"The war is over for me now...but it will always be there the rest of my days"
Hebrews 13: 4 - 6 NKJV
There are a few subjects which I write about that are pretty close to my own heart. I'm guessing not because I have a vested interest in them, but due to the fact of my own life experience. Pornography is such an issue. Now, I've indeed heard all of the justifications that others have tried to use over time to justify their bad behavior. Pornograpy hurts nobody, that it is a victimless act yada yada yada. I know most of these excuses because I've used many of them myself from time to time. Yes, I was once so involved in this act of self pleasure that I could have sworn that if I didn't get my porn "Fix" that it would affect me physicaly. Like some tweaker huddled on a street corner waiting for his next hit of that drug that somehow kept him alive, so was my daily need for pornography. I've read many a statistic about how engaging in pornography will trigger various pleasure centers in our brains until it becomes an addiction to many. It has consumed others as it did myself. There is a definate reason that our heavenly Father warns against engaging in such things. I believe not only due to the tole it takes on us physically, but also the cost to us emotionally as well. For even though I now consider myself to be in recovery from this slef inflicted addiction, the way that I see women has indeed been compromised. Of course, this is a huge part of my recovery as well. That process of viewing women as children of my heavenly Father and not objects of my own personal pleasure was a hard one to kick. But, it can be done if your heart is in the right place. I will never claim to be one with a miracle cure, just one who dug himself out of the hole of addiction and lived to tell about it. So it is that I will pose one question for those who choose to disregard my experiences, are you looking at porn to better someone else...or for your own gratification?
15Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. 17And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
1 John 2: 15 - 17 NKJV
Recently here in Oregon it was anounced that a young lady had won a million dollar lawsuit against a strip club. Reading on further into this story I began to see what I've suspected for some time, that pornography IS NOT a victimless act. This young lady had been working at a local strip club when she was just 14 years old. Ultimately, she was prostituted out of that same establishment. Now, I could very well sit back and condemn every single man who had used this girl for thier own purposes. That is, if I hadn't myself been there at one time. Earlier I mentioned a "heart condition" which has helped me in my road back from my addiction. This heart condition is none other that Christ Jesus and how I came to know the truth about Him. Yes, Jesus gave Himself and died on the cross so that my sins woud be washed away, but what good is washing something if it will just get dirty again? So it is that not only did Christ die to forgive our sins, but also to put to death that sin nature we were once born with {Romans 6: 6-11}. It wasn't until I the veil was lifted and I came to know the truth of Christ that I realized that those things which I was ashamed of were a thing of my past, that was my "old man" who died with Jesus so long ago. Not only that, but it is also Christ Jesus who I live as today {Galations 2:20}. Everything that I now live and experience each and every day I do through the eyes of Jesus. I AM Jesus. That being said, do I want Jesus to gaze upon a pornographic image? Is this something one would expect from Christ? You could say that I am now dead to that, but alive in Christ Jesus.
One of my favorite movies is the 1986 film Platoon. In it, Charlie Sheen portrays a young soldier who is suddenly thrust into the horror of the Vietnam war in 1967. One of the scenes which I remember from this movie is that final scene where Cruises character, Chris, is evacuated out of the combat zone after being injured. As he is finaly flown out of the hell that was Vietnam, we hear Tom Cruise narating the thoughts of his character in that moment. "The war is over for me now...but it will always be there...the rest of my days." I can relate.
1There 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. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8: 1 - 2 NKJV
~Scott~
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