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O2 Experience- West Coast 2013!

Posted on by RLAdmin

By Beau Ouellette

“How beautiful on the mountains are
the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good
tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God
reigns!'”  (Isaiah 52:7)

I have been on the road for the
past 10 days on the O2 Experience West Coast tour 2013!  The O2 Experience
is an evangelical outreach to cities with the desire to share Christ so that
those attending become Christians.  It was wonderful to see salvation come
to lives as the gospel was preached!  Pastor Levi Lusko did a wonderful
job, in Christ, sharing the Word of Life as many people made decisions that
lead them into heaven!  Pretty cool.
We at Running Light have been
blessed to have a booth at the O2 Experience for the past 4 years.  We
have traveled to Colorado, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California and Idaho
with the O2 team!
What we experienced this year in
Orange County, California was absolutely wonderful!  On this leg of the
tour our RLM team joined forces in the O.C.!   Katy, Caleb, Peter,
Anissa, Pastor Scott and Sean were all there with me sharing the Better
Pleasure that is in Christ. We shared information for those who wanted to know
more.  It was so awesome to witness the team sharing with people. 
One of the greatest joys as a Pastor is to see those you love and feed into
with the Word mimicking you!  In Philippians 4:1, the Rabbi Paul tells the
beloved brethren, “You are my joy and crown!”  To Paul there was
no greater enjoyment than to see those he fed into, in turn, feeding others. 
This is what Church growth is all about. 2 Timothy 2:2 says it this way,
“And the things you have heard from me commit to faithful witnesses who
will be able to teach others also.”  The Church grows as we multiply
ourselves.  Find people who have a heart for Christ and His Word, feed
into them and continue to do so.  Then give them opportunity to
share!  Back in the O.C., I stood there listening to what the RLM team shared
with others and all I could think about is that I have worked myself out a job
(haha)!  What a blessing!  The words that were shared by the team, with
those who approached the booth, brought people to contemplate the Word of God
(and what He has to say) in the area of sex.  So many were grateful to
understand the purpose and plan of sexuality and how thinking about the topic
brings us to a deeper study of God, Himself! 
But the best was yet to come! 
Midway through the O2 Experience a young man, who was about 16 years old, came
to our table. He was working at a Krispy Kreme doughnut table at the
event.  I’m not sure why he came over, but he ended up in a battle of
words with Peter, Sean and Caleb.  One of these three would speak and
then the boy would respond and talk. It was like a wrestling match, as one of
the RLM team would be tagged into the conversation next!  Pastor Scott and
I were off to the side praying in our hearts, praising God, and
listening.  This went on for nearly an hour, I think.  The gospel was
presented- the power of Christ to forgive, the need for us to be forgiven, and
the Spirit’s gift to move us toward betterment.  And at the end of the
conversation an invitation was given and the boy received Christ into his
life!  New life was given to that boy that night.  As the night finished up, my
heart was so excited to see what God has done in this ministry from Tucson,
Arizona and in the lives of those who are a part of it.
At the end of the O.C. event, the
RLM team prayed with each other. We were so close together in a circle that
night I think our heads were touching.  True koinonia.  It was fellowship like no other.  Our hearts
were on Christ.  We are in love with Him.  There was no thinking of
whether it was right or not to be ‘praying with women’ and the vain things that
happen when we see things out of the Agape context.  This was absolutely
beautiful.  I hope to experience this again as I know it is not something
that happens often.
What has brought on such
fellowship?  Simply put… being real.   This RLM team is not a
perfect team.  We have flaws.  Each and every one of us has flaws. 
We share them with one another and pray for each other. 

“Confess your sins to one
another that you might be healed.” (James 5:16)  

We are weak and need to have Christ
manifest His truth in and through us.  Our hope is that others will see that we
are dependent on the Savior, for there is nothing else that meets our
needs.  The work of the Spirit is amazing and hard to describe.  I
can relate to Jesus, in John 3, when He talks about the Spirit being like the
wind, blowing where it wishes.  God is merciful and gracious and rich in
mercy.  We are well aware of our own weakness and His great strength.
I do not know the future of RLM,
what the ministry holds or the direction it will go. Sure, it began with a
vision to help those in sexual bondage to seek the Better Pleasure that Jesus
is, but what direction is it going to go in?  God knows and I’m good with
that.  This same move of the Spirit has flowed into our student ministry
at Calvary too.  Students are getting saved, coming to know Christ in a
deeper way, and seeking Christ daily as the nourishment they truly need! 
I’ve always heard this
statement- “Teach the Word and love the people.”  How true that is
and now I see even another part to this admonition.  Show the
people!  As the RLM team and I have let people know our own failures (confession)
and, in turn, how we are pressing into Christ, others see the example and are
following suit!  Giving people a look at a life lived in the Word and not
just a look at the Word is what, I think, we leaders are learning.  This
means opening up our own lives to those that we desire to see changed.  It
also means that there needs to be vulnerability in us before men.  We
might be weak and fragile, yet how great it is that the power to change lives
is done by God and not by us.
We are learning to know no other
than Christ and Him crucified.  For a moment I think I get it… and then
it’s like my brain is in a pinball machine that got hit hard and gets thrown
into ‘TILT’ mode again. All we can do is press forward to the goal of
seeing Christ glorified in us.
Happy (blessed) are we,
Pastor Beau

Health Care…Really?

Posted on by RLAdmin

By Sean Richards
I
am a Paranoid Schizophrenic and have Bipolar Type 2. I also developed Epilepsy
due to an overdose, which I can tell you about in a bit. I’ve had these
disorders as long as I can remember and only after a huge episode in middle
school, was I recognized as being “unstable.” I saw many therapists
and they recommended a medicinal approach to treat my severe stress and
anxiety. From when I was first put on medication the doctor pretty much knew I
was what I am known as today (schizophrenic and bipolar). At one point, the medication doses
got as high as 600mg of Resperdol and 500mg of Serequil to treat
my hallucinations.
Prior
to using the drugs, I would see people and animals come and go whenever I’d
blink- not too threatening. But while on the medication, I would see bizarre
creatures in broad daylight, including monsters from scary stories I’d read. I
read those stories in an attempt to take the nerves off and quiet the ever-increasing
voice, which by the time I began taking medicine had influenced me into compulsive self-injury. I did a number
on myself, including two suicide attempts, in an effort to shut the voice up. My
right leg took the worst of it- 3 separate cuts, which went 1.5 inches into my leg
muscle. I had a customized knife I used, which became
more of a comfort to me than my bible. I limited myself to only losing 10 ml of
blood a day, which was “safe”, meaning I wouldn’t suffer long-term
effects.
Still
people could see it was draining me, and the pills only made things worse. After
telling someone about this, I got my knife taken away so I turned to burning. I
now have permanent scars on my left wrist, arm, shoulder, and both legs from
pouring flammable liquid on them and igniting it, attempting to bore out the
voice. Nothing worked, and the solution from the doctor was just more medicine.
Before the fire and the deepest cuts my doctor admitted me to Aurora Mental
Institution in Tempe. This lead the doctors to no conclusions.
When
I came back my doctor gave me a dosage of Resperdol that was deliberately
toxic- 900mg. I went into a Grand Mal seizure but because my brain had been desensitized due to the level of mental
stress my mind was used to, I was conscious for the whole
thing. I survived but now have involuntary twitches that come and go. The
solution to this? MORE MEDS! I was put on probably 6 different medications that
I don’t remember the names of. Zoloft and Saphris being some notable ones. But
the “biggest” one was the one that made me big- Zyprexa. I gained 60
pounds in 2 weeks and now have stretch marks that make pregnancy marks look
like a joke.
Finally,
I forced my mind to realize these pills weren’t helping with the voice or the
depression and only goaded on the cutting and burning worse and worse. I
got out while I was ‘ahead’. I hadn’t the strength to get to church in months
and finally felt called to listen to bible studies online. Someone recommended
that I listen to Levi Lusko, and after going through his studies in Revelation
and Song of Solomon, I felt my spirit had finally gotten enough nourishment to
actually make a choice. I quit taking my medication cold turkey. The hallucinations
were horrific and I was really itchy, but it only lasted one awful night. After
that, I began my walk with Christ in a way I had never walked before.
My
episodes come as a daily hindrance, like anyone would struggle. However, I have
been given a strength and dependence on what God because of what He has done
for me. As a result of my leap of faith in trusting that I didn’t need to be
brain-dead to function, God has given me a new purpose. I haven’t cut now in 8
months and am pursuing a college degree in psychology. My further goal is to
get into biblical counseling. God is now using me in ways I didn’t have the
strength to think of 9 months ago. Funny thing is, I haven’t regretted it no
matter how many times the voice taunts me and no matter how weird the things I
see are as a result of that “medicine.” I finally got tired of being
tired.
I
can deal with the voice and the stress and the pain if it means I can also know
the comforting voice of the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t have had that with the
pills and I missed it dearly. I can function and smile even with a bully in the
back of my head because Jesus’ voice is clearer now than ever. And He is the
good Shepherd. We as sheep hear His voice and are able to run from the voices
of strangers. In my experience, popping a pill dulls out any voice and just
leaves us vulnerable to the wolves regardless.

“Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls
around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” 1 Peter 5:8

“I
am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own…My sheep hear
My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:14, 27

Now that
you know where I’m coming from, let me share more about my opinion of the use of
pharmaceutical drugs. The study of
medicine as the cure all for psychological distress is a flawed one at best.
Consider this- when you ask any psychologist or psychiatrist, with a full
medical education, how they know the medicine they prescribe on a whim is
actually helping their patients- to personally quote my own- they said they
“don’t”. They’re just throwing medicine at us to see if it sticks. And
99% of the time it doesn’t help; and almost just as often it actually makes new
problems to add on to or replace the old ones. The medicinal approach to
psychology today is flawed and does more damage than healing.
             My
opinion comes from several cases that I am personally aware of. I am referring
to two women and then myself as examples. Both of these women I know personally
to this day and you’ve just heard my own story.
One of these women fully
embraced the medical approach and ended up frying her brain beyond all reason. When
she was brought to a “better place” according to her psychologist, it only
dulled all her senses and she was unable to receive any support or compassion
from anyone. On top of this, she was initially being treated for Manic Depression but ended up developing a severe case of Epilepsy solely due to the
medicinal dosage. Instead of taking her off of the medicine to stop any
permanent damage, she was just prescribed another even riskier medicine to
treat her Epilepsy. That medication caused her to suffer a serious drop in
important chemicals to her brain and she reverted back to her Manic Depressive
episodes at an ever higher risk to herself and those around her. As you can see
the ‘help’ the doctor gave only made her worse.
The second example, being myself, is almost exactly similar, but even more serious in
the process. I came in hoping for relief from the stress the disorder I was
suffering with caused me. Over a period of several years of treatment, there
are three highlights I’ll go into. First was the Resperdol/Serequil stage,
which many military members may ‘fondly’ recognize. The result of taking those
was both long and short term. There was an increase in the severity of the
symptoms and a total dulling of all emotional reception- nothing short of
zombification. The second was Zyprexa, in which I gained 40 pounds in one week,
and similarly made my symptoms worse. And lastly, the situation that lead my
family to leave the doctor’s practice, was a prescription (we found out later) that was a deliberate attempt on my life. The result of this was a spike in my brain
chemistry leaving scars that now give me Sensory Epilepsy and involuntary
twitches all over my body. In short, I have personal reason to vote in disfavor of popping pills
to get a better grasp of reality.
The third example is
a friend of mine who will remain an anonymous female. She is a close friend and
is someone who caught on to common sense unlike I did. Due to the classic teen
rebellion and depressive phases of any woman’s life through certain stages, she
became depressed and those in authority over her sent her to a hospital to
reestablish a normalcy in her thoughts and behaviors. She went through the
motions to get out of the hospital but when they looked over the reasons she was
sent there they tried to make her take medicine. She strongly refused and after
her discharge actually made progress on her own, by improving the friends she
chose to hang out with- choosing friends who wouldn’t lead her down dangerous
paths. 
While at the hospital, the doctors saw her “symptoms” and said she had Borderline
Personality and Defiant Disorders. This diagnosis made a
psychology major at my church laugh almost as much as it did me. She was just a
teen going through teen stuff and the medicinal approach wanted to pump her
full of life-altering pills. Those in the pharmaceutical field seem to look at
the mind and brain like clock work, when they haven’t the slightest idea of how
complex the design of our mind is and how severe the consequences of tampering
with it may be.
God is the author
of life and has uniquely designed each person- mind, body and soul. He is the
Shepherd and Overseer of our souls and my suggestion is that the next time you
or someone you love considers taking drugs to help with the imbalances in life,
no matter how severe, consider Christ instead.

Vows… Are They Just a Game?

Posted on by RLAdmin

By a RLM contributing writer

Right after church Sunday I went to a bridal shower. What a delightful afternoon and time with the bride-to-be, her friends and my family. The festivities were typical of a bridal shower: food, cake, presents and games. All was well with my soul until the final game was presented to us. It was at the moment the game was introduced that I felt completely gridlocked. I struggled with what to do and how to react.

The jam in my soul was due to the sermon I heard only a few hours prior. The message Pastor Scott delivered in Numbers 30 was still sitting in my heart, mind and soul. It had really impacted me. During his message, Pastor Scott spoke of the words that come out of our mouth and how important they are to God as well as the vows we have made and that those vows should be kept. For a while now, it has been my heart’s desire to glorify God in my marriage. It’s one of the top priorities in my life and I take it very seriously. By the way, I’m constantly working at it. Tim and I sat there listening to Pastor Scott, and we were in unity. We squeezed each other’s hand in agreement several times and chuckled together. We even made quick little comments to each other during the message. After service was over, I left church with a renewed purpose and desire to glorify God in my marriage by honoring my vows and keeping a check on my words.

The game that brought me to the gridlock was this- we were given a piece of paper and asked to write our name on the top, then instructed to write down the name of a celebrity we would want as our husband. Once the papers were turned in, the celebrity names would be read aloud and we’d have to guess which woman in the room desired to be married to that celebrity.

Seems innocent enough? Well to the world perhaps but not to me, especially after sitting through Scott’s teaching in Numbers 30.

In the moment of gridlock at the bridal shower, I knew that God had used the Numbers 30 message to prepare me for the game at hand. Immediately I began to consider the verses Pastor Scott took us through and felt the Lord preparing me and setting me up to have the boldness to live out the principles in Numbers. One such verse was Ecclesiastes 5:2, 6, which says, “Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. Therefore let your words be few. Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error.”

Upon receiving the instructions, I was instantly flooded with so many thoughts. Here is a young woman who is soon to be married and we are encouraging her to think of another man she’d rather be married to! How on earth does that honor her soon-to-be husband? How does that encourage her to keep the vows she will soon be making? Thoughts continued like- We have a room full of married women who are likewise being encouraged to fantasize about another man being their husband.

Sitting there, I felt the game was dangerous and was dishonoring to our husbands. We were being encouraged to lust after other men. And, subliminally, we were being led to believe that we should not be content with the husbands we have, but rather to think there is a better one out there – especially if he’s a celebrity.

I was barraged with more thoughts- How can I play this game? What can I do to not play? Should I play along and come up with a name? Finally, however, I thought- Well okay, I’ll just go along with it. But I just couldn’t. My mind wouldn’t go there. In all honesty, there is NO celebrity I’d like to be married to. That’s just insane. Celebrities are screwed up! Plus, I LOVE my husband. I also like him and think he is very sexy and handsome. I have no desire for any other man – even in a game-like setting. But what kept eating at me more and more was that I didn’t want my words to dishonor my husband, which would dishonor God. I wanted to live out my vow to God and to my husband even in this seemingly innocuous game.

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit took over. There is no other explanation. First of all, only the Holy Spirit could have caused this reaction because my people-pleasing nature would not have initiated this. Secondly, He helped me come up with what to say. Instead of writing down a celebrity name, I was prompted to write down the name “JESUS”. (He’s pretty famous!) I knew instantly that writing this name down would be controversial in this group. Again, a gridlock set in along with conflicting thoughts. What will these women think of me? Am I acting too spiritual and self-righteous? I hesitated to write down His name and I tried, again, to come up with a celebrity name that would be ‘acceptable’ but my spirit simply would not let me write down another name. So under the name “JESUS” I wrote, “I couldn’t think of anyone else I’d rather be married to.”

There it was. I was committed to keep my vow to God and to my husband and was determined to keep my words glorifying to God. There was no turning back. All the slips of paper had been turned in and the game was being played.

One by one the names of the celebrities were called out along with the inevitable responses:

“Channing Frye – He is so HOT. Can you believe his body! What I wouldn’t give to be married to him.”

“Van Diesel – He is so TIGHT. I just love his…”

You get the picture. The comments were lustful and flowing like a fountain without hesitation. My heart was saddened. I was also anxious about my ‘desired famous Husband’s’ name being read among this list and among these comments.

Several names were called out, the responses were lustful and dishonoring to the husbands of these women and then the name JESUS was called. The room immediately burst into laughter. It was not just one woman who giggled a bit, but the entire room laughed… hard.

I kept my head down. I wasn’t ashamed of my answer. Rather, my head was down because my spirit was grieved for these women. Here was a room full of ladies who do not know Jesus as their Husband and have never been told that He desires them as His bride.

The reader of the names ended the laughter by saying, “Seriously?” I lifted my head and replied, “Seriously.”

Please hear me- this was not a self-righteousness act, this truly is my heart.

I wanted to tell the ladies about Jesus and what an incredible Husband He is and how I am His bride. I wanted to tell them that I do not want to dishonor my husband by lustfully talking about other men. I wanted to tell them that I am content with my husband. I wanted to tell them that I love him and like him too. I wanted to tell them that I take my relationship and my vows with God and my husband very seriously. I wanted to tell them that even in a game, words matter.

But I knew that I could not. I knew the women would not receive my words of Truth because they have not received His Truth in their hearts. Pastor Scott shared with us Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law.” There has been no revelation for these women. They do not fear the Lord or want to keep His laws. I knew anything I said would be foolishness to them (1 Corinthians 1:8). So instead I let my words be few.

“Seriously,” was all I could say.

After an awkward silence, the game resumed and the next name was called and the lustful nature of the game, along with the dishonoring of their husbands, continued. It was hard to sit through the game. I tried not to look pious, but couldn’t deny the sorrow within me. Deep inside I was grieved and my heart was uncomfortable.

Writing this the next day, I can say that I’m glad this happened. I’m glad I was presented with an opportunity to live out a principle of Scripture. I want to honor my vows to the Lord and to my husband and I want my words to be honoring as well. I was a foreigner at the bridal shower. I didn’t fit in to their worldly point of view of ‘fun’. For a moment, I cared about what they thought of me but eventually I let that go because I truly fear the Lord and care more about what God thinks about me.

“When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.” (Psalm 128:2, 4)

Complete in Him

Posted on by RLAdmin

By Peter Martin
Genesis 2:18- “And the
LORD God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone.” As a single man, this
verse used to give me a lot of problems. I never understood- if God said that
it wasn’t good for man to be alone, why am I still alone? Did He forget about
me? These questions used to really plague my thoughts, but over the last couple
of months, God has really shown me some amazing truths about being single that
I would like to share.
The first thing that
was so important for me to understand is that dissatisfaction will always lead
to lust. For many years of my life, I struggled in the bondage of pornography
and it wasn’t until recently that I really looked back and thought about why I
was attracted to the lie of porn in the first place. For me, I was drawn in by
the desire for intimacy. Being single can be a very lonely thing. I would see
my friends that were married and had girlfriends and I would always think, “Why
not me?” I would covet after what they had, and because of my depression, I
anxiously bought into the lie of pornography and lust. I would watch all of
these images and I would let lust completely take over my heart, coveting after
the intimacy and love that I thought I was seeing. Looking back on it, I am
reminded of the man in Isaiah 44 who builds his own idol and yet he is unable
to see that the idol has no power. Isaiah 44:20 says, “He feeds on ashes; a
deceived heart has turned him aside; and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say,
‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?” This passage perfectly described me. No
matter how many times porn failed to satisfy the longing in my heart, I kept
going back to it time and time again expecting something different, I was the
true definition of insanity.
I was also unable to
see that I was looking at a lie, a distortion of the better pleasure that we
can have in Jesus. We were created by God to experience His unconditional love
and acceptance. Romans 5:8 reads, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us,
in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Deep down, we want
someone to love us in this sacrificial way and to accept us for who we are,
faults and all. The problem is, that Jesus Christ is the only One who can do
that, in Him alone can we can find the true love that we long for so
vehemently. All that this world has to offer us is lust. When I looked at porn,
I wanted so badly to believe that I was seeing love; I wanted to believe that
lust could bring me happiness, but it couldn’t. I also wanted to believe that
somehow another person could fill this void in my life. I earnestly desired
intimacy with another person.
I also fell into
another deception- that someone else could satisfy the longing in my heart. Because
I believed that some other person could satisfy me completely, I assumed that
after I got married my lust would go away. Over the last couple months, God has
blessed me with being a mentor for Setting Captives Free. However, a depressing
truth about being a mentor is that the majority of my students are men in their
late forties and early fifties that have allowed lust to permeate their marital
bed. As a result, they are usually on their second or third marriage, and their
current marriage is on the rocks. This blew away my assumptions about this sin.
The lust for porn clearly doesn’t just go away once you’re married.
The problem is that we
are looking to a person to be able to love us with the same depth that Christ
loves us, but no woman or man can ever live up to this standard. If we enter
into marriage with an idea that this other person will somehow complete us, we
will be sorely disappointed. We expect our spouse to satisfy us, but they
cannot and similarly we’re not going to be able to satisfy them. This ends up
in neither party ever getting what they want. And this inevitably leads to both
parties seeking to gratify their own flesh in the empty lusts of this world.
If everyone going into
marriage is just looking for their own self-gratification, is it any wonder
that the majority of marriages are ending in divorce?
God wants to take us
away from the emptiness of lust, He wants to satisfy us in the ways that only
He can. Psalm 23:11 says, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” All
those years that I was chasing after intimacy, I failed to realize that I was
missing out on the greater spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ. Jesus loves us
in spite of all of our faults and flaws. He loves us fully and completely. He
can’t wait to spend the rest of eternity with us and He wants us to be fully
satisfied in Him. Colossians 2:10 says, “And you are complete in Him, who is
the head of all principality and power.” It is only when we understand this
simple fact- we are complete in Christ alone- that we can truly love someone
with that sacrificial love that Jesus loves us with. Our identity must be
founded in Jesus, first, and then we can rightly love another. It is only then
that we can find joy in dying to ourselves and in sacrificing for the betterment
of another, just as Jesus did for His bride, us.
We might not
understand what this means or where to begin. Looking at David as an example we
can learn some things. Psalm 87:7 says, “All my fountains are in You.” David is
expressing how all of his joy and satisfaction are in God alone. This is so
different from what this world will tell us. The world tells me to constantly
chase money, jobs, relationships, and all the other broken cisterns of this
world in order to find my satisfaction. But Jesus tells me that in His perfect
love for me I am complete and can be fully satisfied. There really is true and
complete satisfaction for our longings in Jesus Christ.
These past couple of weeks
He has been asking me some pretty convicting questions, like: “Am I really your
treasure, or do you need a good job and a lot of money to feel good about
yourself?” “Is my love and acceptance of you enough, or do you need other
people to satisfy you?” “Is my salvation enough for you, or do you feel that
you need to add good works to what I have done?” Jesus wants us to realize that
He is more than enough for us. In Him is not only the intimacy and acceptance
that we long for, but there is a love in Him that is beyond words. There is joy
that carries us through the pain; there is comfort in darkness, strength in our
weakness, and a healing for even the most broken and wounded parts of our
lives. Jeremiah 31:3 reads, “The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:
‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness
I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt”
(emphasis mine). He has loved us with an everlasting love and He will rebuild.
Getting back to the
beginning of this article- how does all of this fit with the issue of “It’s not
good for man to be alone”? Regarding this very question, God reminds me often
of the story of Jeremiah. In Jeremiah 16 God specifically tells Jeremiah to
never get married. Before Jeremiah could ask why God tells him that if he were
to marry he would have to watch as his family starved to death. God prevented
Jeremiah from marrying in order to spare him pain. God wants us to know that He
cares deeply for us, that He knows what is best for His children, and that His
timing is perfect. If God answered my prayers, bringing me a spouse before He
showed me all of this, I would have ruined the relationship by pursuing it
through the paradigm of lust. Like Jeremiah, God did not give me what I wanted
at the time in order to spare me pain. God had better things in mind for me and
He protected me from my own lustful desires.
God wants to bless
every season of our lives. He doesn’t want us to be discontent with where He
has us, or for us to be yearning for something different. He wants us to be
content. We can be content with wherever we are in life if we are truly seeking
that satisfaction in Christ. If He is filling my desires then I am not lusting
after someone or something else. I’m seeing how God is using my singleness for
His glory! For example, because I do not support a family I am able to serve
Him in a capacity that I would be completely unable to otherwise. He is causing
such amazing fruit to appear in my life as a result of where He has me. And God
wants you to know that wherever you are He has amazing things that He would
love to do in this season of your life. If you have sought after lust in your
life, whether married or single, God longs to restore you back to Him. He will
rebuild. He wants to bring you the satisfaction and the joy that can only come
from His love and His acceptance of you. He wants to teach you how to find your
full satisfaction in Christ.
“You will show me the
path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are
pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).
  

A United Front!

Posted on by RLAdmin

“Two are better than one” Ecclesiastes 4:9
It’s so cool when you have a partner in crime!  Well not crime, but joy!
In the ministry of helping those husband and wife teams that have been impacted by sexual immorality (and which one has not had some form or another) I find there is a incredible God glorifying action that takes place when there is this “United Front” in fighting the lust of the flesh and the world.
How ecstatic I am when I see a guy finally get to the place in Christ, where He is moved by the Holy Spirit to confess, not for his own glory (for he is treading on literally shaky ground) but  for God’s glory.  The chains of  burdens of un-confessed actions of the past start falling off and a lightness begins to take over.  Running Light!  That’s how we get our ministry name by the way!
But on the horizon, though those chains are being lifted in the guy’s life, there are other chains that are rapped around our spouse   Chains of un-forgiveness  bitterness, anger, resentment, that if not dealt with Biblically will not glorify God and therefore no joy will become her.  Some women leave there husbands at this point.  They cannot get over the pain and hurt…The Betrayal!!!
Sharing our flaws with one another needs to start being cultivated in our marriages.  ”Confess our sins to one another, praying for one another that you may be healed.”   If this is not being done day after day, then when confession does take place, it will be as a nuclear bomb just went off in your stomach!  We’ve all had that experience when married right?  But daily talking about what we struggle with and walking together in helping one another to fight it through accountability  amputation, drinking of the Living Word is our strength.  Two are better than one!
Every Christian Marriage is between a sinful guy and an equally sinful woman.  There is no person you will meet on the planet that will not have to confess something to you as to his/her failures.  And some of our failures are big.
When I see a man bringing things into the light with a humble, 2nd Corinthians 7 type of heart,  (This heart is the one that is on the right path, thinking about God and wanting to glorify Him instead of himself, You can see the concern he has in what he has done)  I rejoice!  This is a move of God!
Though the wife might be in absolute turmoil (and it could be the other way around), there needs to be a understanding that this confession is a work of God in the person.  And wouldn’t that just be the thing that would get you through!  Knowing God is at work in your spouse is the best thought ever.  How sad it truly is when a man leaves his family for another women.  But for those whose husbands confess there heart of lust and share the struggles they have then you have a ‘real’ marriage.  A Christian marriage  that is full of active Christian principles that are daily being worked out.
The United front course at Settingcaptivesfree.com is a Bible based course that is to support your husband, by you the wife united with him in the battle against desires that go astray.
The free online course let’s you see what your spouse is going through and how to help make your home a home that is battle tested against the schemes of the ‘evil one’ who desires to devour.
All I can say is what a incredible resource and hope you take advantage of this free course.  As with every S.C.F. course, you will have a online mentor and have the ability upon signing up to include other mentor’s to your ‘receiving work’ list.
It takes two to make a marriage work.
One might be getting out of sexual immorality, but without the other side wanting to go through there own pain to grow then there will be difficult times ahead.
My next blog will be on some area’s for women that are very difficult to deal with when there husbands are coming into a new way of thinking about sex.  And I’m not talking about forgiveness or anger.  Stay tuned, it is sure to be a interesting read.
Pastor Beau J Ouellette
Author : Porn & A Pastor

A comment on Lust vs. Love from a friend.

Posted on by RLAdmin

By : Jeannie Miller Weyrauch

LUST is PRIDE pursuing or demanding what the flesh wants without regard for others or the consideration of the ramifications of the pursuit or demand

It dawned on me that all lust (not just porn) is incredibly self-seeking … self-seeking is pride. When we go after pleasures that only satisfy ourselves, which don’t take into account others or the ramifications that pursuit of pleasure will have on others, that lust is pride because it is self-centered and not others focused. So contrary to God’s word: Love suffers long and is kind; love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude (love does not parade itself, is not puffed up), DOES NOT SEEK ITS OWN (it does not DEMAND its own way), is not provoked, keeps no record of being wronged; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

Dark But Lovely

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Submitted by Katy Collins 

“I am dark, but lovely…do not look upon me, because I am dark…my own vineyard I have not kept.” (Song of Solomon 1:5,6)

I sin. I am dark. Like the Shulamite woman in this passage, I can say with confidence who I know I am. She was explaining to her beloved that her brothers had made her work outside in the field all day and the sun had tanned her skin, this was an unfavorable characteristic in that time and she was warning him about what he was getting- something less than desirable.  She knew she was dark.

As do I. I’m not being unnecessarily hard on myself. No, dear friends, I’m being very real. I serve a perfect, holy God. In Leviticus we see just how holy God is in how the people of Israel had to relate to Him in order to be in His presence. God cannot look on sin and do nothing about it, for He alone is perfect in holiness. In the light of eyes like those, I see my failure, you bet. I see my sin.

I’m starting a women’s group this Thursday to have a place where women can go to seek freedom from pornography addiction and sexual impurity. Why would I start a group like that? Because I struggle with lust. Lust is not holy. I see my sin. Like the girl in this passage I too can say, “my own vineyard I have not kept” meaning I willingly choose to sin. It’s not forced on me. If “my vineyard” is my love relationship with Jesus, then I have chosen to not keep it at times. I have chosen to go to an emptiness promising to fill me and have come back more empty than before.

I am dark.

Perhaps you can see your sin too. Perhaps you are really aware of your shortcomings. And maybe, you like me, have a hard time not staying in despair and guilt over your sin. You see, the enemy is the same guy he’s always been and his tricks aren’t new. But he’s really good at wielding them. He lies to us and says that the sin will satisfy us. When we wake up to the fact that we have a gaping hole inside us and this sin (whatever it may be) is going right through that hole, not at all satisfying us, then he uses shame.

You’re so dirty. He says. No one is as awful as you. No one has seen what you’ve seen or done what you’ve done. And you call yourself a Christian. Yeah, right! God doesn’t love you. You are worthless and disgusting. These are the whispers we hear. Sometimes they even become shouts that drown out the Spirit in us beckoning us to step into freedom. We can see how dark we are. May I ask you, how does God see us?

“I am dark, but lovely…”

How can she say that she is lovely? Especially in the context of what I’m concluding here? How can Katy say that she is lovely, knowing the depths of the sin in her heart? The Shulamite knew she was dark. She looked at her own skin and saw the effects of the choices that had been made for her and that she had made. But then she utters the words, “but lovely.” How? This Shulamite farm girl knew that someone wanted her. This someone was king Solomon. A simple, farm girl was desired by the king. She had caught his eye and she knew of his love for her, so she could say, “I am lovely.”

In our sin, we are not made lovely because of anything we do. We can attempt to wash ourselves, but that is not what makes us lovely (sometimes in my darker moments of sexual impurity I would want to stand in the shower for hours to attempt to wash away my sin). There will be a day when we must clean ourselves and stand against the choices we’ve made, but first there’s a realization we must know. She was lovely because she was loved. We are lovely because we are loved by Love, Himself. The King desires us.

“Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father’s house; so the King will greatly desire your beauty…” (Psalm 45:10-11a)

This psalm is urging us, as dark people, to forget what is behind us, even to forget what may or may not lay ahead and to come to the King. Then what does it say? That “the King will greatly desire your beauty.” You, reader, are dark. Yes. We all are. And if you’re like me, and the other contributors to this blog, you are very aware of the depth of your darkness. But… you are lovely. The King loves you and desires your beauty.

From the very beginning, God chose to love us with all that He is. As He formed Adam and Eve, God chose to pour out His love forever into their beings. We qualify for that too. Sadly, there are some who are rejecting God (even if it’s a quiet rejection). God loves His creation, His people, so very much and we are so very dark. Remember Leviticus? God cannot simply hang out with sin; He is holy. But He desires us and loves us, so something had to be done. For God to regain His precious creation to His side, to be with us, He had to make a way for this issue of sin to no longer hold us captive.

There is only One who has never sinned, though He walked entirely as a human. That Someone is Jesus Christ. Jesus willingly, with delight, stepped into our lives, stepped into our skin and walked through the trials and temptations and pain that we all face. Jesus was familiar with the lusts of the flesh, He too was tempted in all ways. Yet Jesus withstood. Where you and I fall into temptation and give in to sin, Jesus did not. He was beaten down by temptation, hunger, and all the weaknesses of His human frame, but He remained faithful to God. He continued to tend to His own vineyard- His relationship with God remained intimate. Therefore, He could be the final step in making our sin no longer chain us.

Jesus Christ was convicted though innocent, Creator yet let His creation spit on Him, cuss at Him and torture Him. He so loved you so much and wanted you to be His again, He went through all of that so He could crush sin. He died for you. This is love. This is what real love is.

This act of giving His life so that we could live gave Him the authority once again over death. In dying on the cross, as a perfectly sinless Man, Jesus took the power of sin away. Satan was king of this earth and ruled using sin and death. But because of what Jesus did, He took that power back and became the One, True King. Jesus is the King.

You, and I, are the Shulamite farm girl. And like her, we still have dark moments, dark days, darkness within us. She was able to say with truth that she was “dark, but lovely.” We are too. We are the farm girl. We are desired by the King.

“Listen…incline your ear…the King greatly desires your beauty…”

I am dark. But lovely. For I am loved by the King. I know my sin. And I don’t want my sin. I know that my Jesus has made me free. Though I stumble and fall, He loves me. He chose me. I am lovely to the King and the King greatly desires my beauty.

A Fresh work at Running Light Ministries (Update)

Posted on by RLAdmin

Much Happening – O2
We are planning on having booths at 4 states this June with Pastor Levi Lusko to help get students of all ages signed up for the Way of Purity course at SettingCaptivesFree.com in the hopes that they will experience a understanding of the bettler pleasure of God as compared to the Lust that the world offers.  As we know…there is no comparison between the Love of God and what this world holds so dear.
If you are able to help financially with a gift please do so by visiting runninglight.org and find the PayPal icon on the right.  Thank you so much for those that give to this ministry.  That average age of porn exposure is 11 and some say 9 years of age.  By the time they reach the University many have watched hours upon hours of hard core porn.   So many need to get into the free course work at S.C.F..  And that’s why were at the events!
Southwest Calvary Chapel Pastors Conference 2013
We just had our booth at the conference and boy what a turnout of people wanting to talk about the problem of online adultery that has resulted in 56% of the divorces that we see statistically!  Yep that’s right, people are online having affairs all the time today.  If not physically than emotionally.  I have seen just how devastating this is in a marriage with those that have come to us for help.
The need for groups at your fellowship
I have put a link on the right side of the runninglight.org website for you that are leaders at your fellowships that desire a group.  Please check it out.  Wouldn’t it be awesome to have Bible study groups that are not afraid to walk in the grace of confession, amputation, repentance, accountability weekly!?!?  So many Bible study groups we have give us a opportunity to drink from the well of Jesus, but not many are expecting that we walk in the other joyful ways of grace.  It’s cool to know that when people come into our groups they desire the entire package of walking with Christ.  Hey, it’s our joy!  let’s go after Christ!
New contributors to R.L.M.We have two new contributors to Running Light Ministries!  Katy Collins and Peter Martin.  Katy helps with the women that are in bondage to lust and single women.  Peter Martin helps with single men, married men, and especially those that have been in the military.  He is a former Marine with combat time.  The RLM team are stoked to see how the Lord will use these two for and to His Glory and NAME!  Women today exercise there freedom to pursue pleasure on their own terms just like men have for centuries!  Lust knows no gender, so pray the HOLY Spirit to guide as we open the Way of Purity course to a women’s group!
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A thirst (LUST) for violence

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By R.L.M. contributor : Peter Martin
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When I was in the military, I saw a very disturbing trend amongst those I served with. A lot of my friends, during their time in service, turned very violent especially in their sexuality. “37% of women veterans report being raped at least twice, and 14% report experiences of gang rape” (Servicewomen.org). With statistics like this, which doesn’t even mention the violence from veterans to civilian women, as well as the overwhelming amount of violent and self-destructive habits that I saw in my friends when we came back, it makes people wonder, what in our experiences causes us to act out in this way? One major thing that I think about is our training. While I was on my first deployment, one of my friends started reading the books “On Combat” and “On Killing”. Both of which were written by a retired Army Lt Colonel, Dave Grossman, about the psychological aspects of warfare, more specifically the conditioning process of a soldier. I remember that the thing that he stressed most in his books was that the conditioning process for a soldier is even more mental than it is physical. The goal of this process is to make sure that when soldiers, like me, who were dropped in to combat for their first time, wouldn’t freeze up in combat and would be able to actually kill their enemy.

This process of conditioning takes shape in the little things in training. When I was in, they constantly sent us out to train in horrible conditions. And even when we weren’t training, it seemed like the leadership were doing everything that they could to make our lives miserable with mind numbingly boring classes and frivolous activities throughout the day. Beyond this, while serious hazing is punished, minor hazing is actually encouraged throughout the ranks. In the books, Grossman explains that this is all aimed at breeding aggression in soldiers, to make them, not only willing, but eager to fight and kill. In a book called “Generation Kill”, which is about a group of Marines fighting in Iraq, a reporter asks one of the Marines why they didn’t get the supplies that they needed and he responds, “The Marine Corps is like America’s little pit bull, They feed us, mistreat us, and every now and then, they let us out to attack someone.” And none of this is really new, even in ancient Spartan culture, you read about how they would constantly mistreat their soldiers while they were being trained to make them wildly violent and aggressive toward others, but very loyal to their fellow Spartans.

Another tactic that was used for this conditioning was the dehumanization of the enemy. While I was in, I remembered that we would call the Afgani’s “hodgis”, and in this book it explains how racial slurs like that have been used by the military throughout our history to make the enemy seem less human to us so that killing them won’t be as difficult. For example, the World War II vets referred to the Germans as “gerries” or “krauts”, the Vietnam vets referred to the Vietnamese as “Charlie” or “gook”. All of these terms are meant to make the enemy seem less than human to take the morality out of killing.

This may seem like a good idea, after all they want to breed killers to protect America, but the problem that emerges, especially in guerrilla warfare, is that it’s near impossible to turn off this mentality and only use it on our enemies. Because of this, I saw quite a few of my friends flat out murder innocent civilians without any real cause. And they never really saw this as wrong because they didn’t consider the Afghanis to be real people. Beyond this, we are all relatively young guys, given weapons and no real accountability, the level of power and dominance that we had over these people was intoxicating. We could take whatever we wanted and no one could stop us, and I saw clearly how armies throughout history got caught up in this and just pillaged, burned, and raped. And seeing the way that we saw the people there, I knew that it would be an easy next step for us to take. And while we did destroy a lot of people’s lives over there, I never saw anyone rape any local women, but the major reason for that is because if we did, we knew that there would be serious repercussions. But pretty much everything else that we did was tolerated and encouraged. And I wish I could say that I saw things differently but I didn’t  it is just so much easier to not see them as human. And while we are in country talking amongst ourselves where this behavior is tolerated, not many people really struggle with any guilt or trauma. But, when we got back to America and we tried to share these experiences with our friends and families, it became very clear to us that we had moved away from normal; and you start to question the justifications of your actions. This realization brings about severe amounts of guilt and when this is coupled with other bad memories from our experiences over there; this leads veterans down the road to PTSD. And like I said, it is near impossible to just turn off that aggression and thirst for violence. In order to compensate for the pain, many of my friends turned to alcohol, drugs, porn, and sex to ease their pain. But none of these things were effective for them; which in turn increased their aggression, their pain, and the level of their addictions.

The conditioning also gave us a, almost thirst for violence. This goes beyond watching action movies or playing violent video games, we began to legitimately desire to see and preform actual violent acts. This played out in several ways, my friends used to get drunk constantly and look for fights. Our conversations were usually shaped by talks of death and killing, and pretty much all of my friends turned this craving for violence into a type of fetish. Pornography already has an effect on most men, myself included, where it objectifies women that we see, if you add to this the lust that my friends had for violence, the logical choice for them was to watch degradation type pornography. This would be porn that is deliberately degrading to women, and more often than not depicts incredibly violent sex with men abusing women. Now there is a myth that somehow you can “get the lust out of your system” and if people just watch this type of porn, then they won’t act it out. This is incredibly false, and I think that the most well-known example of this is Ted Bundy. You can’t get lust out of your system by giving in to it; you can only make it worse. And it would be such an easy next step for men who are aroused by things like this to start acting out their fantasies. I am not sure how many of the men that I know have actually physically abused women, but I do know that virtually none of the men that I served with see women as actual human beings. They see them as objects for their own gratification, and then after they are done, they discard them. Even the married men began to act out violently toward their wives and scream at them even while we were in Afghanistan. The most shocking thing to me though is that this mentality of abusing women in this way is not confined to the military, it is spreading throughout America and has actually become common.

So how does anyone fix this problem? My friends that were diagnosed with PTSD were sent off to random psychologists that just fed them various kinds of drugs to “cure” them. These drugs ended up making my friends worse off than they were before the drugs, and then they became utterly dependent on their medications. And like I mentioned before, a lot of the men that I know tried to self-medicate with the pleasures of this world, but none of these things helped them and I actually had a friend a couple months ago call thinking about killing himself. I have seen first-hand just how inadequate this world is to help us out of these problems, there is no hope to be found in this world. Philippians 4:7 “And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” In Jesus Christ there is amazing amounts of hope. In my life, Jesus has protected me from PTSD, He has given me freedom from porn and He has satisfied the longing in my heart. And while I can never un-see the things that I saw, He is daily renewing my mind, and He is daily drawing me closer to Him and away from my past. And praise God that Jesus came to seek and to save those who are lost, there is no such thing as someone that has fallen too far for Him to love and His love can reach even the darkest of hearts. And He longs to restore and to redeem those who are suffering in this way and the families that have been damaged as a result of this. It is only by His love that there is hope of restoration, and only through loving Him that someone can once again see just how valuable each life is. Joel 2:25 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.”

Lustful Pleasures or the River of Pleasure?

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By K. Collins a R.L.M. contributor
One night in Pat Pong the team and I were heading through the narrow walkways between vendors and the bar doors. I happened to be tailing behind all the others, praying as we walked. We rounded a corner and began to head down a new row and a ‘menu-guy’ approached me. These men and women stand outside the bars, usually on the street in front of a shadowy, darkened entrance or door that leads someone up a flight of stairs. These stairs lead to rooms full higher levels of self-gratification. The menu-folks stand there with laminated menus offering coded sex shows for sale. Their whole job is to entice walkers-by with what is being offered upstairs, to allure them with curious thoughts, to catch their lusts with questions of ‘I wonder…’.
This menu-guy approached me with such a proposition. Our team leader had encouraged us to look at the menus, not so intently as to give them false hope of an interested buyer, but long enough to see what was being sold, to get familiar with what the menus read. I had glanced at enough to have an awareness of the language posed, and stories were told to us of what the shows actually entailed. I knew exactly what he was selling.
Coming towards me, he jutted his menu in my direction and said, “You come see? You come see?” Shaking my head, I motioned with my hand in a negating manner and smiled at him replying, “No. No.” He didn’t relent. Trying again, he turned the menu over (attempting to raise my interest by showing me details). “You come see? Good show, good show.” My gaze went to the menu, telling him I wasn’t scared of what he was presenting, but then confidently I said, “No. Me chrishan. Chrishan. No, no.” I waved my hand and walked on. He stood still, but I noticed that he continued to look in our direction. Then he came towards me again.
“You chrishan?” he asked. I nodded, smiling. In that moment a very neat thing happened. I saw his countenance change. Prior to me mentioning that I was Christian (in Thai is sounds like ‘chrishan‘) he saw me as a sale. He was merely doing his job; he was paid to get me upstairs so I would pay to watch unspeakable things. That was his job. But here comes this trail of ladies walking by his corner and that’s not necessarily strange. Women dig porn and buy sex too. But this time, someone he asked gave him a reason why they said ‘no’. This time, the name of a god he’d maybe heard of before was mentioned. Chrishan.
I wonder if he questioned the connection between why achrishan would come to a place like Pat Pong, walk through, color  with children and buy drinks for women, but not want to buy a show. After all, the gods he serves encourage the behavior that happens in Pat Pong. I wonder if he was curious about why being a chrishan made me say ‘no’ to a show he was selling. When he came back that final time to clarify that I had indeed said I was a chrishan, he stopped in his tracks, bowed his head to me and walked away.

“Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name…”
1 Chronicles 16:29

This man, most likely not knowing my God, the One whom I claim in saying I am a chrishan, bowed his head in respect and honor when he made the connection between who I was and why I chose not to buy a show that night. Without even knowing the true and living God, his spirit moved in ascribing glory (honor, exaltation, value) to the Lord, the glory that is due His name.
Last week I was speaking with my pastor about porn in the church (this is a huge topic, we’re making a documentary on it, so don’t worry more info is coming, smile). He said some things that were so profound, I knew I was hearing the voice of the Spirit speaking through him. We were discussing the power God gives us to be involved in the realm of the sexual industry to share the good news of Christ Jesus. He said,

“God’s eyes are too pure to look upon evil…but certainly he sees Satan when he’s before his throne in the past, or the sins of men on the earth.  God’s eyes are too pure to look upon evil and do nothing about it!  That’s how we should be!  It’s not that we are to live on a hill in the desert, but to see things properly and grieve in our heart when we see what we see on the internet or movies. To have these things be something that affects our hearts in a way where we see more clearly what needs to be done in getting out the gospel!”

My first night seeing Pat Pong ‘alive’, women and girls being sold for the lusts of the flesh, children playing outside of the bar doors, men and women in utter bondage to their sins of choice, I wanted to run home. I had no strength within me to continue to be in the pit where the devil seemed to have full reign. But later that night God spoke a word to my soul. He said, “Katy, you seek Me. Seek Me and let these go their way. I will take care of all that, My way. But your job is to seek Me.”  Now, here, 4 months later emailing with my pastor in Tucson the message is brought up again- we go there (wherever ‘there’ is) to seek Christ, to share Christ.
God’s eyes are too pure to look on evil and do nothing about it. He is God! He is perfect Justice, beautiful, unending Mercy, and amazing, healing Redemption. As God calls me into ministry (simply serving those) in the sex industry, I want to have his heart- to be able to look on the evil and do something about it. My opportunity to model God’s heart is to share Christ. What does this mean? It is to see the sin, be involved in the industry’s impact on even believers and “have these things be something that affects our hearts in a way where we see more clearly what needs to be done in getting out the gospel!”
Sex is not wrong. God designed it. And He designed it to teach us to know Him, and for us to glorify Him in enjoying our spouses. God delights in holy sex! But the call, I believe that is being revealed, on my life is to cry out that the fleeting, ultimately unsatisfying pleasures of sinful sexual choices are merely horrid, empty distortions of what God intends for us! He is waking me up to see that the Church should be where the world gets it’s definition of sex. The world should look at Christ-followers and say, “Man, I want what they have” even in regards to the marriage bed. Sadly, however, it is the Church who has failed and now goes to the world for its pleasure, instead of coming to the River of Pleasure, Himself.
Isn’t this the gospel, the good news? Isn’t it good news that Christ has set us free from the weight of bondage to sin and that we, instead, can come and drink from the Living Water and find true pleasure in God?

“They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.”
Psalm 36:8

In our chat about porn and the church and how God desires that His followers seek to live pleasure-filled, God-glorifying lives of holy sex, my pastor discussed context and how important it is to rightly see sex as defined by Scripture. He said,

“Context is everything!  It is what separates the self-gratifyer and the missionary.”

Boom. What a profound word. Thank You, God. Remember the scene in Pat Pong I described earlier? In that moment, God was my strength to be there as a missionary- to be there to share the good news, the better pleasure, of Christ. However, I was surrounded by self-gratifyers. I am confident, 100% assured, that there were men and women customers in Pat Pong that night who would also say they are Christian. I know that folks were upstairs buying sex shows, or downstairs paying for lap dances, that were going to be sitting in church the following Sunday back home. None of us are immune to temptation. Jesus wasn’t, what makes us think we are? None of us are immune to falling into sin. (Romans 3:23). But we have a choice. Even today.

The self-gratifyer wants what the flesh wants. The self-gratifyer chooses to seek and obtain pleasure in sin- fleeting, momentary, unsatisfying, empty, but for a minute pleasurable. Then what? The self-gratifyer is left with a sinking hole inside, feeling wretched, starved, craving more of what cannot quench their hunger. I am a self-gratifyer at times. (I’m willing to be vulnerable with you and share my weakness; God is strong when I am weak!). Christ said He came for the sick. I want Christ; I admit to you that I fight my flesh all the time. But, by His immeasurable grace He strengthens me to walk in victory.
I can, by what Christ has done for me and in me, be a missionary instead. Will I look at the sin of the world and proudly sneer, judging them too dirty, worthless and hopeless? Or will I, through Christ, look on the world’s sin and identify with it, knowing I once was lost, I still live in a body of death, I daily fight to pick up my cross and follow Jesus. Will I use the strength God gives me, and the conviction He allows me, to quicken my heart to share about the good news of this Savior of mine?
God is our treasure. He is the only true pleasure. All of the world’s attempts to copy Him are failing miserably. Our souls cannot be satisfied on anything but the LORD of lords. I am a chrishan and today, even right now, I choose to want the River of Pleasure, the LORD God. I not only choose to forsake the fake, false, depleting, bondage of the worldly pleasures of sin, but I choose to let God use my life to share with others the message, “No. I don’t want the show. I want Christ.”
May your heart be burdened as His is, for the sin in which you are entangled. May your soul be sick of the lies the enemy has fed you, stuffed down your throat, and nearly drowned you in. May the Spirit rise up within you to strengthen you to fight and may He reveal to you the treasure of God, the pleasure of God, the enjoyment of God. Let us awake, Church; let us arise, Bride, to run together with Christ to show the world the Better Pleasure!
Some resources:
Setting Captives Free (free online studies for breaking bonds)- http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com
Running Light Ministries (Pastor Beau’s ministry)- http://www.runninglight.org
Pastor Beau’s Blog- http://runninglight.wordpress.com
Be Loved Ministries (Tucson biblical counseling for women)- katy@ccftucson.org