Breaking Up with Porn
Monday, April 29, 2013

I haven’t posted on this topic because I wanted to make sure my content came across the right way, but because so many of you have requested I write on it, I felt compelled to finally do it. Regardless of your relationship with porn, it’s undoubtedly a problem with today’s Christians, and I believe it will only grow to be worse unless we deliberately do something about it.

Here are some stats:

- 54% of Christians said they had watched pornographic material within the last year. (survey from pastors.com)

- 47% of Christian households said that porn is a struggle in their household. (2003 focus on the family survey)

Pretty crazy, huh?

This post is going to a broad guideline to help you, a friend, or a family member abstain from the harm and affliction of porn. And regardless if you have a problem with it or not, it can still be used as a precautionary foundation for your future.

5 ways to help you break up with pornography:

1. Study scripture to understand God’s yearning for us to be pure by abstaining from fleshly desires.

- 1 Thessalonians 4:3, 1 Corinthians 6:18, Matthew 5:28, Ephesians 5:5, Colossians 3:5, 1 Peter 2:11.

2. Install accountability software onto any device that gives you internet access.

- www.XXXChurch.com offers a free software that is available for most platforms.

3. Keep your computer somewhere people can see it, and not behind a closed door.

- Boredom is Satan’s playground, and a closed door doesn’t help.

4. Give yourself limitations as to when you are to be online.

- Everyone has a different schedule, but try and disconnect from all online platforms about 2-3 hours before you go to sleep.

5. Do not put a password on your smart-phone, tablet, or laptop. Keep your devices open for accountability.

- Having a password gives you the comfort of looking at pornographic material and not worrying whether people will find out. This is exactly opposite of what you should be doing.

I hope these 5 points help you with your struggle. There are plenty of things other than this post to help you along your struggle with porn, but I pray this post will resonate with you in a way that is transforming and life-changing.

Be honest about your struggle. Don’t let porn obstruct your potential with Christ.

- Jarrid Wilson

http://www.biblestudytools.com/blogs/jarrid-wilson/breaking-up-with-porn.html

The Jesus Fellowship is the only new church stream that advocates and practices celibacy for those called to it, claiming it leads to a full life for single people. Within the Jesus Fellowship there are couples and there are male and female celibates. The Jesus Fellowship claims both as high callings. A main justification for celibacy, following St Paul, is that it frees a member for ministry, particularly in the unsocial hours that Jesus Army campaigning requires. Some critics have maintained that the Jesus Fellowship teaches celibacy as a better or higher way, and that single members have felt pressured into making the vow. Others deny this and insist that both marriage and family life, and celibacy are held in high regard in the Jesus Fellowship. Celibacy is, however, described by the Jesus Fellowship as “a precious gem”.

Some 200 Fellowship members are committed to celibacy, plus a further 100 or so probationers. There have been instances where committed celibates have subsequently entered into married life within the Jesus Fellowship, but this is not taken lightly. Such a step can involve sanctions such as having one’s leadership responsibilities reduced. Noel Stanton, the Jesus Fellowship’s original leader, was himself a celibate, and the senior leadership of the church is made up of roughly 50 per cent celibates and 50 per cent who are married.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Army

    “And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.” Psalms 90:17.   Charles William Eliot, former president of Harvard University- - had a birthmark on his face that bothered him greatly.   As a young man, he was told that surgeons could do nothing to remove it. Someone described that moment as “the dark hour of his soul.”   Eliot’s mother gave him this helpful advice: “My son, it is not possible for you to get rid of that hardship… But it is possible for you, with God’s help, to grow a mind and soul so big that people will forget to look at your face.”   It’s true! All of us have things we’d love to change about our bodies. And many of us tend to spend an awful lot of time and money trying to change, fix and cover those things up.    When we are shining for the Lord- I don’t believe anyone sees them!   Do you really want to make a drastic difference in your appearance today?   Let’s stop focusing on our outward issues today, - and start focusing on what really counts, - walking uprightly and wholeheartedly with the Lord - a spiritual extreme makeover!   We will glow like never before! 100% guaranteed!

If you are blessed by this devotional,please forward it to your friends or send us their email addresses that we may send them My Manna.If you want us to pray for any need,please join our prayer group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/myprayergroups/ If you need prayer or personal counsel come to skype at:  my-manna

Nevertheless he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will keep his virgin, doeth well. -1 Corinthians 7:37 (Read all of 1 Corinthians 7)

Regarding “The Mastery”, the apostle Paul writes “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.” (1Corinthians 9:24-26)
Augustine prayed, and we should too, “O Lord, grant that I may do Thy will as if it were my will, so that Thou mayest do my will as if it were Thy will.” And like he did we should strive to achieve that harmony of wills between ourselves and God. Without “The Mastery”, though, it is impossible to achieve!
Proverbs 25:28 and 16:32 says, respectively, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. [and] He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.”
Ultimate Mastery is almost equivalent to Ultimate Monasticism, for as Paul wrote regarding “The Mastery” and Marraige, “For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if they remain even as I am; but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.”
(1Corinthians7:7-9)
Paul goes on to reveal the 8 elements that precede and contribute to Total Mastery [Temperance/Self-Control]: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering [patience], gentleness [kindness], goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance [self-control]: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
(Galatians5:22-25)
The Apostle Peter adds, “And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;  And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.  For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2Peter1:5-8)
Yet, in conclusion, we must not be hard on ourselves. As Paul wrote,
“Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” (Romans 14:22-23)