Rogue Theologian

I am often asked for advice about writing, I have only written one other blog on the topic of advice for writers. That one was about the “Writing Environment.” While it is practical, this week I will go more in depth.

I believe the saying, “Clear writing comes from clear thinking.”

• I always start with a concept
• I write the Table of Contents (TOC) first
• I don’t begin writing until I have a TOC, which will take the reader from the beginning straight to the end.
• Once I have a well thought out TOC, I can begin to research the information for each chapter.
• I see this as building a skeleton, and then I add flesh.

That is the process I work with.

Here are some things that have helped me.

On Writing Well by William Zinzer. I downloaded the audiobook and have listened to it no less than 8 times. Very short and practical advice for anyone that writes.

100 Ways to improve your writing by Gary Provost. A small book, full of practical advice, formatted like a daily devotional.

Timothy Ferriss (one of my favorite writers), says that his writing style is casual and relaxes, which reflects what he is like with his close friends after he has had a glass of wine. That word picture has helped me refocus my writing when I find that I am being too stuffy and wordy.

Ferriss also wrote that he can do no more than 4 hours a day of good writing, the creative juices wear out. I have found that to be accurate.

I look for topics that don’t yet have a good book. I feel like there are a lot of copycat writers out there, which I can’t relate to. My question is always, “why would someone read my book?” My answer is always, “Because it is the only book of its kind.”

Are you considering publishing a book?

Here is the process for those that haven’t been through it.

You spend your blood, sweat and tears writing your heart out.

Then you nervously give it to publishers and hope to hear back.

Then a publisher responds and offers you a terrible initial contract.

You hopefully counteroffer and debate your royalty.

Finally a contract is signed and agreed on.

Lot’s of money leaves your bank account.

The publisher creates a cover for your book and finalizes the title.

Your book goes through its first edit and you get back a file filled with red ink.

Then you fix it.

Your book goes through the second edit/proofreader

Then the Paginator formats it so it looks like the beautiful inside of a book.

Finally about 6-12 months later your book goes to the printer and then is put out to the market.

This is an epic process.

If you have been through the publishing process a few times, then you get pretty good at working with the system.

Here is my advice.

Take care to write a good book. The publisher can only improve slightly what you have written. Don’t be in a rush.

Be confident to say no, but don’t be a jerk. The contract they send should be challenged. The cover samples they send should be challenged. The book title that they pick should be challenged. Nobody cares about your book more than you do.

Have your friends, family, facebook friends, etc; help you edit your book before you submit it to a publisher.

Take your time with getting feedback and editors to work on your book. This is invaluable.

A good editor will improve your book more than anything else. I highly recommend my friend and editor of several of my books, Amy Calkins, she does freelance work and is available for hire.

Also, get a great Foreword for your book and Endorsements are valuable. These two give you great credibility.

Don’t use vague chapter titles, there is nothing more annoying as a customer than trying to figure a book out when it has terrible chapter titles.

Lastly

Think long term and don’t be in a rush.

Section Summary

All women are our sisters. We are to view them as family, not objects to be used for selfish pleasure. Yes they are beautiful and lovely, and as men, we will notice them for the rest of our lives, but there is a way to appreciate without defiling.

Evolution has taught us that man evolved as a predator; the truth is that God created men as protectors of beauty. This aspect of our identity must shift so that we can understand our role in relation to women.

Most women in the sex industry worldwide are victims of sexual, emotional, verbal, and physical abuse. They know no lifestyle outside of fear and abuse; yet in their hearts they long for a protector to come to their defense. Will we remain cowards behind a computer screen, using our sisters for selfish purposes? Or will we fight for their freedom?

“We are not predators, we are protectors.” —Jonathan Welton

A strip club opened near my church in Chicago that was illegally allowing in minors. So I went to the owner of this strip club and confronted him about what he was allowing.

He responded, “Man, who are you anyway?”

I said, “I am Pastor Harvey Carey, the youth pastor of Salem Baptist church”

“Let me tell you something,” he replied. “This is about the money, and what are you and a bunch of kids going to do about it anyway!”

So I went and got together with my youth group that night, which was about 900 students. My leadership and I dressed in our casual clothes so as to not look “churchy” and away we went. We lined up about 20 buses filled with students from our youth group. They parked around the corner from the strip club where they couldn’t be seen.

My leadership and I approached the front door of the club and read the posted rules: “You must wear a shirt. You must wear shoes, and no hats allowed.” Since we met the regulations we proceeded to enter the club.

I know some of you are thinking: “Oh my God pastor, that’s not where Christians go!”

You idiot! Have you read the Bible! That is where Christians go! We go to change the world! Yes, light in darkness, not just light hanging out with light.

I called my leadership on the buses and said, “It is time!” The students poured off of the buses and surrounded the building on their knees in prayer.

[I] and the other youth group leaders with me inside the club approached the stage and bowed our knees in prayer. We began to cry out, “In the name of Jesus!”

Security approached us and said, “Sir, you cannot do that in here!”

I said, “Show me the sign! I am wearing a shirt. I am wearing shoes, and I don’t have a hat on. I paid my $25 at the door and I can talk to God if I want to!”

The presence of God so filled that club as we prayed that the dancers were convicted and gathered up their belongings and left the building. All around the outside of the building, my youth group intercepted those precious former dancers and ministered to their hearts.

That night the club closed down and never reopened.¹

I have made the point previously that men are called as rescuers and protectors of women. We are not predators; we are protectors. Here is a snapshot of the world’s current situation. Reversing these numbers is our mission, our calling, our assignment:

• 1.4 million victims [women and children] are in servitude in the commercial sex industry.
• Less than 2 percent of these victims are rescued.
• One in 100,000 traffickers in Europe are convicted in court.²
• The U.N. reported in 2009 that up to 40 percent of women throughout Latin America have been victims of physical violence.
• In Asia, 60 million girls are “missing” due to prenatal sex selection, infanticide, or neglect. In China, young couples are allowed to have only one child, and boys are preferred. Baby girls are orphaned, thrown into rivers, left on doorsteps, or abandoned in forests.
• In many Islamic countries women die from “honor killings.” Women who dare to disagree with their husbands or show a hint of disrespect, will be buried up to the waist by their husbands and other male relatives, and then stoned publically. This practice is illegal, yet it’s estimated that 5,000 such killings take place every year.
• Female genital mutilation affects an estimated 130 million women and girls, mostly in Africa. Each year, 2 million more undergo the barbaric practice.³
• “Author George Gilder in Sexual Suicide reported that men commit more than 90 percent of major crimes of violence, 100 percent of the rapes, and 95 percent of the burglaries. Men comprise 94 percent of our drunken drivers, 70 percent of suicides, 91 percent of offenders against family and children.”⁴

Men, our sisters need us. They are literally crying out for our help. We cannot continue to play around with sin; we must become who God has called us to be and change what is happening in this world. Many of us want to see these atrocities end, and the first step is to get out of bondage to the evil spirits behind this industry. We must not allow our minds to view women the way that the devil tells us to. As former porn-star turned Christian anti-porn activist, Shelley Lubben states in her book, our sisters need us!

The real truth is we porn actresses want to end the shame and trauma of our box office lives but we can’t do it alone. We need you men to fight for our freedom and give us back our honor. We need you to hold us in your strong arms while we sob tears over our deep wounds and begin to heal. We want you to throw out our movies and help piece together the shattered fragments of our lives. We need you to pray for us so God will hear and repair our ruined lives. Don’t believe the big top fantasy. Porn is nothing more than fake sex, bruises and lies on video. Trust me, I know.⁵

It is time that we become like Christ. We have already discussed how we are called to treat women as our sisters, with dignity and respect. But being like Christ goes beyond not mistreating and lusting after our sisters. It is not enough to stop looking at them as objects of pleasure; it is time that we aggressively rise up and become rescuers, protectors, and Christlike heroes.

Most men who have struggled with sexual bondage continue to endure guilt and shame. They feel powerless and wonder if they will ever be free. If they have reached out for help from a therapist or read most of the current books on the subject, they are slapped with the label of addict and the promise “once an addict, always an addict.” Unfortunately, these men will continue to struggle from one methodology to another, looking only for their own freedom.

We must break out of this cycle. The millions of women who are being used, abused, and thrown away every day are crying out in their hearts asking, “Will anyone ever truly love me and help me?”

God is not setting us free just so that we can be happy and not covered in shame. He does want us free, but for a purpose. We are freed to bring freedom to others. As Jesus said in Matthew 10:8: “…Freely you have received; freely give.”

You are either going to be a protector and rescuer, or you are going to be a user and abuser; there is no middle ground. Perhaps you have reasoned that you just look at a little bit of pornography and that you don’t actually view and treat women as disposable objects of pleasure. Consider what you do when you are done viewing pornography. If you are like most men, you clear the history out of your computer’s browser, you throw the magazine or DVD in the garbage, or you take the computer images and videos and place them into the trashcan icon of your desktop.

Clearly you should remove this material from your life, yet the individual who downloads video clips each day and then throws them into the computer’s trash can is implanting a powerful message into his brain: Women can be used, abused, and thrown away. Women have no value and are completely disposable!

We must become aggressive and stay on the offensive. If we become neutral or defensive in this fight, we will lose ground. As someone once said, “The reason that evil triumphs is because good men do nothing.” Nobody is better prepared to respond to the evil atrocities occurring against women than the men who have been set free from this system of bondage. It is time for the 82 percent of Christian men who have been in captivity to get free, to rise up, and to bring freedom to women around the world.

Shouldn’t the Church be leading the way in rescuing women caught in oppression? We have hidden our involvement in this sin long enough. It is time to own up, to get out of bondage, and to go back to rescue others.

Brother, wipe that shame off your face. You have a job to do. You may fall down a few more times while you are walking out of your life of bondage, but I have given you all of the tools to get free and stay free. The lynchpin to this whole issue is that you are not focused on your personal freedom as the end goal. You are getting free so that you can be like Christ and bring freedom to those who need it most. Once you are free from the grip of sexual bondage, don’t leave your sisters imprisoned.

God is calling for spiritual warriors to rise up! We must hear the call, and become prayer warriors and rescuers. Our sisters and daughters need us; it is time for men to rise to the rescue!

Tool

Get a men’s group at your church to read through this book. You are not meeting to struggle for personal freedom together. You are coming together as a rescue squad. Pray the crafted prayer together and ask the Lord to give you wisdom and insight regarding how you can reach out to the women trapped in a sexual-bondage lifestyle. Here are a few ideas:

1. Meet across the street from a strip club and pray for those women to come to know the perfect love of their heavenly Father.

2. Write to a porn star telling him/her of the true freedom and shame-free life they can have in Christ. Tell him/her how God loves and yearns for them.

3. Write to ministries that are working with women in the sex slave trade and encourage them in their mission. Their work is lonely, and your support will bless them tremendously.

4. Visit the street(s) in your city where prostitution takes place. Hit the streets two by two and give out roses to the women you meet. Share with them how God sees them as His rose and how He loves them.

5. Have a men’s breakfast periodically to encourage men to rise up, not only for personal freedom, but also as the heroes that women need in this world.

“Treat…younger women as sisters, with absolute purity” (1 Timothy 5:1-2).

Imagine for a moment a typical college man. Let’s call him Bill. Bill is into the college social scene. He sees himself as a skin-wrapped package of salivary glands, taste buds, and sex drives. So how does Bill occupy his time with this self-perception? By eating and chasing girls. He eats anything and everything in sight regardless of its nutritional value. He chases just about anything in a skirt, but he has a special gleam in his eye for luscious-looking Susie, the cheerleader.

Bill was chasing sweet little Susie around the campus one day when the track coach noticed him. “Hey, this kid can really run!” When the coach finally caught up with Bill he said, “Why don’t you come out for the track team?”

“Naw,” Bill answered, watching for Susie out of the corner of his eye. “I’m too busy.”

But the coach wasn’t about to take “naw” for an answer. He finally convinced Bill at least to give track a try.

So Bill started working out with the track team and discovered that he really could run. He changed his eating and sleeping habits and his skills improved further. He started winning some races and posting some excellent times for his event.

Finally Bill was invited to the big race at the state tournament. He arrived at the track early to stretch and warm up. Then, only a few minutes before his event, guess who showed up: sweet little Susie, looking more beautiful and desirable than ever. She pranced up to Bill in a scanty outfit that accentuated her finer physical features. In her hands was a sumptuous slice of apple pie with several scoops of ice cream piled on the top of it.

“I’ve missed you, Bill,” she sang sweetly. “If you come with me now, you can have all this and me too.”

“No way, Susie,” Bill responded.

“Why not?” Susie pouted.

“Because I’m a runner.”

What is different about Bill? What happened to his drives and glands? He is still the same guy who could pack away three burgers, two bags of fries and a quart of Pepsi without batting an eye. He is still the same guy who was just itching to get close to beautiful Susie. His understanding of himself has changed, though. He no longer sees himself primarily as a bundle of physical urges, but as a disciplined runner. He came to the tournament to run a race. That was his purpose, and Susie’s suggestion was at cross-purposes with why he was there and how he perceived himself.¹

This story from Neil Anderson’s book, Victory Over the Darkness, shows the power of what the apostle Paul called, “…being transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (Rom. 12:2). As we have previously discussed, the current methodologies for dealing with sexual bondage have been unsuccessful. Not only do these methods have faulty foundations, but they also have faulty end-goals.

For many men, if they could be freed of the lustful thoughts that grip their minds and walk uprightly, they would be thrilled. Yet this stops far short of God’s desire. God’s ultimate aim is not just that we stop lusting, but that He conforms us into the image of His Son (see Rom. 8:29). He plans on making us just like Jesus. “Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did” (1 John 2:6 NLT).

God is not simply focused on getting men to stop masturbating; His goal is that we would be just like Jesus. It is with this in mind that we must renew our minds to have the same goal as God. If we are to be like Jesus, we must examine how Jesus viewed women. Jesus treated all women as sisters or as mothers. Remember how Jesus graciously spoke with the woman at the well in John 4. Even though she had a negative sexual reputation in that region, Jesus spoke so kindly to her that she brought the whole town out to meet Him. Jesus did not run away from her because she was too sexual and tempting. He instead approached her with a heart of love, honor, and compassion, knowing that this precious woman was made in the image of God. (This is exactly how the Holy Spirit moved me to interact with the woman in the gym in Chapter 10.)

Every woman has been created in the image of God and, therefore, is worthy of love, honor, and respect. The apostle Paul told Timothy to treat older women as mothers and younger women as sisters. This is not only applicable to women inside the Church. This is the same type of respect that we must exercise at all times toward all women.

Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity (1 Timothy 5:1-2).

I would go so far as to say that there is no such thing as a whore, slut, or prostitute. Although some women may consider themselves to be these people and even live that way, Jesus interacted with everyone on the basis of their creation.

All women were created in the image of God and, therefore, deserve love, honor, and respect. These women are our sisters or our mothers and should be viewed accordingly (even when they don’t see themselves correctly).

In a natural, healthy family, it is never acceptable to sexually violate your sister or mother. According to Paul, all women are either “my sister or my mother,” and incest is unacceptable in the family of God. (The obvious exception is when we marry; these women become our wives, and the paradigm shifts.) When the mind is renewed to perceive all women as either our sisters or our mothers, then sexual immorality will cease being the major problem it has been.

Consider the following scenario. You are watching a movie and the lead actress begins to disrobe for a sex scene. How you respond? Do you simply shield your eyes and try not to be tempted, or does your heart fill with compassion toward your sister created in the image of God because she is about to defile herself? Does your heart break for your sister and all the pain that she must be in that she would allow herself to be used in such vile ways? Do you focus on trying not to be tempted, or does a spirit of prayer rise up within you as you cry out for the healing of your sister? (It is also important to mention that I do not condone watching movies where women are disrobing, yet many can relate to the question of how to respond in this situation.)

Perhaps you are going through the checkout at the grocery store and the magazine covers are splashed with lewd photos of women. Are you trying to fight off the tempting thoughts, or has your mind been renewed to being like Christ’s? If your mind has been renewed, then you would not be focused on yourself and the temptation. You would be focused on the heart of God, which aches for His daughters (your sisters) who are being injured and defiled. With a renewed mind, you see those cover models as your sisters, and your heart breaks for them. They are not the enemy that is tempting you, and you are not in a fight with them.

If we can begin to see women as sisters who are being abused, hurt, harmed, kidnapped, and killed by the sex industry worldwide, we would see that the issue is not just whether we masturbate or not. Masturbating is selfish, but trying to stop lusting solely for the purpose of our own freedom can also be selfish. The issue is that either we are working with God to bring those women into freedom, or we are participating with the demonic spirits who are running the annual $57 billion sex trade. If we are to truly align ourselves with the heart of God and live like Jesus, then whenever temptation rears its head, we will not simply try to avoid sin, but we will begin to cry out for our sisters in bondage.

Many Christian authors who have written about men’s sexual purity speak of women in a negative tone. They state that the Christian man is in a battle against all those tempting women out there. Although that may be how it feels at times, it is never the truth. This is actually an inferior understanding. The ultimate truth is that we are powerful and called to be like Christ. Women are not the enemy; women are our sisters, and they need our help.

Have you ever considered that those women who are tempting you are in just as much bondage to sexual sin as you are? And whether you can hear them voice it or not, they desperately want their freedom and healing as well.

I would like to suggest something better than men gathering in dank church basements and declaring that they are sex addicts week after week. How about if a group of men struggling with sexual bondage started to meet across the street from a strip club and cry out in prayer on a weekly basis, praying for their sisters in bondage? Those dear women are lost in darkness; they don’t know that God loves them. They feel too hated and dirty to come to church, and they need our prayers. And in the process of meeting to pray for those sisters, God’s heart of love for those women would transform the men themselves.

Those women are not the enemy. Porn stars, prostitutes, and strippers are your sisters, and they are hurting. They don’t just need Christian men to stop looking at them; they need Christian men to cry out in prayer for them. When was the last time that you heard a Christian leader call people to pray for these dear sisters? I have spent 28 years in church, and never have I heard a leader pray over them. Perhaps the reason that the Church has been failing so badly in the battle against sexual temptation is because we have been living on the defensive rather than aligning with the heart of God, living on the offensive, and becoming prayer warriors and protective brothers. This is a call to arms; we must live on the offensive and not the defensive.

God intends for you to be just like Jesus, but satan intends for you to be just like him. While satan wants you to see your sisters as mere objects of pleasure, God wants you to see them as your sisters. You are called as the protective brother who will cry out in prayer and come to their rescue. Satan wants your eyes to be filled with burning lust. God intends for you to be just like Jesus and to have fire in your eyes, so that you would burn with eyes of love.

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to His feet and with a golden sash around His chest. The hair on His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and coming out of His mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance (Revelation 1:12-16).

This is the picture that the Scripture gives us of Jesus after His resurrection—as He is in His victory. And as we already discussed, John, the man who also saw and recorded this revelation of Jesus, wrote: “Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17 NKJV). We are called to be just like Jesus; as He is, so are we in this world! His eyes of love burn with the fire of Heaven. Thus, our eyes are meant to burn with love just like His!

The battle with sexual sin has been lost because we have been exchanging one selfish focus for another. The Church has traded the selfish focus of lust for a self-focused search for personal freedom. Personal freedom will be found when we focus on freedom for others.

When you see a beautiful and possibly tempting woman, immediately switch your focus to praying protection over her. Don’t turn inward and battle temptation; turn outward and place yourself in prayer as a protector. This identity shift will renew your mind and bring personal freedom as an inadvertent by-product.

Let me illustrate what I am talking about. You are at the mall with your friends, and it seems like everywhere you look you see beautiful women dressed in overly sexualized outfits.

Basically there are two ways for you to respond:

Option #1: You feel your conscience begin to condemn you, so you immediately begin an inward battle: “I can’t look. I have to ‘bounce my eyes’; I have to ‘protect my eye-gate.’” Before long your day at the mall basically stinks, because you are fighting this inward battle the whole time. Eventually you just feel like: I hate going to the mall (or the beach or the gym or even church) because of all these hot, tempting women.

Option #2: While you notice that the mall is filled with beautiful women, you are also aware that you are a powerful, self-controlled, and valuable man of God. You do not choose option one, which would move you into an inward fight against temptation while your conscience condemns you. Instead, you are grieved in your heart that these ladies don’t understand their value. (That is the heart of Jesus operating within you. If a beautiful woman understood her value, she wouldn’t need to dress whorishly to try to gain value in the eyes of strangers.) Rather than spending your day fighting an inward battle, every time you see a beautiful woman, your heart responds, “Lord, thank You for creating such beauty. I ask that You would show my sister her inherent value and protect her from those who would steal that value from her. Amen.” Once you fully grasp the truth of your identity, you will be able to relate to others according to their identity in God.

This renewing of the mind will not come in a moment. It must be put into practice, even daily, until you have altered your heart and mind, received a revelation, and are walking out a new identity. I have crafted a declaration that is used the same way that some individuals pray Psalm 91 or Psalm 23—as a way of renewing their minds to a specific truth. Here is the declaration that I use:

I declare freedom over every young woman trapped in the bonds of the sex industry. I pray for healing and restoration to your soul; that the shattered pieces of your heart would be put back together.

Please forgive me for the times I have failed to protect and respect you; and especially for the times that I have directly dishonored you. I do not view you the way the world tells me to. You are beautiful, holy, and worthy of protecting. There is a perfect heavenly Father who wants you to feel His love, protection and purity. And as your brother, I will always love, honor and respect you.

Your beauty is meant for your family; therefore I appreciate what God has created, but I will not linger. I pray over my descendants that they will also view you in this way. I choose to operate in love and self-control; therefore I fix my eyes upon Jesus. He is my joy and my salvation. He will strengthen and renew my mind and spirit. He will be my comforter when I am sad, hurt, or lonely. I turn to Him!

The Last Mile

Since my readers are coming from a variety of experiences, it is a challenge to relate to each and every personal experience. However, no matter where you start in your journey from bondage to sexual purity, you will find that there are degrees of bondage that are left behind. For example, one reader may be struggling not to go to a strip club tonight; another may be struggling not to look at Internet porn; and yet another may be trying not to dwell on memories of an old flame. And while most Christian leaders teach against sexual impurity, they usually stop short of dealing with “the last mile.”

A friend of mine described it this way:

The hardest part for me is what I call “the last mile”…where it’s no longer about looking at porn or masturbating, but the little things that from the outside appear innocent, but in your heart you know the motives are not pure. Things like looking at a girl’s Facebook profile just because she is hot. My wife could be in the same room and probably not notice, but the hidden motives behind that click are still the same as when it was pornographic images; it is still usury. It’s so much easier to rationalize that click when it’s seemingly innocent and you have excuses like “oh she is just an old friend from high school.” But I don’t want to give the enemy any foothold in my life, not even my pinky toe nail.

The fact is that men will always notice beautiful women; God made those beautiful women and gave men the ability to visually appreciate that beauty. That alone is not sinful. The fact that you notice and appreciate beautiful women is not a bad thing. You have crossed the line into dangerous territory once you become selfish with what you are seeing.

As I stated earlier, men are destined by God to be protectors of beauty—whether in regard to nature, infants, art, health, or women. The influence of evolutionary thinking has caused many men to view themselves as animalistic in nature—that a man is simply nothing more than a highly evolved beast driven by sexual impulses.

Yet the Bible shows us that God created man to govern, cultivate, manage, protect, and expand the Garden of Eden. We need to realign our perspective to see that Adam was not put in The Garden to selfishly strip-mine the land of all of its inherent goodness. Adam was put on Earth as a protector, not as a predator. Predators steal, kill, and destroy beauty, whereas protectors value, appreciate, and respect beauty.

Imagine the following scenario with me. A man taught to be a beauty-predator is suddenly let loose in an art museum. He is overwhelmed by all the beauty that surrounds him, and because he has been bred a certain way, the only thing that he knows to do is to greedily snatch as many paintings as he can from the walls around him.

By contrast, a man who has been trained to be a protector (such as the museum security guard) will see the same beauty and acknowledge it. The difference is in the identities of the men: the predator is compelled to steal beauty for his selfish purposes, whereas the protector will appreciate the beauty, but leave it on the wall and protect it from predators.

When we see beauty, we must maintain our identity. We are not predators, but rather protectors of beauty. When we maintain our identity, we are able to see beautiful women as more than simply physical beings. We can appreciate the fact that they are people who need to be loved and protected to the core of their beings. Then we will value them as God values them.

This is how we run “the last mile.”

Tool 1

Using the previous prayer example, craft a prayer of your own and carry it with you. Now put it to action. Tomorrow, place five pennies in your right pants pocket. Throughout the day, pray through your crafted prayer. Every time you pray it, move one penny to your left pocket. Your goal is to move all five pennies each day. Change frequency as needed.

If you find that you have been drawn back and tempted by the thought of a particular old girlfriend or a certain porn star or Hollywood actress, I suggest specifically targeting that person with your prayers. It is hard to know what spiritual connections have taken place through the past sins, but you are in the place now where you can release spiritual blessing and protection over your sisters everywhere. Now go for it!

Tool 2

When you encounter a beautiful woman, you must be prepared. It is time to stop being ashamed of the beauty that others carry. You will encounter beautiful women every day for the rest of your life, so just accept that fact and get over it. It is time to practice how to think when encountering beauty in a woman.

1. Acknowledge her beauty.

2. Take a moment and actually look at the beautiful woman.

3. Thank God for creating such beauty.

4. Ask the Lord for a deeper revelation about her being your sister.

5. Remind yourself that you are called as a protector.

6. Ponder what protecting her means and how you should view her.

7. Don’t allow shame to wash over you; you are not a predator (don’t listen to satan’s lies).

8. Pray over her—that she would be protected, respected, and valued.

For practicality, over time I have whittled these eight steps down into one simple step. When I see a beautiful woman, I simply say in my heart, “I bless you in Jesus’ name. Lord, I ask You to protect her and show her the inherent value she carries.”

All copies of Eyes of Honor ordered in April, 2013 will be signed by Jonathan Welton

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I still remember when I first began to hear about this Rob Bell character and the so-called “Emergent” movement. As it seemed outside of the circles I was moving in, I didn’t give it much attention. Eventually, I came across this movement more and more, and finally decided to do a little research.

Fast-forward a few years. I downloaded and listen to several of Rob Bell’s audiobooks. He read them himself for the audio recording. If you are not very familiar with Rob Bell, he has a very unique and likeable presentation style. In fact two of his video teachings that I watched, I still say are literally the best two public speaking presentations I have ever watched.

After spending about 15 hours with Rob Bell by audiobook, I understood what all the hype was about. The big fuss about Rob Bell has always been that he is ambiguous and asks lots of questions while not providing many answers. As a thinker, I appreciate this approach, although by itself it would cause frustration. Yet it stirs the reader to look for answers.

Bell’s Mega-wavemaking book, Love Wins (which I listened to by audiobook), was an interesting book, full of challenging questions and no dogmatic answers. Unfortunately for Bell, it seems that although he didn’t take a theological stance and simply asked provocative questions, his credibility and klout took a drastic beating by those in the church community that were not open to thinking through his questions and at least engaging in a discussion. Instead, close-minded people simply wrote him off without even reading his book, for example on the day the book was released John Piper infamously tweeted, “Bye bye Bell.”

As a fellow writer, I have felt for Bell, the fact of being treated mercilessly by close-minded brothers and sisters has a familiar sting (simply type Welton False Prophet into google and you will see the stuff that authors put up with).

In reflection, I have stated privately for a couple of years that I wish Rob Bell had used all that momentum and rapport to say something worthwhile about the Gay agenda that the Church worldwide is facing and what God’s heart and direction is in this arena. It seems that Bell made a huge splash with a book about hell, then resigned his megachurch in Michigan, moved to LA and hasn’t been heard from for a couple of years. In my humble opinion, I would have rather seen him say something important to my generation about a more important and divisive issue, rather than wasting that momentum on questioning hell.

Well, just this week, Bell has made it back in the news and he is talking about what I had hoped he would talk about. Homosexuality.

“In response to a question regarding same-sex marriage, Bell said, “I am for marriage. I am for fidelity. I am for love, whether it’s a man and woman, a woman and a woman, a man and a man. I think the ship has sailed and I think the church needs — I think this is the world we are living in and we need to affirm people wherever they are.” (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-carey/rob-bell-comes-gay-marriage_b_2898394.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false)

While I expected Bell to be controversial and make waves, I didn’t expect him to accept and affirm gay lifestyles. Bell always goes back to treating people with dignity and love, which is refreshing and right, yet in this case it is a bridge too far. Bell has gone beyond simply loving people, but also saying we can affirm them in their lifestyle. I doubt Bell would say this to a drug addict, porn addict, a serial adulterer, etc. Yet the pressure is on to see this sin as affirmable.

I don’t believe it is right to pour shame on any person for any sin. I don’t believe that we treat people according to their actions but according to how their Heavenly Father truly sees and loves them. I do believe we are making a huge mistake when we rewrite the Bible through a distorted lens of what “we” think “love” looks like.

I live in a generation that is dangerously close to throwing the Bible into the trash can and saying let’s just love people like Jesus, which is then determined through one’s own filter without regard to what Jesus was really even like. I am concerned for my generation, although they are going after the Kingdom and the Supernatural like never before, there is a void of understanding the Bible, even among the up and coming Bible “Teachers.”

I am not speaking from a hopeless place, although disappointed, I still like Rob Bell, and I am hoping that some leaders in his life will challenge him to get back to valuing the Word.

I do believe it is time to reexamine the Word and right the wrong understandings. I will not idly sit by while women are oppressed by wrong reading of the Word, I will not allow another generation to be deluded into escapism by more bad endtimes teaching. I am not willing to see more people getting caught up in endless inner healing, endless intercession and endless spiritual warfare because they simply do not understand their true authority and identity in Christ.

Please don’t throw out the Bible when it confuses you. Don’t throw it out when it seems to contradict itself. People have been reading and studying for hundreds of years and maybe we don’t have everything figured out perfectly yet. Ask the Author to explain the book to you and give Him time to do so.

As for Rob Bell, I still hope he changes his position, but in the meantime, I am praying and asking the Lord “where are the leaders for my generation that will give direction and help us navigate this new world?”

As I have prayed many times, “Here am I, Lord send me.”

(Come sign up for our Supernatural Bible School)

I am in the slow process of writing a second/expanded edition of Raptureless, due out late in 2013. This week I will share a whole new chapter from that forthcoming edition. It is a short chapter about an important topic. Enjoy!

~Jonathan Welton

The Persecution Mindset

Now that we’ve addressed several major end-time misconceptions, I want to look at something I call the persecution mindset. In a nutshell, it is defined like this: Many western Christians believe that Christianity in countries with persecution is better than Christianity in countries with no physical persecution. Some even see the lack of persecution as evidence of the Church being anemic!

Typically, one of the first thoughts to come to mind when pondering persecution is the ever-popular quote from Tertullian, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” I appreciate Glenn Penner’s take on it:

Some have mistakenly believed that these words can be found in the New Testament. They’re not. In fact, the phrase, itself, is a paraphrase of a statement made by an early church leader called Tertullian in 197 A.D. in a book he entitled The Apology. In it, Tertullian writes to the Roman governor of his province, refuting various false charges being made against Christians and the Christian faith, arguing that the followers of Christ were loyal subjects of the empire, and thus, should not be persecuted. At any rate, Tertullian observes, the persecution was failing to destroy Christianity. He writes, “kill us, torture us, condemn us, grind us to dust; your injustice is the proof that we are innocent. Therefore God suffers (allows) that we thus suffer. When you recently condemned a Christian woman to the leno (pimp, i.e. accused her of being a prostitute) rather than to the leo (lion), you made confession that a taint on our purity is considered among us something more terrible than any punishment and any death. Nor does your cruelty, however exquisite, avail you; it is rather a temptation to us. The oftener we are mown down by you, the more in number we grow; the blood of Christians is seed.”

As is true with many popular statements, this phrase has been taken at face value for so long that to challenge it is, in the minds of some, paramount to challenging the very words of Scripture. The notion that persecution always causes church growth is so widespread that it is considered irrefutable by some. An accompanying assumption is that persecution typically causes the Church to be purified, and believers to walk more closely with God. Thus, persecution is often seen to have a benefit for the Church.¹

People who think according to the persecution mindset will say (or believe) things like, “If only America had some persecution; then our churches would have ‘better’ Christians.” However, as we can see from Penner’s explanation, this was not Tertullian’s intention whatsoever. He was describing the reality that persecution could not kill the Church, not naming persecution as the force behind Church growth and holiness.

Many Bible verses speak of the early Church’s experience of persecution, but we must be careful to read these verses in their historical context. We must not apply the historical reality that they faced to all generations, for all time. Following are some of the passages that speak of persecution:

Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:10-12).

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:43).

Remember what I told you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them the works no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. As it is, they have seen, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: “They hated me without reason” (John 15:18-25).

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16:33).

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God (Acts 14:22).

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Timothy 3:10-13).

This passage could easily be misinterpreted as applying to all Christians for all time. However, the context is clearly the “last days” of Jerusalem (AD 30–70), as Second Timothy 3:1, nine verses earlier, makes obvious.

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds (James 1:2).

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials (1 Peter 1:6).

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you (1 Peter 4:12).

When considered in their historical context and with the understanding that most of the “endtimes” events prophesied in the Bible happened in AD 70, we can see that these verses were written regarding only the earliest period of Church history (AD 30–70). During that time, Christians faced horrible persecution under the evil Temple leaders. Men like Saul (who later became Paul) persecuted the Church from house to house and dragged people from their homes (see Acts 7:54-8:3).

While persecution certainly did not end with the destruction of Jerusalem at AD 70, we should not take from these verses a universal expectation of persecution for all time. Such an idea is an assumption that removes these verses completely from their context.

Here are four things we do learn from these passages:

1. We recognize the valor of the early Church to stand up as a witness for Christ, even to the point of death.
2. We learn that we must love all people, even those who would be enemies. The early Church did not become hateful toward their persecutors but continued to love.
3. We learn that we should be willing to follow the early Church’s example and suffer persecution if the need arises.
4. We see that, as the context indicates, they were going through fiery trials, but we are not told to expect every Christian to face persecution everyday of their lives for all time. That is a modern fallacy.

The New Testament was written regarding first century realities. It does not teach an expectation that all Christians are to suffer persecution for all time. Even Jesus wasn’t persecuted as much as some with the persecution mindset say that Christians should be. This leads us to the question, If Jesus is our model, then who should be persecuting us?

Jesus was beloved of sinners, and even the government leaders found no fault in Him (see Matt. 27:23-24). At first, only the religious leaders hated and persecuted Jesus. Even the early Church suffered persecution primarily at the hands of the Jewish religious leaders until AD 64, when Nero burned one third of Rome and began to vigorously persecute Christianity.

Proof Texting

The proof text of the persecution mindset is found in Jesus’ command to pick up our cross and follow Him. I addressed this misunderstood passage in my earlier work, Eyes of Honor:

Many have been taught that self must be daily crucified and that the self is evil and must be denied. Although Jesus did say to deny self, the definition of self has been very convoluted. When Jesus referred to self, He was not talking about the soul. Also, He was not talking about the self as synonymous with the flesh. We know this because Jesus said to deny self, whereas the only answer for the flesh is crucifixion in Christ (see Gal. 2:20).

The best way to understand self is to define it as a person’s reputation. Let’s look again at what Jesus said regarding denying self with our new definition:

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:34-35).

Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:24-25).

It is clear in these passages that Jesus is talking to the non-believer and telling them how to become His follower. “Deny yourself” is something Jesus told those who were considering becoming His followers. He told them what it would cost them. The cost would be that they would lay down their lives and the control of their lives. This point is even clearer in Luke 14:

Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.

“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be My disciples (Luke 14:25-33).

Jesus spoke very plainly in these verses instructing his potential followers not to expect life to be easy. The first-century understanding of “taking up the cross” meant being willing to lay down one’s reputation and be branded by society as a criminal. Jesus died a criminal’s death on a criminal’s cross and His followers had to count the cost of laying down their reputations to become rejects of society.²

Clearly, these passages are not, as some have interpreted, about embracing persecution in our daily lives.

On Earth as in Heaven

So many have held up persecution as a saintly quality in the Christian’s life, but let’s think about it in light of the growth of the Kingdom of God. If our prayers are effective and if Jesus is answering them, then this world will become “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10), which would certainly include a lack of persecution. We can pretty safely assume no Christians are being persecuted in Heaven. Logically, if the Lord’s Prayer is being progressively answered, the outcome should be that Earth becomes more and more like Heaven. Thus, the more the Kingdom expands on this Earth and the saints mature into their calling as ambassadors of that Kingdom, the less persecution Christians should face.

Where God’s will is in full effect, persecution does not exist. It wasn’t present in the Garden of Eden, and it isn’t present in Heaven, either. Between that historical point and our future goal, many Christians have experienced persecution. That does not make it holy. Rather, while we live in the interim timeline between the Garden of Eden and the Garden City of Revelation 22, we are to pray Heaven into the Earth. And thankfully, the outcome of this expansion of the Kingdom of God will include a squelching of all persecution.

Chapter Points

• The New Testament verses about persecution applied to specific people and circumstances historically, and they are not to be read as statements that apply to all people for all time.
• In their historical context, these verses tell us about the intense persecution Christians faced leading up to the AD 70 Destruction of Jerusalem.
• Though persecution has always existed, we should not expect it, call it evidence of the radical Christian life, or believe it is the “seed bed” of Christianity.
• Much of the persecution that Jesus and the early Church experienced happened at the hands of the religious leaders.
• When Jesus said to “deny yourself,” He was talking to potential converts (not believers), telling them about the cost of being His follower and the scorn it would bring upon them in that day.
• Heaven is a persecution-free zone, and naturally, persecution will decrease as the Church brings the culture of Heaven down to Earth.

We would love to have you join us for the upcoming San Diego Kingdom Bootcamp, April 25-27.

We now have 37 students registered for the Supernatural Bible School Online. We are only accepting 150 total, now is the time to get signed up!

Dear Pastors, I have three weekends in May that are not yet scheduled. Most of 2013 is full, but if you fill out the hosting form, we are still scheduling these final three weekends.

I have heard an immense amount of teaching over the years. In the last decade especially, there has been a movement that is extremely focused on “Spiritual Warfare.”

I am thankful for the awareness that this movement has created toward the spiritual realm and the demonic. Many Christians hardly even believe in demons existing and need to get a wake up call. So in many ways this movement has been a good thing.

On the flip side, there has been a weakness in this movement. The main weakness I have seen is that there are individuals not grounded in their identity or authority in Christ. If I could take a moment to encourage the Body of Christ, I would stress the importance of identity and authority before going after more warfare. The following points seem to be missing from many teachings on warfare:

• Jesus defeated Satan on the Cross (Col 2:15).

• Satan is powerless (Heb 2:14).

• Satan continues to lie and only has power when we give him power by agreeing

• Jesus has all authority (Mt 28:18).

• We are in Jesus (John 15).

• We therefore have authority over the Devil (Mt 10:1).

If we understood these truths, our practical application of spiritual warfare would change. No longer would we think we are fighting for victory. Fighting for victory means we are living on the wrong side of the cross. Instead, we should be starting from the victory of Christ.

Starting from victory in Christ, having a strong understanding of identity in Christ, and the authority that it brings, this will create an army of powerful supernatural warriors. People that are not fearful and superstitious, but are able to go anywhere, be with anyone and release light everywhere!

I believe it is time for less books on Spiritual Warfare and time for more clear teaching about Christ’s victory over the Devil; more books about our Identity and Authority in Christ.

Just my thoughts

Jonathan Welton

PS. Check out the New Video for our Bible School, Click Here