pornography | Craig T. Owens

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Pornography: Let’s #Endit

February 23, 2017 — Craig T. Owens

Today is the day the End It Movement is shining a light on the dark slave trading and human trafficking practices around the globe. One of the biggest things fueling slavery is when people click on pornography.

NOT COOL!

“However harmless or private pornography may seem, it is not.

Pornography blinds us to God (Matthew 5:8). It blurs our eyes to his goodness, truth, and beauty.
Pornography trains us to treat women as objects, as less than human. It portrays them as possessions to be used and enjoyed, and then thrown away.
Pornography fuels sex slavery—real people held against their will and raped repeatedly—all over the world, even in the United States, even in your city or the major city near you.
Pornography belittles real beauty—like the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 31:30)—and replaces it with a cheap and fading imitation.
Pornography makes sex small and momentary, like a cigarette, instead of massive and lifelong, like it is in marriage.
Pornography robs us of some of the delight we might have had with our spouse. It keeps us from experiencing and enjoying them and their bodies without a fog of images from our past.
Pornography quickly bankrupts trust in a relationship. It encourages us to lie and hide from others, to walk in darkness and then build walls around ourselves in the darkness.
Pornography grossly stunts our maturity, the development of our mind and our gifts—our abilities to understand God and love others.
Pornography pursues an undergraduate degree in selfishness, training us over and over to focus on ourselves, prefer ourselves, and serve ourselves.
Pornography keeps us from all kinds of ministry, disqualifying many and demotivating even more.
Pornography is teaching many children an awful, evil distortion of love and sex even before their parents explain the truth to them.” —Marshall Segal

We can make a huge step toward helping to #ENDIT if we can convince others of the damage pornography is doing to themselves, as well as to countless sex slaves around the world.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: End It, End It Movement, human trafficking, Marshall Segal, pornography, sex trafficking, slavery. Leave a Comment »

In It To End It

February 22, 2017 — Craig T. Owens

Slavery is illegal in every single country of the world, and yet slavery still exists in 167 nations today! One-in-five of those in slavery is under the age of 18, and 55 percent of those trapped in slavery are women.

NOT COOL!

One of the biggest industries fueling human trafficking and human slavery is the pornography industry. Every time you click on a porn link, you are helping to keep someone in bondage. Those clicks mean money in the pockets of those who peddle in human flesh, so they do whatever they can to keep you clicking and viewing.

Think about this—Your porn viewing is keeping someone’s daughter or son in slavery!

Thursday, February 23, is the day the End It Movement wants us all to shine a bright light on the vile practices of those slave-holders who are keeping people in bondage all over the globe.

What can you do?

Wear your bright red X tomorrow, and share it for the world to see. Use hashtag #endit to let slave traders know you are on to them.
Pray for those held in slavery and trafficked—Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies (Hebrews 13:3).
Support groups like The End It Movement or International Justice Mission who are working to free slaves around the globe.
Stop viewing pornography!

I am in it to #endit in my generation! Will you join me?

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: activism, End It, End It Movement, financial support, human trafficking, International Justice Mission, pornography, prayer, sex trafficking, slavery, social justice. Leave a Comment »

Favorite 2016 Posts

December 31, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

These are the Top 10 posts that were published on my blog in 2016…

1. Break Free From Porn

2. 7 Must-Have Bible Study Tools

3. 9 Quotes From “The Porn Circuit”

4. 7 Quotes From “The Beauty Of Intolerance”

5. 10 Quotes From “#struggles”

6. Theism Or Christianity?

7. Notes From The Global Leadership Summit

8. 4 Practical Prayer Tips From Jesus

9. The Porn Circuit (book review)

10. 9 Quotes From “Chase The Lion”

And these are the posts with “staying power.” These posts received the most views in 2016, even though they were published in an earlier year…

1. 21 Quotes From “Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Learn” [originally posted October 22, 2013]

2. 17 Quotes From “Smith Wigglesworth On Prayer, Power & Miracles” [January 15, 2014]

3. 14 Quotes From “Smith Wigglesworth On Healing” [May 7, 2013]

4. 11 Quotes From Vujicic in “Stand Strong” [July 23, 2014]

5. 22 Quotes From “The Ragamuffin Gospel” [July 17, 2013]

6. 15 Quotes From “Mansfield’s Book Of Manly Men” [January 11, 2014]

7. 10 Quotes From “You Don’t Need A Title To Be A Leader” [March 19, 2013]

8. 13 Quotes From “God’s Pursuit Of Man” [September 13, 2014]

9. 23 Quotes From “The 5 Levels Of Leadership” [March 28, 2013]

10. 10 Quotes From “The Necessity Of An Enemy” [July 13, 2012]

Book Reviews From 2016

December 27, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Here are the books I read and reviewed in 2016. Click a title to read the review…

Archeological Study Bible

Chase The Lion

Churchill’s Trial

Culture

Hope … The Best Of All Things

How To Read A Book

I Stand At The Door And Knock

Jesus Always

Letters To A Birmingham Jail

Light & Truth—Acts & The Larger Epistles

Light & Truth—Revelation

Light & Truth—The Lesser Epistles

More Than A Carpenter

Of Antichrist And His Ruin

On This Day

One Of The Few

Our Iceberg Is Melting

Shaken

So, Anyway…

Streams In The Desert

The American Patriot’s Almanac

The Bad Habits Of Jesus

The Beauty Of Intolerance

The Blessing Of Humility

The Dawn Of Indestructible Joy

The Duty Of Pastors

The Gospels Side-By-Side

The Mathematical Proof For Christianity

The Philosophy Of Sin

The Place Of Help

The Porn Circuit

The Psychology Of Redemption

The Seven Laws Of Love

The Shadow Of An Agony

The Tabernacle Of Israel

Think On These Things

Today’s Moment Of Truth

Useful Maxims

Your Sorrow Will Turn To Joy

Here are my book reviews for 2011.

Here are my book reviews for 2012.

Here are my book reviews for 2013.

Here are my book reviews for 2014.

Here are my book reviews for 2015.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: A.W. Tozer, American history, angels, antichrist, apologetic, archeology, atonement, autobiography, Bible study, biblical history, book review, books, Brian Ridolfi, business strategy, change, Christianity, Christmas, church, comedy, commentary, Corrie ten Boom, Craig Groeschel, crucifixion, culture, Dan Delzell, Dave Willis, difficulties, Easter, encouragement, fable, family, First Advent, football, forgiveness, God's wisdom, government, health, hope, Horatius Bonar, humility, Incarnation, intolerance, Islam, J. Warner Wallace, J.I. Packer, James Strong, Jesus Christ, John Bunyan, John Cleese, John Maxwell, John Owen, John Piper, Joni Eareckson Tada, Josh McDowell, L.B. Cowman, Larry Arnn, Leonard Sweet, Mark Batterson, Martin Luther King, mathematics, Max Lucado, maxims, memoir, Mortimer Adler, Nabeel Qureshi, Nazi, New Testament, Old Testament, Oswald Chambers, parenting, Passion Week, pastoring, pornography, proverbs, purity, redemption, Resurrection Sunday, Revelation, Sarah Young, Sean McDowell, sexual sin, sin, spiritual warfare, Tabernacle, thought life, Tim Tebow, trials, US armed forces, William Bennett, Winston Churchill, wisdom, world history, World War II, worship. 8 Comments »

Refuse To Click

October 12, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

You can help end the human trafficking that is ruled by the pornography industry by one simple action …

…refuse to click that link to a pornographic site!

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: human trafficking, pornography, sex trafficking, video, YouTube. Leave a Comment »

God’s Design For Sex

September 19, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

I recently completed a reading plan on YouVersion called God’s Design For Sex. This plan was put together by the staff at Focus On The Family, and was an excellent study! Here are six quotes that caught my attention.

“Pornography represents a departure from God’s design for sex in that it depersonalizes real people, strips them of their dignity, and turns them into sexual objects.”

“Sexual immorality inhibits us from focusing on our truest Lover, the Lord. … Chastity, then, is first and foremost a spiritual discipline. Like prayer, fasting, study, silence, charity, and giving, it’s something God asks us to practice, not because it will get us into heaven, but because it will help transform us into new creatures.This kind of purity is not the mere absence of illicit sex, but an active conforming of one’s body, soul, and mind to the image of Christ.”

“As theologian George Weigel explains, when we view God’s directives for our sexuality in this way, ‘the first moral question shifts from ‘What am I forbidden to do?’ to ‘How do I live a life of sexual love that conforms to my dignity as a human person?’ Sex, then, rightly understood and practiced, is in a very real sense fundamental to mankind’s function, purpose, and destiny within the miracle of God’s creation.”

“Most critics and skeptics of Christian chastity argue that the Bible has ‘nothing to say’ about pre-marital sex. The problem, they say, is nothing negative is ever mentioned ‘condemning’ the practice or suggesting a ‘thou shalt not.’ But the Bible expresses its perspective on this matter primarily in positive terms.”

“It’s vital to add that God wants us to reserve sex for marriage not because it’s ‘bad’ or ‘dirty,’ but precisely because it’s such a unique, exclusive, and wonderful thing. Sex is a holy mystery. It’s a powerful bonding agent that shapes and affects the relationship between a man and a woman as nothing else can. To take sex outside of marriage is like taking the wine consecrated for Holy Communion and using it for a drinking party at a frat house. This is why the writers of Scripture so often compare idolatry to the sin of fornication or adultery.”

“All the best research indicates that the most sexually satisfied people in modern society are not the adventurous swingers, but rather faithful, monogamous married couples.”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: Bible, chastity, Christian, Focus On The Family, Jesus Christ, marriage, monogamy, pornography, premarital sex, quotes, sex, sexuality, YouVersion. Leave a Comment »

6 Quotes About Understanding Sexual Sin

June 23, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Earlier this week I shared some quotes from a Focus On The Family (FOTF) reading plan I completed on YouVersion regarding the problems with pornography. Here are some additional quotes from a related FOTF reading plan called Understanding Sexual Sin.

“Sexual sin distorts the image of the Trinity mirrored in our marital relationships.”

“If our sex lives are meant to function as reflections of the image of God, it stands to reason that they should be shaped by the qualities of the Trinity. Three primary principles apply here.

1) We may never use another person as an object, sexual or otherwise. The members of the Trinity never relate to each other as objects or things to be used. Instead, they relate to one another in love, each seeking to serve and enhance the goodness and glory of the others.

2) We must keep sexual relations within the bounds of a loving and committed marriage. … This sexual embrace within the bond of marriage mirrors the nature of the relationship between the members of the Trinity as nothing else in creation can. Ideally, the marital bond is designed to be loving, permanent, exclusive, and self-giving.

3) We must respect and honor the God-designed differences between male and female. Male and female are not simply cultural constructs. They are God-created characteristics of humanity. Together, they personify the Trinitarian nature of God in a fundamental way…. The differences between male and female provide the fullest picture of the image of God in creation.”

“Biblically speaking, sexual immorality (Greek porneia) is any sexual activity that takes place outside of marriage. This includes adultery, premarital sex, and extramarital sex. Scripture teaches that both are off-limits for Christians (see 1 Corinthians 6:9; Acts 15:29; Hebrews 13:4).”

“It’s a mistake to confuse normal sexual attraction with lust. Sexual attraction is natural. … True lust involves a choice and an act of the will. To a certain extent it’s a conscious decision to pursue the desirable object instead of simply allowing it to pass by. It’s a willingness to give in to the natural impulse.”

“Pornography represents a departure from God’s design for sex in that it depersonalizes real people, strips them of their dignity, and turns them into sexual objects.”

“It is never wise to give more weight to feelings than to rational conclusions and clear biblical teachings. Feelings don’t make you who you are. Beliefs, values, and conscious commitments do.”

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: 1 Corinthians, adultery, Bible, Book of Acts, commitment, emotions, feeling, Focus On The Family, fornication, Hebrews, homosexuality, husband, lust, marriage, pornography, premarital sex, Scripture, sexual sin, sexuality, Trinity, wife. Leave a Comment »

5 Quotes To Protect Your Marriage From Pornography

June 21, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

I recently finished reading a Focus On The Family reading plan on YouVersion called Infidelity: Protecting Your Marriage From Pornography. This is one part of a multi-part reading plan on healthy sexuality. I encourage you to check out all of these plans.

Here are some of the quotes I appreciated from this reading plan.

“Porn is powerful primarily because it offers a counterfeit form of intimacy and attachment—a replacement for the one-flesh bond between man and woman that God designed to function as the glue that holds the marriage relationship together (Genesis 2:24).”

“Mental health professionals report that the road to recovery is likely to be much longer and far more complicated for an individual engaged in an ongoing interpersonal cyber-affair than it is for a porn addict. That’s because ‘relationship’ at any level implies a degree of emotional entanglement. When the heart gets drawn into that web, the potential for pathology is inevitably raised.”

“Many porn addicts are sexually anorexic when it comes to normal marital relations. That’s because, through habit and practice, their sexual impulses have been alienated from their natural context—i.e., a healthy, committed personal relationship—and re-oriented around impersonal objects or illicit lusts or fetishes.”

“[Pornography] addiction is based on neurochemical changes that occur in the brain as a result of prolonged exposure to stimulating sexual imagery. Because of its neuro-chemical basis, it’s tenacious, progressive and destructive in nature.”

“Don’t assume that normal marital sexual relations will take the place of porn in [an addict’s] life. No living, breathing, thinking woman can possibly fill that role without doing untold damage to herself as a person. That’s because pornography addiction, in the final analysis, is not about sex. It’s a symptom of an intimacy disorder—a comprehensive psychological illness that compels an individual to avoid deep, meaningful interaction with another flesh-and-blood human being and to replace it with impersonal sensual imagery. Unless this disorder is addressed and rectified, your relationship cannot move forward on a healthy footing. Marriage will not fix the problem. It will only complicate matters and increase your pain.”

For more help, visit pureintimacy.org or Focus on the Family’s Help Center.You can also call the ministry’s Counseling Department for a free consultation at 855-771-HELP (4357).

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: addiction, Focus On The Family, Genesis, habits, healthy, intimacy, lust, marriage, mental health, pornography, quotes, relationships, sexuality, YouVersion. 1 Comment »

6 Quotes On Commitment From “The Seven Laws Of Love”

June 1, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

In The Seven Laws Of Love, Dave Willis gives us some highly practical, biblically-based counsel for investing in all of our relationships. Normally when I share quotes from books, I share all of them at once, but I felt like it would be good to share these quotes a bit more slowly, to give you time to read them and apply them.

The seven laws Dave identifies are:

Love requires commitment
Love selflessly sacrifices
Love speaks truth
Love conquers fear
Love offers grace
Love brings healing
Love lives forever

Dave writes in the introduction to his book, “God wants love to flow through our lives like a mighty river. The laws of love are the invisible banks God has placed around love for our prosperity and protection. When our relationships live with in those boundaries, everyone involved is enriched. When we dismiss or disregard the boundaries, our relationships can quickly become unhealthy and unsustainable.”

From law #1, here are some quotes on commitment—

“God created love to be a transformative force in every aspect of our lives. … Before that can happen, though, there must be commitment. Without a real commitment, there can be no real love.”

“The strength of your commitment will always determine the strength of your relationship.”

“God brought His own Son through the lineage of a poor young woman named Ruth who understood the power of commitment in the meaning of love. God wants to create a generational impact through your life as well. The level at which you’ll make an eternal impact is defined by your level of commitment to the people God has placed in your life.”

“Our commitment to others is evident in the consistency with which we serve them. Grand, one-time gestures can be nice, it’s what we do with consistency that will ultimately shape our relationships.”

“We’ve traded true intimacy for porn. We’ve traded committed marriages for commitment-free cohabitation. We’ve traded having children for having pets. We’ve traded meaningful conversations for text messages. We’ve traded ‘till death do us part’ for divorce. We’ve traded the pursuit of holiness for the pursuit of happiness. We’ve traded love for lust. We’ve attempted to exploit all the benefits and pleasures of love without investing the commitment and self-sacrifice that love requires.”

“Your life and your relationships will be defined by the commitments you make and how well you keep them.”

Check out my review of The Seven Laws Of Love by clicking here.

Watch for more quotes from the other laws of love explained in this book throughout the next few days.

Posted in Uncategorized. Tags: book review, commitment, consistency, Dave Willis, divorce, God's love, happiness, holiness, Jesus Christ, love, lust, marriage, pornography, quotes, relationships, Ruth, strength. Leave a Comment »

End It Movement

February 24, 2016 — Craig T. Owens

Pornography has fueled the sex trafficking market. In The Porn Circuit, Sam Black reports that “between 14,500 and 17,500 sex slaves are trafficked into the US each year. Another 300,000 American children are at risk for trafficking each year.”

NOT COOL!

You see, every time you click on a porn link, you are helping to keep someone in bondage. Those clicks mean money in the pockets of those who peddle in human flesh, so they do whatever they can to keep you clicking and viewing.

Think about this—Your porn viewing is keeping someone’s daughter or son in slavery!

February 25 is the day the End It Movement wants us all to shine a bright light on the vile practices of those slave-holders who are keeping people in bondage all over the globe.

What can you do?

Wear your bright red X tomorrow, and share it for the world to see. Use hashtag #endit to let slave traders know you are on to them.
Pray for those held in slavery and trafficked—Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourself. Remember also those being mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies (Hebrews 13:3).
Support groups like The End It Movement or International Justice Mission who are working to free slaves around the globe.
Stop viewing pornography!