From the article:
One third of pastors have viewed porn in the past year? One third? Pastors???
"Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." (MAT 26:14)
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (I COR 10:13)
[b]with pornography as the culprit[/b], has increased in the last five years... Henry Rogers, corporate chaplain at Dallas-based Interstate Batteries and author of the book "The Silent War: Ministering to Those Trapped in the Deception of Pornography," told the radio audience of "For Faith & Family" that [b]porn's proliferation is "ripping the soul out of the American male.[/b]"
That's like saying a wallet's guilty of theft or a gun's guilty of murder.
Pornography isn't the culprit; the sinner that views it is.
[b]When I feel temptation coming on, I start to drift where I'm not supposed to drift ... and the phone will ring and it's a friend from church[/b]," Lawhon said......[b]Lawhon spends much of his time working with college students, many of whom are struggling through many of the battles he went through[/b]. He advises them to continually renew their minds by memorizing Scripture and dealing with only one day at a time, because overcoming sexual temptation is fought one battle at a time.
Whoa! So this guy still "drifts" towards his earlier temptations - yet somehow "helps" college students battle the very thing he still struggles with?
"And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?" (LUKE 6:39)
"Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children... [i]While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption[/i]: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. [b]For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.[/b] For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known [it], to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog [is] turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire." (II PET 2:14-22)
[b]He turned himself in [to his ministry], started the counseling process, started the accountability, did a contract with his wife and with me and with some other guys.[/b]"
But was he removed from the ministry?
The man later initiated a meeting and confessed that he had lied.
"There's no guarantee that goes with accountability. And we're naïve to think that just because somebody sits down and asks the questions that we are always getting the truth. But at the same time, I think it's something important. I think it's something you need to do. It's a process you need to be experiencing, though it's certainly no guarantee."
The pastor said [b]it is crucial that a minister allows friends, staff and fellow church members to inspect the cache of his computer anytime to see what sites he has visited.[/b]
Isn't it more "crucial" to get a sinner viewing this junk out of the pulpit?
"For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ." (JUD 1:4)
"[b]But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, [i]let it not be once named among you,[/i] as becometh saints...[/b] For this ye know, that [b]no whoremonger[/b], nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, [b]hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.[/b] Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. [b]Be not ye therefore partakers with them.[/b]" (EPH 5:3-7)
I would simply [b]love[/b] to hear A.W. Tozer, Leonard Ravenhill, or Vance Havner blast away a sermon after reading a sirupy, liberal, airy-fairy article about the helpless pastors who desperately need help breaking their porn addiction - while still preaching righteousness from the pulpit...
"All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not." (MAT 23:3)
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity." (MAT 23:27-28)
