Welcome to Day 5 of The Challenge!

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Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;
fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence,
and covetousness, which is idolatry:

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Blood was gushing from his forehead and thoughts were racing through my seven year old mind. How did I get myself into this one, what motivated me to do this and inflict this wound, how can I explain this accident to my parents? No, there was no way to cover up what I had done! My dear sibling had to be rushed to the emergency room for a series of stitches and everyone was going to hear how it happened too.

It had all started so seemingly innocently. Though I never even remember my dad ever using them, I had a compelling desire to try out my dads golf clubs. These were clearly off limits and stored in a place where they were hard to get at. Somehow though, I felt that my parents were withholding something from me. Yes, that belief was the start to a slippery slope.

Having pondered what had been withheld, I quickly rationalized, selecting one of the forbidden golf clubs and proceeded to take a few test swings. I lined up with a ball on the tee. One of my siblings stood right behind me was giving my some very helpful suggestions. The last suggestion was to give follow through on my swing . . . planting it deep into his eye brow. How did all this start? With covetousness, which is idolatry.

Covetousness is simply desiring something that we feel has been withheld.Taking the sequence in reverse order as it is given, we notice a pattern through the meaning of these words. This sequence has taken place time and again throughout history. Covetousness is simply desiring something that we feel has been withheld. This is the first step which quickly grows into evil concupiscence—a craving fixation on what is forbidden. This is not natural nor wholesome. This leads to inordinate affections which is simply natural passions or drives out of control. Uncleanness is moral impurity especially in the area of lust. Fornication comes from the Greek word porneia and refers to a whole host of sexual perversions.

Concupiscence is a fixation on that which is forbiddenThis passage tells us to mortify all these things. To mortify means to “make dead, to put to death, to deprive of power, to destroy the strength of.” We know from I John that we cannot have fellowship with God or others if we are walking in darkness. Truly, the strength of sin is in its secrecy. Satan has power to operate in any area of sin we have not fully confessed to God and shared with our parents and authorities in detail.

Now what does all this have to do with my story? The trouble that we get ourselves into starts out so seemingly innocently—a desire for what has been withheld from us. This could be as simple as a forbidden set of golf clubs. Golf clubs are not evil themselves, but if used at the wrong time without the proper training they can be seriously dangerous. The same with any other desire we may have. It may be a desire for a good thing, but if it is fulfilled at the wrong time or in the wrong way it can bring great harm to our spiritual potential. What are the things that you tend to think about, long for, or day-dream about? Do you feel that your authorities or even God is withholding something from you? Be careful, because that is the beginning to a very slippery slope.

~ David Waller

    This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 at 6:00 am and is filed under Memorization Challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.