encourages us:
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
9 (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth),
10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.
11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
The Holy Spirit is present with us, and when we come before God in prayer, we can allow the Spirit to illuminate the areas that are not pleasing to God, convicting us of where we have missed the mark, and confessing our sins before God, so that we can walk in the cleansing power of the blood of Jesus. We have great power to resist temptation, and 1st Corinthians 10 reminds us that God has provided a "way of escape" in order that we might walk free from it - but we have to take that exit ramp so that we do not succomb to those desires.
+++++
The Bible is clear - we are called and empowered to stand strong against sinful behavior, and that includes in the area of sensuality. 1st Corinthians 6 states:
18 Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.
America's Got Talent continues to be a prime-time showcase of various forms of talent, including the recent performance of the band from Jeff Davis High School in Montgomery, which netted positive comments from the judges and a trip to the next round.
The host of the program is actor and former NFL player Terry Crews, who has certainly had an elevated status these days. He, of course, remains the host of America's Got Talent, and has been outspoken with his views on racial issues, some of which are not what are commonly heard from the Hollywood elites and mainstream media, such as CNN, where Crews appeared and sparred with anchor Don Lemon. He also recently criticized supporters of former AGT host Nick Cannon, who had made remarks described as "racist" and "anti-Semitic."
Crews, a professing Christian, not only is calling for racial harmony as he did on the Fourth of July weekend, when he tweeted out, according to CBN.com, that, "he has chosen to 'unite with good people, no matter the race, creed or ideology.'" He is also taking aim at a practice and a product that almost destroyed his life: pornography. Last week, according to The Christian Post:
In a short message posted to his Twitter account on Tuesday, Crews stated his opposition to the widely visited porn website, parodying the radical call to “defund the police.”
“DEFUND PORNHUB,” tweeted Crews, getting as of Thursday morning over 68,000 likes and more than 14,000 retweets and comments.
Crews also tagged the group Fight the New Drug in his tweet. The organization describes itself as a “Non-religious, non-legislative, research-based nonprofit raising awareness on the harmful effects of porn & exploitation.”Dawn Hawkins of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation responded to Crews joining the movement to shut down Pornhub, saying, “It takes courage to publicly state that there are major problems with the largest pornography website’s existence, and we commend Terry Crews for using his influence to call on Pornhub to be defunded...," adding, "Pornhub — which requires no legitimate forms of age-verification from users who are uploading content — ultimately is fueling demand for sexual abuse material and putting lives at great risk. It is past time to shut down Pornhub.”
The Post article reported that in a 2016 video, Crews said: "It changes the way you think about people. People become objects...It affected everything. I didn't tell my wife ... didn't tell my friends. Nobody knew, but the internet allowed that little secret to just stay and grow. It was something that my wife was literally like, 'I don't know you anymore. I'm out of here.'”
In a 2016 article at Crosswalk.com, which quoted from a piece at the Relevant Magazine website, Victoria Neffinger wrote:
Eventually, Crews shared, he reached a low point and realized that he had a serious addiction. He then took the steps necessary to begin recovering. He nearly lost his marriage over his addiction, but his wife chose to stay with him, he says, because he was taking steps to get help and was truly repenting.
But how big a deal is pornography, really? As Christians, we may be more inclined to recognize its harmfulness as Crews does, but many others seem inclined to minimize its power or effect.
Relevant cites a number of studies that showcase porn’s very real and dangerous effects, and also that many seem to be turning a blind eye to them.
One study by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Germany found that porn addiction actually correlates to the decline in the percentage of young men who are getting married. Another study, by Psychology Today, found that nearly 90 percent of men believed watching porn was not wrong, while over 50 percent of women believed the same.The article also relates:
“If day turns into night and you’re still watching, you probably got a problem,” stated Crews, who is known as a “devout Christian” and has described himself as a “servant to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” And, he adds, “That was me.”In my estimation, Terry Crews is someone who definitely wants to use the platform that God has given to him to shine light - to dispel the scourge of pornography, a godless practice that corrupts souls and destroys marriages. He allowed the light in, taking steps to healing, and ended up saving his marriage as the result of his dedication.
Porn has a corrosive effect, but in order to eradicate it, it has to be identified as the sinful menace that it is. That can occur on an individual level and a societal level. Alabama lawmakers, in the shortened 2020 regular session, passed a resolution declaring pornography to be a "public health crisis."
It is critical that sinful desires and actions are called out, that we respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, confess our sins, repent, and take the necessary steps to freedom, including reliance on the principles of God's Word, including meditation on Scripture, as well as prayer for the power of God to enable us to overcome the grip of sins that we have tolerated. Sin, in general, is a daily struggle, but we have God's resources to help us live a life that is consistent with the new identity He has given us - created in righteousness and holiness.
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