My Bible Journey (Proverbs 5)

I read Proverbs 5 recently. Wow! What a chapter!? This is a chapter written for every guy. But oddly enough it is a chapter set in the midst of a father speaking to his son.

You might think that a bit condescending. We men don't like to be treated like a child. We don't like to be told what we ought to do. But the reality is...more often than not, we act like a child.

We are selfish, vain, conceited, lust-gratifiers...and, in my opinion, speaking to men like children is absolutely appropriate...especially in respect of this issue of lust.

Me and my accountability partner speak of the issue of lust in terms of "being in the swamp." When we give into it...when we let our eyes wander or let the late-night remote haphazardly change channels...then it is like we dive off the end of a dock over a swamp.

The water on the surface may look appealing but it is very shallow. The water is on the surface of sticky, slimy, stinky mud. And once you are in that mud it is hard to wallow out of it. It grabs a hold of you and drags you down.

But there are other issues in the swamp as well. There are leaches that drain you. And you can't get them all off by yourself.

That's why once you get out of the swamp, you need to be hosed down and you need the help of someone else to pull off all the leaches.

Honestly, I've been in that swamp many times. I try to avoid it as much as I can, but every once in a while...like a foolish child...I will dive into the murky waters again thinking it might be different this time. It never is.

That's why I love the honesty of this chapter in Proverbs 5. And there is a very good message for a little child like myself in relation to the issue of lust. Verse 21 says that all I do is seen by the Lord. I need to always remember that.

And it is a very significant help to have an accountability partner...someone with whom you are completely honest with to share any struggles you may or may not be having.

Now I feel a need to convince you, like a child would, that this isn't a gigantic struggle in my life. I will say it isn't the battle it used to be. But it is something that I believe is a struggle for every man (child). And we need to heed the words of Proverbs 5 or we are always going to be stuck in the mud of the swamp, covered in leaches.

I'm Back From Camp!

Wow! What an amazing experience. I had the opportunity to speak to over 70 Sr. High students at Central Iowa Bible Camp. It was really great and these were an awesome group of students.

On the first evening I spoke at campfire, at the conclusion of my message we challenged the young people to make a decision for Christ themselves, to rededicate their lives to Christ or to get courage to share their faith with someone who needs Christ.

As they quietly left campfire, they were each handed an unlit glowstick. Then they went out and sat quietly by themselves on a dark hillside. When they had come to a decision, they were to light their glowstick and bring it to a cross and hang it there. That was a really cool thing to see. Here's what the cross looked like that night...




Another very cool part of the experience was that on the campground there had been placed a very old Ford F-150 Pick-up Truck. The youth were challenged all week to write their sins anywhere on that truck with Sharpie pens. They did. They shared things like struggles with sex and smoking pot and cutting themselves and suicidal thoughts...anything and everything you can imagine, they wrote it. It was pretty cool.

They didn't know what was going to happen to the vehicle though. Well, on Thursday night, they saw what it is that God does with our sins in the most dramatic of illustrations. Look at the next few pictures in succession and you will see what they witnessed.


After this, the kids all came forward and picked up pieces of the truck to take home as a momento...something I am sure they are never going to forget. God takes our sins from us as far as the east is to the west. He literally crushes it out of our life! That was a lot of fun!

I told them I would post their picture here on my blog. Here they are, this picture was taken just before I began speaking to them the second time.