Its been quite a while I stopped by this zone, I recently had a conversation with someone about blogging and suddenly I had the urge to come here. This is an article from one of my favorite blogs at the moment and the article really got me thinking about some issues that Christians don't talk about...enjoy
About 5 years ago, I attended this christian program where the man of God made a categorical statement.
“Everyone here struggles with sexual temptations, in one way or the other. Get used to it. Get comfortable talking about it. The hold that struggle has over you is its secrecy”.
The ’emphasis on the words ‘everyone’ and ‘struggles’ are mine. But those words struck me rather forcibly at the time.
Everyone? Struggle? Like it’s a real live problem for everyone?
Let me give you a little perspective.
I had been a christian for a while and was just fresh out of University. Sexual struggles had hitherto been reserved for those ‘bad boys turned Jesus boys’ that had had a sinful past and still had many girls chasing them (For cultural reasons, I guess, it was only guys that seemed to have such struggles). With time, the girls would finally catch the hint and the guy would finally be free of all temptations. (So it seemed)
So sexual temptation struggle in all serious Christians? O ti o (no way).
So when this married ‘Man of God’ openly insinuated that he had struggles with temptations…
There seemed to be some unwritten rule book somewhere.
The christian single is frigid until the magic’ You may now kiss the bride’ and then all of a sudden, the taps are opened wide and voila,
sexual desires suddenly come, just at the right time to ensure they dont ‘miss out’ on anything others have been sinfully enjoying.
The christian married person is getting all the sex they want from their spouse and are so in love with that perfect other, they dont see or want anyone else.
Anyway, while the man talked, we all looked very serious and ‘above’ whatever he was insinuating we were struggling with. No one nodded, assented or said ‘preach it’. I’m sure we all looked appropriately frigid (it was a singles class by the way). Whatever was going on in our individual hearts, only the Lord knoweth (And giveth strength and grace to help in times of need)
Fast forward to very recently, I found some statistics about the church and a very pervasive brand of sexual temptation known as pornography.
*38% of adults believe there is nothing wrong with pornography use
Morality Continues to Decay. Barna Research Group, 3 November, 2003.
*April 6, 2007: 70% of Christians admitted to struggling with porn in their daily lives. From a non-scientific poll taken by XXXChurch, as reported by CNN.
*In March of 2002 Rick Warren’s (author of the Purpose Driven life) Pastors.com website conducted a survey on porn use of 1351 pastors:
54% of the pastors had viewed Internet pornography within the last year, and 30% of these had visited within the last 30 days.
*47% of families said pornography is a problem in their home.
Focus on the Family Poll, October 1, 2003.
*These and other statistics can be found here: http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstat
Clearly these are staggering numbers.
Its ‘widespreadness’ does not make it okay but deadly.
The wages of sin will always be death. If we can look at these numbers even solely in the light of the guilt and shame it costs… and the enormity of the hypocrisy…
And its not just porn: Envy. Malice. Jealousy. Rage. Un-forgiveness. Hatred. Despair. Doubt.
All these hidden sins of the heart we easily pretend are not there, that we’ll rather die than admit to…
Am I saying I’m going to come to you to confess something? Or that you should ‘have something to tell me’? Not necessarily. But let us stop being ignorant. And delusional.
Those who have overcome some particular struggle will do well to remember that they were not the exception- but the rule. Some brother or sister might need encouraging.. and stern words of truth coming from someone who had walked in these very shoes before. The church as a whole should realize the enemy has probably been more proactive- and sin is closer than we can bear admit it is.
The problem is real. And we have certain victory in Christ. But can we win a war we cant even admit is real?
https://breakpoint.connectedlagos.com/2016/07/08/porn-and-all-the-other-things-nobody-struggles-with/
About 5 years ago, I attended this christian program where the man of God made a categorical statement.
“Everyone here struggles with sexual temptations, in one way or the other. Get used to it. Get comfortable talking about it. The hold that struggle has over you is its secrecy”.
The ’emphasis on the words ‘everyone’ and ‘struggles’ are mine. But those words struck me rather forcibly at the time.
Everyone? Struggle? Like it’s a real live problem for everyone?
Let me give you a little perspective.
I had been a christian for a while and was just fresh out of University. Sexual struggles had hitherto been reserved for those ‘bad boys turned Jesus boys’ that had had a sinful past and still had many girls chasing them (For cultural reasons, I guess, it was only guys that seemed to have such struggles). With time, the girls would finally catch the hint and the guy would finally be free of all temptations. (So it seemed)
So sexual temptation struggle in all serious Christians? O ti o (no way).
So when this married ‘Man of God’ openly insinuated that he had struggles with temptations…
There seemed to be some unwritten rule book somewhere.
The christian single is frigid until the magic’ You may now kiss the bride’ and then all of a sudden, the taps are opened wide and voila,
sexual desires suddenly come, just at the right time to ensure they dont ‘miss out’ on anything others have been sinfully enjoying.
The christian married person is getting all the sex they want from their spouse and are so in love with that perfect other, they dont see or want anyone else.
Anyway, while the man talked, we all looked very serious and ‘above’ whatever he was insinuating we were struggling with. No one nodded, assented or said ‘preach it’. I’m sure we all looked appropriately frigid (it was a singles class by the way). Whatever was going on in our individual hearts, only the Lord knoweth (And giveth strength and grace to help in times of need)
Fast forward to very recently, I found some statistics about the church and a very pervasive brand of sexual temptation known as pornography.
*38% of adults believe there is nothing wrong with pornography use
Morality Continues to Decay. Barna Research Group, 3 November, 2003.
*April 6, 2007: 70% of Christians admitted to struggling with porn in their daily lives. From a non-scientific poll taken by XXXChurch, as reported by CNN.
*In March of 2002 Rick Warren’s (author of the Purpose Driven life) Pastors.com website conducted a survey on porn use of 1351 pastors:
54% of the pastors had viewed Internet pornography within the last year, and 30% of these had visited within the last 30 days.
*47% of families said pornography is a problem in their home.
Focus on the Family Poll, October 1, 2003.
*These and other statistics can be found here: http://www.blazinggrace.org/cms/bg/pornstat
Clearly these are staggering numbers.
Its ‘widespreadness’ does not make it okay but deadly.
The wages of sin will always be death. If we can look at these numbers even solely in the light of the guilt and shame it costs… and the enormity of the hypocrisy…
And its not just porn: Envy. Malice. Jealousy. Rage. Un-forgiveness. Hatred. Despair. Doubt.
All these hidden sins of the heart we easily pretend are not there, that we’ll rather die than admit to…
Am I saying I’m going to come to you to confess something? Or that you should ‘have something to tell me’? Not necessarily. But let us stop being ignorant. And delusional.
Those who have overcome some particular struggle will do well to remember that they were not the exception- but the rule. Some brother or sister might need encouraging.. and stern words of truth coming from someone who had walked in these very shoes before. The church as a whole should realize the enemy has probably been more proactive- and sin is closer than we can bear admit it is.
The problem is real. And we have certain victory in Christ. But can we win a war we cant even admit is real?
https://breakpoint.connectedlagos.com/2016/07/08/porn-and-all-the-other-things-nobody-struggles-with/
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