Sexual immorality

Basically this is a sin in which I struggle with most days. It has gotten better, to where it is a very rare occasion that I give in but I recently looked upon pornography again. It kills me. I know I am called higher than that and my ministry and life are freatly affected even though most around me dont know about it. How can I be freed?
Jesus came to save us from sin, can I be saved...I know I can. I cried out like it says in proverbs 3 or 4, for fear and conviction, and I ask for the ability to surrender and I fight with most of me, obviosly not all because the Lord never lets us be tempted past what we can hold. Anyways any advice or prayer would be great...

This can of course destroy your effectiveness and use. There is a positive in what you have written though. You are not trying to deny this as sin and are admitting it as sin. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Remember, God gave the Hebrews the land little by little so that the beasts of hypocrisy did not take over the land. The main thing is to pursue the enemies {sins} of our lives and kill them like Samuel killed king Agag. Cleave to the sword like one of David's mighty men and not give up till the enemy is dead. We need to break down the high places, groves, and idols of our lives and get the victory through Jesus Christ the one who has come to set us free.

Hello,

I would encourage you to believe in your Savior to bring you victory in this matter. I would encourage you to bring this issue up to him every day in prayer. If the situation gets better or if it gets worse, continue to pray, regardless of how fast or slow things may proceed, until this thing is annihilated from your life. Here are a couple of verses to back up this counsel.

[color=0000FF] [i] For this purpose the

Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy

the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8b

And he spake a parable unto them to

this end, that men ought always to pray, and not

to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge,

which feared not God, neither regarded man:

And there was a widow in that city; and she came

unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

And he would not for a while: but afterward he

said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor

regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me,

I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming

she weary me. And the Lord said, Hear what the

unjust judge saith. And shall not God avenge his

own elect, which cry day and night unto him,

though he bear long with them?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall

he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:1-8[/color] [/i]

If we believe God is serious about destroying sin in our lives, and we show God that we seriously believe him by crying out to him over the sinful issues of our hearts, God will work his glorious, miraculous work of victory over the specific sin issue.

God bless you and be encouraged, you have a Saviour, call on him and believe in him.

Merry Christmas

Brother,

What has helped me in this daily warfare is [i]identifying the temptation when it arises[/i]. Let me explain:

If you are not ignorant of the enemy's plans, you can see that Satan often displays his most delectable treats upon the flesh when we are the hungriest and weariest. Brother, you are being watched, if you haven't yet realized it, and your demise is being carefully chartered out. The enemy knows you have a history for giving into these areas of the flesh, and so he waits his course in planning meticulous ambushes. It is imperative that you learn to control your vessel, and sense occasions that might give rise to an ambush. Restlesness is one. Anger is another. Compounded guilt from seemingly insignificant and unmortified thoughts have a habit of growing up in the middle of the night and suddenly overcoming you in the heat of temptation. In an instant, it strangles you like a python, and once again you find yourself conquered by the same besetting sin.

Like I said, what helps me is [i]recognizing[/i] the times of temptation as being just that, and resisting them by virtue of my faith in the Word of God and walking in the Spirit. Brother, let me give you a bit of puritanical wisdom:

"If you would not be discouraged in time of temptation, take heed that you do not say [i]that your time of temptation is no temptation.[/i] Satan first tempts unto what is evil. Then he tempts God's people to think that their temptation is no temptation. As long as a man thinks his temptation will not last long, his heart is in some measure upheld with hope. [i]But if Satan can persuade him that the temptation is no temptation, but a worse matter, then his heart sinks and dies.[/i] Take heed therefore that you do not say your temptation is no temptation."

- William Bridge

Do you understand this? Bridge is saying that if you recognize each temptation as what it truly is - a temporal trial which will soon pass if resisted, then you will have the victory if you remain resolute and fight in the power of God. (Paradoxically, James says to count it all joy when we are tempted with divers lusts, because it is during these flaming times that wisdom and strength are amassed, good fruit is cultivated, and a humble, warrior-like Christian character is established). However, on the other hand, if we regard each fiery thought as a normal, self-manufactured product of the flesh, we will quickly lose heart in a seemingly hopeless situation where resistance appears to be futile.

Which brings the topic of resistance into play. The way we resist the flesh and the devil and mortify sin is by walking in the Spirit of God. To walk in the fullness of the Spirit of God daily you need to discipline your lazy spirit to seek God and meditate on Holy Scripture and wait patiently for each day's fresh infilling and renewal of your spirit-man. And you feed and build up your spirit by diligently feasting on God's Eternal Word during your quiet times alone with Jesus.

I pray some of this helps!

Brother Paul

Listen I am going to tell you how this problem can be solved. Number one relize that you are not in relationship with God like you may think you are. The most dangerous thinking of our day is that once we pray for Jesus to be our Lord, he is and we may struggle with sin, but there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ, or you may fall down today but his murcy is new every morning, how about don't let the devil tell you your not saved if you asked God forgave you. There are many more, this is a grose human interpritation of Gods word. We not only have NO understanding of repentence, we also have no knowledege of the difference between the sin that will arise in those who are born again and THE SIN THAT LEADS TO DEATH. Jesus says about this subject that we need to understand this difference immedietly because if we don't we will not make it on milk. Again were he talks about this difference is in Hebrews were he says " he that sins deliberitly knowing what he is doing is sin, does not now the lord and his only expectation should be the fire of an eternal hell. I to struggled with the sin of lust and pornography is so available for men today that it will destroy you if you don't relize what I relized. I was (so called) struggling with this sin of lust and masturbation which none of us really want to say, and you want to stop but you give in again every time, sometimes with a little quick thought or something you see your at it again before you relize the promise you made to God last time. And then your hit with shame and maybe you say I'm sorry God I don't even know why I did it, I'm sorry lord forgive me all I can do is try again with your help. Here's what I learned not only was I truly not repentent (yes very remorseful big difference, but not to todays church) I was not even saved. Oh I know alot of you "christians are steaming, I have been fooled buy the devil, God does not forsake us, we are all sinners saved buy grace etc, Don't self interpret scripture. The problem is my friend there is no fear of God in our churches anymore, and without the fear of God our churchs have no wisdom. This is why all of the thousands that come to our altar calls filled with remorse, not repentence, no idea of the true depraved people we are and what that cost diety, hardly any of them are truly changed. We preach "carnal christianity" for peats sake. Gods word says we become a new creation, when we repent, all the old things pass away. Life from God the life that brought Christ up from the grave push's out the death from it's role as king of who we are. We as christians still have the battle between the nature of death and the life trying to sanctify ( set us apart ) but the sin is different. We will inherintly still stumble and sin, but we will confess it and he is faitfull to forgive, we however will not no that something is sin and do it anyway, and we defenetly will not do it over and over again relying on the grace of God. So what shall we go on sinning because of this grace. Of course not we would be trampling on the blood of Christ. So I will tell you something maybe no one else will, 1) Ask yourself have I ever truly repented or have I just been remorseful, and Do I truly relize that it was because of my disgusting sinful life that God had to give his son as a sacrifice. ( I heard a graet statement " people say the cross shows us the depth of God's love for us" Thats not true The cross shows us the depth of oue depravity, that it took the blood of our own maker to reedeam us. 2) If you have a wife tell her what is going on, allo of it, if no wife the most christ like friend you have that care's for you and tell them to hold you acountable during those times when you know you fail, 3)GET RID OF YOUR COMPUTER no rationalizing the need to do this, we sin because we are rational humans. If you were at the Great White Throne Judgment and God said depart from me, and you and many others replied Lord, Lord, I preached in your name etc. you would beg to do it over and get rid of your stinkin computer. Go to the library for use of a computer untill you are able to have one again. And make sure to understand the difference between sin of those who no not God and think they do and the sin that the born again have ( read 1 john / hebrews) and read it with a new eye asking God to reveal it to you. When we relize we are not truly saved, and we do not deserve to be in the first place, it will put a fear of God in you and you will repent and The beauty of obedience will come alive in us and we will not want to sin anymore. If this transformation takes place you will know and if somewhere down the line you fall get up, if you continue to fall, examine your heart, you may have been decieved buy something in your life. Prayer much much prayer will help to keep this away. And keep the nastyness of most T.V. out of your head. I am not a legalistic old prude from an irelivent way of thinking. I am a 27 year old married former drug addict and alcoholic, who was raised in the assembly of God and is come to beleive the american church is utterly lost, and I also beleive that God is always relevent and he's most certainely NOT trying to do a new thing, he's trying to do what he was trying to do since the begining, " bring Glory to himself through his creation." I'm not popular among my "christian" peer's but I want to bring him Glory not continue our sinful and confused attempt to offer christianity to the world as a better way of life or as a seeker sensitive God who just loves and forgives and never judges, all patient and peaceful. He's a jealous God who desires to be #1 and hate's sin, and demands holyness. Afterall he deserves all the Glory. We can solve these simple problem's like this if we know him like this and get real about what he demands of us, he is who he is and we musint make him who we want him to be by twisting or ignoring his word. We make excuses that allow us to keep our sin because we love it more than we love him. Fear him, Love him, repent, gain wisdom, obey him, love eachother, pray pray pray, he get's his reward, and we share in it. Wow

Number one relize that you are not in relationship with God like you may think you are.

You have no knowledge of this brother to make such a statement.

Prayer much much prayer will help to keep this away

This does nothing to help anyone but actually heaps on more condemnation. I'm sorry to be so critical, but something really seems wrong with your post, though I realize you mean well. But telling someone youhave never met that they are not truly saved because they struggle with a besetting sin is not wise at all. This dear brother is obviously fighting sin, sorely vexed, engaging in spiritual hand-to-hand combat, and needs to be shown to look only to Jesus with trust and obedience and faith, and not merely "you need to get saved for real and pray, pray, pray" which probably confuses him even more. He needs to be shown the paths of holiness and purity and self-denial, culminating in a daily death through which a healthy fear of the God of Israel can begin. And he must discover the amazing transforming power of the Word of God and develop an appetite for consistent meditation if he is to have the victory.

Brother Paul

You have all given good advice, even Trhilton. Its nothing that I havent heard before but it is all very reassuring. Trhilton, though you gave many things that were true, you do need to watch what you say. Nothing was heretical in general but not everything describes me.

This is not a works based religion, and while I will not go as far as Luther and say by faith alone, i will say that it is not about the amount of anything I do, but the amount of what I do may be reflective of my heart.

This is not some issue that I just realized was wrong. I have been fighting this for the four years I have been alive. I have fasted for days upon days for conviction and deliverance. I have asked many times to be freed and to see how much it hurts God. I know it is a bad sin and I want to actually know that, in heart not in head. i know its not a light matter at all. I have thought about getting rid of my computer and I have made steps like that. Problem is, this time it was at my parents house and they arent Christians. This is where the temptation arose from and I should have ran away, figurativly and literally the second I recognized it.

Anyways thank you all, I have been a long time reader of these boards and ask that you all continue to abide in the grace and peace of our Lord while ever building up the Kingdom.

Well I will start buy saying that I am quit sure that you may believe something is wrong with my post. I would also like to say that this mans sin is most certainly the pandemic sin of men today, and I include masturbation with that because unless the place we are indulging in porno is uncondusive to it, or we have no time our desire always takes us there. And in large groupes of men who are honest, this is always confessed. And I have a hard time believing that alot of men were going to jump forth with REVELATION from God for this man for advice, Why??? Because I struggled with this problem to from the time I was twelve yrs, untill recent, I was raised in a family who are evangelical chrristians one and all on both sides of my family, My father is a Pastor as well as my Grandfather and Greatgrand, my uncles and a couple of my closest cousins, one of my uncle's runs one of the largest ministerys in the evangelical church in the world, and guess what? when I was struggeling with this (even after I was saved, married, in semonairy, ) I got no real help from anyone around me. Now I got alot of advice like what I read on here, and my guy friends who were in school with me were open about dealing with it to,(all of them) but no matter how much we confessed it, fasted, and prayed, I would find myself back there again many times the very day after many of these things were done, thousands of times,and thats the realy real of it. It got to the point were I was constantly saying to myself what am I asking for forgivenes for?, I know I'm gonna do it again. Recently I relized a few things. One of them was that, I truly had no reverence (or fear) of God, you relize this when you tell yourself that God is watching you right now, in hopes to keep you from doing this sin again, and yet you still do it. Did I fell that he just new my heart and his grace was going to cover me? No, I just had no real fear of him and his demand for me to be holy, afterall i certainly would not do this thing in front of my earthly father, looking right at me. Then I relized if all these men, even men in high places were dealing with this, they certainly were not going to probably give me the uncensored gospel truth, how do you reveal the depth of someones sin to them, when you are bound by the same sin? I also want you to know that it is not the actual sin itself that is the deadley part it, it is the love of it, seen threw the lack of repentence, you say I don't or he does not love it, I know this was hard for me aswell, but the lack of true repentence is a saftey measure, we know if we become truley repetent of this sin we must admit the state of our soul,and most of all we don't get to keep doing it anymore. Those are hard thoughts to bear. I said what i said not because I am proud and holy, but because I am just as low as he, and I love him and any man who is in this shamfilled state of life, it sucks. I have lot's more to say But last thing, I told him to pray, pray, pray in the last statement I made, not as a way of dealing with this situation, but after he overcomes it, to keep it from overcoming him, and about me telling someone I don't know that he may not really be saved, well I don't actually care for the current church's interpretation of what our rights are,as far as what we can say to one another, along the line's you of judgement and so forth, i beleive God intends for us to hold mirrors in front of eachother as long as we have held it in front of our selves first, But I will let God's word the word that told me Hay wake up!! you are no longer even saved, speak for itself I hope you read it all, and with a heart that says Lord teach me, afterall in the church today we don't let our brother in Christ tell us anything, God forbid God use someone who is supposed to be our brother to speak in love to us, thank God the early church was not this way, we would not have the gospel today. But we are weary and we should be, esspecialy today, but we must discern what God is in and what he is not in. The last scripture on this page was my intention in the first letter.

1 John 5:16-18

16If anyone sees his brother [believer] committing a sin that does not [lead to] death (the extinguishing of life), he will pray and [God] will give him life [yes, He will grant life to all those whose sin is not one leading to death]. There is a sin [that leads] to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.

    17All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin which does not [involve] death [that may be repented of and forgiven].

    18We know [absolutely] that anyone born of God does not [deliberately and knowingly] practice committing sin, but the One Who was begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him [Christ's divine presence within him preserves him against the evil], and the wicked one does not lay hold (get a grip) on him or touch [him].

Hebrews 5:11-14 and 6:1-3
11We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. 12In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! 13Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. 14But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
6:1Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity,not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death,[a] and of faith in God, 2instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. 3And God permitting, we will do so.

Hebrews 10:26-31
 26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"[a] and again, "The Lord will judge his people."[b] 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
1 john 2:15-17
15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.

 7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

Jude
17But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. 18They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." 19These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

 20But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. 21Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

 22Be merciful to those who doubt; 23snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

telling someone youhave never met that they are not truly saved because they struggle with a besetting sin is not wise at all.

nfg22,

Your post has been on my mind ever since I first read it which was soon after you posted it. I did not comment on it because you are a male and I am a female...old enough to be your mother. And what can a female know about porn addiction? It also happens to females, believe it or not.

I just want to encourage you to keep on keeping on, fighting, and banging the doors of heaven until you get the deliverance you so desire because I believe it will happen some day. Why? Because this is God's will for you: he does not want you to be a slave to sin.

Mind if I tell a story? When our 25 YO DD died eleven years ago, I was distraught. She was our only daughter who also had four brothers. I loved her and we got along fine. She was our cheerleader, functioned as a second mom to her little brothers: she was a joy to have around, lots of fun, worked well, had many friends. (She died of a brain tumor...had the third one.) During the time of her illness I stayed close to God knowing he will give me strength if he should call her home which he did. Brother, I was so paranoid after Gina died, so paranoid I was afraid I would go crazy so I stayed real close to God by staying in the Word, singing songs -taking a hymn book and singing songs, even new ones I never sang before. I would not let anything interfer with my quiet time. The result was that people were amazed at how I coped with her death. It was God, brother, it was God Almighty, not me, I am too weak.

Another story: I also was beset by a debilitating sin which the HS called evil imagination. I, too, stormed the doors of heaven and eventually, the LORD delivered me. If he does it for me He will do it for anyone else. Keep it up, brother, the LORD will grant you deliverance if you keep knocking....

Blessings,
ginnyrose

From my own experience, I have found that the key to victory over sin is not praying for God to take away the evil desires. God didn't give them to us in the first place. God already has provided a solution to the sin problem. It was the cross whereby we we died to sin and the Holy Spirit whereby we were raised in newness of life in Christ. I am a big fan of the writings of the late Watchman Nee. His book, The Normal Christian Life is a classic on this subject. I heartily recommend it. I will also share the following he wrote from "The Present Testimony":

THE REASON GOD ALLOWS US TO FAIL

God has no need to know our failure and falling. Whether we are standing up and overcoming or falling down and stumbling, God knows that the flesh is corrupt all the same. God knows our natural form. God has no hope that we will fulfill His righteousness by our flesh. He knows that we have nothing but sin. When we do good, He knows we are corrupt; when we do evil, He also knows we are corrupt. He does not need to wait until we fail or fall to know we are incurable. But we need failures and falling because, if it were not so, we could not know the self. When everything is going smoothly, when favorable winds are in the sails and we are victorious and filled with happiness, we think we are quite good and have what others do not have. Although we dare not boast in an obvious way, when we have a slight advancement in spiritual life or a slight success in spiritual work, it is hard for us not to think of ourselves and consider that we are indeed holy, able, and far superior to others. At such times, we unavoidably lose our trust in God and become careless. Therefore, God allows us to fall from glory to dust. He allows us to sin, fall, and backslide, in order that we would know that the self is unbearably corrupt, beyond cure, and that we ourselves are the same as the worst and most evil sinner in the world. As a result, we dare not assume anything in ourselves or glory in ourselves or boast in ourselves; rather, in everything we trust God with fear and trembling. Brothers, we need failures and fallings to humble us, to cause us to know the self and to know the flesh.
THE WAY GOD LEADS BELIEVERS
TO KNOW THEIR SELF

The first work of the Holy Spirit in a believer is to bring him to know the self after he is saved. This is so he will, according to God's will, forsake all that is from the self and completely depend on God. But how difficult it is! How unflattering it is to know the self! How unbearable it is to forsake the self! A believer often does not know the self or want to know the self. Because he does not know the self, he thinks the self is reliable; because he does not want to know the self, the Holy Spirit has no way to reveal to him his true character under God's light. Under such circumstances, God has no other way than to use a more painful method to cause a believer to know the self. This method is to deliberately allow him to fail.

Just as the failures in the wilderness caused the children of Israel to realize their self-motives, failures similar to those in the wilderness also cause believers to know the hopelessness of the self. Because believers are self-confident and think that they themselves are competent, able, capable, and perhaps talented in many ways, they lose a heart of complete dependence upon God. Therefore, God allows them to fail in all their affairs and have no true abiding fruit. This makes them realize that they themselves are not reliable. Many believers imagine that they are naturally patient, kind, gentle, and pure. For this reason God causes various things to come upon the believers to bring them to the point that they can no longer be patient, kind, gentle, and pure, to make them know that not one thing that comes from the inherent self is reliable. Believers may consider that they love God. They may want to boast of the completeness of their consecration or the diligence of their work. But God allows the world and its people to attract them and cause them either to be secretly corrupted or openly unfaithful. As a result, the believers realize that their love for God is very shaky. Other believers may feel that they are completely for God, that nothing is for themselves. God will cause these ones to experience the praise and welcome of men so that they will see how they steal God's glory and covet men's exaltation. Sometimes when believers have progressed slightly in their spiritual path, they feel that they are victorious and sanctified. But while they are satisfied, God permits them to fail and sin just like others, or even worse than others, thus making them realize that they are not any better than anyone else.

Brothers, if you do not misunderstand me, I would like to tell you one word: God likes His children to sin more than He likes them to do good. The more believers sin, the more God is pleased. Please do not misunderstand what I mean or deliberately misunderstand my words. I am not persuading you to sin, nor does God want you to sin. However, the believers' self-confidence, self-boasting, self-satisfaction, and every selfish thought, feeling, and act cause God to prefer that they commit sin rather than do good. If they did not sin, they would not know themselves and break away from their pitiful, ludicrous, and detestable self-life.

We must know where God wants us to arrive. We must know out of what and into what we have been saved. It is true that we will go to heaven and not to hell. But does God's purpose stop there? No, God wants to save us completely from the self into His life. He wants us to live absolutely apart from the soul-life. From God's point of view, there is nothing more filthy than the self. The self is the source of all sins and is God's greatest enemy because the self declares independence from God in everything. God considers everything of the self to be utterly filthy, unacceptable, and useless. What is the self? It is all that man has, all that he can do, and all that he has done without seeking God, waiting on God, and depending on God. This is the self and the things that result from the self.

Although God hates the self very much, the believers' view of the self is totally different from God's. They depend on the self, admire the self, and glorify the self. They do not know the true character of the self. They do not know how filthy, corrupt, and weak they are in God's eyes. They do not have God's view. They still have no self-knowledge, that is, they do not know the self. Under such circumstances, if they have more progress, success, or are continuously victorious, their self-life will become stronger. It will become even more difficult to forsake it. At this point, the more good or righteous work that they perform, the more they will be alienated from God. The more strength they have, the more veils there will be between themselves and the Holy Spirit. The more success they have, the more the self will gain the glory, and the more the detestable self-life will be prolonged. This is why I say that God would rather have the believers commit sins than do good. The more they commit sins, the more they will realize the untrustworthiness of the self. The weaker they become, the more they will realize their vanity. The more falls they have, the more they will know the incurability of the self. God is not bothered by believers committing sin because sinning causes them to know the self and depend on God.

The above can be found in unabridged form at:

http://www.ministrybooks.org/Chapter.cfm?id=%21%28P%20%20%0A

May God help you to come to see that Christ is our victory. May we come to know our utter dependence upon Him.

True Witness,

This is why I say that God would rather have the believers commit sins than do good.

Methinks this is a very good article Except I believe he could have used a different word which would be more in line with God's hatred for sin. The idea I would rather read is that God allowed(s) men to sin, not that he prefers it. It is true a good moral person does not see his need for God and that is self-satisfaction or pride. A person has to sense his helplessness before he experiences a need for a Savior and too many times it means becoming desperate, and what brings this about? Our behavior or another's.

God allows my son to read porn but that does not mean He prefers it because if were to return I fear for his soul. AND to get delivered from it will be very difficult, like another poster on this thread has testified. My preacher-grandfather used to say the less sins you commit the fewer you have to deal with after you come to the LORD. (My grandfather has gone on to his reward...he was born in 1900.)

My opinion...
ginnyrose