Honoring God with your Mind
As it relates to Men of Honor, I want to lay out a three part series on what it means to be a MOH (Man of Honor) as we seek to Honor God Mind, Body, and Soul. It is my desire to explore scripture as it relates to our mind, body, and soul as well as hit head on issues that specifically take men to task as we seek to arm ourselves with the “weapons of warfare” that Paul so eloquently challenges us with in II Cor. 10:4-5. Not withstanding I will as well attempt to lay out an action plan of sorts.
Let me set the record straight here, not every man is a sex addict and suffer from addiction. However every man is susceptible. So regardless of where you find yourself on the CURVE, you must stay engaged in fight. Take captive your thoughts and renew your minds so that you might be found honorable by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
As it relates to Men of Honor, I want to lay out a three part series on what it means to be a MOH (Man of Honor) as we seek to Honor God Mind, Body, and Soul. It is my desire to explore scripture as it relates to our mind, body, and soul as well as hit head on issues that specifically take men to task as we seek to arm ourselves with the “weapons of warfare” that Paul so eloquently challenges us with in II Cor. 10:4-5. Not withstanding I will as well attempt to lay out an action plan of sorts.
I have chosen to start with the Mind, because quite frankly within it’s complexity many of the most strangulating strongholds we as men face can be locked up in it’s vault. Now don’t get me wrong, the last thing I will attempt to do is scientifically debug the inner working of our minds cause quite frankly I am not sure I am smart enough to understand what I just said much less the brain. However I do know that we as men are stimulated by sight and there is most certainly a chemical aspect to how what we see is stored in our minds which can influence what we meditate on and how it perpetuates our self image or lack there of ultimately rendering us useful or useless in fulfilling God’s transcendent call on our lives.
Man, this is such an incredibly critical subject for us as men. Though there are many aspects of the mind we could tackle together, I am choosing to hone in on the one area that I feel is the single most detrimental stronghold facing men today, SEXUAL INTEGRITY.
Let’s be real, you can’t even go to the grocery store without being bombarded with sexually explicit magazines and advertisements. Unfortunately we as men find ourselves smack in the middle of an epic sexualization of society. So, if we are keeping it real, every one of us finds ourselves on the proverbial “Bell Curve” of sexual addiction. As a point of reference, those on the far left of the curve are winning the battle and have instituted a game plan to protect against unwanted images and thoughts being processed and held captive in their minds. Those on the far right of the curve are the heinous lifeless criminals we read and hear about that have committed rape, molestation ect. My point is this, sexual addiction is unequivocally devastating, and it ALWAYS starts on the left side of the curve. It is imperative that we orchestrate a battle plan and follow it explicitly.
So let’s talk a little biology for a moment. It is important for us to understand why and how we process things that we see and hear, and how that relates to where we as men find ourselves on the CURVE. It breaks down like this; there are three primary chemicals infiltrating the brain when we are stimulated, endorphins, encephalins, and epinephrine. The endorphins/encephlins are the single most powerful pleasure chemicals in the human body. In testing, lab rats (and yes I support the testing of lab animals, better them than me I always say) would endure ten times the pain level for one shot of endorphins/encephlins than they would for cocaine. Some powerful stuff. Now, the epinephrine’s role is to permanently cement what ever it is you were seeing at the time of stimulation in one of the many chambers of that brain of ours.
And this is how it all plays out; you are rolling minded your own business and out of no where you see something you like and think WOW! Now instead of fleeing you stop for a moment and think HMMMMMM! Pow, here comes the endorphins/encephlins and we officially have stimulation. At that very instant the old epinephrine takes that image and files it away for a time and place to be named later. OK, your thinking, no big deal, so I got a little hit of the old pleasure chemicals. Remember the whole lab rats more powerful than cocaine thing? Now I am not saying were are like rats, but we most certainly enjoy the pleasure chemicals, and will always want more, and more, and more. And the funny thing is, we actually associate that epinephrine filed image with the pleasure chemicals we desire and therefore keep going back to the old file time and time again thus sending us further and further to the right of the old BELL CURVE.
Here is the thing, none of this is by accident. God intentionally created these exact chemicals and this exact process so that we would know deep intimacy with our WIVES and our WIVES alone. She is who God intends for us to be stimulated by and it is her face that is to be cemented and filed away so that we associate her beautiful face with the pleasure chemicals we tend to desire.
To be a Man Of Honor, is to be a man that Honors God with his mind and that can answer the call of 1 Peter 1:13 (Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled;) and with all of my heart I believe that this issue of sexual integrity is devastating our men daily, keeping them out of the fight. The fact is, within this sin comes a great deal of shame, which I will address in my post about Honoring God with our Body. And it is that shame that puts men on their face floundering like a fish out of water, right where satan desires for them to be. Out of the game and out of the fight.
The Game Plan
1. Chose to Fight – Be a man step up and commit to daily taking captive your thoughts. II Cor. 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The Greek word for captive is Aichmalotizo- to lead away captive, to capture ones mind, captivate
2. Take it to HIM – pray, pray, pray with transparency to God about the struggle. Check out this promise: Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The Greek word used for guard/keep is Phroureo- protect by a military guard, either to prevent hostile invasion. Your mind has at it’s disposal Military type protection from our Lord. Claim it.
3. Starve your eyes – Be intentional about what you look at, magazines, tv, computer home page, ect. Example: I had to change my home page from Fox News because of all of the Sexually explicit stories and ads to a non intrusive home page.
4. Renew your mind – Use scripture as a cleaning agent and a filter. Be in the word daily and memorize scripture. Deuteronomy 11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
5. Be accountable – Get accountability and filtering software on your computers NOW. I have several resources in the resources section of my blog.
6. Get educated – there are some great books on this subject. I have several of them listed in the resource section of my blog such as “The Game Plan” and “Every Man’s Battle”.
Man, this is such an incredibly critical subject for us as men. Though there are many aspects of the mind we could tackle together, I am choosing to hone in on the one area that I feel is the single most detrimental stronghold facing men today, SEXUAL INTEGRITY.
Let’s be real, you can’t even go to the grocery store without being bombarded with sexually explicit magazines and advertisements. Unfortunately we as men find ourselves smack in the middle of an epic sexualization of society. So, if we are keeping it real, every one of us finds ourselves on the proverbial “Bell Curve” of sexual addiction. As a point of reference, those on the far left of the curve are winning the battle and have instituted a game plan to protect against unwanted images and thoughts being processed and held captive in their minds. Those on the far right of the curve are the heinous lifeless criminals we read and hear about that have committed rape, molestation ect. My point is this, sexual addiction is unequivocally devastating, and it ALWAYS starts on the left side of the curve. It is imperative that we orchestrate a battle plan and follow it explicitly.
So let’s talk a little biology for a moment. It is important for us to understand why and how we process things that we see and hear, and how that relates to where we as men find ourselves on the CURVE. It breaks down like this; there are three primary chemicals infiltrating the brain when we are stimulated, endorphins, encephalins, and epinephrine. The endorphins/encephlins are the single most powerful pleasure chemicals in the human body. In testing, lab rats (and yes I support the testing of lab animals, better them than me I always say) would endure ten times the pain level for one shot of endorphins/encephlins than they would for cocaine. Some powerful stuff. Now, the epinephrine’s role is to permanently cement what ever it is you were seeing at the time of stimulation in one of the many chambers of that brain of ours.
And this is how it all plays out; you are rolling minded your own business and out of no where you see something you like and think WOW! Now instead of fleeing you stop for a moment and think HMMMMMM! Pow, here comes the endorphins/encephlins and we officially have stimulation. At that very instant the old epinephrine takes that image and files it away for a time and place to be named later. OK, your thinking, no big deal, so I got a little hit of the old pleasure chemicals. Remember the whole lab rats more powerful than cocaine thing? Now I am not saying were are like rats, but we most certainly enjoy the pleasure chemicals, and will always want more, and more, and more. And the funny thing is, we actually associate that epinephrine filed image with the pleasure chemicals we desire and therefore keep going back to the old file time and time again thus sending us further and further to the right of the old BELL CURVE.
Here is the thing, none of this is by accident. God intentionally created these exact chemicals and this exact process so that we would know deep intimacy with our WIVES and our WIVES alone. She is who God intends for us to be stimulated by and it is her face that is to be cemented and filed away so that we associate her beautiful face with the pleasure chemicals we tend to desire.
To be a Man Of Honor, is to be a man that Honors God with his mind and that can answer the call of 1 Peter 1:13 (Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled;) and with all of my heart I believe that this issue of sexual integrity is devastating our men daily, keeping them out of the fight. The fact is, within this sin comes a great deal of shame, which I will address in my post about Honoring God with our Body. And it is that shame that puts men on their face floundering like a fish out of water, right where satan desires for them to be. Out of the game and out of the fight.
The Game Plan
1. Chose to Fight – Be a man step up and commit to daily taking captive your thoughts. II Cor. 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. The Greek word for captive is Aichmalotizo- to lead away captive, to capture ones mind, captivate
2. Take it to HIM – pray, pray, pray with transparency to God about the struggle. Check out this promise: Philippians 4:7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The Greek word used for guard/keep is Phroureo- protect by a military guard, either to prevent hostile invasion. Your mind has at it’s disposal Military type protection from our Lord. Claim it.
3. Starve your eyes – Be intentional about what you look at, magazines, tv, computer home page, ect. Example: I had to change my home page from Fox News because of all of the Sexually explicit stories and ads to a non intrusive home page.
4. Renew your mind – Use scripture as a cleaning agent and a filter. Be in the word daily and memorize scripture. Deuteronomy 11:18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.
5. Be accountable – Get accountability and filtering software on your computers NOW. I have several resources in the resources section of my blog.
6. Get educated – there are some great books on this subject. I have several of them listed in the resource section of my blog such as “The Game Plan” and “Every Man’s Battle”.
Let me set the record straight here, not every man is a sex addict and suffer from addiction. However every man is susceptible. So regardless of where you find yourself on the CURVE, you must stay engaged in fight. Take captive your thoughts and renew your minds so that you might be found honorable by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
"If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people." 
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4 comments:
Very nice,
I look forward to all of these!
Excellent post, men everywhere need to be reading this. And it was ok for me too.
You make an interesting point that it was "ok for me too." I think as it relates to this subject, educating and encouraging women is overshadowed by teaching men. The truth is, women deeply need to understand how and why a man processes what and why he does. I see another series of posts coming on this exact subject alone. Thanks for visiting.
Good stuff bro. This is something that needs to be taught from jr. high on up. A lot of battles can be won with a good dose of prevention. I look foward to the rest of the series.
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