Breaking Free

This is a guest-post by Rick Thomas. Rick has been counseling in Upstate South Carolina for over 10 years. Rick has a BA in Theology, a BS in Education, and in 2000 he graduated from The Master’s College as Valedictorian of his class, with an MA in Counseling. In 2006 he became a Fellow with the National Association of Nouthetic Counselors, and now he supervises potential counselor candidates for NANC. Rick serves on the board of Grace Harbor Counseling Ministries. Rick works for his local church, speaks at NANC’s national conference, and speaks at other local churches regarding counseling related topics. Rick also blogs at CompetentCounseling.com.

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To paraphrase Braveheart, the perfect man is a Warrior / Poet. This is a simplistic way of getting at a good definition for biblical manhood. The warrior is bold as a lion, courageous, braced, protecting, secure, and undaunted by the roughness of the journey. The good warrior is also a man of character, integrity, respect, honor and, above all else, humility. The poet, on the other hand, is compassionate, tender, loving, spontaneous, vulnerable, adaptable and, well, above all else, humble.

Oh yeah, he also laughs a lot.

This is a good working model for the Christian male. The only man born of woman who has this perfect balance is Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, he is our model for biblical masculinity. He was fierce as a lion and tender as a lamb. He confronted what needed to be confronted (Matthew 23) and wept with those who needed compassion (John 11). He seamlessly moved in and out of situations perfectly, walking in a manner that pleased the Father, while drawing people to him in order that he could serve them (Mark 10:4).

Once a person is converted to the Christ-life and begins living in the good of the gospel, a growing process toward this kind of God-glorifying humanness begins. Christ is the glorious physical expression of who God is; he is the image I am to imitate; he is the Life and the Light and that Light is the Light of men (John 1). At salvation he hooks his light to us and the darkness begins to scatter. Read more…

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If you are looking for an informative video about Internet safety and the research that’s been done about Internet dangers for youth, I highly recommend watching “Just the Facts About Online Youth Victimization.” The video is about 1 hour and 20 minutes, broken up into 10 minute segments on Youtube.

Click here to watch the video clips or here to read the transcript.

Read more…

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When someone views pornography, how does the brain react? Much research has been done in recent years about the brain science of pornography addiction. To help understand some of the nuances that researchers have discovered, listen to the following interviews of Mark B. Kastleman, author of the new book, The Drug of the New Millennium – The Brain Science Behind Internet Pornography Use.

Kastleman talks extensively about the endorphins that are released while watching pornography, how watching pornography is akin to an injection of cocaine, and why it is so hard to break the addiction to pornography. The podcasts are geared towards helping parents understand the dangers of being exposed to porn at a young age.

You can listen to the interviews by clicking the links below:

Interview with Mark Kastleman, Part 1

Interview with Mark Kastleman, Part 2

These podcasts are hosted by Dr. Charles D. Knutson, who is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at Brigham Young University.

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Firefox 3.1 calls it ‘Private Mode,’ the new Google Chrome calls it ‘Incognito Mode,’ and Internet Explorer 8 calls it ‘InPrivate Browsing’ . . . But for many users of these Web browsers, it’s just called “Porn Mode.”

These features allow a person to surf the Web without the browser recording a history, cookies or a cache of temporary files. While this sort of secret browsing is not a new concept (Safari added this feature over three years ago), and with so many new versions of these web browsers recently adding this feature, many people are excited, but others are concerned.

Does Covenant Eyes accountability software still monitor your Internet even if “porn mode” is on? Yes. These privacy modes have no effect on Covenant Eyes software. This is one of the benefits of Covenant Eyes. It is easy to delete one’s Web history; but with our software, the user’s browsing information isn’t saved on the user’s computer, but rather it is saved on Covenant Eyes’ servers. Read more…

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[continued from a previous post]

So far in these posts on “renewing the mind” we’ve looked at renewing our imaginations and our practical theology. But now we begin looking at a day-to-day, moment-to-moment process of mind-renewal: how we talk to ourselves.

Mind renewal must necessarily involve a change in the vocabulary of the mind. God is a God who speaks. At times His audible voice is recorded in Scripture. He spoke through the mouths and writings of the prophets. He spoke in the voice of His Son, Jesus. The Scriptures themselves are God’s oracles, His “very words.” Mind renewal must necessarily involve knowing and understanding God’s vocabulary and language.

Read more…

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