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Gospel

November 15, 2018 By K.LeVeq

Wait, I need to tell what??

I think like most others, I tend to camp out in the New Testament. Sorry, Ezra and Nehemiah. Old Testament history can get, well, old! The words of Christ are magnetic. I mean who doesn’t want to dwell on the eternal wisdom Jesus shared with His disciples?

As I try to improve my constant contact with God (love me some step 11!), I have found myself spending a lot of time heeding the advice of my friend and Bible study leader by seeking to understand God’s character in His words. In John 13:35, Jesus reminds His followers to play nice. He tells them: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It reminds me of something my mother would say to me and my brother when we were fighting. “Love each other. One day you may not have anyone else!”

I read those words and put them out of my mind. I mean of course we should love each other. Lines up with what Jesus called the greatest commandment: love God, love your neighbor as yourself. Ok, I got that. Only, Paul had to go and mess it all up for me.

In Romans 10:14-15, Paul wrote: “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” Ok, sounds like the work of preachers and missionaries. Except, Jesus told us in the Great Commission in Matthew 28 to go and tell.

I don’t know why, wait I really do know why, but all those disparate points coalesced in my recent study of Romans. By how we love one another, others will know we belong to Christ. Not will come to Christ…will know we belong to Christ. Jesus told us that wasn’t enough. Go and tell. Paul took it a step further. He reminded us that people need to be told. They need to hear the words, to listen to the Gospel. We must go and tell. Tell the story of Jesus, the Gospel, and how he overcame death and sin and was raised from the dead. And how He saved you and all about your story of recovery and redemption. How he didn’t walk away from me and redeemed me in my addiction and continues to work in my family…all about my story.

So go. Tell. In your work. At your school. To your neighbor. Your co-workers. Your friends. What better way to show your love than to share the Gospel with others. And if you feel safe, share your story of how Christ redeemed you.

Filed Under: Sexual Purity Posts Tagged With: addiction, Gospel, Jesus Christ, recovery, step 11

January 1, 2014 By Castimonia

5 Ways Porn Undermines the Gospel

By Pastor Bernie
Originally posted on March 8, 2013
http://pastorbernie.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/5-ways-porn-undermines-the-gospel/

imgres-2#1 Porn Makes Sex Our Savior
John 3:16-17  tells us that God sent his only Son Jesus into the world to save the world. He is the savior of all mankind. Pornographers inform the culture, and would have us all believe that sex is the new savior of mankind. That while the gospel is good sex is better. Indeed sex is good, and a gift from God, but it was never intended to save us. Sex through pornography “saves” you from feeling powerless, vulnerable, or even impotent. It saves us temporarily from loneliness, rejection, and hopelessness. It can even make us feel worthwhile, valued, and excited. But it can never save us ultimately. Though pornography masquerades as if it can save it is eventually unmasked as woefully insufficient to either satisfy us or save us.

#2 Porn Demands A Performance
Pornography is meant to arouse. It has an end in mind and that is the high of orgasm. But pornography only pays off if you can perform. Either through the fantasy of participating in your mind or through actually living out those fantasies with a willing or unwilling partner. In other words “works” or getting “worked up” is involved in order to experience salvation through porn. Thankfully that isn’t the gospel. The gospel demands our surrender not our performance. We are the beneficiaries of Christ’s work on the cross. After receiving Christ, our performance, or obedience isn’t motivated by what we get at the end. We are empowered by the beauty of God’s grace, forgiveness and sacrifice. We live with anticipation of a relationship throughout eternity with the one who saves us.

#3 Porn Does Not Bring Peace
Rather than peace, pornography leaves us paranoid. Whether its because we’re constantly looking over our shoulder wondering if we’ve been caught looking, anxiously scouring the web for another porn high, or we’re just more self consciousness about how we look or perform, porn steals our peace. Self consciousness becomes all the more acute with pornography. We can’t help but wonder what others are thinking of us. We’ve bought into the lie of the standard of beauty that pornography sets up. A standard of beauty and performance that neither men or women can ever live up to. So we’re left to feel inadequate and unfulfilled. We’re left to constantly compare ourselves to others. But contrast that with the Gospel. With the gospel there is lasting peace because I am identified as God’s beloved child (I John 3:1-2). I can rest securely in his acceptance of me. This removes the pressure to compare, or even covet what others have or to fixate on my own blemishes.

#4 Porn Does Not Satisfy
It is not enough to simply say that “Jesus saves”. I believe it is true, and scripture affirms it. But I also believe for this day and age that the gospel must teach us that Jesus not only saves but he satisfies. Jesus encountered a woman at the well who He knew not only needed a savior, but she longed to fill a deep hunger within. From what we can tell, she had tried unsuccessfully through relationships that seemed to end badly. Christ understood this and let her know that if she drinks the, “living water” that he alone can offer, then she would never thirst again, “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.” (Jn. 4:13-14) We live in a culture drawing from the shallow pool of pornography believing that somehow it will bring peace and fulfillment. In the end though it only leaves us more parched than ever. Christ alone is ultimate, He alone is our answer to the deep longings of our soul. If we are alone, powerless, or insignificant he promises to draw near, empower, and give us a place of honor. The nature of porn is such that it can give us a false sense of fulfillment. Eventually we’ll find our selves spiritually depleted and longing for so much more.

#5 Porn Keeps Sin Alive
Porn is “everywhere” we say, Pamela Paul in her book “Pornified” says it is “omnipresent”. The truth is I know stories of young men raised in decent homes with solid parents. Still, the young men have been overwhelmed by the sheer intrusiveness of porn in our culture. They’ve found themselves caught in the tidal wave of pornographic material available to anyone, and gotten hooked. Porn has become an incessant, unrelenting promotor of sexual sin. Where as scripture calls us to “put to death” sexual sin (Col. 3:5, Rom. 8:12-13) porn keeps sexual sin alive and thriving. The gospel is a message about freedom from sin and sinning. It is about death to sin and a “new life” where sexual sin has been put to death and we pursue, “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”

Filed Under: Sexual Purity Posts Tagged With: addiction, affair, Affairs, anonymous sex partners, call girls, castimonia, christian, escorts, Gospel, gratification, healing, human trafficking, Intimacy, Jesus Christ, lust, masturbation, porn, porn star, pornography, pornstar, pornstars, prostitute, prostitutes, purity, recovery, Sex, sex addict, sex addiction, sex partners, sexual, sexual addiction, sexual impurity, sexual purity, spouses, strippers, trauma

June 7, 2012 By Castimonia

Is America in Danger of Becoming Sodom and Gomorrah?

Awesome video of this past Sunday’s (June 3, 2012) message by Pastor Tim Pepper from The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch, Castimonia’s home church.  He does an amazing job at bringing our sexual impurity to light and explains why Sodom & Gomorrah were really destroyed.  He gives eye-opening statistics on sexual purity issues and even goes on to rebuke Christian anti-gay, anti-sexual impurity rhetoric that has plagued the church.  The church should be the safest place a person struggling with sexual purity should go for help!  His passion on this subject is awesome!  It is the best 45 minutes I have spent in listening to a sermon in church!

“Sex has become bigger than God in our society”
“We are all broken, we are all sexually broken”
– Pastor Tim Pepper

Download the Sermon Notes here: Life Change Sheet PDF

Download the MP3 podcast here: Sodom and Gomorrah Podcast

You may need to right-click on the link above and “save as” to your computer.

Filed Under: Sexual Purity Posts, Videos Tagged With: Abraham, addiction, affair, Affairs, anonymous sex partners, call girls, castimonia, christian, detestable, escorts, Gomorrah, Gospel, gratification, healing, incest, Jesus Christ, Lot, lust, masturbation, porn, porn star, pornography, pornstar, pornstars, prostitute, prostitutes, purity, recovery, Sex, sex addict, sex addiction, sex partners, sexual, sexual addiction, sexual impurity, sexual purity, sodom, strippers

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This site is intended for individuals who struggle with maintaining sexual purity. This information is posted for individuals at various stages in their recovery, year 1 to year 30+; what applies to some, may not apply others. Spouses are encouraged to read this blog with the caveat that they may not agree with, understand, or know the reason for some items posted. As always, take what you like and leave the rest.

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