Hello everyone. If you keep up with Christian news, then I’m sure you have heard the disappointing news of another well-respected faith leader, Philip Yancey who admitted to living in sexual sin and is now withdrawing from ministry.
As I was processing this disappointment, it is very important to note cynicism and hardness creeping in. When you feel that happening, please spend some time with God in prayers, read the Bible, and reach out to your Christian friends to hang out with. I noticed that spending time together with likeminded believers makes my cynicism disappear. You can volunteer at your local church if you don’t have many Christian friends yet.
My prayer is that Philip Yancey will one day with his wife write a book together about God’s grace, mercy, and restoration. Let us pray for their marriage and their family members. They have a very long and very painful journey ahead. 🙏
As I was thinking about Philip Yancey, I remembered this older message that I shared on the “Forbidden Fruit”. Please read it below. (If I have anything new to add, I’ll write it in parentheses.)
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I am very impressed with this young man, Wes Hoff. He’s only 35. He was invited by Joe Rogan as a guest on his very popular podcast to speak about the Bible. I’ve haven’t listened to that podcast because it’s over 3 hours long but whenever I do hear him in other shorter interviews, I am impressed by his great knowledge on Bible and history. There are many young Christian leaders and scholars emerging today. My prayers are with them often, and that they will learn from the many mistakes of the older generation of Christian leaders. Here is Wes Huff being interviewed on ‘Maybe God’ podcast. It was very good.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/maybe-god/id1329159271?i=1000743999064
Here’s Wes Huff bio:
https://www.wesleyhuff.com/bio
Here’s him in Joe Rogan’s podcast:
Joe Rogan’s podcast audience reach is huge. Wow. Let’s be praying for these new Christian leaders emerging. 🙏
https://tech.yahoo.com/science/articles/joe-rogans-audience-huge-really-205749750.html
Sent: Saturday, September 17, 2022 10:16 AM
Subject: Forbidden Fruit
Hello ladies! I hope you and your family have been well.
I have been thinking about the forbidden fruit tree in the garden of Eden, described in the book of Genesis. Today, what is the forbidden fruit tree in a Christian’s life that is also located nearby and easy to reach out for and take a bite of? It is wise to think about it and ask the Holy Spirit to identify your weaknesses so that when you are near it, you can ask God to help you find your way out or stay a safe distance away, if it’s not possible to completely remove yourself from the situation. It is also wise to develop good friendships with mature Christians whom you can ask for prayers when you are tempted and have accountability with when you are nearby the forbidden fruit tree.
I think for us women, we are easily taken in by attention and flattery. While for men, they are captivated by beauty and charm. (I think all of us have a desire for control and getting our way. I know I do.)
The Bible has very clear directives for us about maintaining our boundaries in romantic relationships and sex. I love the acronym for BIBLE – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. We live in a world today where it is super, hyper-sexualized. It is very difficult to stay close to your boundaries even for mature believers. We need the Holy Spirit so much more every day. We also need the word of God, the Bible more than ever too.
In the Old Testament times, God commanded the Israel’s kings to write by hand on scrolls the five books in the Old Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Look at your Bible to see how long these books are. I don’t think any king succeeded in doing this command, since the Bible does not record any king who finished it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why so many kings became corrupt, ruled terribly, lived loosely and married many women. It is painful to read their downfall stories in the Bible, and the huge, negative impact they had on their kingdom and people.
I read that Queen Elizabeth II read her Bible every day. This explains why she never fell into sexual temptation. I’m sure she had plenty of opportunities if she gave a slight open invitation. Let us be a people who read their bible everyday no matter how busy we get. It is one powerful way to keep ourselves pure in today’s hyper-sexualized culture.
We, older believers must also pray for our youth and single adults faithfully. I remember how hard it was to meet new friends in college who were sexually active and would share their fun stories quite vividly. It is so easy to have sexual encounters for women in college campuses. As I was wondering if I’m the idiot for making a big deal about sex, the Lord was very gracious. I signed up for a women’s health class elective in my sophomore fall semester. The college nurse taught this small class. She must’ve been seeing lots of sexually transmitted diseases in the students because she scared us with photo slides of genital areas with STD on it. Boy, those slides traumatized me. But it made me reverse my thinking about casual sex. Soon after I distanced myself from these fun, nice friends because it was too hard to hear their sex stories and drama of juggling many lovers.
I found another group of friends who happened to be all Koreans and were super pure about sex, but very judgemental. They weren’t as funny and nice but a much safer friend group to be in, at a hyper-sexualized college campus. These friends were also studious and high achieving – good qualities to emulate for higher education that you are paying a lot of money for.
As many of our children in our prayer groups have moved onto colleges this year, please pray for God’s divine grace and intervention so that our kids will be warned like I was. I thank the Lord for directing my steps to take that women’s health class where the nurse put the fear of STDs in all of us with those pictures. Pictures are worth a thousand words! I think the fear of STDs is a good healthy fear to have so when a gorgeous forbidden fruit tree comes your way, it is easier to walk away from Satan’s bait. Satan has been studying you very closely as a follower of Jesus Christ, and so he knows what bait works best for you. He will keep on sending you nice-looking baits throughout your life, hoping that you will bite into one.
Here is a short article about a few famous bible characters who ate the forbidden fruit tree and suffered terribly.
Good article on why sexual sin is such a big deal.
https://www.gotquestions.org/sexual-sin.html
One more thing, please don’t think that you are safe from sexual temptations because you are too old, well knowledgeable about the Bible, and love and serve God for many years. My college pastor crossed his boundaries by having a relationship with my small group leader who was also married and in our church leadership. Moreover, the college ministry group that I became actively involved in once I discovered them in my junior year – this leader also crossed his boundaries by getting involved with his staff member. Both men were very talented musicians and leaders. My small group leader was a smart, pretty, God-loving, Bible teacher. Many young Christian women were drawn to her discipleship and fellowship.
Please always be praying for our Christian leaders, teachers and pastors who work with the youth and young adults. Enemy knows that if you strike one of these shepherds down, then so many young people will scatter. We, older believers are less likely to scatter if our lead pastor sins, but the many youth will scatter if their leader sins. There are just too many worldly temptations and opportunities out there for the kids. Please keep praying for your child’s youth pastors and Christian leaders. They have a big target on them by the enemy.
By the way, when the enemy tells you that you are missing out on delightful sex, and to grab and eat this forbidden fruit tree who is nearby you, just Google some pictures of genital areas with STDs. It worked for me at an age when my hormones were raging and there were many nice-looking college men giving me attention and flattery.
(If anyone has gotten a STD that cannot be eliminated by medical treatments such as herpes, AIDS etc. Please don’t despair. Our God is in control and Jesus Christ can heal you completely. Please do a search on my blog site on healing. You’ll find many resources and ministries in there that have the gift of healing and miracles.)
I hope and pray that my stories and resources give you greater biblical wisdom about the forbidden fruit tree in our midst. I look forward to heaven when such trees are not there. Until we get to heaven, we must actively resist taking a bite out of the forbidden fruit tree by knowing our Bible, staying in fellowship with likeminded believers, and maintaining a very healthy fear on the consequences of sinning and grieving the Holy Spirit living inside of us.
Good quotes:
“We’ve tried calling sin “errors” or “mistakes” or “poor judgement,” but sin itself has stayed the same. No matter how we try to salve our conscience, we’ve known all along that men are still sinners; and the results of sin are still disease, disappointment, disillusionment, despair, and death.” – Billy Graham
“It’s when my mind drifts from Heaven that sin seems attractive. Thinking of Heaven leads inevitably to pursuing holiness. Our high tolerance for sin testifies of our failure to prepare for Heaven.” – Randy Alcorn
“If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next.” – C.S. Lewis
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” – Sun Tzu (Art of War author, ancient Chinese military strategist)
Journal of Faith 