Two Steps to the Slippery Slope

It was spring.  It was the time of year that kings go to war.  But King David didn’t go.  He remained behind in the comfort of his “palace”.  In so doing he took the first step toward the proverbial slippery slope.

That first step is choosing not to be where you ought to be. David ought to be with his troops fighting the Ammonites.  Instead he chose the leisure of his home.

Then “it happened”, that is how the ESV phrases what took place next (see v. 2).  If David had been where he should have been then he wouldn’t have been walking on his roof top at the end of the day.  And he wouldn’t have been some place from which he spotted a beautiful women bathing.  Welcome to step two: being where you ought not to be.  David arrived at the slippery slope and his look slid into lust, adultery and eventually murder.  He fell hard and his failure had profound implications on his family.

Pretty simple and pretty scary.  Guys when we choose not to be where we ought and then choose to be some place where we ought not to be we are pushing the gate open to the slippery slope.

¹²So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! ¹³No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. (1Co 10:12-13 NIV)

Two good choices, right?

“Pleasing God” or “Trusting God”.  If you had to pick between these two where would you land?

That question was raised in material our accountability group was discussing not long ago.  Both seem good don’t they?

The catch comes if we seek to please God by self-effort.  You know what I mean, we work hard at saying the right things, we work hard at doing the right things, we work hard at stopping a bad habit, we work hard at…you fill in the rest.  We’re working hard but it isn’t quite enough we fear, in fact we begin to doubt whether we will ever be able to please God.

Trusting God is different.  It takes my focus off of what I am going to do for God and places it on what God is going to do in me.  Sure I still have the same hang-ups, the same hurts, the same sin issues; but instead of a bunch of self-effort to improve myself, I am looking to God to change me, from the inside out.  As he does that transformational work in me, I begin to live a life that is truly pleasing to him.

What pathway are you on right now?  Pleasing God?  Trusting God?

The secret to keeping promises

A scene in the movie Fireproof called for a kiss between husband and wife.  The husband, played by actor Kirk Cameron (Growing Pains) had no qualms, as long as the wife he was to kiss was his real-life wife.  Cameron’s convictions prevailed and Chelsea Noble, his wife of 17 years, stood in for the on-screen wife for the tender moment.  Years earlier, the actor had made a promise to his wife not to kiss any woman but her.  He has demonstrated that he is a man of his word.

Few of us are or will be actors, but all of us I believe desire to be men of our word.  We would like to be known as men whom can be counted on to honour their promises and commitments.  Unfortunately many of us know from experience that our resolve to be promise keepers can flounder and even fail.  Hurry, distractions, pressures, and passions can knock us off course, leaving us with good intentions but bad follow-through.

What can be done?  Do we plunge into the New Year with a guilt-fueled list of resolutions, written in bold to impress or at least to fool?  No.  We have ridden that horse before and it is no more alive this year than last.

Author Ken Drury gives us an idea.  He writes, “About a dozen years ago I discovered a group of busy Christian executives who were weary of breaking promises to God and their families…These men discovered a little known secret of commitment keeping — accountability. It is a most powerful secret to rescue you from the cycle of promises-broken, promises- renewed. ”

Every week I meet with a group of men.  We read a devotional, discuss it and pray for one another.  It is the praying where accountability begins to show up.  If you are asking other guys to support you in prayer about something then there is a good chance one of them is going to ask how things worked out.  This helps me stay real in my prayer requests; I don’t share something that my heart isn’t ready to be committed to.

There are numerous accountability structures.  What have you experienced and what benefit has it been to you?

The issues men face

What are the issues? The issues that guys are dealing with…guys in the church, guys in the workplace, guys at the rink and on the court? Here is a list that came out of discussions that four of us had yesterday. They are not ranked…this is just the order they came up.

1. Understanding the women in our lives
2. Being connected with other guys
3. Knowing our role as a man
4. Finding freedom to be who we are to be
5. Being accountability to other men
6. Being disciplined to do what we ought to do

I would love to hear your take.