It said that half of our teenage girls have had a STD at one time.

What’s also amazing is that we need to realize who these young ladies are having sex with.

Teenage boys

Why is it that reports and articles always come out with stats about girls but never boys?
As the father of 2 sons, I realize the pressure boys are under and I also realize the power that boys/men actually have in relationships.

Men/boys typically view women/girls as an object with parts.
We don’t look at them as a person with a heart and soul.
We pay money to look at them, with clothes on or not.
We treat them like a tool to pick and use for our pleasure and then put down until or next hot-flash.
We make them feel guilty because their bodies don’t look like the plastic images in magazines and porn movies.
We build them up to get what we want and then turn the tables on them and call them H…. and B……
We have the nerve to tell them that using their bodies to pay for college is ok.

That’s what men/boys do.

I think we should value each and every woman/girl that comes our way.
We should let them know that they are a unique gift from God.
We should protect them from those who are out to use them.
We should encourage them that the false media images are not a true reflection of beauty.
We should model true Godly manhood in front of them constantly.
We should be MEN FOR A CHANGE.

I am sick and tired of men getting caught up in adultery (pastors, politicians, celebrities) and acting like we are the victim.
GIVE ME A BREAK!

We should all make sure we have ourselves accountable to make sure we don’t jeopardize our careers, families and ruin the life of some young lady.

Then God said “Be Quiet”.

You see, I had moaned and cried so much that I couldn’t “hear” what God what saying to me.
He told me that I didn’t have to keep asking Him to rescue me from my cycle of porn.
He told me that the Kingdom of God is inside of me.
With this Kingdom comes all the power and authority that Jesus has.

He told me that I have authority over every work of the enemy.
Including porn.

So from that moment I used my authority and spoke to the demons in charge of pornography and told them that they could no longer hold me hostage.
Whom the Son has set free is free in deed.

I thank God that I have been porn-free ever since (about 8 years now)!

Week after week, month after month, year after year, I watched porn.
I bought magazines and I rented movies. Tons of them for God knows how much money.

Later on I met a wonderful woman and got married.
I hid my problem for as long as I could until I got busted.
I did my best to convince her that it wasn’t an issue and that it wouldn’t come between us.

I knew that she wasn’t very sure about what I was saying.

A couple of years after we were married I was called into the ministry.
This was one of the best moments of my life. I finally found a place in life where I knew I belonged.

The only problem was that I still couldn’t shake my need for porn.

I was caught in the devils spin cycle.
You know where you sin, feel guilty, feel so guilty that you don’t think God would forgive you, the guilt weighs you down to the point where you think the only way to feel better is to do the sin again.

The burden of watching porn combined with the position I had in the church became almost too much for me to bear.

Every time I would fall, I would ask God to rescue me and somehow He pulled me out of the pit.
The only problem was that I would soon find myself in that position again.

This rollercoaster ride was sapping all of my strength and I was finding myself more and more depressed and withdrawn.

My wife tried her best to help but nothing worked.
I didn’t know what to do.

From the 7th until the 8th grade I was sexually abused by someone I looked up to and trusted.
Ironically all of this happened after I accepted Christ and was baptized when I was in the 6th grade.
Nevertheless, this 2 year period of my life felt like and eternity. I felt like I was trapped in some underworld. It felt like I was singled out to be a part of something wrong and dirty.

How could this happen?
Why me?

I couldn’t tell anyone. How could I? What would I say to my friends, my family?
Slowly my self-esteem got even lower. I couldn’t tell anyone what was going on.
My schoolwork and even athletics weren’t interesting to me anymore.
My family and I went to church every Sunday but I didn’t understand how God could allow this to happen to me.

Eventually, as I entered high school, this abusive relationship ended.
However, what should have been a new beginning for me was a continuation of pain and confusion.
You see, my abuser exposed me to pornography. He had hundreds and hundreds of magazines available to me at any time.
At first, I was curious like most young boys would be. Then, after a while, it turned into something like a craving for me.
As I got to be an older teen, I would find various ways to get access to porn. I would try to get a glimpse of an unwrapped Playboy magazine at the bookstore or attempt to look at the late-night soft-core versions on a fuzzy television channel.

The more time that went by the more I would want to watch. It became something like a temporary medicine for me to cover the pain of my younger years.
The thing about me was that I didn’t watch porn for the sex.
Sure, it was exciting for my flesh to see what it was seeing but it was more than just that for me.
Watching porn was like entering into some perfect type of world. Everything in it was just right.
The people were beautiful, the scenes were perfect, and they were doing what people who love each other do, have sex.
No one was made to feel bad or upset. People seemed to appreciate each other.

That’s exactly what I was missing in my life, someone to appreciate me and tell me that I was loved. I wished that I could have told my parents about my issues.
Looking back on it now, I realize that I just didn’t love myself.

God has given me a special gift.
Through all the struggles and pains of life, He has placed me on this earth for such a time as this.
For many years I never thought that I had anything to offer anyone. I suffered from low self-esteem and almost no self-confidence.
I felt like it was my destiny to just blend into the woodwork of life, sort of alive but just content with being in the crowd.

Through the grace and mercy of God, I have been able to withstand the darkness of my past and come into the marvelous light of the love of God.
I am not special in and of myself but I am made righteous through my relationship with Christ.

I have been born (again) to let people know that you don’t have to be burdened with guilt and shame.
I want them to know that the chains of porn, addictions, and crap like that don’t have the power to hold them when they give their lives to the Lord.
Too often people struggle because when they look at Christians they see perfect people who seem to have it all together.
I don’t give glory to the devil with my testimony but I give all the glory to God for bringing me out.

For the next few days I will share what God has done for me.

People who regularly visit Internet porn web sites daily: 40 million.

Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%.

Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites: 65% male – 35% female.

30% of unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic materials.

Websites offering illegal child pornography: 100,000

Porn revenue is larger than all professional football, baseball and basketball franchise revenues combined.

US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.

Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography: 11 years old

8-16 year olds having viewed porn online: 90% (most while doing homework)

Every second – $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography

Every second – 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography

Every second - 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines

Every 39 minutes – A new pornographic video is being created in the United States