by Caleb Gordon | Oct 2, 2017
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).
Last week Hugh Hefner died. I have watched in amazement as people of all walks of life have been talking about how amazing this man was and wishing him well in the afterlife and so on and so forth.
I have been impacted by Hugh. I’m a guy. I’ve seen a Playboy magazine or two in my day. The average age a young boy sees his first pornographic image is 8 years old. That is a legacy that Hugh has left. This breaks my heart.
Men and boys cannot get those images out of their heads. Once these images are burned into our brains they are there on a permanent basis. Men are visual in nature. Once we see these images, our imaginations begin to run wild.
What happens as a man dive headlong into this cesspool of images, a transformation begins in his brain. He begins to see women differently. Rather than viewing women as God’s creation of beauty and as an actual human being, we see them as a commodity. This destroys relationships.
- Pornography is one of the biggest destroyers of marriages in our country.
- Pornography is the number one reason human trafficking happens.
- Pornography is one of the biggest causes of affairs.
- Pornography sets an unrealistic expectation in a marriage bedroom.
These are just a few of the horrible things that porn causes. The thing that is even more disturbing is the number of people who are calling this man amazing, kind and a living legend. He was a depraved lost man who exploited and objectified women.
We should NOT be celebrating him. We should not be celebrating the fact that he helped promote one of the most sinister activities in all of human history. We should be mindful of how wicked the world is and how quickly we can get snared by this toilet water. It might quench a few thirsts, but it will make you sick and could eventually “kill” you. We need to be mindful of how sticky the web of sin can be, and we need to run from sin as if it’s a deadly disease because that’s exactly what it is.
That we are celebrating this man is a massive glowing neon sign that our world is depraved to the core and is in desperate need of redemption.
by Caleb Gordon | Sep 13, 2017
Recently, a friend sent me a sermon and asked what I thought of it. It was from a demonization that has had a lot of upheaval in the past decade. Nevertheless, I watched about 10 minutes of this message. That’s all I could stomach.
In 10 minutes this “pastor” told adults in the congregation that children have a better grasp of morality than they do. He said the morality of 60 years ago has vastly changed from the morality of today, and hurt feelings is a bigger sin than sexual sin. He also eluded to the idea that only certain sections of the Bible is truly inspired and the rest is just the interpretation of men.
This pastor talked about how important polls were. He gave polls more credence than the Scripture itself.
And to top this all off, he went through the percentages of their church, and out of 17,000 active members in their church 742 of them lived in a homosexual lifestyle of some sort. There was no data for how many were living in heterosexual sin outside the marriage relationship.
I finally had to turn off this broadcast. My heart was so full of anger and sadness all at the same time that I could not handle it. My whole attitude changed because of this.
This “church” spits in the face of the commands of God. It made a mockery of the Scriptures, and the thing that hurt the most is that tens of thousands of people are blindly following this church’s teaching with no thought for truth. As a result, they very well could be headed straight to the pit of hell.
Here is why this is happening.
Parents: You are not leading your families well. More particularly, MEN, you’ve neglected your responsibility so, therefore, you’ve allowed wolves to creep in and take captive your families. We need our men to move back into the role of spiritual leadership. Yes, I’m talking to you and me both! We’ve got to stop! Stop focusing on so many other things. Your kids are right in front of you. Here is the best place for me to start.
LEAD THEM. Be the servant that will give up your life for them.
PRAY WITH THEM. Take time each day to pray over them. They need it.
TALK MORE. Phones are going to be the death of us! I know. I’m guilty. Just ask my kids. They want to talk more, and there will come a time when they won’t want to talk. What’s wrong with me?
GET IN THE WORD MORE. My tribe needs me to be in God’s Word more! They need to see me in it. I need to lead by example.
BE MORE INVOLVED IN YOUR CHURCH. What is happening at your church is going to matter in years to come. Good or bad. And if you’re involved, you can help make sure it’s good stuff that is happening at your church. Be PRESENT.
My prayer is that my heart changes. I need Jesus more than I need anything else. I really need to be focused on things that are eternal.
I am my biggest problem! You are your biggest problem! We need to stop focusing on me and start focusing on Jesus and what HE WANTS!
God help me!
by Caleb Gordon | Aug 17, 2017
Recently, these verses took on some new ideas for me.
I am a wanting factory. I want my way.
I want to be noticed. I want new stuff.
I just downright want.
This is a clear indicator that I need Jesus more than ever in my own life. I need Him more than I realize I need Him.
You see, when this message truly connects and it gets inside of my heart and not just my head, I truly will be a transformed man.
When Jesus is the end all be all in my life, I no longer have to make “my wants” a priority any longer because Jesus takes over those wants.
When Jesus becomes the ROCK of my life look where he leads me.
“He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake” (Psalm 23:2-3)
What is sad is that I have read this, and I get it in my head, but I don’t make war on my own sinful nature the way I should, so, therefore, I tend to lack in the area of still water moments.
You see if this moves from just head knowledge to actual heartfelt application in my life, even when all hell breaks loose in my life, I won’t lose control. I don’t lose heart. Even when I’m walking through a dark valley in my life I don’t lose hope. Why? Because I’m no longer looking to this world, to myself, to my family, to my spouse, to anyone other than Jesus Christ for fulfillment.
And likewise, the moment I step outside of this alignment that the Scriptures outline is the moment that I lose the joy of the relationship with Jesus. Why? Because I’m looking to other things and people to bring me lasting joy, and that is a burden that they were never meant to carry.
When Jesus is our end all be all. We won’t want near as much!
He is more than enough!
by Caleb Gordon | Jul 26, 2017
How many of us, as we fired up our devices, had a stressful thought going through our minds?
You might even be reading this and saying to yourself, “I’m about to absolutely lose my ever-loving mind!”
Between bills, kids, work, school, church stuff and just life in general, we are stretched thin. The question I have for you today is not, “What are you going to do,” but rather, “Where are you going to turn?” And more specifically, WHO are you going to turn to?
I know for a lot of Christians, our verbal answer is JESUS! But when it’s 1:45 p.m. on a Tuesday and the floor drops out, our actions say otherwise. Many of us start scheming, planning and trying to figure out ways to make our circumstances go away.
I know because I’ve done this. I’m guilty of trying to HANDLE things. For many of us, we need to stop trying things and start trusting what God has already said about who we are and what we need to do.
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:25-33).
Did you catch that? Jesus knows where you are at, and nothing that is going on in your world is catching Him off guard! He’s got your past, present and future. He is more powerful than we can even begin to comprehend.
“Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (1 Pet. 5:7). He knows where you are, and HE CARES!!
You and I are fighting FROM VICTORY not FOR victory. Because Jesus has already won the war! The battle is over! JESUS WINS!
When Jesus enters your story it moves from a question mark to an exclamation point!
When Jesus steps into your timeline your past has been erased and your future is secure. There truly is no reason to worry.
Today, don’t wring your hands in stress and worry; rather, trust in What the word of God tells you. SEEK HIM FIRST! Look to Him, make your foundation the GOOD NEWS of JESUS CHRIST!
Worship today, because HE IS WORTHY to be praised and see where God takes you.
by Caleb Gordon | Jul 18, 2017
I’m not a fan of Rob Bell. Whatsoever. The reason I’m not a fan of what he does because he goes out of his way to make biblical Christianity look stupid, out of date and stuff that ‘normal people’ should avoid.
If you notice in the video below they are making fun of people who hold fast to Sola Scriptura (The Christian theological doctrine which holds that the Christian Scriptures are the sole infallible rule of faith and practice).
They mock the Bible itself in a very covert way, but they are mocking the Holy Scriptures in an attempt to be funny and witty. This is wrong, and I’ll go a step further to call this wicked.
He makes parents who take Deuteronomy 6 seriously about guarding their children’s minds against unbiblical things and setting them on a path that glorifies God look so outdated and archaic. He is literally attempting to shame parents who are giving their children the tools to live out a Biblical worldview. This is very, very concerning.
But this is how the devil does his work. He knows that selling you an outright lie is difficult, but if he sprinkles in humor and the mindset that you’re educated and sophisticated and enlightened, then people will buy into that lie.
On his website, Rob tells us about his new book that explains the Bible in a way that so many have missed. He tells us “Some people see the Bible as an outdated book of primitive, barbaric fairy tales that we have moved beyond. And so they ignore it, missing all of the progressive and enlightened…”
That sounds really good, doesn’t it? But many of us might miss what he’s saying here. These two words stuck out – progressive and enlightened. You see Progressivism is the support for or advocacy of social reform, AKA liberalism in disguise. It sounds good, but it will do its dead-level best to destroy the underpinnings of the Scriptures.
These are buzz words that have such deeper meanings. They are anti-Bible and anti-Christ. The reform they seek is not going after the Glory of God, like Martin Luther looked for, but rather, they want to destroy the very Book that God says brings life and freedom. The devil knows if he can distract and confuse then he’s got you.
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17).
The devil knows that if he can keep people away from the Bible, or make it look like it’s something silly, then he’s got them. Sadly, so many are falling for this.
The last thing I want you to see is how they make the ‘Preacher’ look as though he’s uneducated and just plain stupid. He can’t answer any of the questions Rob gives him in an intelligent way. He stumbles and just sounds like a backwoods idiot, trying to look like he’s “cool.”
God through the Prophets and the Apostles literally wrote out Scripture as there were led by the Spirit. This includes the Old Testament and the New Testament. The scriptures are “God-breathed.” Scripture is the FINAL authority of our lives. If you can’t align yourself up with that, it is you who are in sin, and it is you that need to rethink your position.
This man is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and he is deceiving so many people. AVOID HIM!
You can see the video ‘interview’ here: https://www.facebook.com/trippnottyler/videos/1435445993158855/