Pornography: the Lie that Binds
Picture by Jody Davis from Pixabay
Father God...I come before you with nothing of value...nothing of worth. I am broken..I am unworthy and I lay all that I am before you. This is all I have to give, my offering...it is yours. Lord I come before hurting, hurting for those seeking more, seeking but blind. Lord open the eyes of the blind, awaken the saints to your call to seek out the blind. Lord grieve your children to the point of moving toward this lost and broken world. We wait in holy anticipation for you but in the waiting help us, empower us to love the lost, declare freedom to the imprisoned, to wage war on the unholy, and trust you in every step of the way. We believe that your Word is true, we believe that you are faithful and good. We thank you for you Mercy and your Grace. Make us humble but bold in Jesus name.
Pornography: movies, pictures, magazines, etc., that show or describe naked people or sex in a very open and direct way in order to cause sexual excitement. (Websters)
Pornography is pervasive in our culture, every where we turn. Whether it's soft or hard core. Whether it's on prime time television or on adult channels or surfing the internet. Whether it's on display in advertisements that lay before our eyes at every beck and turn. Whether it's fantasy or reality it's everywhere.
Pervasive: existing in every part of something : spreading to all parts of something
Pornography, this thing that is invading, stealing, killing, and destroying right in our very homes. Homes that Love Jesus, believe in His goodness, revel in His mercy, and yet this vile, harmful, festering virus of an addiction pervades through our homes, our marriages, our families, seeking to destroy the tie that binds us. Seeking to destroy our love for Jesus, our pursuit of Holiness, Redemption, and Restoration. Seeking to destroy our belief in the Gospel...that Jesus is really all that we need.
This addiction to Pornography has become a lie that binds itself not only to our hearts but also to the hearts and lives of men and women across our nation and the world. It speaks of pleasure and satisfaction, to life and fulfillment, but when the moment of self gratification is over, the emptiness, guilt, and shame remain and eat away, destroying our very souls.
Now, you may be sitting there in complete denial that this is a problem. You may be thinking "What's the big deal...God created sex and our bodies???", but just as your own shadow has no real depth or value, pornography to has no real, lasting value. It's a weak representation, which can be manipulated, to cast a vision of "real", but I assure you it is not REAL. It is unattainable. Many seek to attain such a false reality and that now speaks to the mind blowing epidemic of Sex Trafficking.
Slavery is a real thing. IT is HERE and TODAY, and whether you chose to see it or not, you to may be enslaved. Your chains, bruises, and beatings may not be visible. Your captor may not be standing and watching over your every move, but you are slave to a lie, an addiction, to a Liar (the Devil) who literally wants to do everything in his power to render you useless, invisible, hopeless and completely desolate.
If anything let us be slaves to Righteousness, bound to the Gospel, in pursuit of the Redeemer, Restorer, TRUE HOPE, TRUE LIFE, TRUE LOVE. Let us be bound to the giver of unending MERCY and GRACE. Let us seek after the RESCUER. Let us be free.
Romans 6:15-23
"15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves,[a] you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed,
18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."