Can we really change?
At some point in our lives, we need to ask ourselves a very important question: “Must I accept that I am whatever I am or is it possible for me to change?” Another way of asking this question is: “Can we really change who we are?”
I find that we don’t like to be pinned down with this question. The convenient answer is to say, “That depends.” Most of us accept the common opinion that there are some things in our lives that can be changed and others that cannot. But I see this answer as a convenient cop out that robs us of our ability to make choices for positive transformation. If we believe that change isn’t possible, we won’t try. If we believe that we can change, we will feel compelled to take action. As long as we allow ourselves to be confused about what can and cannot be changed in our lives, we’ll live dead-ended, stalemated lives where we wonder if the latest challenges we face is something that we should even invest our energies to change or not. Here is what we in the Purity Project believe: With God’s help, there is nothing in your life that cannot be changed; but, some things can be changed faster than others. Read more
Sex and the Assurance of Answered Prayer
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which trancends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV)
People who have sexual addictions and compulsions, such as the constant viewing of internet pornography, do so for a reason. They have an inner pain yet to be faced. Rather than examine what’s hurting on the inside, they medicate with sexual pleasure and live in denial about what they are doing. The longer they do this the more pain they create for themselves as grief, shame and blame mount up. Christ wants to heal our inner condition and stop the cycle pain we keep inflicting upon ourselves. He wants to replace it with the peace of God. Read more
The Addictive Personality
There is a lot of controversy about whether or not there is such thing as an addictive personality. Like most things in the social sciences, absolutes are hard to come by and direct cause and effect relationships usually account for little, if any, of the variance accounted for in research studies. However, people who work with those day in and day out find tend to find qualitative similarities among addicts. These similarities are not universal but occur common enough that they should be mentioned. Thus, I’ll share some of them with you. Read more
We are what we think about
In the wonderful classic, As a Man Thinketh, by James Allen, he states,
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all of his thoughts.”
It can be scary to think that, whatever we are today is the direct result of what we have been thinking about. Everything that we say or do is a result of some thought that we have allowed into our mind. Read more
