I’ve been marinating on this verse the past week or so:
Romans 6:17 (ESV) 17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
Particularly, the words: obedience, standard of teaching and commitment.
Our level of obedience and commitment follow our standard of teaching.
For example, what does the word “planted” mean to you in this verse?
Psalm 92:13 (NIV) 13 planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
How much planting do you have to do in order to flourish?
Does planted mean you attend church when you can? Or does it mean you’re at church every time there’s a service? Or maybe it means you actively serve in the church, attend a small group, take part in events and go on mission trips?
As Christ-followers, we have been entrusted with the standard of Jesus Christ.
John 13:15 (NIV) 15 I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.
But, just as the verse in Psalm 92 above shows, that standard can mean lots of different things.
So I’ve been asking myself.
What does it mean to me? Does my current level of obedience and commitment to Jesus Christ truly reflect the standard Jesus gave me?
The saying goes: “if I say yes to this, it means I say no to that.”
To accomplish something significant means you will sacrifice many things. More often than not that’s health, happiness and the relationships closest to you (i.e. spouse, family, friends).
It got me thinking.
What do Christians sacrifice to do something great for God?
Name a project, idea, ministry, initiative, etc. you want to do for God. Is it negatively impacting your life? Is it hindering your personal time with Jesus?
Is it worth it?
Is it worth being stressed all the time? Is it worth not being there for your spouse/family? Is it worth being depressed and having no energy?
Ecclesiastes 4:6 (NIV) 6 Better one handful with tranquility
than two handfuls with toil…
The focus of our ambition and desire should not be on our influence or accomplishment but on having a deep, meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.
I’m beginning to define greatness as not how much you do or how high you build for God, but how much you know the Father and he knows you.
I write this for those that find them in a tough season of life. Particular my friends from Church Online who are going through various trials in life; having to (or learning to) suffer well.
suffer: to undergo, be subjected to, or endure anything unpleasant.
1 Peter 4:13 (NIV) 13 But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.
Suffering sucks.
Waiting on God in the midst of a potential divorce. Constantly struggling with health issues. Feeling isolated and alone. Relational heartbreaks. Waking up and realizing your life isn’t what you dreamed of . . .
There’s no denying we all go through seasons of trials which test our endurance and faith in God.
I pray 1 Peter 4:13 plants you squarely in the Word of God and reminds you of the hope you have in Him.
Suffering well promotes and prepares.
It promotes the Gospel and prepares for future glory.
Suffering Well Promotes the Gospel
Christians demonstrate the most Christ-likeness to the world in our sufferings.
The Good News isn’t that our lives are always peachy keen.
The Good News is that our lives on earth are only temporary. That our hope is in Jesus Christ and the life to come. The Good News is that no matter what happens to us externally, we are internally regulated by our faith in Jesus Christ.
He gives us hope when there seems to be none. He gives us strength when we lack it ourselves. He gives us courage when we are scared out of our minds.
This type of Good News is only visible to the world when we suffer well.
Suffering Well Prepares for Future Glory
When we “participate in the sufferings of Christ,” we conform more to the likeness of Christ. As we do that we also get to participate in His glory.
Jesus’ faithful suffering paved the way for his exaltation to the right hand of God.
There’s no telling what glory God wants to reveal on the other end of your suffering. The only way to find out is to suffer well. And be steadfast and obedient, as Jesus did, to the very end.
1 Peter 4:13 uses the word “overjoyed” to describe the feeling you’ll have when God’s glory is revealed.
Look forward to it!
1 Peter 4:29 (NIV) 19 So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.
Commit your situation to God. Believe He is faithful. Continue to suffer well.
God has your back. He sees you. And he is for you every step of the way.
This is going to be an uncharacteristic blog post. Meaning it hasn’t been super thought out and taken me two hours to write. I’m going to go against the norm and pound this thought out in 15 minutes.
Let’s see how I do . . .
I’m chillin’ here trying to sleep, but my ankle hurts like crazy. I’m six months post-surgery on my Achilles tendon and think I’ve been too active too soon on it. Thus why my leg feels like that of an 80 year old man.
One of the things that worries me (slightly) is if I’ll ever be 100% again. I take a lot of joy (and pride?) from being active and good at most anything requiring hand/eye coordination. I’m wondering if I’m getting old (I’m 29) and all physical activity from here will be downhill.
And basically the things I was once good at I will no longer be.
I wonder if my strength is now no longer how well I can do things or how good I can be at sports? How lean and semantically correct of a website I can code.
But who can I teach. Who can I coach to become better at me in those areas?
Really, it comes down to is my focus now less on perfecting my craft but more on helping others perfect their craft? Less what I can do, but who else can do it. And how can I help them do it better than I ever could?
It is the concept of building disciples.
Our mission as Christians is to go and build disciples. To teach them to obey God’s commandments. Matthew 28:19-20.
Have I now become less student and more teacher?
Rather than being about what I used to be able to do or what I can accomplish myself, but what knowledge can I impart to others?
Is this a transition in mindset everyone makes as they get older?
All you wise and experienced readers should chime in here. ;)
Christian guys look at porn. We search for pictures of naked chicks. We lust after attractive women.
Yup, it’s all true.
A main tool used by Christians to help counteract these temptations and sexual desires is an Internet filter. A program that filters what a person does online and blocks anything that seems shady.
But there are a gazillion different Internet filters out there. So which are the best ones?
If you’re looking for a solid Internet filter to use within an accountability relationship, Net Nanny (for Windows) is the hands down winner.
Read on for why.
Please note this review is for the Windows version of Net Nanny. The Mac version is significantly different from the Windows version. Having used both, I can’t recommend the Mac version. Features are either missing from the Mac version or not as good as the Windows equivalent.
An accountability relationship can mean a lot of things. In the context of this post it means Sean is accountable to Alex (that’s me!) for the websites he visits.
So I regularly monitor Sean’s browsing habits and respond accordingly. This helps remove the anonymity of browsing porn or other non-edifying websites.
Big brother Alex is always watching. ;)
Why is Net Nanny the best Internet filter for accountability partners?
Here are the features that specifically make Net Nanny the best Internet filter to use in accountability relationships.
Remote management
Most accountability partners don’t live in the same house. Sean and I definitely don’t. I’m sure his wife is pretty happy about that. ;)
So being able to manage the Internet filter’s settings, view reports, etc. without physical access to the computer is a big win.
For example, Sean is at home trying to check out the resources at XXXchurch (a legitimate site) and the filter blocks it. He can call and ask me to unblock the site.
With remote management, I can do that even though I’m at work and don’t have access to Sean’s computer. Without remote access, he would have to wait until I was able to access his computer physically. This is non-ideal and inconvenient for both of us.
And some accountability partners may not even be in the same city . . .
This makes remote management the most important feature for accountability relationships.
While both Net Nanny and CyberPatrol have this feature, Safe Eyes does not.
I’ll note here CyberPatrol has two products: Online Protection and Parental Controls. This post refers to Online Protection since it does include remote management and email notifications. Parental Controls does not.
Usable, detailed reporting
Guys on a mission to see some skin are extremely resourceful. They know 12 different ways to search for boobs.
Which means occasionally Sean may be able to get past the Internet filter and view an inappropriate site. This is where good, detailed reporting comes into play.
I can periodically look at the websites Sean has visited and see if there are any shady websites he was able to visit that didn’t get blocked. That let’s me manually block them so that he can’t visit them again.
The reporting in CyberPatrol is horrible. The only report it has shows just the number of allowed/blocked websites without details about which sites were allowed or blocked. How am I supposed to know if a site was allowed when it shouldn’t have been if I don’t know which sites were visited?
In contrast, the reporting in Net Nanny and Safe Eyes is detailed and useful. Above is just a small sampling of the reports available within Net Nanny.
Notification of blocked sites
Nothing will make Sean pee in his pants more in embarrassment than getting a phone call from me a few minutes after searching for naked pictures of Pamela Anderson and having the website blocked.
This works because the Internet filter sends me an email or text notification whenever Sean visits a blocked site.
Net Nanny, CyberPatrol and Safe Eyes all provide this feature, however, Net Nanny is by far the most flexible and customizable.
Ability to request an override
Inevitably a legitimate site will get filtered and blocked.
Providing a quick and easy way for Sean to let me know XXXchurch is a legitimate site makes it easy for me to unblock it for him.
I don’t have to manually check for legitimate sites that are blocked and unblock them. And Sean doesn’t have to do any more work than clicking a button saying “I want this site unblocked.”
Net Nanny is the only filter that provides this feature.
Not easy to bypass/disable
Remember how resourceful guys are on a mission? Some of the more tech-savvy guys may try various computer hacks to bypass the filter. A secure Internet filter needs to withstand these types of hacks and continue fighting the good fight even if shot in the arm/leg.
Net Nanny has long had the unusual ability to filter even HTTPS traffic . . . None of Net Nanny’s competitors duplicate this feat, though Safe Eyes 6.0 comes close. The latest version of Net Nanny moves further into the lead because it also prevents the kids from using localhost proxy utilities to evade filtering.
Net Nanny resists a simple command-line instruction that disables some competing products, Safe Eyes and CyberPatrol 7.7 among them.
~Net Nanny 6.5 Review (excerpt from section No Hope for Hackers)
In addition to the review above, I was recently skimming the Net Nanny forum and noticed a post detailing a way to bypass Net Nanny. In the next version this hack was disabled. It’s good to see this type of response to work-arounds . . .
I’ve been marinating on this verse the past week or so:
