7 Good Reasons To Stop Looking at Porn Right Now

There are certain topics I return to on a regular basis and, if you are a regular reader of this site, you know that one of those topics is pornography. I return to it again and again because I see the damage it is doing and I see the despair of those who are caught up in it. My goal for today is simple: I want to give you 7 good reasons you need to stop looking at porn right now.

 

1. The Cost to Your Soul

 

I want to begin here: With the cost to your soul. If you are consumed with pornography and unwilling to put this sin to death, you have every reason to be concerned with the state of your soul. God promises that if he has saved us we will gain new passions and new affections. We will have not only the ability but also the desire to replace sin with holiness, to replace immorality with sexual purity. If you have no sorrow for sin, if you have no real desire for victory, if time and again you recklessly choose your sin over your Savior, you need to ask yourself this: Do I love pornography enough to go to hell for it? If this sin continues to dominate your life, it may stand as proof that you do not have a saving, sin-slaying faith. For the sake of your soul, stop looking at pornography.  Continue at Tim Challies

How Can I Compare to Women in Porn?

Distraught wife – I don’t watch porn, but I know my husband has viewed it from time to time. The little bit I have seen of these women makes me realize there is no way I can compare to or compete with them. What am I to do with these thoughts?

Even the television bombards my mind with their version of the perfect woman. I struggle with being insecure already, but it becomes worse when I think about how I’m in competition with women who are tens in every way.

Whenever my husband becomes angry with me, the thought goes through my mind that he will bolt for another woman if I don’t meet his needs. Even if he does not bolt, I know he satisfies himself with women who are in a league of their own. What am I to do?

• Backward Porn Addiction: When women draw attention to themselves
• When looking for porn, begin in the heart

In my view many Christian women are in a seemingly impossible situation. The external pressure from movies and television pumps their minds 24/7 about what is perfect. The dream weavers in the entertainment industry have all the tools to deliver titillating and tantalizing candy to the male ego.

Then there is the internal pressure: porn is a major and satisfying player in the male’s fantasy world. This is why the pursuer of porn women does not have to catch a real one. It’s all in his mind.

Fantasy is what makes porn so perfect for the depraved mind. All he has to do is look at the perfect woman through the Internet, while enjoying her with his mind. It’s not about being with her. It’s about thinking he is with her.   Continue at Rick Thomas

Porn, Pride, and Praise

According to a study by Covenant Eyes, roughly half of all professing Christian men and one-fifth of all professing Christian women admit to being porn addicts. Other reports indicate the problem could be even more extensive.

Whatever the exact numbers, porn is a problem, a growing problem, and an increasingly accessible problem. 

“The Internet is the crack cocaine of pornography,” says Heath Lambert, author of the forthcoming book, Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace. Lambert is assistant professor of biblical counseling at Boyce College and teaches at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky. We asked him about the growing epidemic of pornography in the lives of Christians, and about the roots behind the sin.

The Deep Root of Porn

 

The sin of pornography is directly linked to the sin of pride, he says. 

“At the root of viewing pornography is an arrogant heart that says: ‘I will have whatever I want. And if I want pictures of naked women, I am going to have it. And I don’t care if God doesn’t want it, and I don’t care if my wife doesn’t like it, and I don’t care if I might lose my ministry over it — I am going to look at it.’ And in the moment of temptation, in the moment of the sin, when you dive in, that’s the statement of your heart.   Continue at Tony Reinke

3 Lies Porn Tells You

Three years into our marriage, my wife, Trisha, woke up in the middle of the night and realized I wasn’t in bed. She walked out into the living room and as soon as she looked at the TV, I quickly changed the channel.  

She began to question me about what I was watching, why I wasn’t in bed, and why I would immediately change the channel. Then came the repeated question: Do you struggle with lust and pornography? The more she asked the more intense the conversation became.

So I denied everything. I told her I was just channel surfing. I argued with her about what she saw. I convinced her that I didn’t struggle with porn or lust. She had nothing to worry about. I was lying. 

For the amount of people who struggle with this, we don’t talk about it near enough.

I didn’t know it at the time, but that night was the first of many opportunities I had over the first 10 years of our marriage to be honest about my porn addiction. I was a pastor and pastors don’t struggle with lust or porn. At least, no other pastor I knew struggled with it, I felt all alone.

The truth was, I wasn’t alone. I had friends I could have talked to. I had accountability partners I lied to. I had other pastors I blew off when asked about sexual sins and struggles.  Continue at Relevant

Believe God, Not Porn

This article was originally posted at my site.  You can also connect with me on Twitter and Facebook.

On December 30, 2012, Russell Moore tweeted,

The Bible Belt: When the strip club you pass on the highway has “Happy Birthday Jesus” on the neon sign outside.

This begs the question concerning whether or not a strip club can celebrate the birth of Christ while communicating that a woman’s value is solely dependent upon her sexual availability. You see this lie perpetuated in how women are portrayed on Television, in movies, books, music, etc. and even in how women portray themselves. Of course, this devaluing of humanity is not reserved for women only. Men too are often reduced to sexual objects in our culture and society (Consider the young man who cannot keep his shirt on in the Twilight movie series). What Christians must understand is that how we view other humans and how we want other humans to view us reveals what we believe about the value of humanity. Both Porn and God make arguments about the value of humanity. Porn communicates that the value of men and women is bound up supremely in their sexual availability. God, on the other hand, argues that man is valuable because he or she is created in His image (Gen. 1:26-27). Who will we believe?   Continue at SBCVoices

Porn and the Church Staff

If a church staff member is dealing with a porn issue, how should it be handled? The following is not a list or rules, so much as some pointers in how you can approach the issue when it comes up.

Plan to deal with porn

Every day, pastors and leadership boards have to make decisions on how to handle the discovery that a staff person is struggling with porn. Most people are not equipped to deal with this issue and, as a consequence, radical mistakes are made every day.

I believe it is critical for pastors and leadership teams to think through their response to sexual sin prior to circumstances that require a plan. We always do better when we are actively prepared, and I would rather be proactive than reactive in dealing with sexual sin. You can fly by the seat of your pants, or you can start talking and thinking about this now—it will be something you have to handle with one of your staff members soon.

Who condemns?

Two thousand years ago, the early church members didn’t have computers with internet connections and weren’t dealing with this exact situation, but there is much wisdom to be gleaned from Scripture and how it reflects the dynamic between law and grace.   Continue at Jake Larson