Remember the guy I told you about way back on December 10 in [part one][8] of this blog series? You know, the guy I met for coffee to coach a bit on how to get stuff out of God’s word? Well, I had a short conversation with him the other day after one of our Sunday gatherings. We were standing in the aisle talking and, with tears in his eyes, he exclaimed how grateful he was to God for taking the time to meet with me all those weeks ago. He said he held on for dear life to the one word I told him to never forget: consistency. And ever since then, he has faithfully put into practice what I showed him in that brief, 45-minute meeting.

My seventh-grade daughter has had a rude awakening of sorts this year. She’s been cutting her teeth on everything from classical literature to dense historical biographies. Her symphony of groans usually tips me off that she’s neck-deep in her reading. One of the things that I’m trying to teach her is the huge pay-off of embracing the rigors of her education rather than settling for multiple study halls like her father did when he was in school.

A few years ago, I knew a man who was a lifelong drug addict, but had been clean for over a year. He had been in treatment for the previous twelve months, in a bubble, unable to visit the shadowy places where he met his supplier and concealed from his enabling “friends.”  But it had come to a point at which he needed to get back on his feet, to put what he had learned into practice in the real world.

With his cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth and holding up his index finger, the old cowboy, Curly, played by Jack Palance in the movie, ‘City Slickers,’ asked the question, “You know what the secret of life is?” Billy Crystal’s character, Mitch, sarcastically quipped, “Your finger?” But Curly’s stoic gaze remained unbroken. “One thing. Just one thing.” If Mitch could figure out that one thing, everything else would come together.

I’m going to be up front with you in this third blog entry. Maintaining a daily commitment to savoring God’s word will not be easy. No matter what I or any preacher might say, the barriers that stymie deepening devotion don’t just vanish no matter how “spiritual” you become. Regardless of how inspiring Sunday’s gathering was, we all know we will hit a wall.

“In the beginning was Jesus, Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God.” This is not how the first sentence of the Gospel of John reads. Rather, John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Why did he say it this way? Well, there are a number of reasons, but I’ll keep it simple for all of us.

“Wow,” said my friend as he leaned back in his chair at Starbucks, took off his glasses, and began to stare over my shoulder in reflection. He just did something that he had no idea he could do. He just “got something” out of the Bible. As a matter of fact, his reaction is almost identical to the ones I’ve received from the other dozen or so folks who have taken me up on my challenge.

I believe one of the greatest scourges in our world today is pornography. It is a wicked vortex that is sweeping the masses into a dark world of addiction, lies, and deep, deep brokenness. As a pastor, I hear countless stories of how it is ravaging the lives of men, women, and children.

I was and am convinced that one of the reasons this [older people discipling and mentoring our younger people] wasn't happening was because the younger in our church weren't doing ministry the same way they did. So I swore I would never be this obstinately opposed to the efforts of the generations that succeeded me.