Daily Devotional for Thursday October 11, 2007
Pornography
(Matthew 5:28; Colossians 3:5; 1 John 2:16)
Question. Have you looked at pornography in the past 24 hours? How about in the past 24 minutes? It is NO ACCIDENT you are reading this message today! God is speaking to you!
If there was ever a guy who belonged in jail, it is Joe Francis, the infamous founder of the Girls Gone Wild pornographic videos. Sadly, in this nation they don't put people in prison for poisoning minds and hearts, but earlier this year Francis was in jail on contempt of court charges stemming from a civil lawsuit for using under age girls in his videos, and has subsequently been indicted for failure to pay over $20 million in taxes. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!
The reality is, Francis' legal problems stem from his ego and pride more than anything else. He will settle the civil case he was being held on, settle an incident he had while in jail for being in possession of contraband (his business partner smuggled in a bottle of water, cash, and some sleeping pills), and he will write a check to the IRS to clear up his tax issues. You see, Francis has the money to buy the best lawyers and pay his way out of these current legal problems. He has made that money by being a big contributor over the last 10 years to the ever growing porn monster in this nation with his popular Girls Gone Wild video series.
The Girls Gone Wild video series grosses $40 million a year in sales. FORTY MILLION! There is virtually no production costs since these videos are nothing more than a single video camera filming young girls on Spring Break, in nightclubs, at places like Mardis Gras, exposing their breasts and bodies for the camera. They pay the girls nothing so the only real costs involved are tied up in the marketing of these videos to consumers. The ironic thing is the target audience for this garbage are middle age men, many who have daughters the age of the girls in the videos.
I'll never forget 4 years ago I received an email from a man who was struggling with an addiction to porn. He emailed me that the last straw for him was sitting down one night to watch a Girls Gone Wild video, when all of a sudden on the screen...was his daughter! He told me that as he sat there frozen, seeing his daughter expose her body for the camera, all he could think about were the tens of thousands of men who would watch that video, looking at his little girl as nothing more than a sex object. It took that experience for this man to come under the conviction he needed to take a stand and fight his addiction to pornography.
Pornography is a problem many men, AND women have battled for a long time. With the advent of the Internet, it has made accessibility to pornography incredibly easy, and has now become a very real societal problem. As with all problems in society, many Christians also end up caught in the traps the enemy has laid to destroy people's lives. Let me say up front, DO NOT underestimate the destructive power of pornography. Like all sin, it starts almost innocently, but always escalates. One day you are browsing through X-rated pictures, and the next you are actually involved in a real physical relationship. One day you are chatting with someone, the next your chat becomes more graphic, and then you are actually sitting next to them. Like all sin, there is a seductiveness that eases you into it, and one day you wake up and you are in total bondage to that sin.
The reason pornography is a sin is because God's plan for sex is ONLY for marriage, and with your spouse. Our sexual thoughts are to be only about that person God gives us to share our life with. ALL other thoughts are impure. Fantasies take our mind to places they shouldn't be going. Even if we never act on them. Jesus said, "If you lust in your heart, you have already committed the sin." Is that a high standard? Yes! But God has called us to live at a high level in our life. We are to live above the low standards of this world. We are to find our sexual satisfaction in the mate God gives us to share our life with. That means very simply this. First of all, if you are NOT married, you need to keep your thoughts pure and save not only your body, but your MIND for the one God has for your life. If you are married, your sexual thoughts and activities are to be ONLY with your husband or wife. Anything else is not God's plan and is sin.
Now that we know what God expects, let's talk about real life. There is to be NO compromise. This is what God expects from us. Now, how do we get to that point. The best case is you are still young, have not been exposed to pornography, you have the warning of this message to guard yourself against it. For those who have been exposed in the past to pornography, the key is to "renew your mind" and flush it out. We do that each day using the spiritual detergent of God's Word. Stay away from porn and guard your thought life.
Of course, there are those who are currently involved in pornography at some level. It is bondage. Before you can get victory over it, you have to want to quit. Once you get to that point, you must realize it is a battle. Like any battle, to see victory you need a battle plan. You need one or several people in your life to be accountable to. You need the strength each day only the Lord can give you. There is victory over pornography just like any other sin if you really WANT victory.
***IT IS NO COINCIDENCE THAT YOU ARE READING THESE WORDS TODAY. SATAN WANTS TO DESTROY YOUR LIFE. GOD IS SPEAKING TO YOU NOW TO DEAL WITH THIS ISSUE BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE. IF YOU DON'T, IT WILL DESTROY YOUR RELATIONSHIPS, IT WILL RUIN YOUR FUTURE, AND IT CAN LITERALLY KILL YOU. DEAL WITH IT NOW!!!
I love you and care about you so much. I will be praying for you. I realize this is hitting home with many of you. Let it be a special tap on the shoulder from God that NOW is the time to deal with this issue in your life. It isn't going to change until you decide to change. As you know, any time we pervert the original plan of God, things never really work. We always get cheated out of the best God has for us when we settle for what the world offers. You can only know the true blessings of God, the fullness of what life can give, when we are in His will, living life His way.
Please take a moment and pray for Joe Francis. Pray that through all he is going through in his life right now, he will open his heart to hear God's voice speaking to him. He is obviously a very creative and talented young man. He could use that talent and creativity to do great things for the Kingdom. Pray that he will open his heart to receive Christ's love and turn his heart from this world and destroying people's lives, to Jesus and help save lives!
Since this is such an incredible problem so many face, this Friday, I will be spending several hours praying for those in this bondage to pornography. God is in the deliverance business, and I know that He can deliver you from the bondage of pornography. I will be praying for those people fighting this sin in their life and believing God to touch their heart, bring them under conviction, and help them to have the courage to take the steps necessary to walk away from this sin and live a victorious life. He is able, and can set you free. God is STILL in the deliverance business!!!