I went to a Christmas party on Saturday night. The hosts are old friends of mine, and they’ve hosted the party for many years, so it’s a holiday tradition for me. It’s a fun party, because even though we moved out of the neighborhood 10 years ago, I can still come back to the party and catch up with former neighbors and friends.
I was chatting with a couple of former neighbors who are women, and one of them mentioned that she was reading a very popular women’s fiction series that, by all accounts from people who have been reading it, is highly erotic. It involves sado-masochism. I’m not going to mention the title so that I give the book no additional promotion, but my friend was trying to justify reading it because of the story line. I said to my friend, “Why are you putting that into your brain? Don’t you realize that our brains are just like computers except for one thing? They have no delete key. What you put in stays in.” Then my friend said, “Yes, but I believe in the power of prayer.”
Wow. It’s hard to answer that one without getting into the pulpit. And I didn’t. But the unfortunate thing is that many people live this way. They live a lukewarm faith. They want to feel the freedom to dally in things of the world, but if things get tough, or if they need God, they can call upon Him to fix everything. But heaven forbid He should take away their liberties. What they don’t know is that things like erotica are as good as putting them in shackles. They are the opposite of freedom. Here’s the real truth: erotica and pornography are highly addictive. Here’s what the group, “Fight the New Drug,” which presents information in schools, says about it:
When a person sexually satisfies themselves with porn, the brain releases addictive levels of pleasurable chemicals, like dopamine and oxytocin. Over time, synaptic paths in the brain call out for more and more of this satisfaction.
“A kid who’s addicted to pornography or starts looking at pornography at 13, 14, 15 years old begins this synaptical connection in the brain,” Braner stated. “It’s like a muscle. It’s like working out. It becomes stronger the more you work it.”
The addicted brain then develops stronger cravings for harder stuff to get the same level of satisfaction.
Not only does it act like a drug, but the side effects are devastating. The following is from www.cbn.com:
Studies show it’s making many men and women almost incapable of enjoying sex with their real-life partners.
Pennsylvania psychologist Mary Anne Layden has studied porn addicts for years.
“If they had to choose between an actual sex partner who is in the bed and waiting for them, and going online, they’d go online,” she said.
“There is an increased risk of separation and divorce,” Manning said. “There’s less sensitivity in their marriages. There’s decreased sexual satisfaction and decreased sexual relations.”
And so as women sit in bed and read the erotica, while their husbands may be secretly looking at porn on their computers, their sex lives and their marriages are disintegrating. All under the guise of freedom. All because they prefer to live a lukewarm faith in God, or no faith at all. This is why Jesus said this so passionately:
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I would that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit [literally “vomit”] you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15-16)
Those are strong words from our Savior, because He feels so strongly about it. When we live lukewarm lives in our relationship with Him, it’s as good as living a life utterly cold toward Him, because we leave ourselves open to complete bondage. We keep the door open on a continual basis for Satan to lure us into things that we feel we can handle, because, hey, we’re adults, right? But surely you must know, Satan’s goal is to get us into bondage, to take away all freedom and to ultimately imprison us. To destroy our families, our marriages and our children. But of course, he’ll wrap his game plan up in a nice, alluring package. He’s the nice-looking older gentleman who comes up to the little girl on the sidewalk and tells her that he lost his puppy, and takes her hand, and asks her to help him find it. He’s the beautiful woman in scanty clothing on the sex website that says, “Hey baby, I can take you to paradise.” He’s the “soft porn” novel that everyone’s reading and getting titillated by.
Don’t buy it–literally and figuratively. Stay away, and run as fast as you can toward Jesus. He is freedom.
“If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36)
Stay hot for Jesus. Let your heart burn for Him and His precepts, His word, His love, His presence.
And tell your children. Sit them down and tell them to stay away from pornography. Tell them that it is an actual, physical addiction involving the fusion of synapses in the brain, and that millions today are addicted. It is the “new” drug and it will take them down.
