Listening to Joshua Harris' series on Purity at the moment. Really good stuff.
I remember reading his first book I Kissed Dating Goodbye when I was 17, and being appalled at his hardcore attitude to relationships. It didn't help that one of my guy mates gave it to the girl I was 'dating' at the time. However, five years later I'm convinced he's the bomb. If you've never digged into his books (Boy Meets Girl, Sex isn't the probem (Lust is), and Stop Dating the Church) they're well worth getting your hands on. A married friend recently told me Boy Meets Girl has been the most helpful book he's read on the issue of relationships. It's worth bearing in mind before you read your first one that he is an American (cue scary music), and, surprise surprise, his books are American too. Don't be put off by the fact that he's clearly addressing an American audience - the truth is his priorities, principles and attitudes will pack a punch in whatever culture you're in. Be aware of the ease and danger of using the Americanisms as an excuse for not applying the Biblical truths to your life, like I did five years ago!Anyway, the series on Purity is a collection of six sermons he gave at Covenant Life church, which he pastors in Gaithersberg, Maryland. They're available free here, are each about 45 mins long, and he sits right under God's word, preaching grace and repentance. Purity 2 is the only sermon on lust I've ever heard and is absolute gospel-centred gold-dust, and a brilliant summary of his latest book. Listen to it with your friends. He quotes Piper partway through, saying 'Lust (/Sin) is the dissatisfaction with God'. Really got me thinking. We choose to sin because we think it will satisfy, and thus because we think it'll satisfy more than God (we're dissatisfied with Him). We're wrong, and time and time again we're left feeling empty. Surely then, we need to fight to find our satisfaction in Him. Discuss.
Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.
Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing.
Psalm 34.8-9
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Why are we dissatisfied with God? Or what makes us choose short-term gratification over God? Surely it is that we forget the pleasures of knowing God, and are impatient because they will only fully be revealed on the Last Day. But this isn't quite satisfactory is it, because our experience of God now should fulfil us. We don't know what we already have, we fail to remind ourselves what we already have, and we don't remind each other what we already have in Christ. Read your Bible!
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