Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Need For Boundaries

As you are probably aware, I am on a tear right now about men needing to place boundaries around themselves to protect their sexual purity. I have been stressing that we need to have eyes only for our wives.

In Sunday's Dallas Morning News, Steve Blow wrote an article entitled "Web porn behind flood of sex cases." I want to share some of his findings: He states that child sexual exploitation on the Internet is a $20 billion-a-year industry. He asks should we be alarmed by this? "Yes, absolutely," said Dr. Deb Corley. She is founder of Sante Center for Healing, an addiction treatment center in Argyle. She was one of the first therapists in the area to deal with sexual addiction. Statistics are hard to come by, but she sees firsthand the growing devastation of sexual misconduct -- the careers ruined, the marriages destroyed, the arrests and convictions. And she knows what fuels it: Internet pornography.

The stories she hears all start the same: A little dabbling in online porn to relieve boredom or stress. "It's like crystal meth. It's absolutely that addictive," Dr. Corley said. "And it's a slippery slope because once your brain gets tired of looking at whatever you started with, it's going to seek something more novel," she said.

You know, that's the way sin works. James 1: 14-15 says "each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death."

In other words, DON"T DABBLE WITH SIN! It's very formula is to get us to nibble -- and then we're hooked. We need to protect ourselves. Put strong boundaries in place! Don't be Satan's next fatality.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I agree with Josh.

We have done a poor job with accountability and confession.

Maybe it's a cultural thing where we Americans regard privacy as paramount. "It's my right to privacy!" We're so individualistic that we have fooled ourselves into thinking we don't need accountability from our brothers and sisters. Or what's even more foolish, getting tricked into thinking that if we can hide our sin from other people, we can hide it from God. Hello!!! Let's wake up!

Maybe we have created an environment for church that we feel as if we will be branded as a "sinner" or get "the scarlet letter" by confessing our sins.

Maybe it's a little of both and more. I don't know. But none of the attitudes above are biblical.

If I am heading down a road that leads to destruction, don't worry about invading my privacy. By all means, invade my privacy and help me get back within a safe boundary!

Anonymous said...

I'm in violent agreement. Nonetheless I would suggest that the reason we don't confess is that we don't love one another enough. And the root cause for the lack of love is the reality that we don't know each other well enough to truly love one another.