Some thoughts as I read through Job 31

Job 31:1 "I have made a covenant with my eyes; How then could I gaze at a virgin?

This jumped out at me, always has. Pastor Chuck went off on sexual purity, and I believe that this speaks toward that, but when I consider the age and maturity of Job I find it hard to believe that he is still struggling with such strong passions.

Perhaps that is not the point. Everyman, until the day he dies, is able to see what is beautiful around him. That in itself is not the problem, but looking ravenously for the beauty is, and taking your thoughts to the next step, what you could do with such a magnificent creature, moves you into the depravity of adultery, and all sorts of sexual sins.

Christ obliterated the penalty before God that comes with sin; sin we were imputed with. I have been inundated with talk of sin since I can remember, and I feel as though focusing on sin only makes me more skilful at it, but I cannot ignore it, the Apostle John made sure of that when he said, “ If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” (1 John 1:8 NASB )

So it (sin) is always there; almost as though it is part of our DNA, a virus called sin, waiting for an appropriate moment to awaken. But God, through Christ's obedience on the cross, made it possible for our spirits to be alive in Him once more. Romans 6:6 "knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;"

So that we would no longer be slaves to sin! We have what it takes to stand against the enemy, even if it means you call others and ask them to support you, or drag you out of that situation.

We only become the idiot when we refuse to ask for help. Refusal to do that will eventually see you become so mired that it takes a crane to pull you out of the pit you put yourself in, and in some cases, years to scrape the muck off you, even the possibility of your own death.

In my situation, I thought I could handle it. After all, I am a man, and we rock headed men think we can muscle our way out of anything; I was wrong and fought my weaknesses and fears for years with no success. I was also so ashamed and afraid of what others might think of me that I would not ask for help. I was the guy that needed a crane to dig me out of the wreckage I created, and it took years for me to find anything close to an emotional state that I would consider normal. Oh sure, I knew God loved me, I just did not think anyone else did.

Here is part of the problem with not asking for help. In many cases the fear is real because you may not have access to a Christ based recovery group. While worldly groups like AA, NA, or SA have been the salvation of many, the focus is not on God's love and ability to change. Beside that you are surrounded most of the time by people who are not interested in relating to the God you serve. Should you attempt to tell your problems to the general public – a church body, many will stab you in the back, and some will even accost you with a full frontal attack. That is not the goal, so you need to find people that have been honest and walked the road to recovery themselves. You need to find safe people, and even in recovery groups not all people are safe. Leaders are there because they have proven track records of recovery, and in many cases have walked the humiliating road back to sanity.

Does any of that mean that God changed his mind about you? Not hardly. He started on this path of love toward you before you were ever born. I am sorry that you could not see that; it had the power to change your life, and still does today, no matter where you are at.

Consider the story we call the Prodigal son (You can find the story in Luke chapter 15). A young man, a Jew, that would have no compulsion to even go near a hog, finds himself not only having to feed them, but to eat the same slop that they ate to survive. He finally comes to his senses and decides that returning back to the father he offended, and working as a slave for him would be better than this. The father had no experience like this son had; how could he relate? But he was a man of compassion and an incomprehensible compassion. This father had been watching and waiting for the return of this son and when he saw the son from a long way off he ran to him, throwing his arms around him, putting his cloak upon him, making a feast for him, and reintroduced him back into the family.

So, let's say that focusing on maintaining and building your relationship with God is more important to me now than thinking about the sins that so easily beset us. I am an expert at diving into sin. But what I am not so expert at is developing the kind of relationship that Enoch had, and he learned how to have this relationship from the man that brought such destruction on us all, Adam.

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