Sexual Healing: God’s Plan for the Sanctification of Broken Lives
Adapted from Sexual Healing: God’s Plan for the Sanctification of Broken Lives by David Kyle Foster. Please visit his website at http://masteringlife.gospelcom.net/.
1. Masturbation can be the vehicle whereby the inhibited person maintains their propensity to remain self-contained and in need of no one. It deepens the trenches of loneliness, self-pity and self-centeredness.
2. Masturbation is a turning in on one’s self – a narcissistic neurosis that feeds introspection and other dysfunctional directions. This kind of inwardly focused life robs people of the fullness of life that Christ came to give. Read more
Vision: What am I recovering to?
This article is reprinted by the kindness and permission of Jayson Graves, M.MFT. We encourage you to visit his Healing for the Soul website and learn more about this important work. More information about Jayson and his work is provided at the end of this article.
Where am I headed?
Have you ever wondered, “Okay God, I know what I’m recovering from, here-but what am I recovering to?” Ever felt like, in a sense, recovery needs you more than you need recovery (in such a formal, programmatic way)? Well, if so, I say “HALLELUJAH!” The truth is, you are pondering one of the most important yet overlooked aspects of recovery: Vision!
I want to give you a way of thinking about Vision that will pull your recovery from sexual addictions into the future. My heart is to share a few ideas about areas where you can pay attention and with following-through, enrich the process of recovery with greater meaning, radical redemption, and down-right Kingdom authority. I also want to warn you about some common challenges to Vision to help you anticipate how the enemy will try and take you off your God-ordained course. Read more
The Insanity of Sexual Sin
The following article has been reprinted by the permission and courtesy of Steve Gallagher, at Pure Life Ministries at http://www.purelifeministries.org. We encourage you to visit this fine website for more helpful information.
The hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. (Ecclesiastes 9:3)
Society deems a person insane who has lost touch with reality and has become irrational in his thinking. Such a person has long indulged in extreme pride and self-centeredness and has lost the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, real and unreal.
Men who habitually give over to sexual sin enter their own form of insanity. Although most sexual addicts can still function in life-hold a responsible job, pay the bills, interact with other people-their thinking about sexual (and spiritual) matters becomes extremely irrational. Their insanity is not primarily of the mind but of the heart. Read more
The layers of a sexual addiction
I think we all know that we act out on our sexual compulsions because we have an addiction; but, there are four main layers to our addiction and sublayers underneath them. The four layers of our addiction are: psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual. If we try and self-treat our addiction we will find that it is more complex and complicated that we realized and our chances for success are very limited. Even if we do seek help, if we don’t seek to understand and treat all four layers of the addiction, we won’t succeed. Our lack of understanding of these layers is one of the reasons that most addicts have tried and failed so many times. Every addict I have known had quit a million times only to start back up another million times. Quitting was not the problem; staying stopped was. The purpose of this article is to overview each of these four layers. Read more
Where are you in the addictive process?
For those of us who suffer from sexual compulsions, we tend to feel isolated and alone. We do what we do in secret and don’t talk about it. We worry about being found out. We worry what is going to happen to us next. It remains our dirty little secret. What we would learn if we would begin to come forward and seek help is that sexual addiction is a highly researched area of study. Much is known about it and there are many places and organizations who want to help. You might be surprised how many are available in your community.
If you want to know what stage you may be in for your compulsive behavior no better description exists than the process outlined in the SA manual known as the white book. Those of us who have found ourselves in this addictive process can testify to its accuracy. If you resist the temptation to deny your problem, you can easily see where you are and where you are headed–if you don’t seek qualified help. The hope and prayer of the men of the Purity Project is that you ask us for help before you find yourself well along in this cycle. But, no matter where you are, we stand ready to help you. Read more
