Purity For Life

One of the most important aspects of living in victory is having a vibrant relationship with God. A relationship where you come to know Him personally, experientially and where you've surrendered all to Him. But the truth is, we will never surrender ourselves to someone unless we trust them, and we won’t trust someone unless we know that they are good. In this episode, we look at one of the most attacked attributes of God: His goodness. As the psalmist says, “Oh give thanks to the Lord for He is good; His mercy endures forever” (Psalm 107:1).

There is a real pathway into the victorious Christian life. The foundation of such a life is total dependence on the God who is willing to live his powerful life through us. Now it’s time to build on this foundation. What kind of life is He looking to live out in me? In this episode we look at one of His most essential characteristics: mercy. What is needed for each of us is for God to give a revelation of His heart of mercy, and that by it He may establish us in a life of victory.

When we realize just how high God’s expectations are for us, and when we see how weak we are, there can be a strong temptation to just give up. We think, maybe overcoming sexual sin is impossible. But this isn’t true! God knows that we can’t be free from sin by our own strength, that we can’t live a holy live without his power. But He’s not asking us to do it on our own. He has promised a marvelous gift that empowers us to live in victory. On this episode we’ll talk about the incredible gift of the Holy Spirit. One vital aspect of being filled with the Holy Spirit that we’ll discuss is what it means to crucify our flesh nature.

If you want to live in victory over sin, you must see that you are helpless to save yourself. However, the culture and prosperity of our day has made it possible to ignore our helplessness and allow us to live life without acknowledging God. But this self-dependence leaves us blind to our true spiritual condition, and separated from the God who yearns to meet our every need. In this week’s show, we discuss this relationship between seeing our need and gaining victory over sexual sin with three counselors from the Pure Life Ministries Residential Program.

Understanding the heart of God is critical for a life of victory. And the revelation of His will for us in Scripture is a love that calls us out of the world and out of sin and bondage to live in fellowship with Him. When we see this desire, this jealous love for us, it should compel us to reach out for a deeper, more intimate relationship with Him. And that, is the beginning of really living in victory.

If sexual sin has ruined your life, then “living in victory” might sound like a fairy tale, or even a cruel joke. But living in victory is not only possible, it's God’s will for you. He has made a way for you to lay hold of it. In our latest series, we want to help you understand how you truly can live that victorious life, but the first thing we need to do is to make sure we’re all on the same page. So this week, we're going to make sure that we have a right understanding of true Christian victory.

Nearly every Christian can name half a dozen ministry leaders of evangelical churches who have fallen due to sexual sin. How does this happen to men of God who are leaders in the church? In this final installment in our series The Church Addicted, we'll look at the role of the leader, and ask what happens when a leader is compromised by sexual sin.

This week we examine why so many in the church are plagued by addiction by looking at Scripture's command for the believer in Jesus to forsake the world. The Apostle John wrote that “If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Yet this truth is often ignored, disobeyed and even sometimes renounced by the Evangelical Church as out of step with reality. So in this replay from our series, The Church Addicted, we look at how to obey Scripture's command to be "in the world, but not of it."

Do not be afraid. We find this command over one hundred times in God’s word to us for a reason. Life can easily become full of fear. For wives, there can be the overwhelming opportunity to live in fear when a husband has been in sexual sin. She fears that he’ll betray her again, re-opening the wound and bringing deeper pain to her and her family. In this episode, both Kathy Gallagher and Pastor Ed Buch will share about the topic of fear, so that we understand how to face it head on, as well as come out of life’s trials with a deeper faith and a greater love for Jesus.

Many wives of men in sexual sin have said to us, “He told me he would stop, why won’t he just stop?” These women are exasperated and confused as to how their husbands could commit sexual sin, knowing that his actions would hurt them. Pure Life co-founder, Kathy Gallagher, joins us in this episode to offer her insight into this subject. And for couples beginning the process of reconciliation, we’ll also take time to offer some thoughts as to how a husband can begin to take his rightful place as a spiritual leader in the home once he has truly repented.

Jesus Christ is coming soon. For those of us who profess to follow Him, the question remains: are we ready for Him to return? Many of us are caught up in the distractions of living in a prosperous nation. Whether it’s our family, career, entertainment or possessions, we tend to give our affections to these and they can become dangerous idols. But if we abide in Jesus, seeking Him passionately through His word and in prayer, He can change our hearts. Just as a bride is excited for her husband to return to her, so we can learn to not be in dread of, but to love and even to hunger for His appearing.

Since the year 2000, Pure Life Ministries has been holding an annual conference in northern Kentucky. Hundreds of people join us every year to hear powerful messages, to share in wonderful times of corporate worship and fellowship, and to seek hard after God. In this episode, we’ll talk about the origins of the conference, we’ll give a little background about our conference theme this year and let you know what you can expect if you join us on April 23rd and 24th in northern Kentucky.

An essential component of overthrowing the reign of self is living in the flow of God’s love. Jesus said that if we loved God with all of our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves, we would actually be fulfilling all of His commandments. Pride and selfishness cannot flourish when a person is defined by a desire to meet the needs of others. A life lived in the service of others brings about the death of the self-life.

Another vital heart attitude that enables us to overthrow sin’s rule in our lives is humility. Pride brought about the fall of Satan and pride put man at odds with God, resulting in the destruction of man. But humility undoes the damage of the fall, because when a man becomes humble, God becomes his protector and his friend. The role of humility in a Christian’s life can hardly be overestimated.

We all know that Jesus longs to redeem us from pride and sin. However, we also need to be convinced that He alone knows how to save the human soul, and to bring it out of bondage and into freedom. For the last six weeks we’ve been exploring how all our struggles with sin can be traced back to the “self-life,” and the pride that comes out of it. Now it’s time to look to the great Savior and Physician of our souls to see what His remedy really is. In this show we look at the wonder of poverty of spirit, brokenness, and surrender, and their important roles in the process of salvation in Jesus Christ.

We’re taking a break this week from our current series. We know that the Lord is actively sanctifying and preparing His church to spend eternity with Him as His bride. But there is also a frightening reality that many people who claim to be Christians are false professors. Satan uses the currents of our culture to entice Christians to live for themselves rather than God, to pursue pleasure rather than Jesus in self-denial, and to pursue worldly philosophies rather than the pure Word of God. These truly are perilous times, and we all need to know how to go through in the power of Jesus Christ.

Do you ever find yourself bragging to others about your spiritual life or telling others about how you gave financially, or how you spent extra time in your devotions? These can often point to a dangerous sickness called spiritual pride. Pastor Steve Gallagher joins us this week to help us understand this deceptive piety. We also talk about how easy it is for other sins to creep in with spiritual pride.

“Work hard.” “Do your best.” What do you think of when you hear things like that? Now, there is obviously nothing wrong with putting your heart into something and seeking to do your best. But as with any good thing, our human nature has a knack for corrupting it into something wicked. Enter perfectionism. The perfectionist takes these things to an unhealthy, and prideful level. They hear words like “do your best” as “you must be perfect.” But what is so sinful about perfectionism and why is it prideful? We discuss that and more on this week’s episode of Purity for Life.

Pride can spring up in many ways depending on our temperament. Last week, we talked about pride that loves the spotlight. But maybe you’re not like that; maybe you want to be in the background. Maybe you’re sensitive, quiet, or even shy. In this episode, we’ll look at the expressions of the self-life and pride that are revealed in those who want to keep themselves safe – safe from embarrassment, safe from being exposed, safe from being hurt.

Every single person is vulnerable to the sin of pride. You might be the kind of person who loves being in the background or maybe you’re a people person. It makes no difference; our self-lives will find a way to express themselves. And It will do that in many ways, leaving us blind to the way pride takes root in our hearts. This week we’ll start with the type of pride found in those who want to be at the ‘top and in the center.’