a few weeks ago. As we kept on repeating and repeating the verses, it was like a nail being hammered to me as I found these verses more beautiful than I have initially thought.
 
Here are my notes on the 1st Psalm.

Top 5 Books Read in 2010

This is the year that I have flushed down quite a number of books down my library. So here, I give you the top 5 books that I have read last year.
1. Dug Down Deep - Joshua Harris

This book helped me out a lot when it comes to guiding me to where I should go with this new desire of knowing God. I just considered myself saved last March of 2010 and this book most certainly brought in the light to shine the things that I have been totally missing my whole life. Finding out who God is through scripture.
I've come to learn that theology matters. And it matters not because we want a good grade on a test but because what we know about God shapes the way we think and live. What you believe about God's nature-- what he is like, what he wants from you, and whether or not you will answer to him--affects every part of your life.- Joshua Harris, Dug Down Deep

2. Your Mind Matters - John Stott

This book set a blaze a fire within me to just know more and more and more. Any feeling that I feel should always be set ablaze by the truth that the Bible testifies about God. In lieu to what Dug Down Deep was, a lot of people has ideas about God. Oprah has one, Deepak Chopra has one, and probably your next door neighbor has one. In order for us not to be easily deceived we need to set our foot on the very book that testifies about the real God.
We shouldn't just bank on our feelings and emotions about God. Our hearts can easily deceive us. Everything else should be set in motion about the facts, the realities and what we know in our head and then catapult our emotions to what we know is real.
I am not pleading for a dry, humorless, academic Christianity, but for a warm devotion set on fire by truth. - John Stott, Your Mind Matters
3. Justification By Faith Alone - R.C. Sproul

To better understand where our faith totally lies I would suggest one should pick up this little dynamite by R.C. Sproul. This book answers on where our whole faith lies. What is it that we believe that Christ has accomplished on the Cross. How are we, Christian followers, declared righteous before the sight of God.
Without sola fide (justification by faith alone) one does not have the gospel; and without the gospel one does not have the Christian faith. - R.C. Sproul, Justification by Faith Alone
4. This Momentary Marriage - John Piper

I have always been the guy that has respected and take relationships seriously. It's not just something people should try out, it's something everyone should work for. And I thought I've got it all together before I even get to read this book. Dr. Piper has managed to rearrange the seriousness of relationships, commitments, and covenants to a whole new level.
As Dennis Rainey stated on his review that this is not just a How To on marriage, this is a why to book about marriage.
This Momentary Marriage managed to point the whole model of marriage back to the Gospel. And I wouldn't just recommend married or those to be married couples to read this book, I would also suggest single people with a desire to be married one day to grab a hold on this book.
Staying married, therefore, is not mainly about staying in love. It is about keeping covenant. "Till death do us part" or "As long as we both shall live" is a sacred covenant promise- the same kind Jesus made with his bride when he died for her.
Christ will never leave his wife. Ever. There may be times of painful distance and tragic backsliding on our part. But Christ keeps his covenant forever. Marriage is a display of that! That is the ultimate thing we can say about it. It puts the glory of Christ's covenant-keeping love on display. - John Piper, This Momentary Marraige
5. Triumph Over Temptation - John Owen

Recently finished and instantly loved. I've been munching on this book for quite some time now because I just have to admit, it's not an easy read. John Owen is one of the prominent Puritans that came out of their days and his treatise on The Mortification of Sin has been one of his most celebrated writings.
This book is a compilation of his three treatises regarding sin. These works of Owen are Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers, Of Temptation, and The Nature, Power, Deceit, and Prevalency of Indwelling Sin.
Anyone who would want to understand or at least see the glimpse of the corruption that we have within us should get a grab of this book. If you could recall the verse in the book of Jeremiah that describes the nature of our hearts as being deceitful, it is because of the sin that dwells within us.
This has totally acted as a mirror in my life and every chapter made me reflect on everything that I have done, am doing and what could possibly do. This book made me extra gracious to the people that I am leading as well since you'll start to understand the corruption that we have within our lives.
I enjoyed reading the last portion which discusses the mortification of sin since it gave out practical things to follow or to check with regards to the sins that we would want to cut off from our lives.
This book will truly help you point out that our salvation is truly of the Lord's and not from us.
When we realize a constant enemy of the soul abides within us, what diligence and watchfulness we should have!
We need to be awake, then, if our hearts would know the ways of God.
Our enemy is not only upon us as it was with Samson, but is also in us. - John Owen, Triumph Over Temptation
Notables:
1. Dangerous Duty of Delight - John Piper
2. Pierced by the Word - John Piper
3. The Five Points of Calvinism - Edwin Palmer
4. The Reformation - Stephen Nichols
5. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God - D.A. Carson

Why Do We Do What We Do: Marriage

We're going through a series where in we try to redeem the biblical implication of the stuff that we usually practice and see a bigger picture of what they are. One of the very things that we're going to look at right now is the very meaning of marriage. What is so important about it that we have to redeem the biblical meaning of it in hopes that we truly see the serious thing that marriage is, that it's even bigger than what we have thought it is.

This is one of the very things that I have always held up high and respected and waited for. I'm very blessed to have parents that are enjoying marriage and ever since I was a kid I've always wanted that kind of thing. Of course with the help of various media and just me being my plain ol' cheesy self, I've always held marriage in high esteem. The gift that it is to a couple of people who loves each other and the rewards that comes along with it. 

Has it been this way to many? This has also been one of the things that have constantly broken my heart. Being a witness of a marriage that wasn't even given a chance to materialize, hearing of people cheating with their husbands and wives left and right, marriage has consistently degraded from something held serious to a glorified "relationship".

I hold myself as someone who shouldn't even be talking about this since I am in no way near this season but I will speak to it in a stand point of someone looking at it, walking towards it with someone hand in hand and wanting to understand what it means more biblically and hopefully get to share that season with the one I am in love with.

Our goal for this session is to see what it is, and hopefully have a bigger picture on what it is biblically, and let our minds as people who are in a season of singleness looking for someone to share this with. I am not stopping you to chase relationships or going for this, I just want to mold your minds on what the texts that we're going to look at say about this and we could start from there.

Don't Waste Your Sorrows (Book of Ruth)

This is a blog entry that would summarize the message that was preached on our church this Sunday by Pastor Dave Darwin. We looked into the story of Naomi and Ruth in the book of Ruth and from there we tried to answer the question most people ask when they're in the gutter.

"Why me?"

Why Do We Do What We Do: Communion

We started a series a couple of weeks back that where we try and put biblical meaning on what we do with regards to our faith. There are alot of things that we practice, but somehow we ask and wonder why. Through the following weeks we'll try to answer why we do what we do.

Last week we discussed on why do we take communion.

Mr. DJ on Relationships

Why do we get into a relationship? What are the reasons why we even think about being in one?

I've never really gotten my head around it until I got to talk to one of the guys who are in my lifegroup.
Getting into a relationship, I believe, is something, that shouldn't be played around with. You have two souls, two human beings, two hearts that will get into it, and without treading carefully, you'd be setting each other into a different path.

Why do we get in one? Is it primarily so that you could feel satisfied? Is it because you'd just want to try it? I believe that being in a relationship is PRIMARILY sharing who you are. Relationships, now that I'm in one, is something that I would say not a joke. It's hard, It's fragile, but in the end if you're in it for the right reasons, it's the best thing that could ever happen in one persons life. You, being you, sharing all that you are to the person you love, long to be with, from now till the sun sets in your lives. Whoever said that it's not always rainbows and butterflies? I'm in probably one of the hardest relationship that one could endure, being in a long distance kind, but still enjoying it like opening a present, as a 6 year old kid, during Christmas morning. Everyday, ever since that fateful day, has always been special. All of them, a cause for celebration.

Reasons, do we need them before we get into one? Yes, I would say that everyone needs a reason when they jump into this ship that should hold a one way trip to forever. First of all, I think one shouldn't get in one unless they're in love. And not that kind of love that could be justified, It's that kind of love that you couldn't even put a finger on where it began, where it came from, or how it all happened. It's not something you learn while being in a relationship, I think, It's something that you find out as you get along with not being in one. It's that kind that you make you ask yourself if that's basically it. It's the one that transforms men to poets. It's the one that keeps you up all night. Yes, if that's what you're feeling then go on... jump on it. Risk it. I did... Took that 1% chance and, Iv'e never been more happier than I could ever be.

Second, I think everyone that's in it, should be thinking that they just want to share who they are to this person. Be who they are, without reserve, without any kind of pretensions, something that you can boast of for the right reasons. This kind of boasting is not the one that would make you feel all pompous and like a champ, I'm pertaining to that kind of boasting that would make you look more of a loser than a champ but still wouldn't care. It's something that you wouldn't ask in return, It's something that makes you to just want to give your time and not ask for anything back. It's something that you even feel the pleasure of going out of your way to go an extra mile with giving.

Reason that you can just see forever in this persons eyes...

Next question would be when. When you know you could step into forever. When you know you could put your foot down and stick with these things. When you know that you're happy by yourself, that you can finally pour yourself, without any kind of hang ups, to the other. When you just feel like you know. I guess, you'll know it, when you know.

For long have I walked around by myself. For long have I always thought that I'd never be happy alone. And right when I found happiness, by myself, satisfied and enjoying my completeness... That's when I found that very same person, that I've thought I'd never be happy without. I hope by reading this, you'd get to share yourself as you instead of sucking the life out of another person.

and since I'm a follower of Christ.

For me, the right reason that you'd want to think when getting into a relationship would be to glorify God in that. Get in one if you feel that you'd be doing what's pleasing unto Him, who has given all things. Just like our motto from my alma mater...

That in all things, God may be glorified.

Why Did You Die On Me XBOX360?

As you can see, this is the cinematic trailer for the Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2. And for those of you who know me well, knows that I'm a sucker for anything Star Wars. Even if it's bad like Episodes 1, 2 and 3, I would still go and watch them repeatedly just because they're Star Wars. 
I played the 1st Force Unleashed on my Wii and it was awesome. Imagine me swinging those Wii-motes like a lightsabre with my nephew watching the kid in me unleashed as well. I would swing them complete with a pouty mouth that would signify enjoyment and sound effects along with the ones that's already with the game. I loved it! and I want more...
Now I did have an Xbox360 not so long ago. I bought my friends unit for a steal price. Unfortunately, He didn't last long. Now that Box is just an aesthetic on my desk, waiting for a time that he could still be repaired. Watching this trailer made me miss that unit. How I wish I have him still in anticipation for this game. I wonder if I could still have this repaired, I wonder if I could still squeeze life out of this bad boy... just in time for THIS!
Lot's of frustration... and anticipation. Oh well...

Cinematic Trailer




Trailer (Voices: Yoda vs Vader)




Gameplay Demo

End All, Be All (Psalms 51:12)

What has been the primary motivator or the hook that fished you out of the waters? Provision? Promise for a posh life? No worries? Peace of mind? Comfort? Assurance that everything will be ok? or something else?

Many, including me, has succumbed to these things that would draw me into loving Christ, or have thought of loving Christ. I have always been dreaming of a posh life somewhere on my high rise condo, with my shiny white car that would get me around the metro. That was what I've always been thinking of since I've been fed with things that would make me think of these, never have I considered myself as someone who was hooked because of salvation, until now.

One prayer, one cry of a king, one particular verse in Psalms 51 claims that very conviction that I have now. That particular verse in Psalms 51 has become my rock and brings me comfort that it is because of that, that I love Jesus above all.

Restore me to the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalms 51:12 ESV)

All Things: By Him, Through Him, For Him (Col 1:15-17)

Let’s start with questions before we dwell into the verse and how I got to understand this and also with regards to my life. So let’s go into the questions…

why do bad things happen to good people? why do bad things happen at all? if God exists then why does sin abound? why does things like murder and others happen? Where is God when family members pass away prematurely, jobs gets cut… 

These are the things that makes us raise questions about His reality to begin with. As to my life, why, in all my life being a Christian, succumb to depression to the point of complete darkness. 

more after the jump

Man, Choices, Freedom, Slaves

I have always found myself wondering what Paul meant in Romans 7:18 "... having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness". I kept on wondering about this paradox of being free from sin yet still slaves. I have always thought that freedom from sin would be freedom.

So bear with me as I try to dissect this particular verse and reach to a conclusion on what this could probably mean. I guess, by trying to look at this particular verse, we'd also get to understand if we really do have a choice in our lives and how these choices are operated. I'll probably go to another verse in Proverbs to see where plans and decisions lay.

Miami = Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus, in Greek Mythology, is the mountain where all their gods lived and ruled. Where Zeus throws his bolts of lightning to wage war at anything that goes against him. Along with him are the other gods and goddesses that ruled each of their own jurisdiction. Ares of war, Aphrodite of love, Athena of wisdom and so on.

7/8/2010, Miami Florida just became like the Mount Olympus of the NBA. This is where LeBron James decided to play after he held the whole league in hostage, breathless in anticipation of where he'll go for from this season on. This marked the most interesting off-season that the NBA may have, or may will ever experience when the biggest stars of today such as LeBron, Wade, Bosh, Amar'e, Boozer and the likes have the freedom in the world to choose where they'll end. James decided to turn his back from Cleveland and head towards Miami to form this sight.

Random Randomness

My documented hatred for the mindless wave that's sweeping the entire universe right now has just released the third part of their oh-so-awesome "saga" (sarcasm and air-quotes) and I just felt I'd put this Random Randomness quote I found over the interwebs. The reality of Edward Cullen.

Edward Cullen isn’t a vampire. He lives in the forest, roams around the trees, doesn’t kill people and glitters. So he is obviously a fairy.

Not a Fan but... Wow!

Never read the books, but followed all the movies (only on DVD). Can't lie that the Harry Potter series of movies is indeed one for the books (unlike the pretentious one that tagged itself a saga and also did a 2 part movie of the last book.). I'm not a fan but watching the trailer of the last film made me excited to see it on the silver screen. Check it out yourself.





Ok... but I won't lie that I love Hermo... Emma Watson.

and... shut up... you probably got excited watching the Eclipse trailer.

Currently Enjoying: Herbie Hancock (Possibilities, Imagine Project)

 
I grew up on my dad listening to people like Frank Sinatra, Al Jarreau and the likes. He influenced me to appreciate Jazz at an early age and have me singing New York, New York before I entered my teens. You can't blame me for having them on my iPod including the new crooners like Buble and the likes.



Lately, having searching where else have John Mayer been playing, I stumbled into this album by Herbie Hancock called "Possibilities". Then I met the piano genius. It's one of the most listened albums in my Pod not just because it featured Mayer and Sting and others, but because of the awesome things that Mr. Hancock does with his piano.

This June, after iTunes announced the release of his new one, The Imagine Project, featuring artists like India.Arie, John Legend, Dave Matthews, I didn't think twice and just hit the get on my iTunes store. And I don't regret that I even did. This just shot me back to my childhood sitting inside my dad's car while bobbing heads with him listening to Frank Sinatra's duets albums and Al Jarreau's live albums. This will certainly set me off to a Jazzy day today checking out all the other albums that I have on my extensive library.

Hitler and the Vuvuzela

So what does Hitler, being with a new widescreen TV and surround sound system at home, think about the vuvuzelas?