Where can porn take you?  I met a man who confessed to me that he digs thru the garbage dump to collect his porn.  

This man belongs to a very conservative sect of Christianity where one does not use electricity.   Because he is so separated from modern culture, I asked him how he became addicted to porn.  His answer was astonishing.  "I was dumping some trash out of a garbage bin and I saw a Playboy in the dump with the centerfold laying open."  He had never seen anything like this.  He had heard about "centerfolds" and was always intrigued but was thankful that those "worldly temptations" were something he never had to deal with.  Nevertheless, He quickly grabbed this magazine and tucked it down his pants.  Later that day, when he was alone, he ogled this picture and found himself extremely attracted to the naked woman.  He started to fantasize about her and then masturbated to her seductive image.

To me, the message was clear but lost on him:   Porn is garbage.  It belongs in the garbage.  It should stay in the garbage.  Garbage in, garbage out.  

What the garbage collector didn't know is that porn is insidious.  Porn never gives up.  It keeps taking and taking, offering false feelings of comfort until you end up doing things that you never imagined.

It didn't take long before centerfolds were no longer satisfying to him.  He started noticing, at the dump while looking for more centerfolds, other pictures.  In these pictures, there were women posing seductively with animals.  These pictures sparked further prurient interests for him.  He started attempting to have sex with his goat.  Over time, he moved on to other animals.  His addiction finally caught up with him when he found himself naked in the pig pen on all fours.  That's when he came to his senses and realized that he really, really, really had a problem.  

He was fortunate, because if he had been caught during these activities, he would have been charged with a crime.  Zoophilia is illegal in many U.S. states.  The medical issues that can occur are numerous.  However, the legal charges and the medical issues are not as severe as the toll that such behavior takes on a man's soul.  

More than zoophilia is the duplicity that this man lived.   He would go to church regularly and then engage in these detestable behaviors at other times.  That's what the sin of porn does.  It causes a man to pretend to be holy.  His energy ends up being consumed by things that weaken him rather than strengthen him. 

You may be thinking, "Porn will never do that to me.   I can control it."  However, let me assure you, porn will win.  It always does.  

Porn is garbage.  It belongs in the garbage.  It should stay in the garbage.  Garbage in, garbage out.  

If you are looking  at porn, stop.  Get rid of your stash.  Tell your pastor about your decision.  Become accountable to a counselor and a men's support group. 

With God's help, you can stop.  


BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

This is the follow-up to our anonymous blogger from yesterday.  

Sex was the fix for everything, whether it was with my wife, or some fantasy girl. Bored? Sex. Lonely? Sex. Angry? Sex. Tired? Sex. Sad? Sex. Happy? Sex. You get the idea. I was an addict. I felt shame for looking at porn. The shame perpetuated my loneliness and depression. So, I medicated those feelings with more porn. And round and round I went. It was sick. My desires became more and more deviant. I needed more and more. Even though there were often weeks and months between acting out, and I always prayed it would be the last time, it never was. I went to counseling again. I took pills for depression again. I got worse and worse again. This time it would get worse than ever. I felt no love for my wife. I just wanted to be married to some perfect woman that only existed in my deluded mind. Our marriage was falling apart and it was my fault. I wanted to die. The only thing that kept me alive was the fear of hell. I didn’t know if suicide would get you placed in the express lane for the lake of fire, but I wasn’t willing to gamble on that one.

However, I did get close to death once. I’m not entirely sure whether I was really trying to kill myself, or whether I was just crying out for help. But, for the reasons already given I tend to go with the latter. So, I harmed myself just enough to get me placed in a psychiatric ward, but not enough to get me six feet under. It was the loneliest, most agonizing 3 weeks of my life. I still wanted to die, but I feared that after death even greater pain would be waiting that I could never escape. My wife stayed at home alone for 3 weeks. Crying out to God, dying inside, weeping, caving in. I did that to her. I have to live with that. I hurt her severely. No one has loved me through so much pain as she as, other than Jesus Christ, Himself.

It was far from over after I got out. I thought about death more at that time than before I was admitted. I went through an intensive 6 week program for sexual addiction and depression. It kept me alive by giving me a place to be when all I wanted was to be dead. I have no excuses - no one to point a finger at. “Guard your eyes”, my mother said. But, I didn’t listen and people got hurt. I wish that had been the end of it. I wish I had come to my senses and left the old man lying dead in a ditch. But instead I invited him back from time to time, just as I always had. Dogs return to their vomit. Apparently,  addicts do, too. Then one day it hit me: This is psychotic. I cried out to God that it would be the last time. I prayed everyday that God would not lead me into temptation, but deliver me from evil. And He did, and He has, and He is. Though the intensity of the prayer has waned, I still very regularly ask God to keep me from that filth. It’s pure poison for the soul. Oh God, how I wish I had understood how vile it was, but I was a fool and I received the due penalty for my sin. The wages of sin is death. My body could have died, and my heart and soul did. but praise God, My savior makes all things new! 

I am the man who stands in the temple beating his chest saying: “God have mercy on me, a sinner!” God did not have to save me from myself. He didn’t have to give me grace upon grace upon grace. He didn’t have to die so that I could live despite the vile, despicable things I did. My wife had every reason to throw in the towel. In a sense, I was having multiple affairs with women I had never even met, in pictures and on websites. Somebody’s daughter. Somebody’s sister. Somebody’s mother. Somebody’s wife. Sick. Sick. Sick. Sin destroys and does so very efficiently. 

I owe everything to God. I owe a lifetime of love and faithfulness to my wife. I owe every person a debt of love, mercy, and grace. That is what was given to me. That is what I am expected to give to others as well. Heaven forbid I turn around and refuse to forgive others their debts after all that was forgiven on my account. I pray that God will help me to offer up myself to Him. The old man must stay dead. I couldn’t bear for him to come around again. By the grace of God I will continue to be renewed my the transforming of my mind so that not only that aspect of my life will be new, but that God would shine His Light in every dark crevice of my soul and weed out every last remnant of wickedness and narcissism, so that I would be wholly His and wholly faithful as a husband to my wife. 

Dear God, let it be so!

Anonymous will be reading your comments.  Feel free to to tell him what you think of his honesty.

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these:  Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness.   

Last Saturday we discussed adultery (porneia).  Today, we are going to talk about uncleanness and next Saturday, conclude this three part series on Galatians 5:19 with a look at lasciviousness.

The word uncleanness is the Greek word akatharsia, which is the word kathairo with prefix a added.  The word kathairo means cleansed or pure but when you add the prefix a, the condition is reversed, making the object dirty or unclean.  In the New Testatment, akatharsia refers to lewd or unclean thoughts that eventually produce lewd or unclean actions.  So, there is a strong suggestion that actions begin in the mind as unclean thoughts before they manifest as unclean deeds.

"And there was in the synagogue a man with an unclean spirit..."  The Greek actually says that this man was "gripped by the control of an unclean spirit."  It seems that this man had pondered on lewd thoughts for so long that he had thrown open the door for these to seize and control him.  In this verse the word akatharsia is used.  It implies that a demon found entrance into this man's life because he had committed mental prostitution.  He allowed his mind to dwell on things that were forbidden.

"A man with an unclean spirit met him..."   Here akatharsia is used in describing the man possessed by a legion of demons.  In Mark chapter one and now in chapter five, we have two men who are in the grip of an unclean spirit.  It appears that their demon-possessed condition started with impure, lewd, dirty thoughts, since the Greek word akatharsia is used in both verses.  Did Satan lure them into the pornography of unclean ideas or into adultery, and then build a stronghold of uncleanness so robust in their minds that he was able to eventually cause unclean actions to be manifested in their lives and thus completely control them?

Whatever you give your mind to will eventually be your master.   

Next Saturday we will discuss the word lasciviousness.

This study is taken from Sparkling Gems from the Greek

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

Having accepted a counseling assignment for a year in a South American country, I met an interesting man.  In his broken English, he confessed, "I like dirty women."  

This man was a gynecologist, very educated and finally coming to the realization that he had a terrible problem.  In English, dirty can mean several things.  However, in Spanish, he was very clear.  He used the word, "sucia."  "Sucia" means physically dirty, unwashed.  He continued with other clear words, "Indigenas, indias, mujeres sucias..."    Translated, those words mean, "indigenous, indians, dirty women..."  He was talking about a people group that were indigenous in that area:  women from the Quechua people.  These people are typically considered lower class by those who don't have indian blood.  

Being educated and of Spanish descent, he considered himself to be superior to these people.  That was his quandary.  "Why do I like dirty women? I'm not attracted to pure blood women."  He went on to explain that he would sexually use some of his patients, but only the Quechua women.  He felt an attraction to women that he was not supposed to be attracted to, kinda like forbidden fruit.  He soothed his conscience by believing that he was only having sex with women who were beneath his station in life.  These people were essentially worthless in his mind.

He would trade his gynecological services for sexual favors with his patients.  He found that many times, he would not be refused because these women were poor and did not feel good about themselves.  "They couldn't say no because no one thinks they are attractive.  I flatter them..."

So, you can see this man has a terrible sin problem.  Actually, more than one.  Just to name a few:  1) prejudice, 2) sexism, 3) racism, 4) elitism, 5) compulsions, 6) fornication, etc...  Just plain sinfulness.  

As his story unfolded, he also revealed that he was addicted to marijuana, alcohol and painkillers.  Being a physician, he had no difficulty affording and obtaining these substances, especially when he would trade his gynecological services for these substances.  

He was raised in an environment with a very strong mother and a father who had abandoned him.   As we delved further into his upbringing, he noted that he was brought into sex early when his mother paid for a prostitute "to teach him how to be a man" as his father wasn't doing a good job at raising him.   He recalled his first sexual encounter at age eight with repeated exposure, at his mother's insistence, until he left for college at age sixteen.

In spite of his medical and financial success, this man knew that he was doomed.  "My soul is on the way to hell..."  Fortunately, this gentleman was receptive to God's working in his life.  He came for help because he had heard that hell was a place that he did not want to go.  As I was unable to follow this man due to not being around long enough to help him, I was able to hand him off to a pastor.  This pastor told him about God's redemptive power and discipled him.  He became very much like Zaccheus.  He repented of his sinful behavior and attempted to make restitution as best he could.  

This man's story teaches us that we are not doomed by the sins of our parents, doomed because we had a bad upbringing or doomed because we have abused people.  There is always room for God's offer of salvation.  It is never too late to do the right thing.

Is your life like this man's?  Or do you think that he is beneath you?  
In what kind of sin do you find yourself involved?  
It is never too late to do the right thing.  

If God can change this man, he can change you.

How bout it?

BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.