stephen-on-bible

Introductory words: It is no exaggeration to say that we are living in an age of sensuality. Starting from television and movies to mobile phones and Internet, we are constantly bombarded with sexual content, be it partial or explicit. It has now become only a matter of touch on remote control, on enter button or a click on mouse to indulge oneself in sexual immorality. There are so many folks in our day, including the nice and sincere ones, living a life of bondage to pornography. There are untold people who are secretly addicted to porn. Sadly, they suppose there is no hope of deliverance from this addiction. Thus, the following interview is posted with a hope that such hopeless people will find hope. May be you are one among them and this message is for you. Note: The following interview was done using open-ended questions. I put it in writing, edited myself and sent it to Prem for his final approval. Also, the actual name of the interviewee has been changed to Prem Raj f...

We are well aware of the three temptations a man commonly confronts— glory [pride], girl [lust] and gold [money]. As we live in this modern, advanced age, there is another temptation that I wish to add to the list. This has become a powerful, irresistible temptation to many a man. It has now taken an enticing, equivalent position to the common three. Can you guess what it is? GADGETS . Today, many Christian men, including so many pastors and leaders, have become victims of the fourth temptation—electronic gadgets. These have enslaved so many of us in the form of being good to our eyes and appearing pleasurable to our senses while in fact eating away our precious and brief time on earth. Just think: • How many spend more time before Facebook than before God’s book! • How many spend more time in online chatting than in conversing with God! • How many spend more time before the television, watching movies and programs, than in study of sound books that builds oneself in the...

Note: One morning, I had a severe struggle with lust. To win this war, I turned to the words of Job in chapter 31:1-12. Job was one of the oldest patriarchs and is renowned for being a man who feared God and shunned evil. What he spoke here few thousands of years back are very much challenging to the people of modern age. As I reflected upon these few words of Job, I was led to write the following words, elaborating the discourse of Job and allowing them to plainly converse with our hearts. I found the words of Job quite challenging in my own life in regard to living a life of sexual purity. Here is Job. Listen to my words. Let me tell you something to think about. I made a covenant with my eyes, with my sight, with how I look at a woman. Do you want to know the covenant I made with my eyes? I determined not to look lustfully at a woman. I resolved not to entertain sexual fantasies about a girl. I took a stubborn decision , not only to flee from committing physical adultery, but al...

What do you think is the pastor's greatest temptation? I am not going to talk on the common battles that are well known to many – gold [money], glory [pride] and girl [lust]. I would like to share with you about something crucial which many pastors do not even think about it as a temptation. One of the reasons, I believe, why the church today is not maturing is due to the pastor's focus on this while neglecting the essential. I think, almost every pastor, who is honest with himself, agrees that his focus is primarily on this and that this is indeed his greatest temptation. I have seldom come across a pastor who is free from this enticement. What could this be? Sunday Service In my years of Christian life and ministry, I have observed that the pastor's greatest temptation is Sunday service . His focus is primarily on getting people together, possibly in large numbers, on Sunday. His main passion is to fill the place with people and feel good to see every member on the chair...

7. Blame Game Genesis 3:12, "The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." Genesis 3:13, "And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." Hubert H. Humphrey, the thirty-eighth Vice President of the United States, once said, “We believe that to err is human. To blame it on someone else is politics.” If what Hubert said is true then politics began in the Garden of Eden. The first man and woman were great politicians in blame game. It is no wonder to see this attitude in men and women today. When the Lord God asked Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate" (Gen. 3:11-12). If we observe carefully, it seems Adam blamed two persons. He first blamed God. He said, “The woman whom You gave…” It appears Adam was blaming God for giving Eve to be with him. Perhaps, he is saying, h...

6. Sin is Sin Genesis 3:6, "She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it." Whether you throw a pebble or a rock both will sink into the water, right? It is our tendency to quickly justify ourselves, saying, “What great sin did I commit! It was just a little thing!” Remember, whether small or great, sin is sin. Read these words carefully: "She took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it" (Genesis 3:6). And when God asked Adam, "What have you done?" he replied, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (3:12). Eve did not eat the complete fruit. She ate only some and so did Adam. However, her actions were not belittled just because she ate little. There was no way for Eve to justify herself before God, “Lord, I didn’t eat the complete fruit. It was only little that I ate. Don’t take it too serious!” Doesn’t this ...

5. Sin is Contagious Genesis 3:6, "When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it ". Do you know one of the tragic realities of sin? IT INFLUENCES THOSE AROUND US. Sin is terribly contagious. It is more dangerous and rapidly spreads than AIDs virus. The Holy Bible often likened sin to yeast in bread which symbolizes the power of corruption. When Eve sinned, she also involved Adam in her sinful act. She didn’t sin without immediately influencing Adam. She got spoiled and also spoiled the one with her. Perhaps Eve had best intentions in sharing the fruit with Adam but what she did was a worst action in the sight of the Almighty God. To quote Irish poet Oscar Wilde (a great thinker who lived a pathetic life), “It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done.” What Eve did continues to this ...

4. Pleasure and Peril of Sin Genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye , and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” Do you know why we people love to commit sin? Because it is pleasing , alluring and exhilarating . When the woman saw the fruit of the tree it seemed irresistibly pleasing to her eye. I think she did not eat the fruit immediately after looking at it. She gazed at it and the more she had intent look at it the more it appealed to her. She couldn’t control herself anymore from eating the forbidden fruit and finally gave in to the trap of sin. Eve stands as an example of how one can be deluded by the fascination of sin, failing to see beyond its pleasure. Someone rightly said, “Sin will always expose to you, the pleasure that lies immediately in front of you, it blinds to the destruction that lies ahead of you.” Sin is attractive but destructive too; it is fascinating but also devastating. Now...

3. Discontentment Genesis 3:6, “When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it.” How “blessed” Eve and Adam were! They had everything to taste and enjoy in the world God created for them. They had all the freedom to eat the best fruits from all the trees in the garden and had only one commandment to obey, i.e. not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. However, Eve didn't remain content with all that God had given her and craved for something more which was forbidden. She forgot all the best she received from the gracious hand of God, and instead, focused on that one thing she didn't have. She failed to acknowledge, “God has given us the best and I am content with what I have.” She allowed dissatisfaction to reign her heart. Make a note—discontentment was the ruination of our first parents. What about us? Even today the devil is taking advantage...

2. Diluting the Consequences of Sin Genesis 3:1-4, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. '" "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman." One of the subtle strategies of the devil in enticing people to destroy their relationship with God is by diluting the consequences of sin. When God told, “You will die,” the devil said, “You will not surely die.” Eve took seriously the words of Satan than the words of God. She ate the fruit thinking that nothing God warned would happen. She failed to understand that God is not like a man who is casual in his words. She allowed the fat...

1. Doubting the Goodness of God Genesis 3:4-5, "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." How crafty the devil is! His goal is to rob the people from their Maker by making them doubt God’s very character. Here's the devil’s counsel to his co-workers, “If you want to mislead the people from their Creator, it’s quite simple - just make use of the opportunities to let them doubt His love and goodness.” The serpent had been successful in tempting Eve by having her doubt the goodness and faithfulness of God. He implied that God is selfish and doesn't want to share His knowledge of good and evil with them. He deceived her into believing that God withheld from her the best. Regretfully, Eve believed the lie of the devil and did that which God had forbidden her. Ever since then the devil has been busy in getting people to doubt the goodness and...

My dear little demon, I appreciate your 24/7 labor to keep your Target neglect His God, our Enemy. But you need to labor with subtlety lest you waste your efforts. You must be extremely careful about how you mess up his devotional life. Are you scheming to cause him think that prayer, worship, meditating the Bible, self-examination and interceding for others are useless? Nah, don’t do such a foolish thing. The more you try to do so, the more he reasons in his mind and may fall into the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Don’t give him a sense of battle for that would be your disadvantage. Agree with whatever he agrees, but don’t let him practice what he believes. The advantage of him being serious about spiritual issues is that you have greater opportunity to condemn him for not living accordingly. After all, is there any greater joy than seeing your Target wallow in self-condemnation! Well, do your best to shuffle his priorities and have him neglect the godly disciplines. One way you can...

There is a tale about a person who sat outside the church building, weeping profusely. A woman felt pity upon him and had asked, “Why are you crying?” He replied, “You people commit sins and then blame me for everything you do?” The woman confusingly questioned, “Who are you?” “I am the devil,” said the sorrowful person. Who doesn’t know the great tempter—the devil? But should we have to blame him whenever we fall into temptation? There are two ways, I have observed, we fall into temptation. Sometimes temptation comes knocking our door and we yield unto it. At other times we go knocking the temptation and fall into it. In both ways our fall is due to our choice . The devil knows he has no power over us. He has the power only to tempt us. And we have been given the power in Christ Jesus to resist Him (Jas. 4:7). If we happen to fall it is only because of the choice we make to yield to the temptation instead of resisting it. We are responsible for our own fall . Yet we often behave lik...