The Christian Journal - May 2007
16 pages
Published by
The Christian Journal
Copyright :
Evan Almighty
Page 9
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Bob Bennet Concert
Page 16
Benefit Festival Luau
May 25th
Page 16
Doing It Like Jesus
ByLinda Callahan
Temperance Is Loving OthersBy Troy Pomeroy
When God made the earth, it was perfect.
When He...
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Evan Almighty
Page 9
LET THERE BE LIGHT
Bob Bennet Concert
Page 16
Benefit Festival Luau
May 25th
Page 16
Doing It Like Jesus
ByLinda Callahan
Temperance Is Loving OthersBy Troy Pomeroy
When God made the earth, it was perfect.
When He created His crowning glory, man,
He declared what He had done was “very
good.
” He had prepared a paradise for man
to inhabit and rule, and made life for man
full of pleasures and good things.
Then man fell, and sin entered the world.
Sincethattime,Satanhasbeenbusytempting
us with sin.
He takes the good things of God
and perverts them into something harmful to
us.
This is displeasing to God.
“What does this have to do with
temperance?”
Temperance is restraint.
It is a high virtue
of Christianity.
It has to do with limiting the
amount of pleasure or instant gratification
we receive for a higher purpose.
What is that higher purpose? Love.
The
reason we live is to love God and love people.
By using restraint in our lives, we can resist
temptation and fulfill this purpose.
It’s not that the things we are being
temperate about are bad things.
In fact, it’s
quite the opposite.
God only makes good
things.
But, too much of a good thing can
be a bad thing.
Let’s take two specific examples of things
that God gave us for our pleasure – food
and sex.
We need both of these for practical
reasons – food for nourishment and sex for
procreation.
Beyond their basic need, God
also made them enjoyable.
God’s plan is for us to enjoy the things He
made for us.
Why else would there be so
many choices of food? We can essentially
choose from any food we like to nourish our
bodies.
Yet, there are foods that are good for
us and foods that are not.
If a person has high
blood pressure, it’s in his
best interest to watch his
salt intake.
Aperson who
is lactose intolerant needs
to avoid dairy products.
And, all of us need to
avoid eating too much,
as it leads to obesity and
many health problems.
This displeases God.
God also has a plan
for sex.
A husband
and wife are to enjoy
each other sexually
within the boundaries
of marriage and it is
mutually agreeable.
Sex
outside of the marriage
covenant is a counterfeit,
perverted version of a
beautiful thing.
Adultery, fornication, and
homosexuality cause physical, emotional,
and spiritual harm to the individual involved.
This displeases God.
Whatdoesthishavetodowithtemperance?
The most immediate benefit of practicing
restraint is for ourselves.
By following
God’s plan and enjoying what He has made
for us, we get the benefits without the ugly
consequences of sin.
More importantly, we get to show love by
employing temperance.
Having unbridled
pleasureendsupenslavingustothatpleasure.
We serve it instead of it serving us.
When
we are in that place, we are not putting God
first.
We are serving the thing instead of the
Maker of the thing.
By showing restraint,
we take an active role in loving God, which
is our first purpose.
We can enjoy God’s
provision of food, for example, without
being a glutton.
Sexual temperance shows our love for
people.
Sexual abstinence before marriage
communicates to our future spouse that he
or she is more important than an immediate
sexual need.
In marriage faithfulness
communicates love as nothing else can.
We
not only gain the blessing of living according
to His plan, but we also get to love Him and
His people by our self-control.
God intends that we live life to the fullest.
The blessings come when we choose a
lifestyle of temperance to love Him and love
people!
Troy Pomeroy writes from Eagle Point, Oregon.
pastortroy@epacenter.
com
Merriam Webster defines temperance as:
1: moderation in action, thought or feeling:
RESTRAINT
2a: habitual moderation in the indulgence
of the appetites or passions b: moderation
in or abstinence from the use of alcoholic
beverages.
If I think of temperance: I think of my
lack of it, concerning eating.
I just don’t do
it.
Do I want to-yes, I do.
But along comes
some frustration and I am grabbing my car
keys as I head for Taco Bell.
My life is not
temper-ant.
I want to change and yet, seem
to want indulgence more than restraint.
Sometimes I get so angry and frustrated
with myself.
“What’s up with this?”
I question.
And then I eat even more
punishing myself for being so stupid to
“slip up again.
” It’s hopeless, I can’t I am
worthless.
Sometimes I beat myself up
more and then I go on a binge.
What have
I accomplished? Nothing! I have fallen into
self-pity and self-abuse.
God is not a God of anger or abuse.
He
does not want me beating myself up when
I fall.
His love is for the hurting, sick and
weak.
When the prostitute was caught in
the act of adultery Jesus did not say, “You
whore, you deserve to die! Bring it on boyskill her!” Instead he bent and started writing
in the sand.
I imagine that as Jesus wrote in
the sand his head was bowed as tears ran
down his face at the cruelty of his fellow
brothers, and mixed with compassion for his
obvious sinner.
I also like to imagine that
his act of compassion; was not acceptance
of sin-but compassion to man.
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees
brought in a woman caught in adultery.
They
made her stand before the group and said
to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught
in the act of adultery.
In the Law Moses
commanded us to stone such a woman.
Now
what do you say?.
.
.
.
But Jesus bent down and
started to write on the ground with his finger.
When they kept on questioning him, he
straightened up and said to them, “If any one
of you is without sin, let him be the first to
throw a stone at
her’.
Again he
stooped down
and wrote on
the ground.
At
this, those who
heard began to
go away one
at a time, the
older ones first,
until only Jesus
was left, with
the woman
still standing
there.
Jesus
straightened
up and asked
her, ‘Woman,
where are they?
Has no one
c o n d e m n e d
y o u ? ’ N o
one, sir, she
s a i d .
’ T h e n
Continued On Page 9
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