Posted on 07/10/2016 7:28:27 AM PDT by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Tom Lance, Senior Pastor of the Grove Community Church in Inland Southern California, recently received a copy of GQ magazine in the mail. He was taken aback because he certainly had not subscribed to the men’s magazine.
Then he remembered buying a few subscriptions from his grandson – who was participating in a school fund-raising drive – and that he left it to the lad to choose the magazines his grandfather would receive.
So that’s how Pastor Lance received GQ’s 10TH ANNUAL LOVE, SEX & MADNESS ISSUE. It features a nude Kim Kardashian on the cover holding a strategically-placed leather jacket. The cover also teases a salacious article inside: Jesus That’s Hot! A Very Christian Sex Scandal.
Now, the initial thought of this Christ follower was that the pastor found himself under spiritual attack.
That the devil knew the pastor’s wife would be on a women’s retreat when the magazine showed up unexpectedly in his mailbox. That the evil one sought to tempt the respected pastor to give in to sexual sin as King David did when he adulterously lay with Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite.
But Pastor Lance saw things differently, he told the members of his megachurch.
He didn’t think the devil was leading him into temptation, he said, but that God was testing him. Much as He tested such Biblical figures as Abraham, whom the Almighty asked to sacrifice his son Isaac to see if there was anything Abraham would withhold from his Maker.
Well, Pastor Lance was equal to the test the Lord set before him. He left the magazine in its shrink-wrap and threw it in the garbage where it properly belonged.
That raises a question for all of us men (including yours truly) who consider ourselves faithful Christ followers: if we unexpectedly received some magazine in the mail with an unclothed (or scantily-clad) woman on the cover, would we throw it away or see what’s inside the shrink-wrap?
The suspicion here is that many, if not most, would peek inside.
That’s based on a disquieting 2014 survey commissioned by Proven Men Ministries and conducted by the Barna Group. It found that more than half of men who profess to be “born-again” Christians admit to viewing pornography at least once a month. And nearly one in five confessed to a porn addiction.
It stands to reason that, if a Christian man either views pornography once a month (or more regularly) or, worse, has an uncontrollable porn problem, he wouldn’t hesitate to flip through the pages of GQ’s so-called LOVE, SEX & MADNESS ISSUE.
As to the half of us who do not view pornography once a month, who do not have a porn addiction, let us not think ourselves exemplars of sexual integrity. For many, if not most, of us commit sexual sin in other ways.
Indeed, most Christian men would agree that the following are unacceptable in the eyes of the Lord: Extramarital affairs. Consorting with prostitutes or “escorts.” Frequenting strip clubs. Watching porn.
Yet many of us think the following perfectly acceptable: Viewing “pictorials” of scantily-clad or partially-nude women in GQ’s annual LOVE, SEX & MADNESS ISSUE or Sports Illustrated’s annual Swimsuit Issue. Patronizing such so-called “breastaurants” as Hooters or Tilted Kilt. Ogling professional sports sirens like the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders or the UFC Octagon Girls. Following barely-clothed selfie queens on Instagram or Vine. Or simply checking out skimpily-attired temptresses at the local gym or public beach.
Jesus made it clear what He considers sexual sin. The man who but “looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
He is no different in the eyes of the Lord than the man who has sex outside of marriage. The unmarried man who pays a woman for sex. The man who buys a lap dance from a stripper. Or the man addicted to pornography.
All men, including those of us who are Christ followers, are susceptible to the “lust the eyes, and the lust of the flesh.”
So let those of us who routinely look lustfully upon women confess and repent our sin before God, ask His forgiveness and pray that we will be led not into temptation but delivered from ungodly sexual desire.
I think the title tells of the author of this blog is one of the ones who is loathe to repent of his lustful ways. ;-) Actually, it is hard to go to many of the links featured on FreeRepublic.com without seeing a scantily clad female. Mail Online comes immediately to mind.
God made beautiful women then expects us not to even look at them? I dint believe God is like that. Adultery is another story
Uh oh.
God and the author of the article provides the solution:
“So let those of us who routinely look lustfully upon women confess and repent our sin before God, ask His forgiveness and pray that we will be led not into temptation but delivered from ungodly sexual desire.”
Matthew 7:1-5
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
Luke 6:37
“Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven;"
John 7:24
"Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.”
James 4:11-
"Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?"
James 4:12
"There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?"
Romans 2:1-3
"Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?"
Ephesians 4:29
"Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
Matthew 7:5
"You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."
John 8:7
"And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.'”
Matthew 7:1-2
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you."
.
Jesus spoke more than once about judging others, didn't He?
It’s not about beauty. It’s about lust.
Seeing a female that is attractive to you and acknowledging such isn’t a problem. Seeing a female that is attractive to you, undressing her in your mind, and taking her to bed is the problem. Huge difference between the two.
Looking at porn IS adultery.
This author spoke of even looking at cheerleaders or bikinis on the beach, equating that with acts of sexual immorality. Maybe the author would prefer a land of burkas? The sexually repressed are the ones who end up buggering kids or acting out in weird sexual ways. I’ve learned that over the years. The pastors who tell their flocks to not even look at beauty are leading down a false path. Men need to be men, not secret porn addicts or sex predators. God made a woman’s curves and He made man attracted to them. To say looking at a pretty woman in a bikini is adultery is stupid and dangerous
Nonsense.
Every healthy teenage boy knows what lust is and where it can lead.
There is a difference between admiring an attractive women and lusting after her.
When God tells us that lust is a sin, he is also trying to keep us out of the danger that lust can lead to.
BTW, overcoming lust or sexual addiction does not lead to sexual repression any more than overcoming drug addiction leads to repression.
“God made a woman’s curves and He made man attracted to them. To say looking at a pretty woman in a bikini is adultery is stupid and dangerous”
I tend to agree. Man’s ability to recognize visual beauty is rooted in the basic hard wiring of a male’s desire to find a strong and healthy mate to further the species. It is perfectly natural. So are fantasies.
That and tobacco and curseing,,,
People are quick to turn to this passage in the bible to condemn visual adultery, but for some reason their quote ends at this point instead of also including the remainder of that paragraph:
Matthew 5:27
29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
No worries. My left eye sees all the action. Wearing a patch over the right eye helps. And as a bonus, some chicks dig the pirate look.
Wives can help.
Keep your husbands too worn out from daily sex to have any energy left over to look at magazines.
Bmk
That’s the part. If you take the adultery part literally, then you must take the rest the same way.
Looking isn’t the problem. That isn’t lust. DWELLING on it, desiring and fantasizing is the sin of lust.
It is impossible today to go anywhere without seeing scantily dressed women. The only option is a cabin in the woods or monostary.
I would have tossed that crap magazine in the bin as well.
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