x2




i mean x3

praying

it takes face to face, 1 on 1 accountability or  a small group of men who struggle with the issue.
check out http://www.everymansbattle.com or http://www.celebraterecovery.com

As long as we are on this planet we will be tempted, its a given. If you were set free praise God. I can't judge your experience. But my experience as well as many on this board would be that temptation is everywhere. We know this, not only from personal experience, but also from Scripture. On the pages of the Bible we see the reality of temptation in the lives of all of God saints. All of the most powerful and spiritual servants of God were tempted, some even yielding to that temptation. King David is a prime example. He is described as a man after God’s own heart. But temptation came his way and overtook him.To the day my last breath comes upon me, I will be tempted. But will I give in? I pray not!  13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

(1 Corinthians 10:13, NIV)
 If Jesus was not exempt from temptation, we certainly should not expect to be, no matter how long we have served the Lord.

I've struggled with this for a long time. It became a really screwed up of dealing with anxiety, basically like shooting heroin without the needle. You can get addicted to the dopamine release in the same way that a junkie is without ever putting extra chemicals in your body.

That's awesome that some folks can read a Bible verse and completely change their behavior as a result. I can't (Paul apparently couldn't either if you read on in Romans to chapter 7). My only way of dealing with some sins is to remove my access to them. The only way I quit smoking is because I was able to say I'm never going to smoke in front of my wife. I would still smoke sometimes when I went out and played shows in bars when she wasn't with me. Even though it's been a year or so, I still feel like I would stumble if I played out in a smoky bar without my wife with me and I got stage fright. Yeah, it would be ideal if I could go anywhere and stay true, but part of recognizing that we still live in a "body of death" is knowing our limitations and not "leading ourselves into temptation."

The reason I'm not a drunk is I don't keep alcohol in my house. We used to drink wine sometimes with dinner but then I started having a glass (or 2 or 3) before I went to bed and it was bad news. Sometimes I'll have a beer if we go out to eat but by drawing the boundary so that we don't bring it in the house, I'm able to hold down the fort.

So the problem with the Internet is that the porn is always there waiting for you unless you get a filter. You don't have to go out in public and buy a magazine anymore. It's like having a line of coke sitting on your desk all the time waiting for you to snort it.

I had to start confessing to my wife every time I did it to get clean. It's such an evil, ugly thing and confessing it hurts really badly. But it sets me free. And my wife still loves me not because I'm a good person but because she loves God and the Holy Spirit is in her soul so that she is a major vessel by which God shows his daily grace to me. The bottom line is that whatever Satan is telling you about how people will judge you if you confess and how you will hurt them, it is infinitely better to own up. Being broken and completely exposed is so much more liberating than being a hypocrite who pretends to have it all together. It's also the only way that you can be of any use to God.

I've been clean for a while but I'm probably going to get some kind of filter for my computer just to feel safe if my wife ever goes out of town or anything. I know it probably sounds pretty pathetic that I lean on my wife like that. I know that it's Jesus who I'm leaning on, but Cheryl is my human accountability partner. If anybody wants to do accountability on here with any sort of addiction, I'm game. Just pick a time once a week or once a month and we can shoot each other emails sharing our victories and struggles.

Please, if you're addicted, be straight up and confess. No one will hate you for it and that way you can receive prayers and encouragement. Every confession is a victory over Satan. Every confession gives us a new toe-hold on the rock wall of life. We still fall but the more we denounce our sins, the better grip we get.

This is my verse for when I fall on the rock wall and have to keep climbing: "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14).

God's peace, Mr. G

This is a debate that took place in the 4th century when the first monks started out. Some of them wanted to avoid temptations and others wanted to battle Satan every day. I think I need to get to the point to where I can go to a bar without my wife and not smoke a cigarette. It's pretty pathetic that I can't. But while I'm weak, there's no point in seeking Satan out. It's kind of like going and picking a fight with a bully.

It's true that Jesus was tempted in the desert, but he taught us in our prayer to God to ask him, "Lead us not into temptation." When I was a teenager, my dad always told me to avoid putting myself into a situation where the odds are stacked against me avoiding sin. Thus if I had gotten drunk and wound up in a motel room with some girl, the biggest mistake would have been getting into that situation in the first place because only Jesus would be able to overcome temptation once he was already in that context.

There's no shame in being weak and recognizing your weaknesses. When we know our weaknesses and take action to prevent being owned by Satan, then we can be useful to God. People who are strong, God bless you and pray for me.

Peace, Mr. G

It breaks my heart when people see chapter 7 as Christians struggling and not able to overcome sin. He so clearly says in Chapters 6 and 8 that we CAN overcome sin and that we DON'T have to give in to sin because we are freed from sin. We are dead to it. Clearly (in chapter 7) he is speaking to the jews about what it is like to be a person under the law (without the Holy Spirit and act of being born again) and trying to overcome sin and walk righteously. You cannot. But the flesh, the thing that once bound us, is DEAD. It is crucified with Christ.


Galatians 5:24 And they that are Christ's have (past tense) crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

Gentlemen, please STOP believing your experiences and believe the Word of God. When you believed you became a partaker in Christ's death, burial and resurrection. You put off the old man with his deeds. You were raised a new creature. You are not the person you used to be. You are now dead to that old flesh that caused you to want to look at pornography. You are free to walk in holiness. You are not left to fight and struggle and hope that maybe one day you will be free. YOU ARE FREE NOW! Believe it! Walk in it. It is real. And it is not just my experience. My heart breaks for you all. Not just because you are stuck in a vicious cycle but because you don't believe that God broke that cycle when you were born again.

I will continue to pray for you all. God has already done all that He can do. May you believe and start to walk in that reality.

Amen Mister G! We all have thorns. But would we "fully" rely on God if He took the thorn away. I would become prideful.