Spiritual Formation and Overcoming Pornography by Dallas Willard

Here is the transcript / article of a talk that Dallas Willard gave at Biola university. Very helpful as he applies the VIM pattern (Vision, Intention, and Means) to how to overcome sexual temptation in the area of pornography.

an excerpt:

“The use of pornography is rooted in the fundamental role of desire in human life. Desire, on the biblical understanding, is not in itself bad, but it is dangerous because it has the tendency to take over one’s life. Desire must be subordinated to what is good, and it is the role of the will to see to it that it is subordinated to what is good. But the will can do this only if it understands what is good and is strongly oriented toward it. This is definitely not the case with those unaligned with God. In them the will falls captive to desire: they live to do what they want. Their condition is repeatedly addressed in the scriptures.

The general condition of fallen humanity is carefully laid out by Paul in Ephesians 4:17-19 and Romans 7:15-23. The will is, in the fallen personality, enslaved by desire, and so “I am doing the very thing I hate.” (vs. 15) This is a precise picture of the person in some degree of bondage to pornography.

We really must pay attention to desire (“lust,” “longing,” επιθυμία) if we are to understand spiritual formation. The primary role of desire in human life is to impel us to action. If action were solely under the direction of thought, we would never survive infancy, and life would be an intolerable burden in which much that is good would not be realized. Lusting itself gives pleasure, because it thrusts us in a direction and makes us feel alive. We are “moved,” hence we speak of “passion.” Thus we get pleasure from desiring itself, and desire to desire. The gratification of desire gives us a sense of completeness and power—for a moment or so. A depressed person is typically one who has little or no desire and “doesn’t want anything.”

Thus we do many things just to excite desire.” (MORE)

“Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.”– 2 Peter 1:3-4

Think Christianly Celebrates 500 Posts!

Wow, it is hard to believe! Today marks our 500th post. I thought it fitting to highlight one of the quotes that helped provide the vision for Think Christianly. Nancy Pearcey, in her book Total Truth, observes:

“…our lives are often fractured and fragmented, with our faith firmly locked into the private realm of the church and family, where it rarely has a chance to inform our life and work in the public realm. The aura of worship dissipates after Sunday, and we unconsciously absorb secular attitudes the rest of the week. We inhabit two separate “worlds,” navigating a sharp divide between our religious life and ordinary life.”

Luke 10:27 – informs us that there should be no such separation.
Thanks so much for inviting us along and please link to our blog and invite others to check it out. Also, graduation is coming up, have you ordered your copy of Welcome to College yet? It makes an ideal graduation gift!

Bart Ehrman and the New Testament Text–is he Right?

Skeptical New Testament Textual Critic, Bart Ehrman, is a media darling. After all, what could be more provocative than a former evangelical, self-proclaimed “born again” Christian, who seeks to undermine people’s confidence in the Bible’s reliability. Is Ehrman Right?

Here’s a critique by William Lane Craig (listen)
Bart was on the Colbert Report (here)
Jesus Interrupted reviewed and critiqued by Ben Witherington (here)
See Dan Wallace’s refutation of Bart’s Misquoting Jesus: “How Badly Did the Early Scribes Corrupt the New Testament? An Examination of Bart Ehrman’s Claims” by Daniel B. Wallace in:
also, here