A Pathway to Purity Blog

Who or what do you follow?

You might answer The Yankees, Manchester United, Miami Dolphins, Roger Federer or The Lakers. Perhaps it is your heart or feelings? Or a celebrity on Facebook or someone's Twitter or blog? Or maybe a TV series or fashion developments. Or it could be a writer, journalist or author or perhaps a YouTube celebrity or self-help guru? Everyone is following someone or…

I am a father and I spend a lot of time talking to my children about the choices they face each day. We spend a lot of time reflecting on the consequences of those choices, sometimes good and sometimes bad. But the thing that sticks out like a sore thumb is 'self'. When they put themselves first the consequences are usually bad and when they put themselves last the opposite is usually true. Sound…

I sometimes hear men say that living a lifestyle of purity would be so much easier if lust would simply vanish from their hearts and minds. However, I believe that when we say that, we miss out on seeing lust as something that could be positive and healthy, not something so negative that we balk at sharing about it with others.

We all know that lust as defined by the world is simply sex…

Several years ago I was reading a portion of Psalms and when I got to Psalm 101:2-4 I was greatly moved by what it said:  
 
² I will be careful to lead a blameless life — when will you come to me? I will walk in my house with blameless heart. ³ I will set before my eyes no vile thing. The deeds of faithless men I hate;…

I believe that in some sort of odd and twisted way, we can actually find comfort in the excuses we use to justify our choice to engage in sinful habits. Even though we hate the sin and we hate the consequences, we often choose to return to specific sinful behavior. Before we know it, our behavior has developed into a consistent pattern. When that pattern develops into a routine that we become familiar…

A bus full of school children veered across a road, through the barrier and plunged down a hillside heading towards a 200 foot drop off. If the bus went over every child aboard would die. The driver had one chance to yank the wheel and turn the bus toward a large concrete wall that would save everyone on the bus. He pulled hard on the wheel and the bus shot towards the wall. As it did a young boy…

The other day I was reading in Ezekiel and there were two verses that really challenged me. They were Ezekiel 12:2 and 14:3. I would like to share with you the personal principles that I learned from these verses. Let's start with Ezekiel 12:2:

"Son of man, you are living among a rebellious people. They have eyes to see but do not see and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a…

In my own journey towards greater purity, I had to learn many, many lessons. Some lessons were easy to apply while others had to be repeated a few times before I finally caught on. One such lesson had to do with repentance and what it really meant. In my life I treated repentance for so long as something that I needed to do so that I could feel better – and quickly. I obviously didn't enjoy the…

Do you ever feel discouraged or disappointed at your inability to maintain any degree of consistency in your pursuit of purity? In my own walk I wrestled for so long with my repetitive sin. For a long time I was frustrated by the cycle of sin, repent, repeat. I simply could not understand why I would keep drinking from the same trough that was full of such filthy water? I was listening to the wrong…

I am sure that some of us have heard some version of the following saying:

"The Israelites were delivered from Egypt but Egypt was still in their hearts."

As we read in the Old Testament, we know that Canaan was set aside as His promised inheritance for the children of Israel. Canaan was a pretty awesome place as it was a land that was flowing with milk and honey and I'm…