Ben Zornes

Living and Dying to Show the Preciousness of Christ

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Lust & Blessings

Lust & Blessings

We can scratch our heads and wonder how one becomes a Epstein, a Bundy, a Hitler, a Capone, or any number of celebrities who die of some drug overdose. How does one become a power hungry tyrant, killing millions? Or a vile lecher scarring scores of women? Or a corrupt billionaire, bilking thousands out of their life-savings? Here’s how…

If you indulge in clicking on that link, or you relish publicly cussing out your employees, or you bet your paycheck on a Vegas long-shot, or you photoshop your profile picture to deceptively improve your appearance, you’re simply habituating yourself to become swollen with unbridled desire. The horse-leech, as Solomon tells us, only knows one word, “Give, give, give.” It is always glutted, but never satisfied. You battle the lust for power, or sexual perversion, or financial glory, or celebrity by resisting it in the small matters. Standing up to your little lusts is how you prepare for resisting great lusts.

All of our little lusts—our lust for a bit more recognition, to have what our neighbors have (or what they show they have on Pinterest), for a bit more control over the people around us, for gratification of physical desires—all our avarice, and corrupt desires are just misguided attempts to get the blessing of God. Lust is the futile attempt to obtain the blessings that only come from diligence, duty, self-denial, and above all, delight in God above all things. 

Lust in all its gluttonous designs is resisted by faith. Faith that God is the Source of supreme joy. Faith that obedience to His Word brings true blessing––both earthly and divine. Faith that taking up a cross is how we obtain a crown. Faith that Jesus’ blood has forgiven you of all your selfish lusts, and now calls you to delight in Him by joyful faith & obedience.

Two Tables

Two Tables

When we come to this point in our worship service we must not take the furniture for granted. This is a table, not an altar. We are here to feast, not watch; to remember Christ’s sacrifice, not reenact it. It is Christ who is our mediator and has brought us into communion; thus, this is His table at which He presides, and He passes the plate around.

We sit on the shadowlands side of the table, while our brothers and sisters of the faith who have already died are seated on the high countries side.Here we are a family of saints, gathered around a table. We should think of it as a really big table with our Lord Jesus sitting at the head saying grace. We sit on the shadowlands side of the table, while our brothers and sisters of the faith who have already died are seated on the high countries side As the plate is passed, since we are His body, when your neighbor hands the plate to you, it is also Christ handing the plate to you. We are a family, God is our Father, Christ is our brother, and the Spirit unites us together as one.

There is a warning though. Some sit at this table every week, then go out and look an awful lot like they would rather be in the family of Satan. Friendship with the world, is enmity with God. God’s family feasts, laughs, and loves. Satan’s family bites, devours, and kills. At this table there is joy, there is glory, there is an eternal fountainhead of love. At Satan’s table you come to feed, and instead you are devoured. If you insist on feasting upon your selfish lusts and prides, you will find in the end that they have eaten you instead.

But at this table God serves us Himself. He is all joy, all glory, all delight, all goodness, all nourishment, and all life. In Him is no shadow of sorrow, only joy: a boundless, limitless, eternal joy. He has prepared for us a most sumptuous feast of the richest and most satisfying fare. He gives us the best, because He is that which is best.

Mama and the Seductress

Mama and the Seductress

My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother: […] To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.
–Proverbs 6:20, 24

In the face of temptation God always provides us a means of grace to resist the temptation (1 Cor. 10:13). The maturing Christian must learn to make use of those means and deriving them from Scripture. We do not help ourselves by using un-Scriptural means to combat sin, as that is sure to lead only to more temptation and sin.

Now in regards to the specific sin of lust; many men make poor use of the means which God’s Word affords us. We live in a culture that perpetually bombards us with seductive images and if not careful, informs our minds with carnal thoughts; thoughts which have no place in the abode of the Holy Spirit.

We must not think that we are innocent bystanders in this bombardment; men, we are the ones who have ignored the Bible’s instruction, and we have not guarded our daughters’ and sisters’ honor. Instead, with Herod-like lechery, we have forced them to dance for us. We have produced this  seductive culture by our laziness, greed, and lack of understanding.

However, we are not left without recourse and remedy. One of the means God has given to sons to fight lust is their parents’ instruction, and perhaps most particularly, his mother’s law. In a man’s battle against lust, Scripture teaches that the most effective response to the seductress (whether in person or online) is to reply, “My Mama warned me about girls like you.” If she asks, “And what sort of girl is that?” He should basically respond, “The kind of girl whose house is the vestibule of hell (Pro. 7:27).”

Ben Zornes