How to Defeat Harmful Habits (Counseling Through the Bible Series) (52 page)
•
Employment:
Make a list of all the times you acted out or were lost in fantasy while at work.
•
Costs:
Make a list of all the “costs” of your addictions. Make a tally, “billing yourself” at your hourly pay rate for all the time you have spent in fantasy and acting out. This can give you a unique perspective as to just one “cost” of your addiction.
“If [an addict] turns away from the wickedness [addictive behavior] he has committed and does what is just and right, he will save his life. Because he considers all the offenses he has committed and turns away from them, he will surely live; he will not die”
(E
ZEKIEL
18:27-28).
An STD (sexually transmitted disease) is an infection transmitted by an infected person to another person through sexual activity, whether through vaginal, anal, or oral sex, or through intimate skin-to-skin contact.
•
Bacterial STDs
can be cured with antibiotics.
•
Viral STDs
can never be cured. Symptoms, such as sores or warts, can be treated, but the virus remains in the body, causing the symptoms to flare up again and again.
History:
In the sixteenth century,
syphilis
was the only identified venereal disease (VD). Then, in the nineteenth century,
gonorrhea
joined syphilis as a cause of infertility. Both were classified as incurable until the discovery of penicillin in 1943, which eradicated VD as a major public health issue.
However, the unrestrained sexual revolution of the 1960s became a breeding ground for a myriad of STDs (the new label), including Chlamydia and HPV in 1976 and HIV/AIDS in the early 1980s. Today there are more than 25 STDs (see charts on pages 343-44.)
C
URABLE
S
EXUALLY
T
RANSMITTED
D
ISEASES
42
(M
OST
P
REVALENT
)
I
NCURABLE
S
EXUALLY
T
RANSMITTED
D
ISEASES
(M
OST
P
REVALENT
)
EpilogueMark Laaser and Marnie Ferree have been set free!
•
Every single one
of their sexual sins has been forgiven—they are clean before God.
• They have been redeemed from the pit, freed from the web of sexual addiction.
• They have received the Lord’s unconditional love and ceaseless compassion.
• They have been given the comfort of Psalm 103:2-4: “Praise the L
ORD
, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits—who forgives all your sins…who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion.”
Indeed, Mark and Marnie’s lives have not only been redeemed for eternity, they’ve been redeemed for a purpose in the here and now. Mark and his wife, Debra, founded Faithful and True Ministries, a Christian recovery ministry for people struggling to overcome sexual addiction. Dr. Mark Laaser has gone on to become one of the foremost experts on sexual addiction in both the Christian and secular communities.
And Marnie became a licensed marriage and family therapist and founded Bethesda Workshop Ministry, which provides intensive clinical workshops for sex addicts, their spouses, and sexually addicted couples. In 1997 she founded a treatment program, which was the first of its kind in the country, for female sex addicts.
If God can rescue Mark and Marnie,
He can rescue you
—no matter the length of your addiction or the strength of the web. Both of them testify to the Lord’s life-changing work in their lives, for “then they cried to the L
ORD
in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom and broke away their chains” (Psalm 107:13-14).
Make a commitment to Christ not to dwell on an impure thought. Make a covenant with Christ to live with purity in your heart.
—J
UNE
H
UNT
S
EXUAL
A
DDICTION:
A
NSWERS IN
G
OD’S
W
ORD
Q
UESTION:
“Does God care if I have impure thoughts?”
A
NSWER:
“God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life”
(1 Thessalonians 4:7).
Q
UESTION:
“Why should I keep my eyes focused on the Lord?”
A
NSWER:
“My eyes are ever on the L
ORD
, for only he will release my feet from the snare”
(Psalm 25:15).
Q
UESTION:
“Can I make a covenant with my eyes to not look with lust?”
A
NSWER:
“I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl”
(Job 31:1).
Q
UESTION:
“What happens if I am tempted beyond what I can bear?”
A
NSWER:
“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).
Q
UESTION:
“How is it possible to have only true and pure thoughts?”
A
NSWER:
“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable
—
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy
—
think about such things”
(Philippians 4:8).
Q
UESTION:
“Why is it important to avoid sexual immorality?”
ANSWER
:
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality”
(1 Thessalonians 4:3).
Q
UESTION:
“Is it possible to commit adultery in my heart?”
ANSWER:
“Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart”
(Matthew 5:28).
Q
UESTION:
“How should I handle my earthly nature?”
ANSWER
:
“Put to death…whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry”
(Colossians 3:5).
Q
UESTION:
“What is the harm in sowing to my fleshly desires?”
A
NSWER:
“Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life”
(Galatians 6:7-8).
Q
UESTION:
“Is is possible to not conform to the pattern of this world?”
A
NSWER:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will”
(Romans 12:2).