Defending your spiritual house

"When Justin Armour was a rookie wide receiver with the Buffalo Bills, some veteran teammates invited him to a preseason party. Justin went, and couldn't believe what he saw: Gorgeous women everywhere, offering free sex to any of the guys who wanted it.

"It was the most eye-opening experience I've ever had," Justin says. "I had heard about things like this, but I was so naive. I got out of there as fast as I could!"

As a single Christian guy, Justin had committed to saving sex for marriage. To do so, he knows he's got to run from temptation.

"I'd rather not have my mind polluted by those things. Once you've been in a couple situations where's there's temptation, you learn how to avoid them and you don't go back."

Justin also calls his best friend and accountability partner, Steve Stenstrom.

"You need someone to hold you accountable for walking with Christ," says Justin. "Steve does that for me. He knows everything about my life, good and bad, and there's nothing he won't hold me accountable for."

-- Mark Moring, editor of Men of Integrity. Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 1.

You may not be a professional athlete, but the situation that Mr. Armour found himself dealing with is one that many people are confronted with on a number of different levels. While we cannot shield ourselves from temptation, we can take proactive action to limit temptations power to seduce us. We see a number of good tactics to employ in this example.

Awareness of sin- I Thes 4:1-2 shows us that as Christians, we have an awareness of how to live lives pleasing to God. That through His Word, we KNOW what we are called to do, and NOT to do. Justin had a commitment to God concerning his sexual integrity that was based on his awareness of sin

Defend your flanks!- I Tim 5:22 tell us not to "share in other people’s sins" and to "keep yourself pure." Justin knew that he had walked into a very dangerous spiritual pitfall. He not only had to contend with the temptation of the sexual sin being offered to him, he had to deal with the temptation of "peer pressure" as he was among many of his contemporaries who were not resisting. Being aware of all the ways that temptation comes to us enhances our ability to defend.

Direct your heart - In Matt 5:28, Jesus warns us that sexual sin is accomplished in the heart before it is ever committed in the body. Matt 6:21 "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also". Justin was not simply alarmed over whether he would cross a physical boundary, but he was concerned that his mind would be compromised by the insatiable nature of the scene. This is important because some Christians, similarly tempted, might be confident in their resolve and decide to stay in the circumstance. While they might resist their urges enough to abstain from the activity, the mental picture of blatant sexual rebellion will make a deep impression.

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