An addiction like no other, only broken in Jesus.

This is a sermon by Mark Driscoll, one of my heroes of the pulpit. He speaks on the dangers of porn and the reality of what it is in our culture and day and age. I spoke this last weekend on the issue of porn as an addiction and a form of bondage that can only be broken in Christ knowing that we were bought with a price, we are not our own, so we must glorify God with our bodies. Enjoy.

Harvest Bible Chapel Spring Lake: Ants, Cement, and the Glory of God displayed

Harvest Bible Chapel Spring Lake: Ants, Cement, and the Glory of God displayed: If you know me, you know that I'm a huge fan of anything that shows the complexity and design of creation by our awesome, and all powerful G...

Why I Support the KONY 2012 Movement

If you haven't seen the Kony 2012 movie yet, please watch it and then you'll see why I'm in support of making a world criminal famous. Here is the movie made by Invisible Children INC.    
One of the things that hurts my heart ever since the day I first landed in Africa in 2005 was the amount of orphaned children running around.  They ran around with pot-bellies from the lack of protein in their diet. They ran around barefoot in the dusty and broken glass filled streets. They would literally pick mud balls off of the termite mounds and eat them because of the nourishment that the termites left in creating their mounds. The conditions that these kids lived in were horrendous. Many, if not all of them were orphans and the women of the villages would just care for whoever was in their home. The children were everywhere! And they would beg and plead for you to take them with you back to America. It was HEART-BREAKING. In 2007, I had the opportunity to do a similar trip back to Africa, this time centralized in Uganda. I had a camera, and I would take pictures of the faces of these beautiful children. Below are a couple examples of these pictures.  I never wanted to forget the faces of these children because they were a constant reminder to me of the pain in the world as a result of sin.
Were these children suffering because of their sin? Probably not. But they were suffering because sin entered this world and had ravaging effects throughout the generations. In Uganda, we saw many children whose parents were killed as a result of Joseph Kony and his child army. We didn't know it at the time, but the war that was happening in that land, even while we were there, was because of this man Joseph Kony and his abducting children to be sex slaves and warriors for his own gain and power.

My reason for joining in this movement is not because it's a Christian movement. Invisible Children INC. does not claim to be a Christian organization, nor do I believe it would have the same effect in our world if it were to claim to be Christian. The truth of this movement is that it hits on a nerve in every HUMAN that says murder, slavery, sexual exploitation, and abduction of innocent children is wrong. What this movement is doing is proving that there is an inherent morality in all humans that says that Joseph Kony is vile and doing evil things. This inherent morality in humans was given to us by God. In fact, it is a proof of the existence of God that atheists cannot account for. It's called the Moral Argument, and if you are struggling with doubt about if God is out there, google this argument and compare it with the 10 commandments that God has given us in his TRUE and perfect Word.

My reason for joining this movement is because I have a holy anger against anyone who would abuse a child.  I have a holy anger against anyone who would abduct a child and put them into sex slavery. I have a holy anger against anyone who would abduct a child, brainwash them into a killer, and force them to kill their parents and family.  I have a holy anger against anyone who sticks their middle finger up to a Holy and Righteous God in their pursuit of personal power and glory at others expense.

I also have a faith in a righteous, sovereign, and just God who will have his way with Joseph Kony ultimately, that is, unless he repents and gives his life to Christ.
WHAT!?!?!?!? CHRIS!? YOU'D WANT THIS GUY TO BE SAVED AFTER ALL HE'S DONE?!

yes...    This is not my flesh speaking, mind you.  My flesh want's this guy to burn.  But my transformed heart of flesh that God gave me from a heart of stone longs for this guy to see Jesus.  I may not have killed people.  I may not have abducted children.  I may not have sold young girls into sex slavery.  But I do know that my sin merits the exact same punishment that Joseph Kony deserves. But what I also know is that I serve a God of GRACE who in spite of my wickedness and sin sent his Son Jesus to die and take on my sin on the cross.  Jesus suffered the wrath that Kony deserves, the wrath that I deserved IN MY PLACE.  That's the gospel folks.

I believe that my God's grace can even extend to Joseph Kony and I would love to see that be the end of this horrible story.  Keep in mind that Paul was like Joseph Kony before Jesus stopped him in his tracks on the road to Damascus and said, "Saul, why do you persecute me?"  We all are like Joseph Kony APART from a relationship and trust in Jesus Christ taking our sin away with his perfect sacrifice.

So why do I support the Kony 2012 movement? Because I want this guy to be stopped, and I want the rest of the people on the International Criminal list stopped. But I want people through this movement to question where their hope can ultimately be held.  In a fallen world hope can be put in the hands of a government that tries to stop people like Joseph Kony, but you will ultimately be disappointed sometime along the way.  In a fallen world hope can only be held securely in Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins by the shedding of his blood for us.  It is my hope that through this movement people find their hope in Jesus, and that pastors and Christians alike will use the vileness of Joseph Kony as an example of a sinner that STILL has a chance for forgiveness.

We need to step out of our flesh and into the sovereignty of God and pray that this man is stopped, but also that he might see the error of his way and repent.  There will still be the earthly consequence of his sin, but even Kony can find forgiveness in Jesus Christ. If we struggle with this thought, we need to give our lives a reality check about our sin, and realize that ALL SIN grieves the heart of God, and small or big, our sin separates us from God apart from Christ.  This is a sobering thing that forces us to rely on a gracious God, and not our own strength and understanding. That is my prayer for this movement.

Professional Grade Church Livestreaming on a Budget

The only addition to this photo that wasn't mentioned in
this blog is the audio/midi interface underneath the
Ultramatch Pro which is used for video/audio editing
and is not needed for video broadcasting.

A little more than a year ago I was one of 3 pastors planting a church in Spring Lake, MI.  We started with a core team of about 50-70 people. A year and a half later we are now bursting at 300-350 on an average weekend.  God is good! With that came the fluke scenario of my sister, being the wife of one of the other pastors, being put on bed-rest because of her pregnancy. She came to me and said, "Chris, I don't want to miss church! Is there possibly a way that I could watch the service live?" I knew there were websites like livestream.com or ustream.com that accomplish this very thing, but how to do it for our church was a different story.  That next week, I simply turned my macbook backward toward the stage of our church and logged into ustream.com and posted the link on our facebook page so my sister could watch the service.  The quality was horrendous and the sound was not good, but she was able to be part of the service, in the comfort of her bed-rest situation.  Fast forward a couple weeks, a couple starts coming to our church and decides it to be their church home.  We asked, "how did you hear about us?"and they said, "we moved into the area recently and looked online for some nearby churches and found the link to your live feed on a sunday morning and decided from watching the service online that we wanted to be part of this church..."  I then had a conversation with my pastor about the possibility of putting some money into it because it could potentially be a big ministry arm of our church.  He agreed and we bought a better camera and a computer designated to this specifically.  Well, as the next year went by, we were broadcasting our services and then a women's bible study on tuesdays that then would be available throughout the rest of the week for ladies to review the material with. We went from a backward macbook to now a team of 5 using 2 cameras and a professional video switching controller.
I know what you're thinking, "well you must have an awesome budget."  Well, I don't really have a set budget right now because of our growth determining the rate and quality of things spent.  So we have put more money into this, seeing it as an important part of our ministry, however that didn't mean I wanted to go crazy and spend 10-20k on a system.  This blog is for you to benefit from as either a big or small church looking to dive into the realm of livestreaming and video recording your services. What used to cost into the 10's of thousands of dollars now can be accomplished with professional quality for under 3 thousand. Not to mention the following system that I've designed for our church is extremely user friendly and easy to learn and train people on, even though it is a multi camera setup. I hope this is helpful for anyone in a church production team looking to expand without breaking the bank.

Here is the price list of a system that when connected together correctly will achieve a live broadcast for your church of professional quality:

• 1 ATEM Television Studio (Information) (Amazon) $945
• 1 Computer with a good deal of processing and memory power (pricing varies)
•     note: the computer i use for livestreaming at our church is doubled as the video production studio computer and has an 8core processor and 12GB ram.  That much power is NOT needed for this system to work, though is helpful.  If you get a computer that ranges with 4GB ram and a faster processor, quadcore etc. will be fine. 
• 4 HDMI powered inline amplifiers. (the ATEM is finicky over long distance HDMI cables and requires a very good signal, so to have 2 amplifiers connected to each run over 15 ft will help the ATEM get signal up to 100 ft.) (Radioshack)  $80
• 2 Canon VIXIA HF R20 HD camcorders (Amazon) $600
• 1 two channel analog to digital audio converter. Behringer ULTRAMATCH PRO SRC2496
• This is needed incase your soundboard doesn't have an AES output.  Most don't, so this is a $163 solution to this problem which will allow you to connect a R L stereo output direct from your soundboard directly into the ATEM through this converter.  You could also use two separate room mics connected to this if you don't want to go direct from the board. This converts analog audio to digital AES/EBU with an XLR connection output which you will need to convert to a BNC connection with a XLR to BNC transformer $17 (Markertek)
• (B&HPhotovideo) $163
• 1 1080p tv 24" (Amazon) does not need to be fancy, just needs to have an HDMI input. $180

• this is to connect to the ATEM in the multiview hdmi port to see the multi-camera and preview and program screens. 
• 6+ HDMI cables of various lengths.  Amazon sells these cheap. I ordered a 100' HDMI cable which works only with 2 of the above inline amplifiers hooked in. The ATEM is finicky with the HDMI inputs, so the shorter the cable the better, and the longer the run, you will need to amplify it on both ends. $50-100
• 1 BNC cable to connect digital audio signal from Behringer ultramatch to ATEM $5 (Amazon) 
• 1 Professional Surge Protection rack mountable power supply (Amazon) $55

I think that about handles everything.  With the exception of maybe a few misc cables you might need like a USB cable from the ATEM to the computer, this setup has a grand total (minus computer) of $2095. If you have a budget of 3 grand you could get a fantastic computer for around the 800-900 mark. 

Connecting this all together is fairly intuitive.  Run power for everything. Connect the ATEM via USB to the computer.  Connect ATEM via ethernet to the internet (it is controlled via IP address through the computer connected to the same internet source, the software provided helps you set this up). Connect the 22"tv to the multiview HDMI output on the ATEM. Connect the cameras via HDMI cables to the HDMI inputs on the ATEM, and they will appear on the TV screens under cameras 1 and 2.  Connect the Behringer Ultramatch pro via BNC cable to the ATEM AES/EBU input.  Connect via XLR cables the Audio L R from your church soundboard into the Analog inputs on the Behringer. 

Then you can use a free service like www.Livestream.com with their program called "procaster" and it will recognize the ATEM as a certified camera and using the ATEM controller software you can freely and easily mix a professional quality video of your service and stream it live to the world. 


Please feel free to comment if you have any questions or suggestions!  I hope this helps you to be able to expand your ministry, thus expanding the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  That is what all of this technological mumbojumbo is meant to do. I hope that the name of Jesus is exalted as a result of our church broadcasts. 

Kirk Franklin, Blood, and Jehovah's Witnesses (a Rant)

Driving to my office this morning was met with a little praise party in my car.  I was listening to some of the best music, in my opinion, out there: Kirk Franklin, particularly his "Hello Fear" Album. (subscribe to my "Gospel" playlist on www.Spotify.com to listen to it!) As with all things, you must discern the overall message of the song.  Sometimes my boy Kirk get's some flack for SOME of his music being shallow with more emotion than content.  I can agree with that statement with some of his songs, but one thing I'm learning a lot recently is that you can't accurately judge a person by their shadow. I certainly wouldn't want people to say I AM what I was in the past.  All that said, I had the opportunity to meet Kirk and find out that he's the real deal.  And if you know his music as deeply and intimately as I do, you'd notice a refreshing refining of theology in his music throughout his years as an artist.  His latest album, "Hello Fear" is STEEPED in the blood of Christ and the GOSPEL of Jesus as the substitutionary atonement. There is a song (titled: "But the blood")  that has these lyrics, "by the blood, falling on us, but the blood, gives me purpose, but the blood, You are for us, but the blood, Who can be against us?..."  The music, mind you, is getting more and more different from traditional black gospel music, but the message is floating in the blood of Christ.  Which brings up my topic for today.  What's with the Christian's fascination with blood?
I'm not sure if this has ever creeped you out at all about Christianity, and the more I think of it in the literal sense, it is kinda gross but in the spiritual sense it is glorious: without the blood of Christ, we'd be toast!
I'm attempting to read through the bible in 90 days, and so far I'm on track, but getting through Leviticus and Numbers was hard!  One thing I've been reminded of this time around is that the blood of the animal being sacrificed was sacred. God had very specific rules and regulations surrounding the blood of the animals. And when God gives his law, he also mentions that no man should eat the blood of any animal because the "life" is in the blood, "for it is the blood that makes atonement by the LIFE." (Lev 17:11).  And the writer of Hebrews uses this same passage in mind in 9:22 "...without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins."
I like the fact that God uses this imagery of "life" in the blood.  Because that is exactly what we are given through Christ's blood. Jesus is the perfect, spotless, lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (Jn1:29) and His sacrifice on our account is our salvation. The only reason why this can be is because JESUS IS GOD.  GOD HIMSELF sacrificed HIMSELF for us and our atonement from the wrath of HIMSELF because of OUR sin!
When the priests in the Old Testament would take the blood of the atonement and "throw" it on the people, the same thing happens with us with Christ's blood. Christ's blood, like the song said above, "fallen on us" is our atonement!
But here's the clincher, the blood hasn't fallen on you if you don't believe you need forgiveness. The blood means nothing to you if you don't think you are a sinner. The blood means nothing to you even if you "believe in Jesus and that he died on a cross somewhere" but don't believe that He's GOD himself.
One last story.
This last week, I had two Jehovah's Witnesses knock on the door.  My wife went down and then came back up and said, "you're going to have to take this one." So I talked with them at the door.  "You're a bible reader?"  Me: "yes, I'm a pastor I love to read the bible." Then they said something about Abraham, and I returned with something about how they are Mormon (though I knew they weren't) and they were like, "Oh we're not Mormon! We're Jehovah's Witness... You're Christian right?"  Me: "yes, I am"  Them: "Oh! We are too! We believe in Jesus!"  Me: "But do you believe he is God?"  Them: "Uh.. no He's not God,  He's the son of God.." Me: "No, He IS God... and because you just said that, I'm not interested in hearing any more from you.." And with relief in their voices they said, "Ok well you have a good day!"
I want to say this as delicate as I can, many people in this world can say and in truth that they believe in Jesus and even that he historically died on a cross somewhere in the middle east.  BUT the way of truth is narrow and it is in the fact that Jesus IS God that will trip people up, and that God himself had to die BECAUSE of them!  And it was the blood of God himself that had HIS LIFE in it that falls on the true believer.  That is the only way of salvation. By the blood of Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, God Himself.
Please don't gloss over the gloriousness of Christ's blood today shed for you! And maybe if you're reading this today and never really thought about the importance of Jesus as God himself and his blood was shed for you, I urge you to believe that with all of your heart and rejoice today in your salvation! If that's you, please find a bible believing church to get connected and pursue your new relationship with Christ and fellowship in the body of Christ!
Have a great day!

"Tebowing" doen't make Tebow a Christian

I was in my bowling league last night (please take this moment to laugh and then read on), and the guys on my team know that I'm a pastor and often times they'll do things that they think will "please" me because I'm a "man of the cloth," as they say. I like bowling, but the reason why I joined this league was not to boost my average, but to live on mission and join a random group and show them the love of Jesus. I've had some great conversations around the table between frames with these guys. I'm not trying to force feed the bible down their throats, but more so hoping that they see that a true Christian can actually be a fun and cool guy.
In our culture, the "bible bubble," or "bible belt" as West Michigan has been called, has really perfected the art of polarization of so-called "believers" with the so-called "pagans."  Kids often grow up with the false notion that it is sinful to be in the presence of non-christians.  So we put our kids through Christian schools, we put them in Christian daycares, we have them make a list of their "approved" Christian friends that they are allowed to hang out with, and in all good intentions think we are growing our kids to be "good" Christians. The truth is, all of those things, though very good, don't make anyone or any kid a "Christian" any more than the act of "Tebowing" makes Tebow a Christian.
My teammate last night decided that after he got a strike that he would "Tebow."  And he did, and everyone looked at him, and he looked at me with the face of, "yea! you like that right?! right?! that's cool for you right? You want me to do this cause your a pastor right!?"  He genuinely wasn't trying to make fun of me, but in sincerity was trying to "please" me with his "christianeze" gesture.  When actually, he was just making a fool out of himself.
Let me pause and say this, I am a big Tebow fan. I have nothing wrong with the guy, and I very much appreciate that he "Tebows" still to this day and probably for his career. Why? Because he IS a Christian. I know that not because he "Tebows" but because his testimony is lifting high the name of Jesus and when given platform at press conferences, he uses that opportunity to glorify God and thank Jesus for taking his place on the cross.  Tebow is a Christian because he believes the Gospel, and as an outpouring of his heart and love of Jesus, he "Tebows."
The bible talks about "white washed tombs" (Matt 23:27) as those Pharisaical people who have made everything on the outward of their lives look perfect and "christian" yet are just fresh paint on a dead body. You aren't Christian because you are a good person or do "Christian" things, you are a Christian if you believe that Jesus died in your place because of your sin!
So in my bowling league, I'm hoping to show these guys that I'm not a whitewashed tomb, but rather that I'm a new creation because of what Jesus has done in his sacrifice for my sin. That I'm a broken man in the process of eternal healing through Christ's sanctification. That I'm NOT perfect, but forgiven.  I'm growing some good relationships with these guys and what used to be entire nights without one mention of God's word has now turned into at least one maybe two different conversations about what the one guy's female pastor talked about and where she found that in the bible (as an example) or the other guy, last night, who was talking about how he really liked Revelation, and actually KNEW that it correlated with the book of Daniel! Who knew!? The guys I bowl with have the appearance of religion but I pray that the gospel would impact their hearts in a powerful way, it if hasn't already.

A Letter to a Porn Addict

Disclaimer: The subject manner of this blog is spoken of very directly. It is also a very long blog; you may want to find a time suitable to read in one sitting. Thanks!

Friends, if you were to tell me that going into ministry would mean countless situations where I would have to counsel, sometimes emergency counseling at an ungodly time of night, people who are stricken with guilt, fear, and addiction to sex, I wouldn't have believed you.  Well, I would be lying if I said that that statement weren't true.  Just like Joseph at the end of Genesis (50:19-21) talking to his brothers saying, "you meant to harm me with this, but God meant it for good so that MANY people would be saved..." (paraphrase). I'm finding myself put in the same situation.  I have been counseling, as of late, MANY young men between the age of 14-19 on the issue of sexual purity.  These young men, by their own admission, cannot control themselves in looking at pornography, going too far with their girlfriends, or even the silent killer ("shhh don't talk about it!") masturbation.  To say that at their age, I didn't struggle in one form or another in the area of purity would be a big lie. And I had spent many days with a guilt that weighed so heavy on my heart and listening to the lies that Satan tells you about your worthlessness and weakness.  If you don't believe me, ask my dad, he was the best counselor that I had going through this season as a young man. (DAD'S DON'T MISS THAT SENTENCE).  I remember days where because of this hidden sin in my heart I honestly would believe the lie, from Satan, that God had given up saving me because of this sin.   

Why would I be transparent about this? Why would I step out on this limb as a pastor and say I went through this? Here's the reason. I think we have gone far enough in our "christian bubbles" emasculating our congregations by accepting this sin and not dealing with it, not speaking into it, and not educating and challenging our young people about it.  Is it happening in some situations? Certainly! And I thank God for those situations, but I have recently seen and have been able to prove that the area of sexual purity in our contemporary time is not "a" issue, but "the" issue for young men. 

Another reason why I am transparent about this is because this issue was something Satan meant to harm me, but God, in his grace, has turned around and because of my testimony and deliverance through Jesus' sacrifice and the power of the Holy Spirit in defeating temptation, He now uses for good so that many young men can be challenged and hopefully transformed by the Word of God in my testimony. 

So with that said, I've written many letters, like the one below, to many young men when I have been approached by them to help them with this major problem in their lives. Dads out there with young sons in this age range who don't even know where to begin, feel free to copy this letter and personalize it and give it to your boy(s). I cannot stress enough that DADS NEED to be more present in their sons lives about this sin problem. 

Dear _______________,

What you have told me took a lot of courage to do.  To come out and say #1 I'm struggling, and #2 I need help is a very good first step in defeating this sin.  I want to warn you though, from this point on, you've just waged war with the enemy because you want to put to death an idol in your heart that was successfully taking your worship away from Jesus.  Satan and his army are going to be firing their arrows at you pretty strong now and you need to realize that you are not without protection and an arsenal to defend and attack. The word of God is going to be your best weapon against the temptations of Satan to get you to fall back into this sin.  Psalm 119: 9 says, "How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your (God's) word." I know that reading the bible regularly is probably a foreign concept to you, if you were to be honest, but you need to know that the bible is not just a book, it is the very word of God that Hebrews says is "sharper than a double edged sword piercing to the division of joint and marrow..." It acts as a mirror to your heart to reveal the sin and clutter that is preventing Christ from having full reign over your life.  Sin is revealed and then needs to be repented of. God's word is powerful to do that.  God's word is also (John 1) Christ himself. Jesus IS the word of God and the fact that Jesus is your savior from sin should spark in you the logical conclusion that you need God's word to help resist and defeat sin in your life.  When Christ died and rose from the dead taking away the wrath of God against the sin of those who believe in Jesus, we sometimes forget that he ROSE FROM THE DEAD! Death was defeated, the snare of sin is defeated! See, we do not have to be, as believers of Jesus, under the control of sin any longer! 1 Corinthians 15 says, 

• ""Death is swallowed up in victory," "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ..."  (15:54b-57)

My first challenge to you in this sin problem of yours is to defeat the ultimate heart issue that you have in the fact that you have an idol that you are worshiping more than Jesus Christ. That should scare you because you are saying you are a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, yet this sin has control over you. 

To combat idolatry you turn to your savior Jesus.  I don't want you to just read the bible and think you are doing something magical that will help you in this.  I want you to "spend time" with your SAVIOR. Spend time with Jesus daily! When you spend time with a good friend, you don't hang out with just enough time to read them a paragraph of information and then leave thinking you are a great friend. SPEND TIME having a relationship with your savior Jesus Christ. Surround yourself with reminders of who He is and God's grace in your life and revel in the joy that is to be had in a relationship with him that is more than just reading your chapter a day.  

Ok, can I throw a flag of foul? I addressed the most significant problem that you have in this sin. The problem is, "idolatry" is ultimately the root of all sorts of different sins.  However, YOU are stuck in SEXUAL sin. And because you are stuck in sexual sin, you need a little more convincing and the fog cleared up to realize that this is indeed an idol in your life.  I can tell you that you have an idol, but you ultimately probably won't truly understand it until you recognize the consequence of this particular idol.  See, because idols have two forms of consequences, spiritual and worldly.  The spiritual consequence of this sexual idol that you have in your heart is happening already and you are just starting to realize it: your heart is turned from worship of Jesus to the worship of self gratification and entitlement which is numbing you to the work of the Holy Spirit in your life.  You are quenching the spirit because you are consistently giving in to the temptation to look at porn, to masturbate, to go too far with your girlfriend, etc. Quenching the Spirit is deliberately going against the wisdom of your conscience saying, "don't do this!!! this isn't honoring the Lord!!! Stop!! don't go on!!"  The ultimate consequence of quenching the Spirits warning in your life is the possibility that you will be so scaring your ability to hear the Spirit's warning that the Lord, like he did in Romans 1 to those who were being sexually immoral, will "give you up to the desires of your flesh..." I don't think you want this to happen, but I also don't think you understand how serious that consequence to this sin is.  So let me run you through some consequences and implications of this sin that you may be convinced by. 

When you look at and access porn on the internet, you are supporting an industry in America that is responsible for putting young women and even children of both sexes against their will into a forced and filmed lifestyle of sex.  This is called sex slavery, and it happens in America every day. Every day thousands of young girls and boys are being forced into the porn industry because of the demand that is created and the money to be made by their pimps, EVEN by the free stuff. By watching porn on the internet, YOU now have the guilt on your hands of supporting this underground sex trade in America. You think this sin is harmless, that no one is being affected by it, that this is only YOUR business? Think again. You now have on your internal resume a line that says, "contributed to the sex trade in America."

How about this one, on the pornography subject still. You will probably go to college and spend thousands upon thousands of your parent's money to get a degree and go into a field of work that can make you money to live comfortably when you're older.  Now money isn't everything and it is an idol in and among itself often times, but almost every creditable organization or corporation that you are probably looking to work for and cash in your hard earned degree has a NO TOLERANCE policy to porn on the work computer.  Which means that if you have so much as a source of porn on your computer at work, you could be fired on the spot! And guess what, that shows up on your record and possibly, depending on the situation, put you on the regional sexual offenders list.  Worth it? 

Let's get real and talk about the more addicting of the problems that your facing right now.  Chances are, you could turn off the computer and go cold turkey on the porn thing, but your left with a physiological problem now of your body so used to what you were probably doing while looking at Porn. Masturbation is an action that spurs on a feeling and a mental scenario that is actually placing you, in your imagination, inside the scenario that you are watching. When you pull the plug on the computer and are left with only your imagination, you think you've forgotten those images and scenarios that you succumbed yourself to? No.  So in essence, masturbation, even without images, is a porn source for you. And it is often the harder of the two addictions to kick.  

When it comes to masturbating you need to realize two things.  One, in doing so, you are stealing from your future wife. What you are doing while masturbating is saying to God, "I know you have a time frame for this thing called sex, and I know ONLY your ways are perfect, but I want to be impatient and experience what you meant for me to experience and find more joy in with my future wife." The common misconception is that if, as a young man, you don't masturbate, you won't have an avenue for the "release of sexual tension."  What isn't told you by those advocators is that physiologically, the more your body is released of its sperm supply, the more your body is conditioned to produce it and at higher volumes.  So, in essence, by "releasing your sexual tension" you are actually creating a greater one! Ok, Chris, what the heck? How will this tension go away then? You think God doesn't have an answer to this? He does, and chances are, because of the severity of this issue, you may have never experienced one of these.  God's NATURAL and planned way to relieve a young man of his sexual tension is through nocturnal emission. When you wake up at night thinking you peed your bed, it's really God's way of being faithful to his sexual plan for you to WAIT until your married. Yes, this is awkward to talk about, but if you don't man up and get past the awkwardness, you're going to subject yourself to guilt that can be devastating. 

The question I know you are thinking at this point is probably this, "Wait, is masturbating ok if I'm not going through a scenario that is pornographic in my head?" My answer to this is probably obvious. Is it possible to masturbate as a young man without those pictures and images in your head? The answer is probably 95% no.  For the other 5% you need to realize another facet of masturbation that has convinced me that it is indeed something that you shouldn't do and probably sinful in itself. When God talks about immorality in the Bible, like Romans 1 for example, he uses the term "unnatural" to describe the relations and actions that are being done. In God's created order, there are NATURAL processes, and if something is unnatural, it is often opposing to the Lord.  Look at the example in Romans 1 where God gave them up to the desires of their flesh because the men were relating with other men in an unnatural way: homosexuality. In law (Leviticus for example) homosexuality is said to be an "abomination" to the Lord and was worthy of death. Why? because it is, in the most direct way, in opposition to the NATURAL way of God's created order! Now, let me ask you this.  Is masturbation a heterosexual or homosexual action? 

OUCH!!  If you're thinking, "obviously it's heterosexual because in my head is a heterosexual scenario," my next question is this, "ok, well then, what parts are you actually playing with?" 

Masturbation, as an action of itself is a homosexual action. You are by definition having sex with yourself ("homo" = same).  

If you look at the influx of young people in current time who are coming "out of the closet" as homosexual, you look back,  and see a generation that was spoon fed "for the sake of "safe sex" you need to explore yourself sexually and thus prevent the possibility of having a baby that you weren't planning on..." Please note, this isn't a scientific fact, only a logical observation. Are there more people saying they are homosexual because they have been convinced over their pubescent years to be comfortable and actually prefer to have sex with themselves and their own sexual organs that they now want to cohabit and have sex with their own kind? 

What you need to understand is that because of sin, our hearts are filthy to the core. But Jesus came to save people like you and me who have made mistakes and are sinful. But to take hold of the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat this sexual sin in your life is not going to be easy, and will require sacrifice. You need to realize that you have this sin problem, and you need to realize the idol that is trying to kick Jesus off the throne.  God is not up there with a scowl on his face about ready to throw a lighting bolt and finish you off right now or every time you've failed!  Sure, sin grieves the heart of God but he is a God of grace who looks down on his most grand creation and says, "come back!! Let me pick you up! Let me dust off the dirt, let me put salve on your wound, let me HEAL YOU!!!" When God sent his son to die on the cross for you, he COMPLETED what he said he was going to do.  And you NEED to believe that Jesus took your place on the cross because of this and the rest of the sin in your life.  And when you understand and believe that Jesus is your Savior, the guilt is lifted away and the flood of forgiveness washes over you! What an amazing God we have who is willing to do this freely!

I do have to make this point however, because I know your head is going there.  "If he always forgives, then why can't I keep this sin that I cherish so much knowing that he is just going to keep forgiving and by doing so make his grace for me more famous!?" Romans 6 says, "Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound? By no means! who have we who have died to sin to still live in it?" Don't suck the blood out of the hand that feeds you! God is gracious yes, but are you proving that you believe that Christ really died for your sin if you are still actively pursuing your sin? I'll let you answer that one. 

I want to finish with the promise that God gives us in 1 Corinthians 10:13-15:

• No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
• Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. I speak as to sensible people; judge for yourselves what I say.
• (1 Corinthians 10:13-15 ESV)

Can you come to your senses today and see that the grace of God through Jesus Christ has the power to save you even from this awful sin? I'm spoken very direct to you today because I love you and don't want to see you hurt severely from this sin. I want you to see that you can have freedom in your relationship with Jesus and look at this sin as a thing of the past.  It's going to take some hard work and sacrifice, but I know you can do it, and I'm here to help you stay on track. I pray that you will hear my words sincerely and respond to the conviction of God through them. 

Sincerely,

Chris