No, to pornography!!

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    Over the years pornography has gradually crept into our society and in some communities has been accepted fully as an industry. In 2006, estimated revenues for the sex-related entertainment business were just under $13 billion in the United States. By 2015, mobile adult content and services are expected to reach $2.8 billion per year, mobile adult subscriptions will reach nearly $1 billion, and mobile adult video consumption on tablets will triple. (http://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/). The pornography industry is estimated to be $93 billion world wide. Some alarming statistics I found on this growing canker are as follows:
    Internet pornography in the United States is a $3 billion industry
  • Every second…
  • $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography
    
    • 28,258 Internet viewers are viewing pornography
    • 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines (Internet Filter Review, 2006)
    • Every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States. (Internet Filter Review, 2006)
  • A recent content analysis of the 50 best-selling adult videos revealed that across all scenes:
  • 3,376 verbal and/or physically aggressive acts were observed.  
    
    • On average, scenes had 11.52 acts of either verbal of physical aggression, ranging from none to 128.
    • 48 percent of the 304 scenes analyzed contained verbal aggression, while more than 88 percent showed physical aggression.  
    • 72 percent of aggressive acts were perpetrated by men.
    • 94 percent of aggressive acts were committed against women. (Bridges, A., Wosnitzer, R., Scharrer, E., Sun, C., & Liberman, R. (in press).  Aggression and sexual behavior in best-selling pornography: A content analysis update. Violence Against Women.). 
    • The use of pornographic material dates back through the years to the Victorian era. This shows how old the depravity of man and the numbing of his conscience has persisted. Why do people engage in pornography? . People watch porn because of various reasons namely: excitement, curiosity, arousal, entertainment, to "learn", to mention but a few. Most of these reasons I can find no justification for.
      
      Effects of porn 
      
      

      1. Porn Contributes to Social and Psychological Problems Within Men 

      Anti-pornography activist, Gail Dines, notes that young men who become addicted to porn, “neglect their schoolwork, spend huge amounts of money they don’t have, become isolated from others, and often suffer depression.” (Pornland, 93). Dr. William Struthers, who has a PhD in biopsychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, confirms some of these and adds more, finding that men who use porn become controlling, highly introverted, have high anxiety, narcissistic, curious, have low self-esteem, depressed, dissociative, distractible (Wired for Intimacy, 64-65). Ironically, while viewing porn creates momentary intensely pleasurable experiences, it ends up leading to several negative lingering psychological experiences.
      
      

      2. Porn Rewires the Male Brain 

      Struthers elaborates,
      In a similar vein regarding porn’s effect upon the brain, Naomi Wolf writes in her article, "The Porn Myth,"
      
      

      3. Porn Turns Sex Into Masturbation 

      Sex becomes self-serving. It becomes about your pleasure and not the self-giving, mutually reciprocating intimacy that it was designed for.
      
      

      4. Porn Demeans and Objectifies Women 

      This occurs from hard-core to soft-core pornography. Pamela Paul, in her book Pornified, quoting the research of one psychologist who has researched pornography at Texas A&M, writes,
      Paul references one experiment that revealed a rather shocking further effect of porn: “men and women who were exposed to large amounts of pornography were significantly less likely to want daughters than those who had none. Who would want their own little girl to be treated that way?” (80).
      
      By inundating girls and women with the message that their most worthy attribute is their sexual hotness and crowding out other messages, pop culture is grooming them just like an individual perpetrator would. It is slowly chipping away at their self-esteem, stripping them of a sense of themselves as whole human beings, and providing them with an identity that emphasizes sex and de-emphasizes every other human attribute (Pornland, 118).
      
      

      6. Porn Has a Numbing Effect Upon Reality

      It makes real sex and even the real world boring in comparison. It particularly anesthetizes the emotional life of a man. Paul comments,
      
      

      7. Porn Lies About What it Means to be Male and Female 

      Dines records how porn tells a false story about men and women. In the story of porn, women are “one-dimensional”–they never say no, never get pregnant, and can’t wait to have sex with any man and please them in whatever way imaginable (or even unimaginable). On the other hand, the story porn tells about men is that they are “soulless, unfeeling, amoral life-support systems for erect penises who are entitled to use women in any way they want. These men demonstrated zero empathy, respect, or love for the women they have sex with…(Pornland, xxiv).” (http://theresurgence.com/2011/11/19/7-negative-effects-of-porn).
      
       Spiritual implication
      During my reading and research, I realized the huge amount of pride and insolence the industry portrays. The confidence of partakers of the industry despite the obvious negative connotations, shows the level of demonic influence. I believe that every form of action which can not be controlled by the individual has a demonic backing. The spirit of lust which is pumped from the porn movies, sites, books, magazines, etc... causes people to keep on coming back to it over and over again. The underlying reason for many partakers in the industry are: hatred, want of attraction, desire for attention, broken homes, sexual abuse. All these reasons open up doors for demonic influence. Consequently these spirits are transmitted through which ever media. As a result, many people are exposed to such spirits over and over again.
      
      It is very obvious that we are constantly surrounded by pornography. From the music on our radios, movies and the useless tabloids hanging on the news stands. However, the scary reality is how porn is entering the church;  Some brothers and sisters are coming to church and raising up hands in worship and then going back home to watch porn on phones and laptops. We need to remember that porn is a huge lie the devil is using to trap Christians. Romans 12:1 says "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
      
      Again Matthew 6:22-23 "The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!"
      
      The Lord is calling us to absolute purity in Him. Viewing and engaging in pornography goes a long way to separate us from our creator and further opens demonic spiritual doorways in our lives, as earlier stated. The Lord is reminding us that true Love can only be found in Him. He gave us His son to express this love. Lets not throw all this away by rejecting His offer and seeking to find love elsewhere, especially in watching and engaging in porn.
      
      About His Love for us He says:
      
      
      1 John 4:9-12 

      In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
      
      

      Romans 5:8

      But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
      
      

      1 John 4:16

      So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
      
      

      Psalm 103:11

      For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him

      
      I pray that we will embrace God's Love truly and sincerely. God richly bless you.

      
      

      
      
      
       
      
       
      
  
  
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Lessons from Ananias

“Go … and ask … for a man from Tarsus named Saul.” But Ananias replied … (Acts 9:11, 13)

First off, let’s reflect on what Ananias didn’t do. Consider these two imaginary scenarios.
“But Ananias replied” … not one word to God. Instead, he told himself, Wow, I must be imagining things. God would never send me on such an impossible mission. Maybe I need a vacation—relax, lighten up, have some fun.Or …

“But Ananias replied,” No way, Lord! Saul has blood on his hands. I have a wife and children to think about. It wouldn’t be responsible to put myself in harm’s way. I’m no evangelist, either. You’d better find another messenger.
If Ananias had responded in either of these ways, we would understand. Even prophets like Jonah and Jeremiah tried to wriggle out of their missions. And sometimes, so do we. But fortunately for us, Ananias took a constructive approach that we can apply to our own challenging calls from God. It boils down to three elements:

Talk to God. Instead of running away or tuning out, Ananias presented his objections honestly and straightforwardly (Acts 9:13-14). The all-knowing God didn’t really need to be informed about Saul’s ruthless ways, but Ananias needed to express what he felt. So do we.
Hear God out. Once we’ve poured out our fears, reservations, and questions, it’s time to listen. Jesus answered Ananias by revealing Saul’s conversion from persecutor to “chosen instrument” for evangelization (Acts 9:15). Even though this outcome seemed highly unlikely, Ananias believed God and let his mind be changed. That’s our challenge, too.

Embrace God’s plan. Ananias could have gone to Saul grudgingly, the way we do when our hearts aren’t in it. He could have gone resentfully. (Lord, I’m more deserving. Why not raise me up to be your great apostle?) But Ananias caught the vision and gave himself to it completely. We sense his zeal and generous spirit in his words of address, spoken from the heart: not “Saul, you sinner,” or even just, “Saul,” but “Saul, my brother”(Acts 9:17). What an encouragement to us all!

Taken from wau.org

Dont be discouraged.

The Bible comments on how Jesus was distressed, perceiving His upcoming suffering. His distress was so intense that He prayed that the cup of suffering will pass Him by. Yet, He went along with the plan because, he knew that with the Father on His side, He will never be disgraced.

Hardships will surely come our way as Christians.It is in the midst of it all,we also must know and understand that with God on our side we will not be disgraced. In Isaiah 50, the prophet speaks of one who was spat at,  beaten, beard pulled at, etc... Yet, despite all these seemingly disgraceful events, he concluded that:

 " Because the sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced". May this be our confession and, just like Jesus, may we know and expect that there will always be a resurrection Sunday after the Good Friday.

Remember...

"Remember the wondrous deeds He has done"~ Psalm 105:5

I think one of the greatest flaws of man is our ability to forget so easily. The Lord inspired David to write these words because He knew that we are kept strong on this journey, when we remember the greatness of God in His previous actions. The breakthroughs, sudden making of a way, etc... Today, God is calling us to remember the great things He has done and allow ourselves to be strengthened by Him.