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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Pornography Addiction Recovery
Tough subject today. But if you doubt it is a needed one, just check out a couple statistics. A 1996 Promise Keepers survey at one of their stadium events revealed that over 50% of the men in attendance were involved with pornography within one week of attending the event. Maybe you are a pastor saying to yourself, yeah, but those guys were just the non-Christian friends who were invited to promise keepers. Over half of evangelical pastors admit viewing pornography last year. There are countless statistics that I could add to this page. If you want more for your own research, click here . Our God is an awesome God and he can help anyone recover from sin of any kind. I am sure there are testimonies of men or women who laid there sin on the altar and God took away all desire to look at pornography from them. I will also let you know, that is not the normal way it seems to go. Satan is a liar, and as long as he can keep the addict thinking that his or her sin is secret, then he has power over them. Just like any other addictive sin, the first step is admitting you have a problem. The second and more important step is admitting it to another human being who can hold you accountable! When that second step takes place, Satan no longer has the same hold on the person’s life! Does that mean that after that, recovery is easy? NO! But it does mean that the person is no longer alone in their struggle. Pastor’s and Lay leaders, if you are reading this and are thinking, Man, he is describing me, but if I tell anyone, I will lose my job or my position in the church! Find someone to hold you accountable! It is a tough step. If there is no one in your community you can talk to,email me and we can set up a time to talk on the phone. It isn’t perfect (unless you live in Pickens County South Carolina), but it is a step. I will probably blog more on this issue in the future. If it makes you uncomfortable, I am sorry, but it is something that is destroying families, marriages and churches across America! Remember, just because you are sinning doesn’t mean you “lost your salvation” it just means you need to ask forgiveness and then “go and sin no more.”
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2 comments:
Amen! Our God is great and can grant us repentance from this sin!
I believe one of the biggest resources we have in the church is one another: the gift of prayer and accountability. Have you ever heard of accountability software? Accountability software is specifically for adults who want to guard where they go online without any blocking or filtering. If you want more info about it check out my post “Breaking the Lure of Internet Porn” - http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/07/11/breaking-the-lure-of-internet-porn/
Great Post Burl, on an important, timely and destructive issue. Really great advice about the accountability partner as well. In my own studies of scriptural principles applied to everyday living, I have learned that a key ingredient to overcoming any sin of this nature, (pornography, anger, jealousy etc) is to begin fighting the fight before the fight begins. Sinful desires almost never spring on us unexpectedly, but involve a process that almost always begins with thoughts that are basically innocent in nature.
The battle against sin will almost always be lost once we allow our thoughts to develop into “desires” in our hearts and minds.
This battle is easily won however if we simply walk away from the fight before desire has a chance to be established within us. The reason why we so often fail at this task is because we get into the fight too late. The deceptive nature of sin, along with pride prevents us from walking away before desire begins to form because at that point the thoughts are basically innocent.
We can improve our opportunities for victory and give ourselves a fighting chance by rearranging our circumstances to prevent desire from developing. We need to learn how to recognize the unique circumstances we know we are susceptible to and walk away from them before we even get to a place of temptation, before we can even catch a glimpse of the susceptible scenario.
For example, an individual that struggles with internet porn should just simply not be surfing a site such as youtube, without an accountability partner surfing with them, and even then such a search should be performed with specific goals. (I am going on YouTube to find a music video of “Dust in the Wind”.)
While much of what we might see on youtube is innocent in nature, it is a gateway site that begins to build desire that we will not be able to overcome once established.
One innocent video leads to one that is mostly innocent which leads to a questionable one… once we have gotten to the questionable video, we have already made a series of decisions that have allowed desire to build in our hearts… that battle will almost always be lost at that point.
I am not saying that no Christian has any business being on YouTube. I am saying that sin comes from evil desires within us. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can win the battle against sin by “taking captive” the thoughts that come BEFORE, desire is born.
James 1:14-15
14 …but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
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