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Autobiography revealing how far God will go to rescue His children from sexual addiction (sin).
Sexual Holocaust
Reports of Christian men and women trapped in sexual sin are epidemic. Immorality is not new. From the beginning mankind has struggled with sex. The Bible is full of examples of men and women violating God’s standards. However, no other time in history has their been such an onslaught. We are under a constant barrage of sexual imagery. “The generation we are looking at right now has never known a time of innocence.” (How One man Unleashed the porn Plague, Charisma Magazine, November 2003) Pornography has a chokehold on believers.
For every 10 men in church, 5 are struggling with pornography
(The Call to Biblical Manhood. Man in the Mirror, July, 2004)
70% of 18 to 24 year old men visit pornographic sites in a typical month.
66% of men in their 20s and 30s also report being regular users of pornography.
(First-person: the culture of pornography, Baptist Press, 28 December 2005)
34% of female readers of Today's Christian Woman's online newsletter admitted to intentionally accessing Internet porn.
(Today’s Christian Woman, Fall 2003)
Median age for the first use of pornography: boys: 11-13 girls: 12-14
(Your Children & Pornography: A guide for Parents, Tommera Press, 2001)
The largest consumer of Internet pornography is the 12-17 age group
(Internet Pornography Statistics. Internet Filter Review, 2004)
The Internet was a significant factor in 2 out of 3 divorces
(American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, 2003)
Sexual sin is destroying lives. Marriages are failing. Families are crushed. Children are being robbed of their innocence. All the while believers do nothing. It’s as though the church is blind to the holocaust. We don't want to know that the person next to us is secretly struggling. Most believers live in the shadows, hiding in fear that their secret sin may be discovered. The irony is that the person next to us is most likely having a similar struggle. And if not, there is someone close to them who is struggling.
Believers are hesitant to discuss sex. It’s a sensitive and embarrassing topic. Sex is a powerful force. It has great potential for blessing and for harm. Understand this, God created sex. Every believer has, has had or will have sexual thoughts and desires. God wants His children to enjoy healthy sexual relations within the secure boundaries of His Word. However every believer’s thoughts, desires and actions will at some point violate God’s standards (sin). Like it or not sex is a part of all our lives.
It’s time to wake up and start dealing biblically with sexual issues. We have to start talking about sex. It’s like the proverbial white elephant in the room. We all know it’s there but no one wants to step up and say, “Hey, there’s a white elephant in the room!” There will be no victory over sexual sin until we start dealing with it openly and honestly in the security of God’s love and grace (the Church). That’s right, the Church. God’s children coming together, encouraging and counseling one another, linked together in faith to build the body of Christ. Believers getting their hands dirty ministering to one another.
You might ask, “What about Ephesians 5:12? ‘For it is shameful even to speak of those things which are done by them in secret.”’ Yes it is shameful. It’s tragic that the church has allowed itself to be so deeply enslaved to sexual sin. If this bondage could have been broken in silence we would already have victory. But we don’t. So it must be time to move on to Ephesians 5:13, “But all things that are exposed are made manifest by the light, for whatever makes manifest is light.” Only by walking in the light can believers have victory over sin and experience real fellowship with other Christians (Church).
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. 1 John 1:7
Church leaders are not immune to temptation. In over twenty years of pastoring I’ve lost count of how many friends in ministry have fallen to sexual sin. I’ve fought my own battle with sex. Fortunately I was taught early in my Christian life to walk in the light. I had brothers and a pastor who discipled me – men who got their hands dirty in ministry. Then when I married, my wife and I purposed to be completely honest with each other. It was difficult. We not only shared every sexual sin we ever committed but we confess inappropriate sexual thoughts as they happen. Even if those thoughts occur in the middle of intimate relations with each other! The result is a strong marriage of over twenty years.
Roger Charman of Focus on the Family's Pastoral Ministries reports that approximately 20 percent of the calls received on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as pornography and compulsive sexual behavior.
51% of pastors say cyber-porn is a possible temptation. 37% say it is a current struggle.
(Christianity Today, Leadership Survey, 12/2001)
The Church is too quick to discard their leaders who struggle with sexual sin. Pastors are above all sinners saved by God’s grace. Forgiveness is just as available to Church leaders as it is to all of God’s children. When a leader is cast aside all it does is cause others struggling to draw further into the darkness. Seeing others treated without mercy they recoil in fear that their sin will be discovered. Consequently the sinful cycle is perpetuated and God’s children live hopeless secret lives.
If our lives are the only book someone reads what will they see? Would the reader see the hand of God or the futility of man? In 2003 I asked a close friend to write a book about his lifetime struggle with sexual sin. “Samson of a Man: Saved Soul, Wasted Life” is the result. Yet this is not simply an account of a wasted life. It’s about God’s grace and mercy, a testimony to His forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration. The author took his life to the depths of despair and made it back alive (burnt, beat and bloodied). Now he shares the Biblical insights and divine truths that brought victory and healing.
I’ve known the author for over twenty years. No one I know has traveled as far to the depths of despair and made it back. Yet this book isn’t just about sex or one man’s sin. This book is full of Biblical teaching on numerous subjects critical for believers today. It contains valuable insight on parenting, marriage, leadership, church discipline, fundamentals of Christianity and much more. Most important it’s a book about God’s love and just how far He will go to redeem His children. I’m thoroughly convinced that this book is going to save lives!
Pastor Matthew “Chik” Chikeles
Senior Pastor, Calvary Chapel Saint Paul
Saint Paul Police Department Chaplain #9
Ramsey County Correctional Facility Chaplain
A vomitous, carnal, flesh-bag of puss, saved by the grace of God
This news release is available for reprint with author's permission.
Order
"Samson of a Man" Today
Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!”
And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life. (Judges 16:30)
Copyright 2007 Not to be reprinted without author's permission
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