Over the past year or so, I've slowly but surely emerged out of a fog of cynicism.

I went through a season where I was so frustrated with the actions of people who described themselves as mature Christians that I almost threw out the notion of mature Christianity altogether.

So I became skeptical of certain evangelical standards such as quiet times, spiritual accountability, and Sunday morning altar calls.

But then Jesus happened.

He always does.

As he brought the deepest levels of healing to my spirit, I realized afresh just how good those classic measures of evangelicalism really are.

For example, you can never improve upon doctrines such as salvation by grace, the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the assurance of believers.

And a meaningful faith can never be separated from practices such as Scripture reading, discipleship groups, and regular fasting.

I appreciate the perspectives of younger evangelicals who remind us that Scripture was written for audiences that were largely illiterate and so is best read out loud and in public.

I also am grateful for their continuing warnings not to individualize -- or Americanize -- a gospel that is by definition to be lived out in community.

Given all that, however, I've found it much healthier and much more spiritually rewarding to preach the core doctrines, practice the classic disciplines, and trust the God in others.

As our church moves through the book of Proverbs in the series There's An App For That, I continue to realize that this ancient collection of wisdom is not for people with a "crisis faith."

What is "crisis faith?" It is the "faith" practiced by those who ignore their faith until some calamity strikes their lives or their family. Many people walk blindly through life until the trauma of separation, addiction, or anger enters in -- and that's when a lot of folks suddenly turn religious. In his goodness, God often intervenes to rescue people with that kind of Johnny-come-lately faith.

But Proverbs is not about that. Proverbs is instead about lining up with a set of counter-intuitive, almost other-worldly values and priorities. And when we line our lives up -- by a conscious decision of the will and then lived out over the span of years and years -- we find ourselves with less trauma and fewer crisis.

Or at least the crises we face won't be self-inflicted ones.

So this month, the people of Good Shepherd are reading a chapter a day of this ancient book. Since January has 31 days and Proverbs has 31 chapters, you just read whatever chapter number corresponds to the day of the month and voila . . . it works!

Today, of course, we're reading Proverbs 5. Talk about crisis prevention. The entire chapter warns the young man to whom it is addressed to avoid "the adulterous woman." I love the way it describes the condition of those who succumb to sexual temptation:

At the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are spent.

You will say, 'How I hated discipline!'
How my heart spurned correction!

I would not obey my teachers
or listen to my instructors.

I have come to the brink of utter ruin
in the midst of the whole assembly. Proverbs 5:11-14

The list of Christian leaders who can identify with those words is, sadly, far too long. Both among the well-known and the obscure.

Which is why Proverbs 5 reminds us the best preventative medicine for sexual temptation is to want what you already have:

Drink water from your own cistern,
running water from your own well . . .

May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

A loving doe, a graceful deer --
may her breasts satisfy you always,
and my you ever be captivated by her love. Proverbs 5:15, 18-19

In the realm of sexual temptation and Christian living, that's the best crisis prevention of them all.

Join us in reading through this timeless collection as we open 2010.