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Stumbling into Porn: A Personal Testimony

Posted on by RLAdmin
By an Anonymous Contributor
I’ve always been the good girl.  I’ve grown up going to church.  I dress modestly and have never gone past kissing a guy before.  There was a time where I never thought I’d struggle with sex because I vowed myself never to have it until I was married.  I’m still waiting to give up my virginity, but things changed when I was 20.
At 20 years old, I started to read sexually explicit fan fiction.  Fan fiction is the term for stories fans write about their favorite characters in a story, simply picking up where the series left off or creating a whole new story using the same characters. At first, I was just curious about sex.  My parents never talked to me about sex, and I was never comfortable talking about it to them.  I lied when my mom asked me if I knew what sex was.  So instead,  I learned about sex through fan fiction of my favorite characters.  I thought to myself, ‘Now I really know what is going on.’
But I didn’t stop there. Once I knew the basics I kept reading, spending a great deal of time alone in my room, not realizing how this was changing me.  I started to self-gratify more often. I loved reading the smutty parts.  Soon, I was reading about homosexual scenes or orgies among these characters. Naturally, I thought about these situations when I self-gratified.  I never thought I’d get into that, but again, it didn’t stop there. 
After that, it led to watching porn.  I wanted to see what a man really looked like.  I googled men, then that led to watching people having sex.  Once upon a time, I would’ve been mortified watching these videos, but reading about sex became not enough.
  
Through the years, I have gone through the cycle of stopping then starting back up again, always the same- reading about and watching sex.  When I would go to church, I always heard things geared toward men about porn, and thought, ‘But I struggle with this too…what about me?’
It was more obvious to me that watching people have sex is porn, but even in my heart I knew I was reading porn.  For a lot of women, their version of porn is often when we put ourselves into the story: there is a hunky hero who knows how to woo us, satisfy us in bed, and someone who would eventually give us marriage and a family.  That’s what the lure was for me. 
Back in March of this year, I had an opportunity to go to a woman’s group for women who struggle with porn.  I was excited to find out I wasn’t the only one with these issues!  God has broken my habit of reading those stories and watching videos; He is still leading me on the path of learning about holy sexuality in Him and living daily in purity, glorifying God with my sexuality. 
It’s funny to me that I’m so tainted by sex, even though I’ve never even been touched by a man, but God is healing me and leading me toward being pleased by Him, instead of the lies the world offers. 

God is Closer Than You Think!

Posted on by RLAdmin
(c) Katy Collins Photography


By Karen Adams

The other day as we were driving to visit our son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren on the east side of town, I was shown by God the most beautiful visual of His love for us!
Our daughter and our other set of grandchildren (Dave and I are so blessed!) went with us.We were all looking forward to seeing family and also giving the little ones a chance to get together and play. As we were driving, Lacey was in her car seat and she started squirming. But the squirming wasn’t all she had in mind! Her squirming turned into a full-blown screaming and crying meltdown. She wanted out of that seat so badly. My daughter, who was sitting right next to her, comforted Lacey the best she could. However, there was just no way she was going to give in and take Lacey out of that car seat. My daughter held her little hand and tried to comfort her but she also knew that being in her car seat, no  matter how uncomfortable and unhappy Lacey was, was what was best for her! She knew by keeping her in that car seat she would reach her destination safely and as planned. I could see in my daughter’s eyes how much love and compassion she had for her little one , but she knew what was best. Lacey, of course, did not understand. When Lacey finally realized she was not going to get out of the car seat, she surrendered and cried herself to sleep.
Isn’t that just like us at times?

We may have circumstances in our lives that we are not happy about- situations that can be downright scary or perplexing .We just don’t understand it! It could be our health, our finances, our relationships, any number of hardships we may be going through. We cry out to God and we wonder why He is not there, why He is not listening and why He won’t get us out of the situation. Why Lord do we have to go through this and where are You??
Yet know this- God hasn’t left us! His compassion and love are far greater than we will ever know. He tells us over and over that He will take care of us and He will protect us. Our part is to be still and let Him work. We just need to remember who He is, trust Him, and have faith in our God who loves us so much. He sent His son to die for us instead of condemning us to a life separated from Him forever. He is always taking care of us, and doing it far better than we would ever be able to do ourselves.
Although we cannot see God beside us, He is the there. He is watching, listening, and comforting us. He knows exactly what we are going through. Many times it is to sanctify us. He wants us to learn to trust Him through the rough times. As we grow closer to Him, we become more like Him.We put our faith and trust in Him and surrender. We practice trusting and knowing He is there, believing that He will see us through our circumstances in order that we arrive according to His plan for us in our lives.
 He tells us over and over that He will take care of us and protect us. Our part is to believe, trust and have faith. Our majestic, glorious Father will do the rest. We need only obey.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”   Joshua 1:9

You are God, You alone

Posted on by RLAdmin

                                                      

By Katy Collins

“…that the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone.” (Isaiah 37:20)

Isaiah chapter 37 is a rich chapter full of honest prayers and real pressure. King Hezekiah is reigning over Jerusalem and the bad guy, Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, is ready to wipe out Jerusalem. Sennacherib sent his military commander to strike fear into the hearts of the people of Israel by taunting them with not only their previous successes at destroying every other city, but by attempting to tear down their trust in what YAH had promised.

Let me ask you this, can you think of anything God has promised you? Perhaps you can think of specific, or unique things, He has spoken to you, but what about even the promises of Scripture?

“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My father’s commandments and abide in His love.” (John 15:10)

How much do you think the Father loves Jesus? A whole stinkin’ lot, right? And in Messiah’s own words, we see that He promises that if we keep His commandments (even as He kept the Father’s) we will abide in His love. Imagine, what that means to “abide in [Jesus’] love”. Wouldn’t that be the most wonderful place to live our lives? Yes! And it is indeed the place that He has for us to live our lives.

The commander from the Assyrian army was trying to get King Hezekiah and the Israelites to forget God’s word and to worry, fear and doubt. He used tactics like pointing to the events of the world around them, and comparing God to others who had done nothing. Don’t we hear the same lies, or speak them ourselves?

I know I have been guilty of bringing God down to compare Him to the actions of someone I know and equating Him to that person (who may be full of flaws), instead of considering that God stands alone as Creator of all things and exists outside of time and as Isaiah 41 says, “He sits above the circle of the earth and regards the inhabitants as grasshoppers.” He is mighty! He is not like my high school boyfriend who hurt me. He is not like your earthly Dad who messed things up in your life. He is not like anyone else.

Or to look at the world and what’s going wrong and then apply that somehow to God’s lack of ability to come through- we see the enemy playing that same ol’ trick don’t we? Many are concerned about the happenings in America, and all over the world, to an extent that they choose to forget what the one, true God has promised. This is an age-old act of the great Liar, himself.

King Hezekiah gets a final threatening letter from the bad guys I love the verse right after. It reads,

“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.” (Isaiah 37:14)

Hezekiah was disturbed by the letter, clearly upset by the words that had been spoken, the threats that had been made, and the accusations hurled against his God. So what did he do? He went the house of the LORD and put it before Him and prayed. What an example! When we, like Hezekiah, are honestly bogged down by the junk the enemy is throwing at us, let us run to the God and present our weakened hearts before Him. He sees already, but in this act of vulnerability we re-acknowledge His greatness in our lives and we seek His help instead of trying to figure it out on our own.

Hezekiah presents the letter before the LORD and then his prayer is just awesome. I encourage you to take time to read through it (Isaiah 37:15-20). He first acknolwedges God’s immensity and His greatness and he praises the name of the LORD. Then he pours out his own heart before God and seeks His counsel.

And the last phrase he prays is beautiful. It’s the quote this post started with. Hezekiah, broken down by the battering words of the enemy, fearful for his people, wondering if God will indeed save them, prays for the salvation of Jerusalem for one reason…God’s glory. Hezekiah prays,

“Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the LORD, You alone.”

This king, who was a man just like us, who had doubts and fears and was persuaded to wonder about the promises of God when the voice of the enemy was so prominent and loud, went to his God. He knew that going into the presence of the Lord was where his peace and wisdom would come from. Hezekiah didn’t hesitate, but instead went straight into the house of LORD and spread out his issue before Him.  And in that humble posture of prayer and vulnerability, he cried out that God would accomplish His will, for His glory- that the world would know that God, alone, is God.

Friend, God has promised you things, clearly in Scripture. Are you doubting because of things the enemy is trying to deceive you with? Run into the house of the LORD and pray; spend time sitting before Him and considering who He really is. He will be faithful. He is the one who is called Faithful and True. Let not the Liar win when he comes against those promises. Believe in the LORD.

Thoughts On Josh McDowell’s Recent Comments on Porn

Posted on by RLAdmin
imgJosh McDowell4
By Beau Ouellette

 I enjoy Josh McDowell’s work and passion for Christ.  This is no way is a critique of the ministry that the Lord has given to Josh.  I instead hope to inject a different perspective into the quotes from a talk that he gave at a recent conference.  At Running Light, we work with many different people on this topic, so it is of interest to us.

Beau
Christian Apologist Josh McDowell: 3 Cultural Changes That Create the ‘Perfect Storm’ Against the Church
In reading Josh McDowells comments in the above article my head was spinning, thinking, “I’ve blogged on these issues before,” but I find in blogging you have to re-tell your opinions over and over in the hopes that you make head way. When the American Christian Church river get’s running it is hard to go upstream.
I will copy some of what is quoted in the article that I wish to comment on then immediately respond. Here we go!
  • During his message, he also told pastors they cannot pastor the same way they have been for the last 20 years while telling parents they cannot raise their children the same way they were raised because the Internet has changed “everything.”
  • “Twenty years ago, the phrase was, ‘if you don’t reach a young person by 18, you probably won’t reach them. Now, atheists and agnostics have the same access to your kids as you do, it’s just one click away. The internet has leveled the playing field and now if you don’t reach a child by their 12th birthday, you won’t reach them.”
This is not necessarily a bad thing.  I have raised and continue to raise my two kids.  The internet has been in there life the entire time.  Having Atheist and agnostics in there ear through the internet means that as a Father I get to be more engaged in the debates as they are!  How cool is it when you kid comes out of there room to have a huge talk with you about metaphysics or the reliability of the Bible etc…!!!  Even as a student Pastor, you have students that are challenged all the time for their faith at younger ages!  This bombardment of information makes the student Pastor have to make sure he is growing in his knowledge of issues as well.  Game time in student ministry won’t cut it!  I think I am on Joshes page in that light.
But back to the internet; It’s not the internet’s fault here, it’s the parents.  From Jesus view point, everyone in the world living during his time was of corrupt mind and action.  Sin’s influence was everywhere.  Is that any different than today with our technology?  I think today as then people are exposed everyday to sinful behavior or idea’s that vary.  What the internet is doing is moving the parents who have not studied at all to realize their kids are challenging them and making sense!   Two things you can do at that point.  Start studying and talking with them in open dialog, or get mad at the internet because it’s influencing your kids away from your blind belief.   Too many parents do the second.   This brings the kid or teen to a place of realizing the way a Christian parent deals with ideas that are against the faith is through avoidance of them.  The problem with this is you can’t avoid forever!  At some point our kids will think for themselves and realize we don’t know what we believe or why we believe it.  We’ll lose them at that point.
2 Timothy 2:15
King James Version (KJV)
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
He also advised parents to not shelter their children from “what’s out there” but rather prepare them for the first time they will inevitably encounter information overload on the Internet and porn.
Josh is speaking of porn now.  Sex education is something that starts with us.  This is not a new problem because of the internet.  Watch movies from years ago (say the 30’s) and you get the idea that people still wanted sex and allot of it.  Even in Biblical times sex was happening all the time and in all ways!  David didn’t teach his kids about sex well, and so they too had lust issues.  Again porn on the internet means that parents need to be engaged in their kids’ lives!  Bummer or good?  It seems to me the internet is making people have to be a bit more of a parent and less self-fish.  Get a filter on your home system or gaming console!  Talk to your kids about the purpose of sex and what happens if we abuse sexual conduct.  And by the way this is where it gets really dicey.  How many Christian marriages have joy in their sexuality?  How many see sex as a beautiful act?  How difficult it is to educate our kids if we ourselves do not view sex within our marriages as a glorious act representing Christ and His bride!
To many times over the 24 years of my time in the Christian Church I have heard couples talk about sex as duty and not joy.  It is no wonder that today’s students look at the supposed happy people of the world having sex and find pleasure in it.
In the same manner, McDowell emphasized that young people are increasingly becoming addicted to pornography, adding that it is the greatest threat to the body of Christ in 2,000 years.
Pornography has been around thousands of years.  Read Ezk 23 (or the entire book).  The world is distorted  from a Biblical worldview and does not know the purpose for sex.  So sex is pornified.  Follow me here.  The greatest threat to the body of Christ is that we don’t know see the joy of confession, repentance, amputation, accountability.   Let me ask a question about the conference; Did any speaker get up and share their sin of lust and show the people how to joyfully move away?    It’s a great threat to the body when I as a Pastor share the Word but do not practice it before my brothers and sisters.  Let’s be genuine.  We all stumble in many ways the Word tells us.  All sin is common to mankind it also says.   The Church does not know how to impact their congregations to move out of a pornified view of sex, not because of porn, but because there is not many leaders willing to lead in this area of joyfully confession.  The Christian Church can easily fall into desires to be Strong, yet Jesus wants us weak and in need of Him.  This is tough to do when amongst our peers, but necessary.  It has always been necessary, from the book of Acts to today, in the Church.
This point is what I feel is not being understood by many of my fellow ministers.  I need to show people what a Christian walk looks like.  If I say to the congregation, “I used to lust back in the day,” that is not much of a help to the person out there in the seat who feels like God will never come to his rescue (like he did with that Pastor).  But when the Pastor admits that today there is a struggle with lust, but yet today, by grace, he has learned how to use the Word in His fight, Confession for the diminishing the enemies army, Accountability as a strength against him, Amputation of sin as a offensive tool there is an empowering to his congregation of how to have victory!
He added that 50 percent of fundamental, evangelical pastors watch porn while 80 percent of youth pastors have a problem with porn as well. McDowell pointed out that porn provides only a momentary satisfaction and porn addicts often seek other opportunities to satisfy their sexual desires.
If Jesus is not most satisfying to us, and we snuggle up to lust.  This has always been a fact.  Check out the hall of fame of faith in Hebrews 11!  Those guys and gals are saved by grace!  Creating an environment in your Church where a person on staff can’t talk to the senior Pastor because they are afraid of getting fired for watching porn will not suffice, but will create a bunch of staff that do watch porn and are afraid to face it head on.  Grace man!  Grace!  Staff Leadership, show your own struggle and confess that to your staff so they understand that we are to joyfully confess to one another.  That is our better pleasure and God’s glorification.
Is it any surprise that Pastors would be affected by what is on the internet?  Let me give you a stat.  100% of Pastors sin!  And here’s another, 100% of Pastors struggle with pride, lust, reputation, jealousy, envy, boasting and much more.  Pointing out a Pastors struggle with sex and not your own struggle with pride, lust, reputation etc… is a hypocritical judgment.  As a leader and Pastor I understand sin.  I understand that there is a battle in me, and in all my fellow Elders, Deacons and Leaders in the Church.  They are no different than me in this regard.  Creating an environment where we can confess our sins to one another, and so be healed is so needed.  Not just for them and I, but for students as well.  Confession in leadership is not just a dumping of what I did, but it is the first step of showing others how to come out of the darkness of hidden sinful behavior.   If this is true confession in grace, then we will not only do this, but then show how to move away from behavior as well.   This should be ongoing in the Christina life!  Over and over and over again this should be happening in the Church.  But people are deadly afraid to confess.  And why would they when I am sharing from my pulpit about how bad sin is (especially sexual sin) and those that practice such things.  How can God love these people?  Yet, the really sad truth of the matter is that we Pastors and Leaders are one with them!  We too need grace.
Mark 7:  “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.”
“The average person starts with heterosexual sex then after a while, that no longer satisfies, then there’s anal, from anal there’s oral, from oral to homo, from homo to bestiality then to children,” said McDowell.
He continued, “The sad thing is, after child pornography doesn’t satisfy, where do you go? Pornography is why sex-trafficking, sex abuse and rape are major issues, they (addicts) end up living it out, it becomes a reality.”
I’m not sure what Josh means by “average.”  Millions upon millions of people have had a non-biblical view of sex weather in this modern porn era or past times as well.  Today’s porn certainly influences people, but before it was today’s porn culture it was yesterday’s porn culture!  Again from a Biblical world view no culture has had a good view of sex.  We are all in the sex distorted boat.  And check this out, even two Christian couples who engage in sex don’t necessarily have things right!  What makes sex right is not that you are having face to face intercourse with your Christian spouse, but it is that you seek to glorify God in your enjoyment of God in the joy of your bride.  Another way to put it is that agape love is present in the marital bed.  So just because you’re a Christian couple and your having sex means nothing if our hearts are set to honor God in representing Jesus love for His Church in the act.  And how many Christian married couples engage in sex that way? Also when Josh says the average porn viewer goes from this to that to harder core stuff until he is at oral, anal etc…  My question is this: has this been his situation?  Is this a confession?   I can only talk about me here and those that I have been personally involved with for years now.  Some people do progress in more hard core porn, others do not.  Some people will self gratify to Victoria Secret adds in the mail, others to the back of a newspaper.   Still others like to smell a person walking by and that is there vise.  If Josh was right and the “average” person was progressing like he says, then the “average” person would get to child porn.  But so many do not!  Though some do.   I do not have all the answers but what I do know is that porn is not the problem.  Lust is.  You can throw away all the porn the world has and we would still be in the same problem.   We would still have to teach our kids how to honor God in sex and its purpose from a Biblical Worldview.  Just because porn is eliminated does not get the parent off the hook.  I have no doubt that as young people view porn they will want to see porn that is for their own age at some point.  That makes sense to me and is troubling to ponder in our society.  So I can see how young people will search for younger and younger porn.  I have read articles where young people have criminal records for downloading under 18 porn!   No doubt lust has found its target for so many and that’s pornography.  I have lead many porn recovery groups for the past 7 years.  There is no rhyme or reason as to why some go so far or get into what they get into.
The quote from Josh also makes me think he has not been into porn or on the websites much at all.  Those of us who have fallen into sexual sin have visited many websites.  And the interesting thing about porn sites is that there are many categories of porn to choose from.  So much of it is disgusting to me.  I find it repulsive and sad as well.  But there is always something there on the site that causes me to fall.  What I want to help you understand is that when a person goes to a porn site, they are lusting.   They are looking for something that will fulfill that desire, but not everything on the porn site is going to do it.  For some it is homosexual porn, for others it is orgies and the like, and for others it is simply one man and one woman having intimacy.
It is a misunderstanding to think that people get on these sites and just click, click and click anything and everything.  Sure it can and does happen, but I tend to think the categories on the sites are there to reveal what is already in the heart.  And it seems to be a gross exaggeration to think that the average person will move from one to another.  I think I’m average and I have never wanted to watch homosexual sex.  I grew up with homosexual babysitters in the San Fernando Valley.  I have been around bi-sexuality and homosexuals my entire life.  I have never watched men with other men porn.  I don’t like it.  Go figure?
Josh also seems to get something mixed up.  Heterosexual sex can include anal and oral sex (Not that I subscribe to one or the other).  Or am I missing something here?  Maybe it was mis-quoted in the article.
I feel the  Christian church all too quickly eats up the strong voice that declares how porn has ruined everything, yet this Church, to which I am a part, fails to see other reasons why there is failure (Josh does do a great job of pointing out some of these issues in his books). There’s more to the story. Grace is to bear with one another and to live lives of open confession, vulnerability, repentance and accountability.  Are our eyes open to this?

Porn Addiction and the Brain

Posted on by RLAdmin

 

By Beau Ouellette
Thoughts from an article from Dr. Lasha Darkmoon
Note: read the article on the link first.  (But you’ll get it when you read below)
Critique:
If the behavior of porn addiction and habitual self gratification is a function of brain damage, then who is to fault the person from doing it? The behavior is simply due to brain mis-function; Biology over behavior.
There had to be a time when the brain was not damaged as the person starting viewing porn. Yet lust reigned. Lust is the problem, not the brain damage. Or the brain damage is a result of lust not the other way around.
It seems that frontal lobe damage, caused by long-term porn addiction and the compulsive masturbation that accompanies it, will give rise to a constellation of behaviors called “frontal lobe syndrome”. These include four main behavior patterns:  (1) Impulsive behavior with little regard to consequences. (2) Compulsive behavior, often leading to total loss of control. (3) Emotionally labile behavior, i.e., sudden and unpredictable mood swings. (4) Impaired judgment, leading to disastrous decision making.
How about addiction to TV or gaming and what that does to the brain. How about people’s arousal over books? So is book arousal ok for the brain?
To me the issue of the brain has little to do to shed light on breaking free from bondage to lust or even helping those understand what is happening in their lives. All of our brains have to be pretty messed up. We lust bad food, which affects the brain and body, we lust money which effects our moods and stress levels, we lust sex which from this article above is telling us how it affects the brain. Some people chose to lust sports, cars, houses, power, reputation, which must also effect the brain according to this view point. Obviously some distortions of the brain we deem ok and others not so.
When does brain function constitute bad behavior? We can have a rush of dopamine when we work out, so is that ok. When does this get deemed as bad? Or how about when I have sex with my wife? When is too much sexual stimulus with her bad for the brain? At what point does too much dopimine become harmful. Should we all be regulated daily to see what is too much or too little?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine
It seems the focus is on the consequences and not on the culprit.
The process of masturbatory conditioning is inexorable and does not spontaneously remiss. The course of this illness may be slow and is nearly always hidden from view. It is usually a secret part of the man’s life, and like a cancer, it keeps growing and spreading. It rarely ever reverses itself, and it is also very difficult to treat and heal. (See here)
It is sad to read this.
First of all this article always talks about men. Women self gratify all the time. Sex toys are bought regularly by women all over the world. China exports and sells 24 billion in adult material a year (Some of that sex toys)! China also is a country that bans pornography. (This shows that they are exporting other things than porn vids.) Are women’s brains damaged too? How have so many million women’s brains been changed through self gratification? Maybe we all have damaged brains? Yes I’m being a bit sarcastic here.
If all men and women enjoy self gratification, (with or without another body present) and in turn our brains are jacked because of it, then it would reason both genders need healing. From what though?
If lust is the cause, then how do you fix someone of lusting?
If you try and fix the brain damage through drug therapy, then you only cover the symptom. Nothing will change.
Lust is a product of the fall of man. Sin’s desire is for us, to rule over us!
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Genesis 4:7
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
From Jesus perspective, we are all brain damaged! Sin, (lust is a work of sin) is the cancer that has spread in us! The body is a fallen body, one that is damaged through the result of sin. There are many area’s of the body’s biological functions that are a mis due to sins work in it. We hate, kill, steal, envy, are jealous, cheat and all these actions run through the brain. Do we take pills for hating? Killing? Stealing? Being envious of others? Etc…
Back to the article – One of my patients was so deeply addicted that he could not stay away from pornography for 90 days, even for $1,000. It is difficult for non-addicts to comprehend the totally driven nature of a sex addict. When the “wave” hits them, nothing can stand in the way of getting what they want—whether that be pornography accompanied by masturbation, sex from a prostitute, molesting a child, or raping a woman.
An example might help illustrate this problem. Ralph was a sexual addict, married 12 years with three children. He was active in his church and held sincere, high moral principles. He believed in the Ten Commandments and opposed adultery. Yet his particular cycle involved pornography use, followed by paid sex with prostitutes. After each incident, he begged God for forgiveness and swore that it would never happen again. But it did, again and again.
Since the trigger of each adulterous act was pornography-use, we decided to try to free him from his dependence on this material. I asked him to write me a check for $1,000, indicating that I would return it if he went 90 days without using pornography. Ralph loved to hang on to his money and was quite attracted to our strategy. “There’s no way I’d look at dirty videos or magazines if I knew it would cost me a thousand dollars!” he said.
He managed to resist temptation remarkably well for a while. But on the 87th day, he drove past an “adult” bookstore in an unfamiliar city while on a business trip. He slammed on the brakes, entered the store, and went virtually berserk for 90 minutes. When I saw him the following week, he tearfully confessed that he had lost his $1,000. Since he had gone 87 days “sober,” I decided to give him another chance.
So we started another 90-day “sobriety” cycle. We both felt that if he could go 87 days, he could certainly make 90 if we tried again, especially if it meant recovering his $1,000.
This time he went only 14 days before he relapsed. He lost his money, which was given to a charity. He was extremely committed to quit in order to save his marriage and to live in harmony with his religious principles. But that was not the case. In my opinion, even if he had given me $10,000, he still would have relapsed. When the wave hits them, these men are consumed by their appetite, regardless of the costs or consequences. Their addiction virtually rules their lives.  (Seehere)
Pornography can be a source for lust to grow, but it is not the culprit either.
Books like the Song of Solomon were on the chopping block at times in history for being to erotic.  But the real issue was not the Song of Solomon, it was the lust which was in the person who read it. If lust is not dealt with then lust will find a way, it always does. You can remove all the pornography in the world, yet people will still self – gratify by themselves, or with another body or an animal. So people in history are brain damaged as well, as these practices have been around since the fall. Something needs to happen to change the human heart from a continual lustful behavior.
If the Son set’s you free you are free indeed.” John 8:36
The real way to help people overcome brain damage is not through the body, but through the Spirit! Jesus taught this in John 3 where he said, unless you be born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God. The change that Jesus pointed to was to become spiritually made new and alive!
The Spirit of God is the only way to overcome a fallen body. Romans 7 and 8 so greatly speak on this doctrine.
God is all powerful and His Spirit is able to change behavior of a body that biologically is failing. But most importantly God’s Spirit is able to conquer the culprit; Lust.
Conclusion:
Too much focus is on the effects of the brain (Mark Dricol’s book plus many more)
There is a focus on sexual issues with the brain of men, and not women (not consistent science or social science)
These behaviors that have caused the supposed damage to the brain have been around forever. So we can’t blame the modern pornography industry, though we do it so well!
Understanding my brain will not get me free from the real problem.
The real issue is that I am a fallen, sinful human being.
We need to be made new to have any change to conquer the culprit
Altering lust from sex to power, reputation, beauty, gaming, or TV, radio & readinga will still mean the rule of lust. There is only one true solution. A power to overcome the culprit which is lust.

Ready for Abduction

Posted on by RLAdmin

Abducted. Is this word ever a positive thing? Yup, to Katy Perry it is. Well, Katy and Kanye. They have a song out right now, probably super popular on the radio. I don’t know, I’m lame and don’t really listen to the radio, but I did get the chance to hear it in a local shop near the University. A few of the words caught my attention so I went ahead and looked up the lyrics online. Being involved in a ministry that deals, as honestly as we can, with sex, what the bible actually says about it and the distortions of it, I shouldn’t have been surprised about what I read.

But I was.

At first glance, I was so bummed that a message like this is going out in this song. The guy comes in singing about how rad he is (sexually, of course) and that his kind of love is other-worldly. At least he admits that his behavior is animalistic, but he is prized in the opening verse as a “legend” and that being with him is the “danger zone” and the “fantasy”. Then the girl’s part comes in and the message is that her great longing is to be “abducted” by this supernatural experience of lust. The sex being talked about through these lyrics is brutal, ugly and forceful, yet it’s something the girl is all about. Even excited over and desiring.

Again, at first, I was bummed at this lewdness and the distorted message. The song is saying- being a chick means having this kind of crazy sex and that therein is your value; the dude gets praised for his sexual domination and the chick is just trying to get what he has. And, yeah, that is a bummer, it’s a distortion of what God intended.

But then I had to stop and consider my own heart, my own past. Without getting too personal, I have had thoughts of a similar distortion. In fact, I’d wager to guess that many women out there have fantasized about that which isn’t beautiful, kind or sensitive. Why do we do that? Why do women want to be hurt? Especially in this regard? I mean, yes, there’s a whole thing about women’s rights and getting the fair thing, and standing up for ourselves. But I’m talking about- why is there this secret (maybe no-so-secret depending on your crowd) pull to be sexually mistreated or exploited as a girl?

I read an article recently where a former porn-mag editor interviewed a bunch of middle-schoolers and asked them what kind of porn they had seen and what it had done to their views on sex. The boys, averaging in age between 14-15 years old, mostly liked the porn they had seen (even though they admitted to easily accessing even beastiality via Facebook), but the girls were “…more confused, angry and frightened by [the] online sexual imagery” (www.dailymail.co.uk). While the boys were interested in what they were seeing, the girls were quite unsure, even afraid.

Somewhere along the line, the boy grows up to be a ‘guy’ and the girl grows up to be a ‘chick’ and he continues to dig the lust and distorted view of sex, wanting what’s weird and ugly, and she seems to become cool with that notion too. In fact, she eventually begins to give herself away, willingly, lusting after her own exploitation.

I see the correlation between having access to pornography (whether you wanted it or not) from such a young age and the distortion of sex that it offers, then the later consequences of how we view ourselves and sex in our adult lives. Some of the junior high students interviewed said they would just be perusing Facebook and a friend would send them a link and they’d all of a sudden be knee-deep in pornographic images, some of which I’m sure they wished they could’ve never seen. Unintended, but the enemy uses that little seed and sooner or later we have a whole generation singing (or listening to) lyrics like,

“Kiss me, kiss me
Infect me with your love and
Fill me with your poison
Take me, take me
Wanna be your victim
Ready for abduction.”

Abduction. Infection. Poison. Victim.

God talks of sex in very different terms. God designed sex to show the world what His love was like. Right off the bat, that might make most of you squirm. Sex is about God’s love? Yes, it is…in amazing ways. We have such a crazy distorted view of sex many of us can’t even begin to wrap our mind around the concept. But, that’s the filter of lust, not the one of biblical love. Paul quotes Genesis and talks about how when a man becomes one flesh with his wife, that act is a depiction of Christ and the Church, His bride. Sex was designed by God, and as all things that were designed by God glorify Him, so does sex (when done in the scriptural context). The literal two becoming one that happens in the act of sex, is a picture of God, Himself. God is one of many parts (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and that compound unity can be seen when we see one man and one woman coming together in sex and becoming ‘one flesh’- also a compound unity.

Sex is supposed to be holy. And I don’t mean stale, boring and weird. I mean incredible! And, when it is truly understood, holy sex is just that. The world suggests that sex is dirty, debased and ugly. Media, porn and even our own distortion within, often says that sex is degrading and about domination and being dominated. That’s why we get songs like this where the dude is all about his power and the girl is all about her weakness. He takes, and she is taken. NOT what God intended.

Question for ya… wouldn’t it be mind-blowing if the Church showed the world what true sex was all about and caused the world to look at Christians and say, “Wow…I don’t want this lie of the world anymore. I want what they’ve got!”

“So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Ephesians 5:28-32)

To Care or Not to Care?

Posted on by RLAdmin

Image
Written by Beau Ouellette
The question was asked:   Why do evolutionist care when a animal goes extinct?  Isn’t that a part of the survival of the fittest?
The best answer that I have heard was that caring for animals is a survival mechanism in itself for humans.  Caring has been en-grafted in the evolutionary progression of man at some point to help us live.
This is an interesting idea, but falls short of simple observational science.
  1. If caring is a survival mechanism of evolution, then why do we not care all the time for animals or humans for that matter?  People have aborted there babies for centuries, slaughtered animals and people for prophet, wars rage year after year.
  2. “”, then we couldn’t critique people for not caring sense that is simply an underdeveloped brain in their evolutionary development, and how can you criticize that?
  3. It would also reason that religion and it’s morality (like caring) could also be considered an evolutionary mechanism for our survival.  As some of today’s scientist have put it there could be a religious ‘node’ of the brain.  Biological Substrate.
  4. If that is the case then why would you critique someone’s religion, and certainly why would an Atheist criticize a Christian or any other religion for that matter.  It’s just our evolutionary brain doing It’s thing.
The Bible gives us an answer as well.  Jeremiah said that the heart of man is bent on evil, who can understand it?  That makes sense to me observably in the world.  We are out for our own gain, our motivations are not to benefit others (caring) but to do what it takes to win in life, even at others expense.  When I see the statistics on animal extinction, human trafficking, human abuse, killing, war, child porn etc… It is evident that we are wicked.
To say that the evidence simply points to a world that does not care much due to us not progressing far enough yet in our evolutionary trajectory, makes all the not caring of the world just a matter of biology.  “It’s what we do at this time in evolution.”  And how can you critique that?
Is that the way you see things when someone get’s raped?  It’s just a poor unfortunate (who does the raping) who has not progressed in his evolution?
So there is no absolute right or wrong in these matters, it is all biology.  Weather a religious war or an Atheist regime, they both are understandably normal because they both are products of there evolution.  And how can you criticize that?
So why is there so much criticism towards religion from the Atheist of today?  Superstition (religion) is a part of our evolution or else we would never have thought of such things.  That’s if evolutionist really believe they are right.  If we evolved then what we think is the product of our brain and it’s ability to think of things like God or gods wouldn’t it?  And why would we think of such things (gods or God) if it wasn’t for our survival?
But there arguments against religion only points to one thing in my view; the Atheist are not right.  To argue against religion is like trying to stop someone from salivating when they see food while hungry.  Salivating is just a part of the mechanics of our body, it’s what we do.  Religion is what the brain does today, so why would the smart professor go ahead and rip into people who are doing what they do biologically?  And if you can’t salivate, because of some malfunction, would you abuse someone verbally for that?
But the Atheist do!  Religions people have a malfunction of sorts Dawkins says:
“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” 
But why care?  Maybe someone’s religion is what has caused there people to survive thus far in the world.  All the made up stores of creation, and redemption, sacrifice and morality has helped the humans make it out alive and organize over there less developed brain counterparts, the chimpanzee!  (or other humans for that matter)
The argument against religion is one that works for religion in my mind.  I think what would be more of a consistent approach for Atheist is if they would concede that religion is a part of our evolutionary development and it is not to be criticized.  Our evolutionary needs will find a way out of it, if it is necessary for survival; right?

Freud, Feelings, Scripture and the Super Ego

Posted on by RLAdmin


Feelings are stupid. I said that the other day to a friend and made myself chuckle. I didn’t mean to be so abrupt, and blunt, but I believe the words came from the Holy Spirit. I’ve been caught in the storm of my emotions pretty heavily recently. I have been up and down, tossed around and it’s maddening! We read in the study in youth this morning Ephesians 4:14 where Paul says, “Don’t be like children, tossed to and fro, by every wind of doctrine.” I wrote next to that verse in the margin of my bible, “I am so sick of this!” Being tossed to and fro by the winds of emotions is no fun at all.

What is wonderful is to be held, grounded, full of peace and patience and abiding in the strength of Christ in my life. That’s certainly my desire, but it’s a battle I fight with my inward man daily. I was talking with a friend last night at a wedding and she’s in psychology classes. She’s just learning about Freud and said to me, “You know, I was learning about the ‘id’ and the more I heard the more I thought to myself that the ‘id’ is just like the devil. And then I began to learn about the ‘super ego’ and thought to myself the ‘super ego’ is just the Holy Spirit.” Ha! She’s so right! (Freud fans will have to bear with me). Solomon said there’s nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9) and he came way before Mr. Freud, so even though the world looks at Freud as the Father of Psychology, he’s really just a guy who came up with his own spin on what had been around forever- the truth of God.

There are absolutely three parts to the person. The Word says those are- the body, soul and spirit. Scripturally, the body is often referred to as the ‘flesh’ and is what we both, literally, dwell in (this tent) and also the sin-nature we battle, even as believers. The soul is discussed as the ‘mind, will and emotions’ and is impacted by the body and the spirit. David would speak to his soul to align it with things of the Spirit when it was off (see Psalm 42 and 43). And the spirit of man is the place that has been sealed by the Holy Spirit of God, this is the regenerated part of person who has been born again. The spirit is where God dwells and communes with us, even though we live still in the flesh.

Now, let’s look at those in relation to what Sigmund propagated. Freud said the three parts to our personality (or inner self) were the ‘id’, ‘ego’ and ‘super ego’. The ‘ego’ as Freud explained was our sort of baseline, foundational, neutral self. It wasn’t necessarily bad and it wasn’t necessarily good. Now, that definition differs slightly from God’s definition, but we’ll go with that as, what the Word calls, our ‘soul’.

The soul of man is that more ‘neutral’ part. Now, we are all born in sin and raised in iniquity and like Adam, we all die because of it, so ‘neutral’ is a very loosely applied word here. However, we can see the parallel I think. Our soul is the component of us that is effected by the other two. The soul doesn’t so much effect the spirit or the body, but rather the body and the spirit effect the soul. Similarly the ‘id’ and ‘super ego’ effect the ‘ego,’ not the other way around.

Quickly, I’ll address the other two components, but as my brilliant (and lovely) friend already summed up for us, the ‘id’ is the parallel to Satan (the enemy of our souls) and the ‘super ego’ is the parallel to the Holy Spirit, the One given the task of reconciling us to right relationship with God and aiding us in navigating against the body/’id’.

So what’s the big idea writing about Freud and these psych terms and maybe getting some of you lost in my gibberish about Solomon and the things of the soul… well, precisely that, actually… the things of the soul.

I opened up with a confession (and frustration) at the waywardness of my feelings, lately. They have been driving me mad and I’ve been following them around, letting them lead me. My soul has been tossed ‘to and fro’ by the winds of my ‘id’ (my body/flesh/the enemy) working against me. The Word teaches us to be “renewed in the spirit of our mind” (Eph. 4:23) and yet this flesh I live in wars against the things of the Spirit. The warring between my body and soul (my ‘id’ and ‘ego’) manifests itself in my emotional turmoil.

My flesh/the enemy tells me I am not loved by God, tells me that I am not pretty, tells me that I am not smart. This ‘id’ component of Katy lies and my God-given emotions get wishy-washy and I lean toward self-condemnation and feeling bummed.

*Enter the Holy Spirit/ ‘super ego’.*

As Freud would explain, this is where my ‘super ego’ begins to speak. We know Him as the Holy Spirit, and He says to my tossed-around soul, “Be still and know that I AM.” He whispers to my messy heart, lost in the sway of sorrow and confusion, “I love you, Katy. You are Mine. Rest, dear one. Trust Me and return to Me.”

I admit that my analysis of Freud’s personality theory is surface, at best, but for the purpose of this little article, I enjoyed comparing them to the truth of Scripture. The ‘ego’, according to Freud, is constantly attempting to deal with the impulse desires of the ‘id’ and constantly attempting to appease the scrutiny of the ‘super ego’. The first part of that proposition is true to the Word. Our soul does war against the flesh and the enemy. Like Paul, there are absolutely days when I cry out, “Oh! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I do the things I do not want to do and do not do the things I want to!” (Romans 7). My sins are many and the struggle against the pull to give into them is stronger some days than others. However, the second assertion he makes is where our understanding of truth as presented by God differs from Freud’s. Freud suggests the ‘ego’ is also constantly attempting to appease weighty requirements of the ‘super ego’, but we relate very differently the to Holy Spirit.

You see, unlike the ‘super ego’, the Holy Spirit brings to us grace. Grace! Oh, what glorious grace! He calls me into grace. He calls me into rest. He calls me to trust in the Lord and lean not on my own understanding. He calls me to gaze on the beauty of Christ Jesus who, for love’s sake, gave Himself for me that I might come, freely, to Him and drink deeply of His forgiveness. In a right understanding of the Holy Spirit’s job in my life, I am not bearing down under the weight of the requirements He sets before me. Instead, I am running into Him for freedom from those very weights against me.

Romans 8: 3-4 is an incredible statement illustrating this truth-

“For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Woah! This flesh (the body or ‘ego’) that is tossed to and fro by the winds of impurity and wrongful desire and inaccurate feelings has been redeemed! What this flesh could not do (for the law was established so that I could be brought near to God again, but I just couldn’t stinkin’ ever do it), God did! God did it on my behalf, and yours. He condemned the ‘id’ and my flesh so that the righteous requirement would be fulfilled; now I can walk according to the Spirit and rejoice! My relationship with the ‘super ego’/Holy Spirit is now one of joy, peace, reconciliation, power, freedom and love. He is not the annoying, boss-like, goody-two-shoes, on my shoulder merely taking the fun out of life and harshly directing me right from wrong. Rather, He is the Spirit of the living God dwelling on the inside of me and teaching me to live in accordance with Him!

The war between my soul and the tempestuous emotions of my flesh has been won!

Back to my thoughts on feelings… If we jump down to Romans 8:14 we read something that my soul needs to marinate on more often when the “stupid feelings” and pulls of the world come on strong. It reads, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” The world, my ‘id’, is wrong; I am not ugly, fat, dumb, unwise, messing up, or whatever else those lies would like me to believe. I am His daughter. By being led by the Spirit of God, I am a child of God! Feelings can be stupid. What is true, says the Holy Spirit, is that I am-

adopted
a child
an heir
a saint
a lover of God
called
justified
glorified in Christ
conqueror
loved…by…God…

(see the rest of Romans for that list)

“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). Though my feelings may condemn me, my ‘ego’ (soul) does not live according to the pressures and pulls of the flesh anymore. I now live by the Spirit (my Freudian-termed ‘super ego’). He is my hope. My body is one of death and is, just as the ‘id’, a nemesis at times. My feelings succumb to the foolishness of the enemy. But, by the grace of God I am reminded, instead, of the great love He has for me and what He has spoken over me instead.

“Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God.” (Psalm 43:5)

Be loved.

Katy

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Sent from my iPad

Romance Readers

Posted on by RLAdmin

According to the Romance Writers of America organization, 29 million romance novels are sold annually. 90% of the readership is women. Pornography is defined as, “the depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to cause sexual excitement” (Webster- Miriam Dictionary). The cover of the novel winning the 2011 RITA “Historical Romance” award is clearly pornographic. The cover displays a woman straddling a well-built man. As far as her face, or his, all the reader sees is the side of her lower cheek and neck and the same of him. His hand is on her thigh. The image is clearly “erotic behavior” and the intention is not to simply display a caring relationship of purity. While I understand that the romance novel genre is varied in the level of explicit material, the common language of this genre includes sexual content.

They know that, that’s not surprising information. Or is it? We have had a women’s accountability group with Running Light for nearly 5 months. The women who attend are awesome and are ready to deal with this hush-hush issue of women lusting and falling into sexual sin. I wanted to take a minute to post some info, because I believe there are some misconceptions about what it means that women lust and even what this group is really about.

In our group we have issues ranging from struggling with watching porn, reading romance novels, wanting male attention and affection and living on purpose to get it, lusting after relationships, online chatting, self-gratification and lustful physical relationships. Since the freedom men have to come out about their addiction to pornography or sexual immorality is fairly recent (and in a silly way ‘expected’) us women are facing a twofold challenge. We are both facing our own fears of being vulnerable with this area of our lives, and we are facing the judgment and misunderstanding from the church. But it’s real and we are willing to be bold enough to live in confession, for it truly our joy to be set free!

At a recent Promise Keepers conference over 50% of the men in attendance admitted to having watched porn in the last week (prior to attending the conference). The statistics on women are a bit fewer and far between but they’re out there. In 2008 a study reported that 30% (or nearly 1 in 3) viewers of online porn were women. If you can handle those facts, then let’s take it one step further and consider this statistic about romance novels. 90% of the 29 million romance novels purchased, are female readers. Those numbers are incredible. Women are lusting. Women are absolutely lusting after porn, lusting after guys and gals, involved in elicit sexual relationships and engaged in online sex-chatting. But what about the pocket of women who are ‘just’ reading romance novels. “I don’t have a problem with lust” they might say. Well…I beg to differ.

Lust is for selfish gratification. Why do we read romantic material? I know when I was reading the Twilight series, the only one who was benefitting from the steamy sections was me. Selfish gratification. And Twilight probably isn’t even considered a part of the “romance novel” genre! If I’m reading something for purely selfish motivations and to feed a sexual/sensual/emotional need or desire, that’s lust. If I’m not reading it to find joy in the Godly benefit of another (God included, His benefit is part of that) then it’s not done in love and there’s only one other option… lust.

Here’s a quote for your consideration, “Four all-new stories of hot paranormal desire” from the cover of the 2011 RITA “Romance Novella” award winner. Jesus has freedom for us, ladies! Some of you are absolutely in this group. The average age of this readership body is 30-54. I know that I was in my mid-twenties reading Twilight and the steamy scenes enticed me just the same. These women are readers, they’re intellectuals, church-goers, of all economic backgrounds. This stuff is all too common and it’s just another avenue the enemy is using to keep us in bondage to a sin we don’t even think we succumb to.

Wake up, Bride! Your heart is sealed by the Holy Spirit and He is a vehement flame of love! His love is as strong as death and His jealousy is as cruel as the grave (Song 8:6). Do not be deceived any longer! Come out from the yoke of bondage to lust and be free. If you have said ‘yes’ to Jesus then you have Love, Himself, saying to you, “You are my beloved and My desire is toward you” (Song 7:10). Don’t settle for the distortion of pornography, even if it comes in the unassuming package of a romance novel.

(Statistics courtesy of Romance Writers of America viahttp://publishing.about.com/od/BookAuthorBasics/a/Romance-Novels-About-The-Romance-Fiction-Genre.htm)

Miley Cyrus – I feel your pain!

Posted on by RLAdmin

My wife told me once that Miley’s favorite Bible verse was Ephesians 5:8; “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Walk as children of light.”

What a great passage.  My good friend who has sense gone on to his reward, Jim Cherry (base-player for the band Strungout) once told me the same thing.  The passage is awesome!  To those who’s eyes have been opened to who Jesus was (and still is), and to those who have been un-plugged from the Matrix, we now see things as never before.  Jesus is the light that has shown in our hearts and minds, moving us away from the blindness that once defined us.
Miley at one time claimed Christ as her savior, and from the performance last night at the MTV awards it would seem pretty clearly that she has moved away from, “What would Jesus do?”  But I sympathize with her.  I do.  I have had some pretty narley spiritual face plants as a Christian.  Now maybe not in front of hundreds of thousands of people over the world, but I can remember my own blunders in sin before friends.  What my heart saddens over in her situation is that her plight is the path most taken, and the one that leads to nowhere.  She certainly revealed what is in her heart at the moment.  
Now, the effects of the corrupt nature are obvious: illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity, Gal 5:19
I found that I too have the same fleshly appetites as she does.  I fight mine, by the grace of God by renewing my mind in the Word daily.  Meditating on the Word day and night.  Praying my affections be towards Jesus and find His pleasure be utmost satisfying as when I hang with a best friend.  
This is why I feel for her; she’s struggling with fighting her’s, and when that battle against sin is not being waged we backslide into a life of sin against God and people.  That’s a bummer and no fun for the Christian to be in; of course I’m assuming she has a relationship with Jesus.
Others at the event obviously were embarrassed for her.  We all have been there haven’t we?  A performer gets on stage and when they start out we think, “Oh, the’ll recover, that’s just a mistake,” but they never do.  Some of us laugh, some of us get embarrassed and turn away.  But from the look at some of the faces the later was more dominant.
I think we kind of realize that it is weird when a kid who grows up with seemingly everything this world has to offer, then by her actions, seems to miss the value and blessing of it.  What percent of kids in the world is she in that grows up like she has?   Sure she like everyone has probably had difficulty with her family at times, but was she raised oblivious to what a struggle life can be for most people?  Her performance reminded me of the person who wants to be in a gang and there from Bel-Air, Los Angeles!  It’s just embarrassing when you see that kind of thing.  And it’s sad, because the kid from Bel-Air just does not understand what so many gang kids are raised around.  All the rich kid sees is the video, the girls shaking there rumps and thinks, “hey that looks awesome!”  So he get’s himself some khakis and sports a flannel.  His language changes along with his strut.  But one thing is missing…It’s not his world…his life.  He does not see things correctly.
I think Miley is in this kind of rut as most of us have been (or still am), if we are honest with our lives.  She does not understand the world of a prostitute, stripper, adult actress, yet she acted like one.  I can only imagine what these women in the professions I named would think of her act?  Miley get’s to go home to a plush house, many of the others do not.  Many in the adult entertainment world across the world would rather be doing something different with there lives than being someone else’s play thing.  There are girls all over the world that are sex trafficked, and then many others that start prostituting at 13yrs old!  When you realize this, it becomes hard to see last nights performance as ‘sexy’ in any way.  It becomes porn, a less than, a distortion of something that is intended to be awesome and so beautiful.  And because of that distortion many women in the world have suffered and still do.  Women’s freedom’s have come in the last 70 years (approx) in this country, and in some of the world, women are stilled somewhat considered property.  As property women are exposed to such degradation.  Man it’s so sad!  Lust simply sucks and it’s appetite has no end.
I think if Miley had a upbringing that was different and did not claim a relationship with Jesus, I would think a bit different about the performance.  But she has tasted and seen that the Lord is good!  She has partaken of his ‘fatness.’  That means the good stuff!!!  Some of us that grow up not knowing Jesus at all, simply know this world and how it works.  We do things to survive feeding our bodily appetites, and we think nothing of it.  When we do stupid things in ignorance  our excuse is that we don’t know what were doing, were drunk, on drugs or just wanting to have sex!  Bodily pleasure is everything.  
But I thought Miley was un-plugged from this Matrix?  Her favorite passage of scripture says it all.  “You once were (past tense) darkness, but now you are children of light (we’re un-plugged and seeing clearly now.)  But the last part is the kicker for all of us Christians, “Walk as children of light.”  
Christians stumble.  We stumble allot!  The men and women of faith in the Bible are a mess!  I thank God for His mercy and grace that is clearly most seen in Jesus dying on a Roman cross on the ancient freeway for my sins.
Tonight, my 12yr old daughter and I prayed for Miley.  We prayed simply that our Lord will touch her heart and bring her back to Him, for her to see Jesus as her treasure.  For so she will learn; nothing in this world will suffice, it is all sinking sand.
Zephaniah 3:17


The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over you with singing.”