In HOPE

  In HOPE 8.22 

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David Timms  

 


Now available through my website:
www.growingdeeper.com


Spiritual Formation Resource

I'm currently reading through a book with a spiritual formation group -- James Wilhoit, Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered (Baker, 2008). The book is packed with helpful insights and wisdom. If the journey of spiritual formation has landed on your radar, this book will certainly be beneficial.

Hope Happenings

By the end of this month, the School of Professional Studies, School of Graduate Studies, and Hope Counseling Center will finalize their relocation to Orange, CA (about 7 miles south of the current Fullerton campus). The new facilities include classrooms, counseling rooms, offices, and gathering areas for adult students. 

Pacific Christian College, our residential and traditional undergraduate program will continue to occupy the Fullerton campus.

Hope International University
Fullerton  CA  92831

 

"Why is the battle against sexual lust so difficult for some people, perhaps most people? The answer is simple: lust works every time. It delivers what we're looking for: immediate relief from pain or discomfort."
~ James Wilhoit


Lust & Advil

The mainstreaming of sex in our time, the public explosion of marital infidelity and teen immorality, the pervasiveness of pornography, the patronage of mens clubs, and workplace sexual harrassment might get blamed on hormones. But pain?

Alan Medinger notes that most of the time we sin sexually not just to give ourselves pleasure but in a doomed attempt to protect ourselves from pain. If he's right, then the solution to our moral freefall lies in healing, not legislating.

We live with all kinds of pain -- loneliness, insecurity, hunger, fear, anger, and anxiety, to name just a few. Many people resort to food, alcohol, or drugs to dull or distract themselves. More snacks (in front of mind-numbing television shows) or a mind-slowing cocktail can help provide an escape from our boredom, depression, or woundedness. 

But sex offers an intense and intimate alternative. Lust enlivens us ... even if only for a moment.

Throughout our lives we grapple with two fundamental desires. We crave release from our pain, and we long for authenic intimacy. When we seek to ease our insecurities by pursuing illicit intimacy it merely patches the pain for a moment. In that moment, our lust transports us to a world of fantasy and quick relief. But when that moment passes, we discover the hollow deception of lust.

Most of us, in a culture that worships fast pain relief and instant gratification, reject the way of the cross (sustained, faith-filled endurance) and slip into superficial sex -- watching, fantasizing, or participating. Succumbing to such lust lures us from the Lord.

The crisis of our culture is not raging hormones or sexual freedom, but a depth of pain, rejection, isolation, and woundedness that has made us profoundly more susceptible to the superficiality of lust.

The gospel of Christ offers us the healing we need and the intimacy to fulfill us, now and for eternity. To the extent that lust continues to hold us, our healing remains incomplete.

May we yield to the Healer and the Lover and find true abundance in Him.

In HOPE --

David

 

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You can find back issues of "In HOPE" (2005-2008) at http://www.hiu.edu/inhope/.

David Timms serves in the Graduate Ministry Department at Hope International University in Fullerton, California. "In HOPE", however, is not an official publication of the University and the views expressed are not necessarily those of the Administrators or Board. "In HOPE" has been a regular e-publication since January, 2001.