How do we change as Christians? What does “change” even mean? In today’s episode, Caitlin McCaffrey discusses what change looks like in the Christian life and how beholding or looking at Jesus, his righteousness, his perfections, and his perfect work on the cross begins to transform us from the inside out. Today’s content features session 5 of our latest video resource “Transforming Love: Women, Sexual Struggles, and Help in Christ”. If you found this helpful, you can access the full course for free on our website. In six 30-minute sessions, Transforming Love will offer you hope and practical help if you’re wrestling with things like: Pornography. Masturbation. Sexual expression outside of marriage between a man and a woman. Confusion about gender identity. Same sex attraction. Visit HarvestUSA.org/Courses to learn more.
We know that sin displeases our Father. So how does God look upon us when we wrestle daily, and frequently throughout the day, with desires, thoughts, and temptations that we know are not pure, good, or pleasing to God? Do these weaknesses count as temptation or sin? Is God always frustrated and dishonored by our lives? Our sin is sobering and pervasive, but as Mark Sanders shows us in today’s episode, it does not have the final say. Indeed, through Union with Christ, it is possible to please our Heavenly Father! You can read today’s article on our website.
Does God care about whether a married couple uses birth control or contraception? Is the possibility of creating life a necessary component of God-glorifying sex? Should Christians use contraception? To help us think biblically and practically, Mark Sanders presents three questions that, a married couple or someone considering marriage, can use to prayerfully discern the Lord’s calling for them. Read the full article on our website.
Living by faith is difficult. We all struggle every day to remember, believe, and make choices based on God’s Word and his promises to us in Christ. Words on a page can feel meaningless when painful circumstances don’t change. What helps us nurture belief in these hard moments, days, and years? In today’s episode, Mark Sanders helps us understand the nature of unbelief, how isolation nurtures unbelief, and that walking in community with our brothers and sisters in Christ nurtures faith. Read the original article on our website.
If you are currently engaging in any form of sexual sin, think back to the last time you gave in. Now try to remember one hour before you gave way to that temptation. What were you feeling, experiencing, desiring? What about twelve hours before? Our desires serve as a GPS for our hearts. Today on the podcast, Ellen Mary Dykas shows us how our desires point us in a direction: either towards God with a posture of love and surrender or away from God towards selfish demands. Click here to read the entire article on our website.
Our imaginations are a gift from the Lord, intended to help us worship him. However, because of the fall, our imaginations are deeply and profoundly affected by sin, which includes sexual fantasies. Our imaginations can lead us into temptation, cause us to sin, and bring significant distress and suffering into our lives. Yet there is hope! In today’s episode, Catherine Krasinski walks us through 7 steps to encourage us toward a Spirit-fueled journey to fight sexual fantasies. Click here to read the entire article on our website. For further reading, check out “A First Aid Kit for Sexual Temptation”
If you’re a Christian, you’re probably familiar with the story of Lazarus being raised from the tomb. Have you ever stopped and considered that we’re a lot more like Lazarus than we tend to think? Though the grave cloths differ in size and color, we all have them - persistent sins that cling hard, vestiges of the old man in us (Romans 7:21-25). Like Lazarus in the tomb, your sins feel inescapable. You’ve paid for internet filters only to find a way around them. You spent hours devouring pornographic content. You slept with that person again. Your wife discovered that you’ve been using her clothes to indulge in dark fantasies. Even so, don’t give up hope! In today’s episode, Ellen Mary Dykas reveals Jesus to us, who with his inviting and commanding grace is calling us to receive his resurrection life. You can read the original article on our website.
How can we respond this June when Pride Month once again confronts our families with lots of questions? In todays article, Stephen Moss, explains how parents praying with their kids during Pride Month is an important way to shepherd the hearts of both child and parent as Christian families together seek to engage with their lost neighbors.
The data is showing us how the overwhelming majority of people identifying as LGBTQ+ are young. In this article, Harvest USA President, Mark Sanders, gives insight into the question, what is happening to our millennial, Gen Z, and alpha generations? Mark explains how for many youth the deck has been stacked against them. They’ve been fed language, narratives, and parameters that prohibit any biblical categorization for who we are and how we are to live. Truly, Gen Z needs an entire deconstruction of their sexual worldview for a biblical framework to make any sense, and this deconstruction won’t start with logical arguments and statistics; they’ve been captured not by data, but by a story. You can read the full article on our website.
Are you a single man considering pursuing a dating relationship? In today's episode Keith Seary lays out a uniquely biblical thought process for dating. He then gives 4 character questions for you to consider as you look to start dating. While you listen, may these questions challenge you and encourage you to be a single man of Christian character even as you look to date. You can read the full article on our website.