Many dear friends write and speak English.  A lot don´t, but I wish they did, because of a topic I now honestly deal with.  I´m speaking of the demonic power of unlawful sex that has destroyed many good lives and, not the least, of highly profiled church leaders.

An elderly, deceased  preacher and writer and a good thinker too confided once in me about his own temptations, even at a very mature age.  As a young man he lost his beautiful, godly wife and lived for a time as a widower.  He being a handsome man himself told me how women would meet up, even at his hotel, to tempt him to sin.  "If I had given in to that", he said, "my life would have been a wreck today."

I admired his honesty, but little did I know how "close" I was myself,  the word from Prov. 5:14 being so relevant (speaking of sexual dangers), "I´m at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."  My Danish Bible brings it out even more dramatically.  The paraphrase of the "Living Bible" may catch the idea pretty well (from v. 13), "Oh, why wouldn´t I take advice?   Why was I so stupid?  For now I must face public disgrace!"  I have been on the brink of utter ruin myself.

I have over the years seen preachers in Denmark, in Norway and in the U.S. facing "public disgrace" because of adultery, and I´ve been close to some of those brethren.  All I can say is that it´s God´s mercy that it didn´t become my story, and so it behooves me to show "a spirit of gentleness" (Gal. 6:1) trying to restore the fallen soldiers on the Lord´s battlefield.

As sex is part of God´s beautiful creation within the framework of marriage, evil powers from the pit itself have successfully demonized it (on TV especially), but the best or rather the only guard against its perversions is the word of God (Ps. 119:9) and the power of Jesus Christ.

Oct. 9, 2017 - jn