Holy In My Nothings

Mike Leake

Ex nihilo. It sounds like something you would buy at Wal-Mart for a lower back injury, a miracle cream to heal your aching muscles. It’s actually a Latin term that means “out of nothing”.

Christian theologians use the term to explain the way that God created the world. It means that when God went about making things like stars, dung beetles, New Jersey, and the eucalyptus plant, he did it with no beginning matter. He simply spoke it into being. “Let there be the sloth!” And for the first (and last) time, the sloth did something instantly; namely, existed.

“The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep…”

My heart feels that way sometimes. Not cold and dark or empty in the depressing “I can’t feel anything” type of way. Though occasionally it does. I mean cold and dark and empty in the “it just isn’t there” way.

It’s like what would happen if I told my three-year old to conjugate Greek verbs. For starts, she doesn’t know what conjugate means. So she’d likely just pick up some markers and start drawing stick figures.* Even if I gave her a chart with all the verbs and their various inflections, she would still be clueless. There’s nothing for her to draw from.

I feel that way in various points of living the Christian life. I understand the list of “put to death’s” in Colossians 3. I know those guys. They’ve lived in my heart for years. When you tell me to boot them out—and do it with a sword—I can at least visual them. I know what their faces look like. But not the “put ons”. Those guys didn’t exist before God said, “Let there be light” to my rebel heart. I can’t pick Mr. Compassionate Heart out of a lineup.

I need the church. She helps me to be holy in my nothings. She puts a name to those faceless graces that Christ purchased on my behalf. She helps me see that Mr. Compassionate Heart has a mustache and a canyon shaped scar running down his cheek. He’s a broken man that hurts in his gut when other people hurt.

God gives the church to help us see in places where we once had nothing. But the Lord is even more dedicated than that. Even when we don’t have models he still creates personal holiness out of nothing. Even if you never had something modeled for you, or even it was only in imperfect glimpses, He still can create holiness where we had emptiness. That’s how big our God is.

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*Which, by the way, is close to what I do when conjugating Greek verbs.

Pray For Your Son: 31 Day Challenge—Day Twenty-Three

Mike Leake 1 Comment

Day Twenty-Three That he would be in awe of God

All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. –Isaiah 66:2

Awe seems to be easy for little kids. When we get older it’s more difficult. No matter the age of your son, he must be in awe of God. The one to whom God will look is the one that trembles in awe of His majesty. Our God is awesome and worthy of us being absolutely dumbfounded in His presence. Let us pray today that our sons would be awestruck by His glory. May the sight of the Lord humble him, cause him to be contrite before Him, and to tremble at His word. He is glorious, brothers, may our sons know this with ever fiber of their being.

Lord, would you cause awe to spring up in the heart of my son. Cause him to tremble at your word. I pray that he is enamored with all of your glory. Rescue him—rescue me—from a foolish sense of familiarity with you that no longer inspires awe. Help us to see that you are inexhaustible. We know that mountains melt like wax before You. Melt our hearts before you, oh God. Awe us for you are awesome. Amen.

Why “Bouncing the Eyes” Is Incomplete Advice

Mike Leake 33 Comments

Lust is like a nasty monster that lives in your heart. If you feed it, he gets fatter and eventually overcomes you. If you starve it, then he’ll waste away to nothing and you’ll win those battles with pornography much easier. So, how do you win that battle with porn? You bounce your eyes—turn and look the other way.

That was the gist of how I was taught (and in turn taught others) to battle lust and pornography. While I do believe there is some warrant to this teaching, I believe now that it is largely incomplete.

First of all, lust isn’t a monster that gets obese when fed and skinny when ignored. He gets louder when you ignore him. He’ll make you think more about porn and not less; at least until you feed him, then he’ll mock you and go about his merry way. Lust is not a monster that needs to be deprived, it is a rebel that needs to be actively slain.

Secondly, you lust and/or or indulge in pornography because you have a problem with objectifying a person. It is impossible to look at porn and not objectify a woman or a man. This is why “bouncing the eyes” is incomplete advice. It continues to objectify people. All you are doing is telling yourself “no” to an object.

We like to use Psalm 101:3 to remind ourselves of our covenant to “set no unclean thing before our eyes”. The unclean thing, we imagine, includes the objects of our lust.

Granted, those engaging in sinful sexual acts might be “unclean”, but they certainly are not things. They are people created in the image of God. Some of these “unclean things” aren’t who you think they are. They are scared little girls thrust onto the screen, or in front of a camera, against their desires.

She doesn’t need you to simply “bounce your eyes”. She needs to be seen as a person, created in the image of God. Even if she is sinning of her own accord. She needs rescue.

Healing

Listen, if you stop at “bouncing your eyes” and think you have conquered your porn problem you haven’t. We aren’t fully healed until we stop seeing men and women as objects. 

Real healing is found in a Person.

You and I need Jesus Christ to pour His grace upon us. We need forgiveness for the way that we’ve made shipwreck of God’s good gift. The guilt of our sin needs to be removed from us as far as the east is from the west. This is what Jesus loves to do. He loves to wash those that have engaged in the vilest of sexual acts and viewed the worst of pornography.

Only through Jesus Christ is the monster of lust decisively slain. And only through Jesus Christ do we regain our true identity. If you are in Jesus Christ, your fundamental identity isn’t as a “porn watcher”. Your fundamental identity is as one that has been washed—you are redeemed. And that is your identity no matter how many hours of porn you watch after coming to know Jesus.

Furthermore, it is through Jesus Christ that our minds are restored. It is through Him that we are able to view men and women as His creation and not as objects of our desire. If we are to win the battle with lust, He can (and must) change our view of people. This he does.

Marriage won’t fix your heart. Bouncing your eyes won’t fix your heart. Accountability groups won’t fix your heart. Only Jesus Christ. Fight with Him. Yes, you might need to do various things like unplugging your computer, not going to the beach, and turning your eyes on occasion. (That’s the axe work). But that is incomplete. You need Jesus to transform that which you view as objects into people.

Pray For Your Son: 31 Day Challenge—Day Twenty-Two

Mike Leake

Day 22: that the example of his parents would be God-honoring

“And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, and walked in the ways of David his father; and he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” –2 Chronicles 34:2

Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign. He could look at two influences in his life and see two very different examples. His grandfather was a repentant Manasseh and his father was evil Amon who did not humble himself before the LORD. Which would he follow? The LORD got hold of his heart quickly and used him to root out idolatry throughout all the land of Israel. Our boys have many influences in their lives, as do we. When they look at our daily walk, what do they see? Do they see us sensitive to sin, loving our wives as Christ loved the church, meditating and applying God’s word in our lives, obeying scripture, working diligently as for the LORD, witnessing to the lost, dependent upon the Holy Spirit?

Lord, I know that children are a gracious reward from you. At the same time, they are like “arrows in the hand of a warrior”.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the task of raising my son in the discipline and instruction of the LORD. I need your wisdom, great discernment, and an abundance of love that you have continually showered on me. Lord, make my heart sensitive to your calling on my life, incline my son’s heart to follow my lead, as we walk in obedience together. Make me ever mindful of the precious God moments that can make you shine brighter and more real in his life. I don’t want to squander even one. In the name of my great Savior,  Amen.

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Adam Atherton has been married to Deborah for 22 years. Their marriage has been blessed with two children, Stephen and Emily. Adam is a sinner saved by grace daily dependent upon the LORD.