August 2012 – Look Who’s One of the Porn Industry’s Biggest Customers
For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning away from our God…
Isaiah 59:12-13
In her book Sex, Lies and the Media, Eva Marie Everson recounts the following story:
“My friend Jack Samad with the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families shocked me with the story of his attendance at a religious convention. The manager of the hotel where he had been staying noticed the posters and other paraphernalia he had carried through the lobby early one morning and then back in again later that afternoon. He stopped Jack and asked him what he was doing with all that information on pornography. Jack told him he was part of the Christian conference being held in the city. The manager chuckled. “Get real,” he said. Porn movies in our hotel are accessed at a higher rate during Christian conventions than at any other time.”
With statistics showing that at least half of Christian men and 20% of women are viewing porn (see Porn Statistics) this means that the church, God’s people, are:
1. Funding the multi-billion dollar porn industry. Millions of Christian Americans are tithing to two churches: the church of God and the porn-church of Satan. We’re literally backing the work of demons.
2. Supporting the destruction of men, women and children. The U.S. is the porn producer of the world, and the church is paying pornographers so they can continue to produce more materials that will destroy the lives of the actors and actresses in those movies, and the marriages, families and children in every corner of society.
3. Corrupting ourselves. Our hearts are stained with lust and our marriages and families are paying the price.
4. Giving mixed messages to the world. On one hand we’re holding God’s standards for sexual purity aloft, while in the next we’re winking at the enemy. The Bible calls such people Hypocrites… Pharisees.
5. Dishonoring the Lord. What does our approval and funding of the porn industry say about God? Does it make the outside world question His power, or even His existence? After all, shouldn’t a powerful God be strong enough to free His people from sin? Or… is the problem that we really want our sin more than God?
6. Fueling the demand for porn. A big market for their product encourages the porn industry to ramp up production; more lives are destroyed.
7. Putting ourselves nearer to God’s judgment and discipline (or scourging, as the writer in Hebrews 12:6 puts it). Not a good place to be.
The above should make us sick to our stomach… angry…. and broken hearted. We’re destroying lives. We’re backing Satan’s work. We’re sending people to hell. A church does this when it refuses to take bold action and confront the truth.
In Revelations 2, Jesus convicted two of seven churches for not dealing with the sexual sin among them (Thyatira and Pergamum). The consequences of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband were severe. Paul warned, twice, that “the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1st Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:19-21). This isn’t about getting a few guys to quit masturbating and viewing porn, there’s a lot at stake here, including the eternal destiny of many.
My hope is that we will take action. Forward this newsletter to your pastor, youth minister, or friends. If you’re ensnared in sexual sin, now is the time to get serious. You don’t know how many tomorrows you have left, and you surely don’t want to waste another minute of your vapor-life (James 4:14) masturbating to porn. The things we do in this world echo for all of eternity.
For more reading on the statistics and what an action plan looks like, see:
How Many Porn Addicts Are in Your Church?
How Your Church Can Take on the Porn Epidemic
——————————-
2nd Chronicles 7:14 is Our Only Hope
The Chik-fil-a mess has been all over the news. After the president of Chik-fil-a said he’s for the Biblical definition of marriage, the world freaked out. Media and government officials condemned Chilk-fil-a. Then Mike Huckabee declared August 1 “support Chik-fil-a day.” Hundreds of thousands of believers rushed to Chik-fil-a restaurants all over the country to show their support and pad the bank account of a 4+ billion dollar company. It was a nice gesture, but… when a nation is in moral free-fall, God’s way out isn’t to eat a chicken sandwich.
The answer is found in 2nd Chronicles 7:14:
and (if) My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
When the Chik-fil-a situation blew up I hoped a national figure would call on God’s people to “humble, pray, seek and turn,” but none of that came… other than the challenge to wait in a longer line than usual to eat out.
I’ve set up a website with an action plan for individuals and churches to take that is based around 2nd Chronicles 7:14 at http://www.2chronicles714.net/. The 2nd Chronicles 7:14 Project isn’t about preaching sermons or knowledge of what God says, but doing it. When the president of the U.S. comes out in favor of gay marriage and half the population approves of it; when sexual sin, abortion, divorce, broken families and horrific events like the Aurora shooting are our way of life, our only hope can be if God’s people take God at His word and “humble, pray, seek and turn.”
——————————-
The New Blazing Grace Website
Since April I’ve been working on upgrading the Blazing Grace website; it’s now complete. New content and resources have been added (with more on the way). Take a look at www.blazinggrace.org if you haven’t visited for awhile.
Also, our forums offer a safe place for those who struggle with sexual sin and their spouses to go for support and encouragement. Visit the forums at http://www.blazinggrace.org/forums/
——————————-
The Road to Grace
The Road to Grace; Finding True Freedom from the Bondage of Sexual Addiction is Mike Genung’s book on breaking free from sexual addiction.
Topics covered include:
* Biblical tools for overcoming sexual temptation.
* Healing from shame.
* How to stop a masturbation habit.
* Dealing with the core issues that drive sexual sin.
* Understanding and receiving the love of God in the heart.
* Healing for Wives
* How to restore a marriage that’s been broken by sexual sin and/or adultery.
The Road to Grace is used in support groups, and provides plenty of material for discussion.
For more information and to purchase, visit www.roadtograce.net
——————————
More Reading
Healing a Broken Marriage
It’s Just a Little Porn; I’m no Sex Addict
Masturbation
Sexual Sobriety isn’t Enough
The Answer
The Destructive Force of Adultery
Winning the War in the Mind
Newsletter Archives
July 2012: For Those Who are Control Freaks (and Don’t Want to Be)
June 2012: Blazing Grace on a Sunday Morning
May 2012: Why We Need Suffering
April 2012: The Forgotten Half: Wives of Porn Addicts
——————————-
Final Words
and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing
Acts 19:17-20
——————————-
Blazing Grace’s purpose is to minister to the sexually broken and equip the church to effectively deal with the porn epidemic.
Please feel free to forward this newsletter.
Content from the Blazing Grace Newsletter may be posted on websites or otherwise reprinted for ministry purposes. (Please show the correct byline, and add a link to www.blazinggrace.org when posting any material electronically.) Publication for commercial use is prohibited without written permission.
I enjoy reading your feedback.
May God’s grace abound to you.
Mike Genung
All material copyright 2012 Mike Genung