I was struck with the power of a simple thing last week.

Most of us love to eat...indeed all of us need to eat.  Most of our meals are spent alone by ourselves or with family, and yet some of the most significant encounters Jesus had with people was in the context of a dinner party.  Last week, it hit me just how powerful the simple act of sharing a meal in a large group can be. 

Yo men!  Gee some TV ads are cheesy!  Have you seen the one where the father sends his son to the fridge to grab him a beer, and when the sons gets there, he turns into a grown man, a dad himself, takes a big swig of the beer, then sends his son to go get him another?  If you’ve seen the ad, you know exactly what I’m talking about.  If you haven’t, then you’ve read that sentence and wondered what drugs I’m taking today… 

Hey men
I want to ask you a question this week, “When it comes to your sexuality, who do you believe?” What I mean is, do you believe what the world tells you about your sexuality? That if it feels good, do it! That women are hot and you have a right to ogle them and lust after them, because after all, they’re showing it for that reason, so what shouldn’t I watch? That sex is the spice of life and the best sex life is when you’re with someone different each weekend?

Yo men
This week’s email is an excerpt from the Every Young Man’s Battle Guide – A Biblical Arsenal of Truth for Young Men…
Tyson tells it exactly like it is, declaring, “It’s no secret. Most guys just want to have sex or get some kind of action. They don’t care about the relationship part of things, like the girls do. Guys like to see girls with little or nothing on, that’s the bottom line. Even us Christian guys.”

Hey men

Sorry for the failure to deliver you your weekly Battle email – I’ve been away on holidays – I trust I have your forgiveness…

It’s interesting…I’ve spoken to a few guys in the last week or so about their lives and it came with little surprise that their greatest struggle is with sexual impurity.  It reminded me of difficulty of this battle that each of us are engaged in.  So I hope this email encourages you…

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Hey guys,

Sorry the email (now blog post) is late – I’ve been at a conference…and lo and behold, in one of the sessions, the speaker spoke about…yep…you guessed it…sexual purity!!  Here’s what he said…

The speaker, Chris Chia from Singapore, outlined the reasons, from 1 Corinthians 6:12-20, why we should pursue sexual purity. 

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Howdy men

Well it’s Tuesday and many of you have been eagerly awaiting your weekly Battle email.  Well you can blame Labour Day for the delay.  The more public holidays, the better I reckon.  Monday generally should be called a public holiday!  Anyways, on with business…

I know I started this weekly email with the same thing I’m about to remind you of.  But it is seriously so important that it’s worthy of a lot of air time…  I want to remind you that you need someone fighting with you, alongside you in this battle.  Have you asked someone yet?  Who’s fighting with you?  Who’s going to ask you the tough question?  Who do you call when you’re struggling?  This is tough men!  I know when I’m in the pit of extreme temptation, the last thing I want to do is tell someone about it, but it’s incredible how much easier the battle becomes when we know someone is with us.  But can I add one more thing about this – don’t just pick a random!  Pick someone who is as committed to the battle as you are – someone who is serious about pursuing sexual purity.

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It was encouraging to see so many of you sign up to continue to fight for God's plan for your life and engage in the battle for sexual purity. The battle is tough, but it's definitely a case of power in numbers. Let's fight together.

We'll likely be running the Every Young Man's Battle (EYMB) program in term 3. That's a way off from now, so we thought it would be good to start up a weekly email and blog that will encourage us all to persevere in the fight.

Let me remind you of two things from the DVDs that we watched:

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Hi men,

I thought this week I'd remind you of what our goal is in this battle - it's sexual purity, pure and simple. Now our enemy knows that if he can cloud our minds about the true definition of sexual purity, then he can hold us back from the fullness of relationship with God, and also our relationships with women. So here it is, the true definition of sexual purity - sexual purity is when ALL of your sexual gratification comes from your wife. That's it, no more and no less. Anything else is a lie. But wait a minute, you say. I'm not married, where I am supposed to get my sexual gratification? Answer - from your wife! So fight the battle, because you're fighting for her too.

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