Enough of This, More of That

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There are good reasons not to look at porn:

  • Porn is addictive—it literally changes the brain so the brain wants more porn.
  • Porn treats women (and men too) like objects to be used and then forgotten.
  • And porn hides the truth about the damage it does to its actors and actresses.

None of these sets you up for healthy relationships, let alone a healthy marriage. None of these sets you up for healthy singleness.

But none of these “why not’s” is as powerful as our main “why.” The reason Regeneration’s team does what we do is this: You’re made for Love. Real love. Love that satisfies. Love that lasts. Love that gives. Love that creates.

God put desire in all of us—a restless discontent even—so we’d search for this kind of love. And this kind of Lover.

Porn hijacks this desire and steers it like an out of control car through a museum. As a society, we’ve given porn enough time to prove its value. We’ve given it enough of a shot to see if it could bring us the kind of sexual freedom it touts.

It hasn’t given us freedom. It’s made us its slaves. It hasn’t improved our relationships, it’s isolated us. It hasn’t made us feel better about ourselves, it’s poured on the shame. The way I see it, porn means to take everything from us.

So do whatever it takes to steer clear of porn, help your kids steer clear of porn. And if you’re already struggling with porn, do whatever it takes to gain and maintain freedom.

Because you, you’re made for honor, for beauty, for joy, for freedom, for laughter, for life, for love.

Question: What else are you made for that porn promises to deliver but doesn’t?

After more,
Josh

Thanks For Reading.

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2 comments

Leave a Reply to Pat Cancel reply

  • In the cool evening of our autumn equinox, I walked from my house down toward the lake adjoining my neighborhood, but was detained in a conversation on the street with a neighbor who was retrieving his emptied trash cans from the curb.

    We had first met each other in our neighborhood church a while back, but naturally, we had since forgotten one another’s names. But David graciously re-introduced himself to me and then proceeded to tell me of his miraculous recovery from near-death by a brain aneurysm two years ago, in the summer of 2013. And then I recalled: he had actually told me that story before, when we had first met a few months ago, but the repetition didn’t matter, because a really good story–especially if it’s about the power of God’s healing redemption–is always worth retelling and listening to again.

    I had no equally dramatic story of mine to share with my neighbor, but I did recall that it was exactly two years today that I took a most unexpected ambulance ride from my workplace, which soon led to a diagnosis that turned out to be not imminently life-threatening, but certainly life-changing. You see, in a years-long pattern of trying to mask and medicate my grief, sadness, loneliness, anger and fear, instead of properly facing those things with Jesus, I had managed to excessively drink my way into a balance deficit which literally rocked my world and introduced me to a new life of walking with a cane, so that I could keep the remaining balance that I had left.

    Come to think of it, there I was, repeating that same story for the umpteenth time myself. But that didn’t really matter, did it? What actually mattered is that here were two men in very different sets of circumstances, who had both received an extraordinary measure of God’s grace, and who were each trying in his own way to give that grace back to others who were as just as needy and broken as we were.

    It was also one year ago this week that I began my Living Waters pilgrimage during the academic year of 2014 and 2015. I am so grateful for what I learned with my fellow pilgrims in that challenging course of redefining relationship, and for what I have continued to learn since then.

    Yes, you are absolutely right. Love is what we were fearfully and wonderfully made for, by the hand of Love Himself. “I love to tell the story, ’twill be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story, of Jesus and his love.”

  • My goodness! Both the blog and the response from Sept. 24 were so beautifully moving! Thank you, Josh and Weber. We were designed for love by Love itself. And each day He lavishes love on us in so many ways. Thank you both for drawing this to my attention this morning!

By Josh Glaser

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