Six Keys To Maturing In Your Faith
From a Christianity Today article on the topic. “So, what does the Bible say about porn? From a very technical standpoint, the word pornography does not appear in the Bible. The word pornography is a construction from the two roots porneia and graphe.
The Greek root word, porniea, however, appears many times in the New Testament. This term is often translated in English as whoredom, fornication, adultery, or sexual immorality. You might say that porneia is a “catch-all” word for any type of filth or perversion….. Over and over, the Bible makes it clear that we are to avoid sexual immorality because it has a lasting residual effect. The images stay in our minds, it creates soul ties, it changes how we view sex, how we treat women, and it rewires our brains.” (Emphasis mine) Link.
It might be assumed that this reality has no impact upon Christians or on church leaders. That assumption would be naive and wrong. I wrote two books on the flesh because of the danger! Nothing reflects the power of the flesh more than this pervading pornographic mindset.
“Over the years I have met with hundreds of church leaders. What I have encountered concerns me deeply: many are ignorant of the power of the flesh in their lives and thus, at some level, incapacitated by the flesh. Much of this has come, I suspect, from deeply seeded wounds that have led to corruption or rebellion. Whatever its roots, the issue of the flesh dominating people is a huge problem among church people and leadership today.
This should not be. God intends us to have victory over the flesh—and to have that victory, we must first recognize the enemy lurking within us. My concern was a compelling factor in writing two books on the flesh. (Taken from the preface of the second one: Freedom from the bondage to the Flesh.) Books link.
“Maybe nothing demonstrates the importance of the topic of the flesh than the epidemic of pornography in our midst. Pornography creates a hole deep in the hearts and minds of those addicted to it. It contaminates marriage relationships. It destroys spiritual peace of mind and plagues consciences. Wives can be resilient, but imagine the images that plague their minds when their husbands seek intimacy with them.
The pathway to healing from addictions caused by the flesh—whether those additions are to sex, lying, anger, food, or self—is not easy. It is hard for people to get the help they need. The church ought to be the first line of confrontation of the flesh and provision for people’s healing from it, but in too many cases, it is not. Is this the people’s fault or the church’s? Who knows! But if churches are struggling to confront the issue of bondage to the flesh in their own leaders, then it is not farfetched to expect that they are not prepared to help their members in this matter either.”
The topic was so important that I included it in the year long training program that I carried out with a number of churches and their leadership. One of those churches saw fit to do some high quality recording of the three sessions on the flesh.
I am dividing those three 50 minute or so recordings into six 25 minute or so sessions. Nothing fancy in the editing. Just dividing them as they are.
I will write six introductions to each session, which I have entitled “Six Keys To Maturing In Your Faith" from Galatians 5 and 6. The recorded material will not necessarily track with the written presentations, but will supplement it. The audio sessions will track more closely with my book, “Freedom from bondage to the Flesh.”
Maybe no other topic is more germane to our challenges of today, all over the world. I commend to you this package of free recorded material and the written material to help you train your leaders and people for the onslaught around them, and surely to increase.
You undoubtedly can think of a multiple of ways to deliver this. I leave it to you to decide.
I would be extremely satisfied if you passed this onto other people and churches.
Any questions or thoughts, feel free to contact me at smithdwightp@mac.com.
Blessings,
Dwight
