Stephen Kuhn's Blog, page 26

DONE: You Have Been Made Dead to Sin

[Jesus] personally carried our sins in his body on the cross, so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed (1 Peter 2:24).

In order to comprehend the full depth of what this verse means for us we first need to understand what is true about those who have yet to put their trust in Christ:

When Adam chose to live his life apart from God, sin entered into mankind and brought with it death. This sin is in the hearts of all mankind from birth. (see  Romans 5:12 )
The only way to be set free from the penalty of your sin is for it to be included in the death of Jesus. (see Romans 6:7 )
If you die physically without trusting Jesus to pay the penalty of your sin, the sin in your heart will keep you separated from God for all eternity.

So, instead of being dead to sin, those who are still living independently from Christ are dead in their sin. The sin within them defines who they are, dictates how they are able to live, and destines where they will spend eternity.

No matter how you spin it, that is not good news.

But let’s look at what today’s verse says about those of us who have trusted in Christ:

When Jesus was on the cross, all of your sins (past, present, and future) were placed on His body.
When He died, His death fulfilled the penalty of your sin. And now that your sin debt has been satisfied, it will never need to be paid again.
When Christ came back to life, you were also included in His everlasting life. This life of Christ within you is what gives you the power to live righteously today.

Therefor, because of Christ’s work on the cross, you have been made dead to sin and alive in Him. Your old identity of sinner was crucified with Jesus and you have been given a new identity of holy, righteous saint.

But if I’m truly dead to sin, why do I still struggle with it?

Perhaps the better question is: “How does God view those who are in Christ when they fall back into sin?”

Scripture answers that question clearly:

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Because of what Christ did for you on the cross, you have been made dead to the penalty of your sins. Your sin will never again define how God sees you.

In fact, when God looks at you, He sees you as holy and blameless (even when you are sitting in front of a computer with your pants around your ankles).

Yes, all of us will struggle with sin from time to time…even after we trust Christ. But those struggles no longer define us in the eyes of God.

Furthermore, the life of Christ within you gives you the power you need to walk away from sin. You may not always choose to, but for the first time in your life you actually have the ability to do so.

And that, my friend, is good news.

This post was an excerpt from my book, DONE. 52 Amazing Things that Became True of You the Moment You Trusted Christ.

The entire book is available as individual posts here, but if you prefer a good old-fashion paperback, you can purchase a copy from Amazon.

The post DONE: You Have Been Made Dead to Sin appeared first on Belt of Truth Ministries.

My One Thing: Steve Etner

“What’s the one piece of advice you would give

to someone struggling with porn addiction?”

Steve Etner is an Author, Speaker, Purity Coach

Connect with Steve

Website: www.thepuritycoach.com

App: My Purity Coach

Facebook: www.facebook.com/manofpurity

Twitter: @PureManMin

Books

The Pure Man’s Devotional Guide: A Biblical Toolbox for Purity

Extreme Mind Makeover: How to Transform Sinful Thoughts and Patterns into God-Pleasing Habits

Check out all the “One Thing” video interviews here.

Transcript

Coming soon…

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Smart Quote: Ed Welch

Thoughts on this quote? Feel free to discuss them in the comments below.

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2015 Belt of Truth Honest Christmas Letter

The Kuhn Family, December 2015

We have a tradition here at Belt of Truth Ministries where I send out a Christmas letter recapping all that has happened in the previous year.

Now, you’re probably thinking that’s not anything new. Everyone does that, right?

Yes, but I do mine a bit differently. Rather than merely listing the highlights of the year, I try to be honest and share the stuff I’m not super proud of as well, since I believe not hiding your junk is one of the fundamental practices that helps keep you free from bondage.

After all, trusting others to love and accept you right where you’re at is often the first step in trusting that God loves and accepts you right where you’re at.

So, in the spirit of “practice what you preach,” I give you the 2015 Belt of Truth Honest Christmas Letter:

•••

Dear Friends,

If I had to put a label on 2015, I would call it the year of Job 42. For those of you who are not familiar with the book of Job, chapter 42 is where God restores to Job all that he had lost in ways far exceeding what he hoped for or deserved:

So the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning. For now he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 teams of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys (Job 42:12).

I may not have received a herd of donkeys this year, but I have nevertheless been blown away by His unending grace and mercy.

Marriage Update #1

If you’ve read my book, you already know of the call God put on my heart to wait and pray for reconciliation with my former wife. In fact, I’ve had many readers contact me asking how things turned out and whether or not we’ve gotten back together. As it turned out, she married a really great guy in the fall of 2014, closing the door on the possibility of us reconciling (at least as a married couple).

To be honest, God had been preparing my heart for that moment for a while, so there was no mourning the relationship as I’d always imagined there might be. On the contrary, I was genuinely happy for her and her new husband. I will admit that it’s an odd thing at first to see your former wife married to another man, but now, only a year later, it no longer seems strange at all. In fact, I just saw them holding hands last week and thought to myself, that’s cute. I’m glad they’re happy.

Marriage Update #2

During those years when I was still waiting for her, there was always the question in my mind of what I would do if she did remarry, releasing me to date again. I’d be lying if I said I’d never thought about marrying anyone else.I always knew if I started dating again, there was only one girl that I would even consider pursuing. Luckily, when the time became right and I told her how I felt, she had the same feelings for me as well. We both knew we were a good fit for each other because we’d already been friends for years, so we ended up dating for only a few months before making it official. I rented a live owl to deliver an engagement ring to her (naturally), and we were married last March.

You may think that’s moving pretty fast, and you’re probably right. Patience is clearly not our thing, though, because we also managed to get pregnant only a few days into our honeymoon. We already planned to start a family quickly, but this was a bit sooner than expected. We’re super excited though, and like to think of our new little girl as God’s wedding gift to us.

For most people, getting married and having a baby would be enough major changes for one year, but not for us. We recently had an offer accepted on our first house, and hope to close by the end of the year. So, for those of you keeping track at home, that means we’ll be having a baby, celebrating Christmas, watching Star Wars, closing on a house, fixing up said house, and (hopefully) moving—all in the next two months.

I think our New Years resolution should be to not make any more changes in 2016 (although who am I kidding, we’re totally getting a dog).

It has been an amazing year to say the least. But in true “Honest Christmas Letter” fashion, there are a few things that I wish could have been different.

Walking in Freedom

In last years Christmas letter, I admitted to the following:

“Even though God has set me free from the chains of my addiction to porn, I still walk back into its trap once or twice a year. 2014 was a ‘twice year,’ but I have hope that 2015 will be a ‘once year.’ Perhaps it will even be a ‘none year.’”

Well, I’m excited to share that 2015 was indeed a “none year.” That doesn’t mean I’m prefect through. There were a few times where I’d allowed some old patterns to creep back in that required dealing with.

For instance, we moved into an apartment with a swimming pool, which I quickly realized was not a safe place for me to spend time alone given the propensity for girls to be there tanning in their swimsuits. There was a big part of me that wanted to not only hide that struggle, but to justify and embrace the temptation as well. I’m pleased to say that I did bring it up with the guys in my group, as well as with my wife, and invited them to check in with me regularly to make sure I wasn’t heading to the pool on my own.

Now, for some of you reading that, you may be rolling your eyes at how minor it sounds. Many of you will also find it insulting or discouraging that I’m considering the pool my biggest struggle with lust at this point. I get that. Keep in mind though, I’m years into my recovery. I have known what it’s like to struggle with porn daily, and I also know what it’s like to be set free from that struggle. More importantly though, I know that no matter how free I become, I’m still only a few bad decisions away from being right back to where I was. That’s why I treat these seemingly small struggles with the same importance that I would treat a full-on relapse.

Learning Humility

As many of you know, I published my second book, DONE, earlier this year. It was well received from the start, but sales have since dropped off significantly. 10 Lies Men Believe about Porn, followed a similar path at first, however, it is slowly picking up momentum. Either way, I’m not exactly headed for the New York Times best-seller list any time soon.

I knew that writing a book on porn addiction wasn’t going to make me rich, but that’s not why I wrote it. I wrote it to try to get this message out to as many people as possible and help them find the same freedom from addiction that I have found. That’s why it’s hard for me to see my sales numbers remain low each week. I know there are hundreds of people who would benefit from my books, and I strongly believe God wants this message out there, but I just can’t figure out how to get these books to rise above the endless sea of titles being added to Amazon every day.

On my worst days, this discourages me to the point where I consider walking away from writing altogether. “What’s the point?” I think to myself, “No one will read this stuff anyway.” I know that’s the enemy talking though. I believe God has called me to write, so I will continue to write… regardless of how many people are going to read it. After all, even if one guy finds freedom through reading my books, it’s worth it.

The Lord Blesses Job…

We are told that Job was blameless and upright, but I can tell you I was definitely not. I was clearly the one who screwed everything up and caused the majority of the destruction in my life. Yet, regardless of my guilt, God has still chosen to restore me in the same manner that He restored Job. That, my friends, is grace.

I pray that you may experience this same lavish grace of God in your life this coming year, regardless of whether or not you deserve it. Because let’s be honest, none of us deserve it.

With His love,

Stephen

What you are you sharing in your Christmas letter this year?

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Weekly Web (W)roundup

Each week, I round up the best resources, articles, and videos I find that are relevant to finding freedom from porn addiction. Please note that by posting a link here it does not mean I agree with everything in the linked article. It just means I found it interesting enough to share.

Tim Challies: Satan’s Great Trick

“Do you see the pattern? Do you see the cycle? Do you see the sheer evil of it? Satan’s great joy is to convince you that the sin you are about to commit is very small and the sin you have just committed is very large.”

XXX Church: 3 Quick Tips to Handle the Truth About Yourself

“Even with our voice shaking: we must sometimes become the truth for each other, because friendship and accountability means we’re there to see the best in one another.”

Storyline: Three Things To Remember When You’re Walking Toward Healing

“The journey I started that day in counseling has been the most liberating, exhausting and healing path I could have chosen for myself. It gave me a chance to answer the biblical call to ‘choose life, that you might live.’”

Relevant: Why Don’t Christians Talk About Sex After Marriage?

“Like any other couple, we figured things out, but looking back, it makes me wonder if the Church needs to reconsider some of the ways it talks about (or doesn’t talk about) sex.”

Pastor Bob: Does God Like Me?

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Friday Only: Save 50% on your entire order!

Save 50% on every purchase from our store on Black Friday (November 27). There are no quantity or order limits. It’s the perfect time to give this message of freedom to friends, family, or your entire church congregation!

Simply use the code “FRIDAY” at checkout to receive your discount.

Belt of Truth Bookstore

 

 

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DONE: You Became Part of God’s Royal Priesthood

You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light

(1 Peter 2:9).

Imagine you’re at your wedding standing across from the woman you love. The pastor is saying something about forever…rich or poor…better or worse… But if you’re honest, it’s all a blur. Your mind is fixated on the beauty in front of you.

You know you love this woman, and you decided long before this moment that you want to spend your life with her, so whatever you agree to at this point is just confirmation of what you already know in your heart.

The important thing to recognize though, is this ceremony is the moment when you will finally become her husband.

For those of you who have been there, did you have any idea how to be a husband on the day of your wedding? Did you fully understand what you were agreeing to when you made those vows?

Nope. None of us did.

But that didn’t change the fact that you still became a husband the moment you said “I do.” It just means you now get to spend the rest of your life figuring out what being a husband looks like.

That’s the thing about identity. You often become something long before you know how to actually be that something.

 

You often become something

long before you know how to

actually be that something.

 

The moment you put your faith in Christ you became a royal priest. You became holy. You are now possessed by God in the same way a husband and wife possess one another.

Do you know how to be a priest? Do you know how to be holy? Probably not completely. But the more you trust that God has already made those descriptors true of you, the more you will learn how to live according to that truth.

You are already a priest. Now you can learn how to live as one.

You are already holy. Now you get to learn how to walk in holiness.

You are already God’s possession, and not even death can separate the two of you.

And as a result, “you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.”

This post was an excerpt from my book, DONE. 52 Amazing Things that Became True of You the Moment You Trusted Christ.

The entire book is available as individual posts here, but if you prefer a good old-fashion paperback, you can purchase a copy from Amazon.

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Smart Quote: Matt Chandler

Thoughts on this quote? Feel free to discuss them in the comments below.

The post Smart Quote: Matt Chandler appeared first on Belt of Truth Ministries.

How Buying a New Bible Made Me a Better Father

I’ve long been a fan of those”Read-the-Bible-in-a-Year” plans. This year, however, I decided to try something slightly different.

It all started when I discovered the NASB Journaling Bible, complete with oversized, lined margins perfect for heavy note-takers.

I, however, have never been a note-taker.

I felt led to buy this Bible though, not to take notes for myself, but for my daughter.

So, on January 1st this year, I began reading the entire Bible, highlighting verses and writing notes in the margins for her to read someday.

Now that I’m coming down to the home stretch, I can tell you it’s been one of my favorite things I’ve done to father her toward the Kingdom, and I haven’t even given the Bible to her yet. In fact, she probably won’t get it until she’s 13, which is still years away.

That doesn’t mean she hasn’t benefited from this practice though. She’s already well aware that this is “Her Bible,” and loves to catch me writing in it so she can ask me to read her what I just wrote down. Not only that, it’s helped me to read the Bible as if I’m reading it again for the first time. Instead of getting hung up in the deeper aspects of theology, I’m re-examining the foundational truths with fresh eyes.

For example, just this morning, I was reading in 1 Peter and came across a verse I’ve been well aware of for many years:

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:14-16).

It struck me that I had been reading that verse through the lens of a legalistic faith for most of my life. But now that God has been opening my eyes to the reality of what it means to be “In Christ,” the meaning was completely different to me.

Here’s what I wrote in my daughter’s Bible:

For years I read this verse as a call to try harder and make myself perfect because that’s what God calls us to do, right? That’s not true though. That thinking leads to self-righteousness and shame. Notice verse 16 here—it’s not a command to be holy, it’s Peter telling you that you already are holy because Jesus is holy (and He is living in you). You don’t need to try to be holy, you just need to trust that Jesus has already given you His holiness. See how that changes everything?!

Now, will she read this and interpret it as me telling her she can go do whatever she wants? Perhaps. But I have confidence that once she starts to trust the permanence her union to Christ and the unconditional love and acceptance that comes with it, that will be what motivates her to live out of the holiness Jesus has given her rather than the passions of her former ignorance.

As for the journaling Bible, I’d say its been a huge win. So much so, that I just ordered a second one this morning for daughter #2 (even though she’s not scheduled to be here for a few more weeks). My plan is to switch back and forth each year, adding more notes and highlights until the time comes to hand each Bible off.

If you want to get your own copy of the Journaling Bible, you can do that here. I’d also recommend you get some fine-tipped pens as well. After all, you’ll be using them a lot next year, right?

The post How Buying a New Bible Made Me a Better Father appeared first on Belt of Truth Ministries.

Weekly Web (W)roundup

Each week, I round up the best resources, articles, and videos I find that are relevant to finding freedom from porn addiction. Please note that by posting a link here it does not mean I agree with everything in the linked article. It just means I found it interesting enough to share.

Fierce Marriage: 3 Ground Rules for Building an Honest Marriage

“Problems in marriage present themselves like spiders sometimes. You feel their effects – their webs – but you can’t always pinpoint the cause. You feel like something’s wrong, but you don’t know the source of the problem.”

XXX Church: 3 Reasons Why You Can Celebrate Your Failures

“Where you are weak, God’s grace rises like a flood plain, covering you in a truth about the nature of God. Your failures exist only in your conscious and unconscious. The nature of God is that ‘nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.’ Nothing.”

Biblical Counseling Coalition: 7 Gospel-Centered Principles for Protecting Your Marriage

“Nothing is more destructive to marriages than falsehood. More than once I have heard the victim of marital infidelity say, ‘I can forgive the sex, but I don’t know if I can forgive the lies or if I can ever trust her again.’”

Covenant Eyes: 10 Ways to Begin Talking to Your Children About Sex & Porn

“Before you are even ready to talk to your child about sex and porn, you may want to consider some of the groundwork Aaron did to get to this moment.”

Steve McVey: Knowing Who You Are

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